Treasure Hunt

A circa-1930 West Palm Beach house is reimagined and restored to its Old Florida glory

- Patricia Shannon

It was sight unseen for Trish Becker when she purchased a circa-1930 Mediterraneanstyle stunner in West Palm Beach, Florida. "How hard could it be? It's a 90-year-old house. It's going to be fine," recalls the New York-based designer, who already had a handful of Bahamian renovation-turned-vacation-rental properties under her belt. Becker assembled a trusted Florida-based team, led by Ritzzo Development and Caleb Laux of FGS Design, to gut the property and embark on the first phase of the renovation while she consulted via video conference. When she and husband Richard Chinitz were finally able to make a trip down to the Sunshine State, the house was essentially down to the rafters, with only the good stuff left behind. “I just loved this house the minute I walked in, despite it being six months after I purchased it," she says. Over much of its recent history, it had served as a rental property, which resulted in a mishmash of styles and design features, and a general lack of love and care. "The house had changed hands so many times, and so many [design] choices had been made, so it was great to pull away the things that were not great to reveal these treasures and let them really be the features in the house." The result is a jewel box that acts as a rental property during the winter season and a retreat for Becker and Chinitz during the summer months. "I wanted it to feel like my home, but I also wanted it to feel like a dear friend's home-like a place where someone who is vacationing would treasure being," says Becker. "That was really the goal from the beginning."

Living Room

Designer Trish Becker believes that a house always tells you what it wants to be; when it came to the overall color scheme here, all roads led back to the fireplace and its original turquoise tiles. "Anytime I had a color or design dilemma, I always went back to the fireplace," she says.