The living is easy with a summer kitchen overlooking Florida’s East Bay off the Gulf of Mexico, the site of Home & Garden Television’s latest dream home.
The outdoor kitchen between the house and the boat dock opens on all four sides to capture bay breezes and clear views of the pristine wilderness.
Architects designed the 2,800-square-foot house on the bay 17 miles east of Panama City, Fla., to meld with the almost undisturbed landscape—lapping waters, live oaks, saw palmettos and sable palms.
Clapboard siding with shingles carefully cut in diamonds gives the dream house a light feel reminiscent of bird feathers. The house’s natural gray, green and blue trim echoes nature’s palette.
Crushed-shell pathways wind through natural vegetation to afford vistas of the bay.
“The location and site are astounding—on the bay with no one else around. It’s a house that opens up to the outdoors extensively,” says architect Randy Johnson of the Urban Design Group in Denver, who designed the contemporary cottage for the 2003 HGTV Dream Home Giveaway.
The grand prize winner of the contest, which runs Jan. 1 through Feb. 17, will receive a $1 million package including the fully furnished custom-built house near Mexico Beach, Fla., as well as a matching Doggie Dream Home, a GMC Envoy XL and a Hell’s Bay Marquesa boat.
TV viewers can check out the house during “HGTV’s Dream Home 2003” special premiering at 6 p.m. EST on Jan. 1 or take a virtual tour on www.hgtv.com.
Show hostess Joan Steffen says the dream home reminds her of a spa—part gathering place and part getaway. “There’s a tremendous sense of luxury and home,” she says.
“It’s a series of almost independent buildings, but they’re connected by corridors,” explains Johnson, whose team used the concept of a camp compound as inspiration.
Sliding panels allow the three-bedroom, four-bath house to be subdivided for privacy. For instance, a shuttered wall opens between the master bedroom and bath, which looks onto an outdoor spa. The entire space can be enclosed for total privacy.
“It has almost an Asian feel, very private and serene,” says interior designer Linda Woodrum of Hilton Head, S.C., who decorated with tall native growth.
Indoors, Woodrum chose a profusion of blues, including an impressionistic painting of a palmetto tree. “We were in a semitropical climate, so I was looking for a way to keep it cool,” she says. “Cool blues make you feel cooler.”
A plantation chair with cane back in the master bedroom and wicker indoor and outdoor furniture help carry out the theme. Woodrum defines the interior as “casual elegant.”
The contest celebrates its seventh year, with previous homes nestled in Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Beaufort, S.C.; Rosemary Beach, Fla.; Nehalem, Ore.; Camden, Maine, and the Chesapeake Bay.
This was the first time for Johnson’s team, although with several Disney hotels to their credit the architects have experience building dreams.
Landscape architect Patrick Hodges of Tallahassee, Fla., was new to the dream home scene as well.
“What makes it a dream home is the special nature of the site. It’s very peaceful and tranquil,” Hodges says, noting the abundance of deer, raccoons, birds and fish.
“Our objective was to really make the home appear it had been dropped in very, very carefully … to be as light on the land as we could be. When the landscaping was finished we had what I like to think of as a seamless transition.”
For more information, visit www.hgtv.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service
[Published in the Gettysburg Times, December 27, 2002]