Splashes of colour in a Palm Beach home

Photographs by Richard Powers

“It wasn’t for sale, but we spotted the guy who owned it out in the garden and we told him it was one of the most beautiful houses we had ever seen,” says Adler. “Then a few weeks later we saw the same house come up on some real estate pages and it turned out it was for sale. We called up and put in a full-price offer that same day. And now it’s home.”

Adler and Doonan already knew Palm Beach well, having owned an apartment in the town for many years while shuttling back and forth between Florida and New York, where Adler’s design empire has its headquarters. Eventually, they both decided they were over Palm Beach, yet were drawn back to see friends many times before being seduced by the 1940s house designed by the celebrated Swiss-born, Florida-based architect Maurice Fatio. “Palm Beach is a very singular place,” Adler says. “It’s like a Rorschach test – different people see different things in it. I think of it as a place of harmonious excess. The other day Simon and I were having some drinks outside and a champagne-coloured convertible Rolls-Royce drove by with an poodle sitting up in the back seat. That’s totally normal for Palm Beach.”

Adler and Doonan decided to sell their Manhattan apartment and recommit to Palm Beach, which they have known for 25 years, on and off. Like so many of Fatio’s residential projects, the house fuses touches of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and midcentury modernity within one cohesive design. For Adler, the house reminds him of the work of Oliver Messell in Mustique, yet at the same time the couple like the fact it is both grand and petite at the same time, with a modest footprint, but a generously sized garden.

“Palm Beach houses are often quite palatial,” says Doonan. “I liked the fact that this house was somewhat dinky. I myself am somewhat dinky. And I also love being able to ride my bike anywhere I want to go in Palm Beach, to the post office, to the pharmacy, to the beach. I feel like Miss Marple – the Margaret Rutherford version.”

The house had recently been renovated and was in good shape, leaving Adler and Doonan free to concentrate their imagination on the garden and interiors. With the former, the couple decided to add a swimming pool and terraces, taking inspiration from (60s photographer) Slim Aarons’s iconic photographs of a pool party at the pioneering Kaufmann House in Palm Springs (designed by Richard Neutra). Adler even recreated the famous yellow parasol and matching highlights. Also in Adler’s Palm Beach version, the pool works in combination with a lush “Sissinghurst goes to Florida” planting scheme.

Inside, Adler opted for a characteristically exuberant colour palette, choosing shades of green and blue as a backdrop for many self-designed pieces of furniture mixed with vintage treasures and artworks. The sunroom den, for instance, was lifted by its Tiffany blue walls, a geometric patterned rug and a pair of rattan armchairs by Adler, complemented by an iconic midcentury wicker hanging chair by Nanna Ditzel. Wanting a casual, summery look, Adler decided on no curtains, with blinds for shade and privacy when needed.

“For the colours we wanted these luminous shades,” says Adler. “Palm Beach is a beautiful place, but it’s also a fun place, so we thought it called for a folly that was eclectic and amped-up. And Simon was writing a book about Lou Reed while we were working on the house, so there’s also this glam-rock influence coming through.”

It was important, given the modest size of the house, that the colours of the key spaces worked together, with the Tiffany blue sunroom connecting with the mint-green sitting room and the central library, which doubles as a dining room while the couple are entertaining.

In the kitchen and breakfast room, Adler opted for Oxford blue, while creating “Carnaby Corner” at one end, with its collection of framed English tea towels and Anglophile motifs that help ensure that Doonan always feels at home.

One of Doonan’s favourite spaces is the lilac master bedroom with its matching bathroom alongside, complete with a balcony overlooking the pool terrace. Very “languorous and relaxez-vous”, according to Doonan, the bathroom is also home to a standout ceramic sculpture by one of Adler’s design heroes, the midcentury Danish master Bjørn Wiinblad.

“I always think of Wiinblad, Bonnie Cashin and Alexander Girard as the designers who inspired me,” says Adler. “They were designers who really followed their own path. There is a certain midcentury nostalgia to what I do and there was an optimism about modernism in the 50s and 60s that I like, although obviously I try and do everything through a contemporary filter.”

Adler and Doonan now divide their time between Palm Beach and Shelter Island, where they built a house by the water for themselves back in 2010. With a choice of two “glam seaside locales”, they now move between their residences according to work commitments and the changing seasons. Each offers many temptations, as well as lessons in design. “I feel that Jonathan did a great job,” says Doonan. “He created this colourful, eccentric oasis. And Palm Beach is a place that already has its fair share of colourful eccentricity.”

For more information, go to jonathanadler.com