Chicago’s Boundary-breaking, Label-resisting Designer Summer Thornton Treats a Naples, Florida Vacation Home to the Sunshine of Her Unabashed Style, Infusing the Space With a Bold, Romantic Irreverence
Summer Thornton conducted a high-energy overhaul of the spacious home, imbuing it with a spirited Gulf Coast chic to create a warm, light-catching canvas of citrus tones, leafy motifs, and British Colonial touches. The home’s sheer exuberance is this designer’s trademark. With no dominant decorative gene, the aesthetically versatile tastemaker puts her own spin on every project.
She’s mad about patterns, likes one-of-a-kind details, and embraces quirk. She revels in color and feels art. It might all be decorative excess were her eye not exceptionally disciplined. As much as any designer of her generation, she pushes the envelope with exquisite good taste.
“I really do enjoy working in various aesthetics,” says Summer Thornton.
“Generally speaking my work is maximalist, I like layers and patterns and a plethora of colors, but I think it has to be done in a fresh way, with a modern sensibility. When people walk into homes I’ve designed they often remark that they are full of energy and life and a little bit fantastical. But I have received similar comments on very modern projects that have a very restrained palette as well as homes with more patterns than you could count—both excite me, both are challenging, they’re just different expressions.”
Like all of the designer’s projects, the Naples Florida vacation home has a strong decorative story.
“Narrative is really at the core of what our firm does, and it’s the jumping-off point for me in every design that we do,” she says.
“We create fantastical dream worlds for our clients, and those really begin by dreaming; by creating make-believe worlds and storylines that we use to guide the design work.”
The idea for this project, she continues, was to create “a space that transports you with all senses—touch, sound, sight, smell—into a tropical escape.”
Translated, this means a not-subtle blurring of indoors and out, achieved literally with doors left wide open to catch birdsong and the murmur of palm trees blowing in the breeze, and a less so inside with botanical motifs and a vibrant palette.
All to ensure the busy owners of this home experienced what the designer describes as “a total emotional leap” when they walk through the door. “You can’t help but be transported,” she says.
It may seem counterintuitive, but for Summer Thornton, combining multiple elements is actually key to achieving balance.
“For this project, everything is tactile and textured and builds to create something that feels harmonious because of its depth,” she explains. “I mix metals, I mix patterns, I mix textures. The more I mix the more curated it feels.”
And looks.
Here, quite like a million bucks, with hand-painted wallpaper, raffia walls, and stone floors together with Loro Piana fabric and a more masculine leather to showcase the home’s antique pieces and floorcoverings, along with some dazzling statement lighting to highlight it all.
These elements give each space definition and dimension, from the barefoot elegant breezeway, which is anchored with an antique table and features a whimsical de Gournay wallpaper; to the lovely, well-dressed lanai; to the suite of beautifully embellished bedrooms.
Summer Thornton calls special attention to the kitchen, which prior to the overhaul was overwhelmingly white with transitional horizontal upper cabinets and mostly typical finishes. Perfectly fine and functional, just aesthetically flat. Her reimagination of the space—spruced up with a de Gournay wallpapered backsplash, a French range, rich cognac leather barstools, lattice-inspired millwork paneling, and unlacquered brass legs on the island—took it from typical to totally unique.
The guest quarters above the garage, with its cabana-style vibe, is another transformational triumph. Appointing it with three trundle beds and a lime-striped wallpaper by Farrow & Ball, this previously wasted storage space is now a “magical striped cocoon” that “went from the worst room in the house to the one that everyone has a tremendous ‘wow’ reaction to when they walk in,” says Summer Thornton.
In devising a design of such astonishing confidence, but warmer and more inviting than gauche, the designer breathed new life into a maligned style.
“I think the tropical look has been done so poorly for so long that many people are afraid of it,” says Summer Thornton.
“But done right, with taste and nuance, it can be fun and life-giving. When you walk into this home you can’t help but smile and feel joyful. Yes, we’ve got palms and citrus and even parrots—all could have been horribly executed, but in the right hands they give a nod to the tropical paradise without feeling suffocating or cheesy.”
There is no “right” formula. Intuitively, it’s “the designer knowing where the line of good taste is, and how to step right up to it,” she adds. “I love to walk the line.”
Summer Thorton | summerthorntondesign.com
Photos: Thomas Loof