Quality On A Deadline

Design by Beth Insabella Walsh, Insabella Design
Photography by Wing Wong/MemoriesTTL
Text by Donna Rolando

The clock started ticking on Labor Day 2020, and it was a big job. When the folks at Little Silver-based Insabella Design took on a family’s Bay Head summer home—a complete demo, reconstruction and redesign—they knew they faced a challenge. The homeowner family wanted everything done by Memorial Day of ’21. And what they especially didn’t want was to compromise on quality.

“When you have a beach house, you only have four or five months to really soak it in,” explains the lady of the house. The homeowners did not want to break what has become a tradition for them and their four children (ages 20–30) since they purchased the retreat some five years ago.

Elevating repurposing to an art, designer Beth Insabella Walsh resized a master bedroom comforter to brighten this Eastern-inspired guest room.

Thibaut’s jellyfish punch up this guest bathroom’s walls with a joyful orange and blue— perfect for kids in adjoining bunkrooms.

That gave Beth Insabella Walsh (IIDA, ASID, CID) and her design team just 150 days to finish. The family “did not miss a season,” affirms Walsh, adding that neither did they compromise on the sophisticated, casual style that graces each room kissed by nature with Atlantic or Twilight Lake views.

These longtime Shore aficionados had started renovating two years prior, but now dared to dream big, working with Walsh and Peter Dorne Architects on a new beach house and third-floor addition. Why the change? With four children and potential grandkids, expansion made sense, explains the homeowner, but the real “decision maker” was the question of structural stability.

Warm and welcoming, with a cedar roof and natural shingles, the colonial-style refuge today is a testament to industriousness and organization, as Walsh salvaged the previous structure’s almost-new fixtures and furniture for her environment-conscious clients. Indoor-outdoor fabrics are a common thread for longevity—and easy-care, while another constant is wide-plank maple flooring by Floors by the Shore and hidden acoustics by Infinite AV.

For socializing or just family time, an open floor plan connects the kitchen, dining and living rooms— each with its own style sensations. The dining room’s highlight—by a Philadelphia mill worker (and relative)—is a spalted maple table “your eye is drawn to,” Walsh says. Yellow accents the bamboo-frame chairs and herringbone rug, and for a “hidden surprise” even the welts of the barrelhead chairs. The built-ins complement Thibaut’s Cape May wave grass cloth; they’re by Christopher Peacock, and they’re inspirational in the timeless blue-and-white marble kitchen.

The classic combo of navy and white sets the tone in an older son’s bedroom, where new style results from repurposing.

A daughter’s bathroom is a nod to the ocean with Schmacher wallpaper evoking the feeling of sea grass.

With much being salvaged, Walsh proved adept at spreading the design’s fun spirit with repurposed furniture as well as new. One case in point is the third-floor guest room, “bright and happy” with its green-and-orange comforter cut to fit a woven queen bed. A taste of the Orient graces the nightstands and dresser, while a bench seems to float on acrylic—all repurposed, like the woven bamboo shades.

Highlighting the home’s orange-and-navy palette, the guest bathroom adjoining two bunkrooms is a “pop of fun” with Thibaut’s jellyfish wallpaper, Walsh says. A classic double vanity gets kids cleaned up fast, while chalk-white Nemo flooring contrasts with wavy blue shower tile.

Navy and white team up in a son’s ocean-view bedroom, extending to the bed ensemble and herringbone rug. Much of the furniture—from Oriental lamps on navy lacquer nightstands to a former foyer mirror—shows the art of repurposing.

With Schmacher wallpaper resembling sea grass, a daughter’s bathroom has more of a beach vibe, says Walsh—it continues with the shower’s sea-glass penny rounds and blue wavy wall tile. The classic vanity and large-format flooring create simple charm.

When the demanding deadline was met, it was one happy family that returned on Memorial Day. Says the homeowner: “We knew it was going to be a huge challenge to complete it, but we did.”