Sometimes a project announces itself as destiny. Designer Annie Brahler was already deep into planning the full-scale renovation of her clients’ Port Royal Mediterranean estate when the wife revealed a recent shopping trip. She had bought a set of Versace plates—serendipitously, in the exact colors Annie envisioned for the dining room. “It looks like the china was made for the room and the room was made for the china,” Brahler says. “The universe was nodding and saying, ‘Yup, you guys belong together’”
That moment crystallized the project’s direction: a transformation from Tuscan formality to something more exuberant, more personal, more Florida. “It’s a place where they spend vacations, gather with family and have parties,” Brahler says. “I wanted it to be reflective of that; I wanted to have fun with it.” She knew the home’s earth tones had to give way to pastel pinks, watery blues and leafy greens that carried the brightness and ease of a seaside vacation. But the colors had to feel distinctly Gulf Coast, specific to the saturations found under Southwest Florida’s lush, sun-bathed light.
She turned to Naples Botanical Garden for reference. There, standing in front of the glassy Water Garden, with water lilies floating in deep blues and greens, she found her palette reflected—and the perfect opportunity to realize a longtime ambition.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
elegant blue and pastel dining room HOME 2026
Designer Annie Brahler replaced the Mediterranean-style estate’s Tuscan earth tones with pastel hues. Inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies, the dining room mural by Texas-based artist Olga Saldivar served as the palette anchor for the rest of the design. Translucent washes of aquamarine and sage ripple across the walls and a high-gloss ceiling, complementing shell-shaped grotto chairs, Murano glass sconces, and a brass palm tree floor lamp.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
blue ornate dining room interior HOME 2026
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Photography by Björn Wallander
blue dining room HOME 2026
The designer had long admired a photograph found in an archival book about Yves Saint Laurent, showing the Monet-inspired mural in the home he shared with Pierre Bergé in France. The image found its reincarnation here, when Brahler commissioned Texas-based artist Olga Saldivar to reinterpret Monet’s Water Lilies as an enveloping, site-specific mural for the dining room. Translucent washes of aquamarine and sage ripple across the walls and high-gloss ceiling of this intimate room, which stands as a microcosm of Brahler’s design sensibility. The space brings together two of her great loves: the thrill of ‘extreme juxtaposition’ and the wit of Old Florida glamour. The shell-shaped grotto chairs from antiques dealer Don Fields: playful, coastal. The Murano glass sconces: crisp, refined. The brass palm tree floor lamp and gilded mirror: pure Old World opulence. A 1960s lacquered grasscloth dining table in sky blue anchors it all, joined by a sideboard Brahler had painted in a vintagey pale pink.
Brahler—who grew up between Fort Myers and San Diego and began her Euro Trash company by importing salvage and antiques 30 years ago—channels a distinctly Floridian sensibility. Her style is sunny, celebratory, a little irreverent and balanced by the polish of European design. She admires the architect Addison Mizner’s grand, revivalist architecture, but favors a looser, happier version of historic Sunshine State design. “The Old Florida style I have a fondness for has a childlike happiness to it,” she says. “There are a lot of tongue-in-cheek anecdotes in that style that are there just to make people happy. And there’s also a very simple elegance to it.”
Photography by Björn Wallander
luxury kitchen with brass details HOME 2026
A brass range hood rises to the ceiling, while swivel stools nearby evoke Old Hollywood glamour. The Waterstone Gantry faucet references harbor cranes. Open brass-and-glass shelving replaces upper cabinets, and a full wall of mirrors behind the shelves reflects the terrace view, further brightening the space.
Here, she dresses the nostalgic style in Regency detail. Throughout the home, 18th-century French antiques are paired with midcentury pieces, and traditional furniture styles and millwork are reinterpreted in vibrant colors and glossy finishes. “I tried to make everything that was serious not serious,” she says. “There’s a fine line between celebrating and disrespecting the original, though, and I never want to cross that line.”
In the kitchen, a brass range hood rises to the ceiling above swivel stools, evoking Old Hollywood glamour; a Waterstone Gantry faucet nods to harbor freight cranes; and open brass-and-glass shelving replaces upper cabinets. “There was a low, heavy, beamed ceiling and we lightened it up,” she says. The full wall mirror behind the shelves brings in the view from the terrace, further brightening the room.
The island’s green lacquer continues into the family room, where an entire wall radiates in emerald and conceals a sound system. A pair of tiger print chairs delivers the wink Brahler favors. “I see any animal prints as neutrals,” she says, speaking to the prints’ organic patterns and earth-based tones that help them blend easily with most palettes. Used in small doses, like for an accent chair or rug, safari motifs temper color rather than compete with it.
