Pride of Place

Design duo Tate Casper and Jordan Winston bring a quirky seaside cottage back to its Old Florida roots, one pattern at a time

- Patricia Shannon

Honor the past.

Before the current homeowners bought the property, it had been in the same family for more than a century and came with renovation plans already approved by the Boca Grande Historic Preservation Board. For the exterior, designers Tate Casper and Jordan Winston gave the home a splash of color with Sherwin-Williams Celery (SW 6421), and painted the trim a warm white, Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee (OC-45). Bevolo lanterns provide a warm welcome.

Maximize small spaces.

"The challenge was the family has four kids and they're always all together, so where in this little cottage are they all going to sit?" says Casper. The solution came in the form of flexible seating groups that utilize ottomans, small tables, and stools, all centered around the two anchor sofas. Custom storage cabinets flanking the fireplace can be used to house board games and store miscellaneous items.

When Tate Casper and Jordan Winston, the duo behind Tampa, Florida–based Oxford Design, consider their work, it’s always with an eye trained to find perfection—namely, how to disrupt it. “When we come up with a palette, our No. 1 critique is always that it’s too perfect,” says Winston. So they look for ways to break it up: to bring unexpected layers, to play with colors that create tension as they toe the line between warm and cool tones, and to incorporate finishes that reinforce the patina of a well-loved home. It’s a strategy the designers admit can sometimes give their clients pause, but that was far from the case when they embarked on a project with a couple looking to transform their circa-1926 Boca Grande cottage into a beach home for their family of six.