Aficionados of a certain fancy-meets-functional, more-is-more aesthetic will love Annie Brahler and her design work. Brahler’s zealous use of color is reminiscent of legendary midcentury-classicist decorator Billy Baldwin (reference his 1950s, red-on-red-on-red, floral-filled “garden in hell” room for iconic fashion editor Diana Vreeland). Brahler’s Instagram reveals a riotous aptitude for mixing colors, patterns, styles and eras. She’ll seamlessly take you from a whimsical dining reminiscent of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette film to a handsome leather-stocked study to this pastel-hued Florida dreamscape. “I give my clients permission to be in love with things they’ve never seen before,” she says. “Initially, they don’t trust themselves because it’s all new to them, but when I see that light bulb come on, it’s a joyful thing.”
As far-reaching as the palette and inspirations for a project may be, Brahler makes it work. Everything comes together through her European-bred, Old World sensibility. Case in point: This Palm Beach Regency-inspired home in Naples. Brahler never repeats her designs, so when her Missouri-based clients tapped her to design their winter home in Naples, they knew none of the traditional decor from their historical St. Louis residence would reappear in the tropics. But that’s about all they knew. “I gave them a general mood board and fine-tuned and translated my vision from there. They just let me off the leash,” Brahler says.
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Near-total creative freedom wasn’t the only exciting thing about this project; it also provided Brahler the opportunity for a homecoming. While the name of her business, Euro Trash, is a cheeky nod to her Dutch roots and her love of antiques and Old World finery, she also has an affinity for the Gulf. Brahler grew up going between her parents’ homes in Fort Myers and San Diego. “I spent so much time in Florida during my formative years, so it still feels like home base,” she says.
The Southwest Florida landscape may have felt welcoming, but her clients’ four-bedroom, five-bathroom residence did not. Brahler’s first hurdle was bringing personality to a structure with none. “It’s a new build in a gorgeous Naples golf community, and it was built to be a bit generic on purpose,” she notes. “I really wanted the home to be as exuberant as [my clients are] are,” she says, noting the woman is a CEO and a phenom. “When I found that they really responded to the Florida Regency aesthetic, I immediately knew where to go with the design.”
Brahler leaned wholly into the Sunshine State for inspiration. Nearly every color—and there are a lot of them—comes from Naples beaches. “I found a seashell on an early morning walk on the beach, and the inside of the shell was a vibrant, intense pink that seemed like it was lit from within. I had to figure out how to translate that into a paint color,” she says. “It’s now on the walls of the [primary] bedroom.” Another bedroom’s wall color comes from a particular sunset after a storm; the study draws from the sky and ocean at dawn for its bright blue wall and watery cabinetry; and the living room walls are the exact shade of a sunset above the community’s golf course. Even the white paint that pops up on the ceiling and on various walls nods to our shores. “It comes from the flour-like, white-sand beach with all its shells bleached from the bright sun,” Brahler says.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
Nearly every color is inspired by Naples beaches. “I found a seashell on an early morning walk on the beach, and the inside of the shell was a vibrant, intense pink that seemed like it was lit from within,” Brahler says. “It’s now on the walls of the [primary] bedroom.”
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
The white used on the ceiling and various walls references the shoreline. “It comes from the flour-like, white-sand beach with its shells bleached from the bright sun,” Brahler says.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
The designer more than succeeded in capturing the larger-than-life style of way-back-when Florida in 4,000 brand-new square feet. The vintage 1960s bamboo bed was sourced from Brittany’s Bamboo Barn in Fort Myers. Brahler had the coral chandelier, by Wildwood, custom painted in a coral color she created.
Further rooting the home in Naples, palm trees appear in a big way via Thibault wallpapers and dramatic, repurposed accent pieces. A pair of circa-1960s, palm-adorned, rattan mirrors—originally floor screens from a Palm Beach estate sale—layer in the cohesive thread in the Florida room, with its cloud-like seating and a Don Briddell flamingo sculpture sitting atop a vintage Jay Spectre acrylic and glass coffee table. “It was very important to me that the design not only represented old, classic Florida design but exaggerated Florida herself,” she says. “Palm trees are her calling card, so I sprinkled them everywhere.”
While palm trees, squiggly rattan dining chairs (replicas of Frank Gehry’s Wiggle Chair for Vitra) and coral-like chandeliers plant the home in Old Florida, elements like a slate surround in the Florida room, modernist light fixtures and metallic accents make the space look fresh for now. Brahler harmoniously blends layer, texture, color, pattern, motifs, furniture styles and eras with abandon, brazenly bending the rules. Each room is a fanciful-meets-functional feast. In the living room, sunset-peach walls inch toward too-muchness, but Brahler forges ahead with a vibrant red lacquer coffee table—a confident punctuation mark to her boldness. Low-slung midcentury-style chairs sport zebra print upholstery. You’d question the use of animal hide in a room predominantly accessorized with glimmering fish lamps and reef- and shell-inspired pieces, but it all fits, thanks to Brahler’s skillful design. From the peachy pink walls to the earthy zebra print to the rattan accents, everything in the living room falls under a muted palette of exuberance.
Each space clamors for attention, as Brahler walks the visual edge between abandon and restraint. Off the living room, the Florida room flows into the lanai, where rattan furnishings play off a weathered marble table and bust. Between the sitting and dining rooms in the open space, a red-lacquered bar is flanked by two brutalist brass sconces and topped with vintage barware. “Holding a cocktail becomes an event here,” Annie says.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
Brahler’s bold use of color and pattern straddles the edge of too-muchness, but she knows exactly when to pull back. Thibault wallpapers (in Katsura Coral, Palm Island Coral and Palm Botanical in Turquoise) joyously pull the Florida botanical theme through the bathrooms.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
Much of the project was completed as Southwest Florida recovered from Hurricane Ian, so Brahler was extra intentional in sourcing furnishings and finishing touches from local vendors. “I was pretty strict with myself to pull both craftsmen and pieces from the area,” she says. Though she imported Murano lighting and living room furnishings from Chicago’s Modern Love, Brahler scoured local estate sales and shops (including her favorites Brittany’s Bamboo Barn in Fort Myers and Patina Collection in Naples) for mirrors, old-school floor lamps, well-aged artwork, rough-hewn rattans, bamboo furniture and a flamboyance of flamingos. “I felt it was important to support the fabulous people there who make my work have depth and character,” she says.
Brahler’s careful curation paid off—the designer more than succeeded in capturing the larger-than-life style of way-back-when Florida in 4,000 brand-new square feet. “After the big reveal, my clients said, ‘Annie, we gave you a gray tissue box, and now it’s a vacation come to life,” she says. “Every single thing is a celebration.”
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Outdoor living with pool and bamboo furniture
Photography by Dan Cutrona