The pattern changes its stripes near the primary bedroom, where the designer upholstered the double doors’ panels in a Ralph Lauren black-and-white zebra print. The doors open to reveal a symmetrical composition: an antique chandelier hanging over a precise arrangement of seven gilded sconces holding opaline glass vessels, each filled with faux coral. “I collect them for these projects,” Brahler says of the sconces.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
elegant staircase black railing HOME 2026
Brahler stripped away decades of additions to reveal the original floating staircase and jackhammered out the old stone, replacing it with black-and-white checkerboard tile.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
Zebra-print paneled doors HOME 2026
Zebra-print paneled doors open to the primary suite, where an antique chandelier hangs above gilded sconces holding opaline glass vessels filled with faux coral.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
elegant entryway pink couch gold mirror HOME 2026
In the entryway, a mirror is flanked by sconces accented with vintage bird figurines.
Inside the bedroom, the mood turns theatrical. Once again, Brahler leans into her gift for contrast, juxtaposing modernity with classicism, antique with new, clean lines with a nod to historic curves. A crystal palm tree the designer had made in France glints beside a gilt triple mirror, while a 1960s chandelier spills light over the sitting area. The room glows in a symphony of pinks: mauve Murano bedside tables, rosy draperies, a blush canopy. Overhead, Brahler replaced a cacophony of ceiling lights with a cleaner, high-gloss surface.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
luxury pink bedroom HOME 2026
During the renovation, Brahler discovered a Milo Baughman sofa the homeowners had stored for 30 years and had it reupholstered in ballet pink. The piece now sits in the primary bedroom, surrounded by Murano bedside tables, rosy draperies, a blush canopy and a crystal palm tree made in France.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
pink bedroom bedside table HOME 2026
During the renovation process, Brahler came across a Milo Baughman sofa that the homeowners had stored for 30 years. She loved it instantly and asked to have it reupholstered in ballet pink. The piece now anchors the suite’s sitting room. The husband hesitated at first, unsure about committing to a full pastel palette. “He kept saying, ‘I trust you, Annie, but I’m just not sure about this whole pink thing,’” she recalls. She assured him they could simply change if it didn’t feel right in the end. “He loves it so much,” she says. “That was one of the biggest wins.” The en suite centers on a hammered-gold soaking tub made in England, a gleaming sculpture positioned beneath a crystal chandelier and framed by arched, stone walls and more pale pink draperies.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
gold tub bathroom HOME 2026
A hammered gold soaking tub custom-made in England sits beneath a crystal chandelier, framed by arched stone walls and pale pink draperies.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
gilded theme vanity bathroom HOME 2026
The vanity continues the gilded theme with sconces flanking an antique mirror. White cabinetry grounds the theatrical palette in clean, classical form.
As with all her Florida projects, Brahler ensu-red that the home’s hues matched those found along the coast: the pinks inside seashells, the blues of the ocean and sky. The main-floor study draws its rich tones from Florida’s cypress bark, palm trunks and tannin-dark wetlands. Here, they are translated into glossy leather, gleaming brass and aged wood. Racing artworks hang salon-style on the dark walls. The vintage illustrations and paintings nod to the husband’s Porsche collection and racing enthusiasm without announcing it.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
moody art focused living room HOME 2026
Vintage racing illustrations reference the husband’s automotive interest without announcing it, while a palm tree sculpture from France and an olive wood desk—fortuitously found at a Florida auction by Ronnie Vinton of Cool Stuff Period in St. Louis—filter Old World elegance through a Floridian lens.
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wood paneled home library HOME 2026
The rest of the room filters Old World elegance through a Floridian lens, with a palm tree sculpture from France and an olive wood desk that Brahler’s friend, Ronnie Vinton from Cool Stuff Period in St. Louis, fortuitously found at a Florida auction just as Brahler was describing what she needed. On the second floor, the billiards table and adjacent bar were designed for late nights and long conversations. Antiqued mirrored walls multiply bottles and glassware into infinity while a brass palm chandelier, with fronds stretching toward the ceiling, casts warm light across black lacquered cabinetry.
Guest bedrooms commit to the pink color story. One takes a softer register, with blush walls surrounding a boldly patterned headboard. Another bedroom dials up the intensity: a deep coral paint coats the walls and ceiling, transforming the space into a subtropical cocoon, rich with Regency accents—from the gilded lamps to the Murano glass bubble chandelier. Black lacquered trim and draperies frame the intensity, while a chinoiserie cabinet holds court. Brahler styled it as a time capsule, filling the shelves with Staffordshire dogs, cinnabar vases and a vintage tiger painting as they would have appeared in a 1945 South Florida home. “I look at it more like an art installation than a functioning piece of furniture,” she says. A life-size ceramic cheetah guards the room from its perch beside the bed.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
elegant pink bedroom HOME 2026
Deep coral paint coats the walls and ceiling, transforming the guest room into a subtropical cocoon rich with Regency accents—from gilded lamps to a Murano glass bubble chandelier.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
decorative art cabinet HOME 2026
A chinoiserie cabinet curated as a time capsule holds Staffordshire dogs and cinnabar vases.
The coral fantasy continues in the adjacent bathroom, with a funky pink toile wallpaper by Sasha Bikoff. The pattern casts the owners’ daughter as its muse, depicting her favorite pursuits, including painting and water sports, across the walls. A pink, shell-shaped sink and Venetian mirror complete the confection. Another bold wallpaper appears in the downstairs powder room. This one calls back to the emerald features in the kitchen and living room, plunging into tropical Versace wallpaper where palms explode across the walls, surrounding a marble pedestal sink and gilded sconces.
Photography by Björn Wallander
pink bathroom HOME 2026
Custom pink toile wallpaper by Sasha Bikoff casts the owners’ daughter as its muse, depicting her favorite pursuits across the walls.
Not to be outdone, the bunk room announces itself with aquatic whimsy. The space came together late one night when Brahler called one of her go-to dealers, Brittany Greenwood of Brittany’s Bamboo Barn in Fort Myers, desperate for something unexpected. Greenwood sent photos of vintage metal palm trees for another space. “I said, ‘OMG, I should put these on the bunk beds!’” Brahler recalls. “Brittany always says, ‘Girl, you can do anything you want.’” The sculptures now stand as bedposts while taxidermy sea turtles swim up aqua walls, and a clustered orb chandelier reads as underwater bubbles. The theme builds all the way to the crown molding, which is carved into rolling waves above the balcony door.
A couple of features vie for distinction as the pièce de résistance. But the entry arrives first and makes the boldest statement. The home’s staircase had been buried under decades of additions. “You could see what the original architect was doing, and I could see where the owners had added over the years,” Brahler says. She stripped it all back to reveal the original floating staircase, then plastered and embellished it, adding brass pieces and iron flourishes to create a traditional French railing.
She had the old stone flooring jackhammered out and replaced it with black and white checkerboard tile. Gone was the Tuscan weight of burgundy and mocha; in its place, crisp white that let light bounce freely through the space, making even the columns seem newly carved from light. Oversized mirrors reflect the trees and ocean. “We wanted to pull in views as much as possible and have mirrors double as art.” The lofty living room offers breathing room amid the house’s exuberance, with pale stone floors, curved cream banquettes and towering windows. Narrow gilt mirrors flank the space, and a starburst chandelier catches light without competing for attention.
In the end, the Mediterranean bones remained, but Brahler built something entirely new around them. Outside, the stone was cleaned up, landscaping was simplified and the two-tone facade was unified in monochromatic cream. The pool’s travertine decking wraps the space in the same warm neutral that grounds the front entry, while the dark surface and organic curves echo the indulgent leisure the interiors promise.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
outdoor living area beige couch HOME 2026
In the loggia, a curved rattan banquette and bamboo dining chairs create outdoor rooms for morning coffee and evening entertaining—every space calibrated for the indulgent leisure the interiors promise.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
ruffled seat shades and a swan planter HOME 2026
Travertine decking wraps the pool in the same warm neutral that grounds the front entry, while ruffled seat shades and a swan planter used as a side table deliver tongue-in-cheek nods to Old Florida excess.
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Photography by Björn Wallander
outdoor living area bamboo chairs HOME 2026
In the loggia, a curved rattan banquette and bamboo dining chairs create outdoor rooms for morning coffee and evening entertaining—every space calibrated for the indulgent leisure the interiors promise.
What emerged is a home that feels both exuberant and disciplined, designed for perpetual vacation. The vision hinges on Brahler’s mastery of color—saturated hues held together by a shared luminosity. Nothing feels jarring amid the bravado. “People say, ‘Don’t be afraid of color,’ but it is scary and it is difficult to pull off in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the senses,” Brahler admits. “When the math equation is off, you can feel it. But when you get it right, it feels so good.”