Jenny Provost van Rensburg’s professional language is firmly contemporary. K2 Design Group, her interior design firm, describes its work as being “for forward-thinking people.” However, her own home takes a more retrospective approach, relying on personal history and classical elements applied with modern intent. The Mediterra residence she shares with her husband, Hannes Janse van Rensburg, is neither contemporary nor traditional but built through accumulation: art gathered across decades and geographies, materials chosen for permanence, and rooms shaped around memory and use rather than display.
Originally from Fort Myers, Jenny left Southwest Florida to study at McGill University in Montreal, where she established an early design practice and raised two children with her late first husband. She returned to Fort Myers in 1993 and founded K2 Design Group. Years later, she met Hannes, a South African native whose interests in cooking, chess and travel would become central to how she’d design their future home.
A few years ago, with the children fully grown and the couple often traveling to see family, they decided to downsize from a larger home in Quail Creek to a place in Mediterra. “It’s just so beautiful, heavily planted and lush,” Jenny says of the community.
The 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom house was built in 2003 for Landmark Homes by Harrell & Co., an architectural firm she respects. “The house has a really interesting shape—you can see the outside from every room,” Jenny says. Meanwhile, the materials signaled care: solid-core wood doors, bronze hardware and finishes that held up decades later. The challenge was stylistic. Built over two decades ago, the design reflected the Mediterranean Revival aesthetic popular at the time, a style Jenny wanted to temper rather than erase.
Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world artwork wall artwork
In her own home, the contemporary designer turns retrospective. Pieces collected over decades of travel—a Rwandan walking stick, face reliefs from San José del Cabo in Mexico, a Moooi chess table—layer against traditional moldings and museum-white walls inspired by Parisian apartments.
Inspiration for bridging the past and present came during a family trip to France, when they rented apartments in historic Parisian buildings. Jenny was struck by the combination of darker wood floors, white walls, classical moldings and prominently held art. She wanted to translate the layered, lived-in sensibility into the family’s Florida home, filtered through her exacting lens.
For artwork, she had plenty to work with. The more challenging task was finding the right paint to complement the collection. “When it comes to my clients, I’m so practiced at it that I can choose one right away,” she says. For her home, she labored over the decision, testing various options before settling on Behr’s Nano White, color-matched by Sherwin-Williams—a brand she represents in her design studio. The color, with its gray and warm beige undertones, delivered the museum-white backdrop she desired. “It’s a blessing and a curse to be so picky,” she says with a laugh.
The floors, from a Wisconsin showroom, are a dark espresso herringbone, providing a grounding contrast for the white surfaces and tall ceilings. Across the walls, Old World-style trim establishes a classical framework without locking the house into a historical style. Jenny enlisted California-based Pearlworks Architectural Details for the reliefs. “It’s one of the last companies in the United States that does these incredible moldings and inlays,” she says.
Molded wall panels, by Smith & DeShields, are sized and laid out in response to the artworks they hold, giving each piece presence. In the living room, a painting by the late Richard Roblin, a friend from Jenny’s Montreal years, sits within a panel topped with shallow plaster cresting. Flanking panels are marked with pineapple reliefs, a nod to hospitality.
At the far end of the same wall, the paneled treatment surrounds a dramatic black wooden cutout piece, depicting silhouetted dancers caught in motion. The repetition creates continuity across the open space, allowing both works to register clearly without competing for attention.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world dining room
Old World-style trim on the walls establishes classical proportions without locking the house into historical pastiche. Molded wall panels, sized and laid in response to the art they hold, give each piece presence. The dining room’s wooden cutout piece is further distinguished by shallow plaster cresting and paneled pineapple reliefs.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world kitchen
Jenny designed the kitchen for her husband, Hannes Janse van Rensburg, who loves to cook. Stainless steel countertops with an integrated sink favor function, while the John Boos butcher block island adds space for prep and experimentation. Below: His office centers on a photograph of the Everglades taken by Jenny’s daughter, Cee Keegan, in collaboration with Doug Thompson.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world office
Elsewhere, the approach shifts, adapting to the room and artwork. The family room is tailored for a more casual feel with grid-like paneling adding subtle dimension. On the adjacent wall, another work by Richard is given a broader, unadorned molding treatment that matches the room’s laid-back styling.
In the primary suite, a narrow niche holds a Rwandan walking stick, its beading complemented by slender carved, black figures and expressive face reliefs from San José del Cabo.
Structurally, Jenny made minimal yet impactful changes. In the primary bedroom, a wall was removed and replaced with sliding-glass doors leading to the pool. She also reconfigured the primary bath, moving a window from the back of the room to an adjacent, east-facing wall to create a sunlit dressing room complete with floor-to-ceiling closets and a rolling ladder. One bedroom became Hannes’ study; another is being converted into Jenny’s office with a Murphy bed for guests.
As for the kitchen, she designed that space for her husband, who got into cooking as they were getting to know each other and now makes the kitchen his domain. Stainless steel countertops with an integrated sink favor use over perfection. “You know it’s going to get scratches, but nothing cleans up better,” she says. A separate work area with a John Boos butcher block island adds space for prep and experimentation.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world bedroom
A black-and-white scheme creates cohesion throughout the renovated Mediterranean Revival-style home. The palette carries from the patterned drapes and wrapped canopy frame in the primary bedroom to the bath’s checkered tiles to the abstract print sofa in the living room and several monochromatic artworks.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world bathroom
The primary bath’s checkerboard floor extends outside, visually stitching the room to the garden beyond. Glossy olive tile in the shower, crisp white cabinetry and star-shaped pendants sharpen the geometry. Right: The home’s thematic elements continue outdoors with ornate wrought iron fencing and black-and-white pool tiles inspired by piano keys.
Outside, personal history surfaces again. The entry gate, for instance, came from Jenny’s former home, the second home Thomas Edison and developer James D. Newton added to Fort Myers’ Edison Park. To update the grounds, Jenny modified an ornate classical fountain, simplifying the design for a cleaner look. Terrazzo pool decking incorporates pieces of real conch shell sourced from the Dominican Republic, and Jenny built a spa, surrounded by ferns, so it reads like a natural pond. Plantings are dense, with bougainvillea, fragrant vines and staghorn ferns Jenny has kept for more than three decades. “I’m a Florida girl … so having lots of plants was paramount to me,” she says.
The palette stays largely black and white, punctuated with green. Strong patterns carry the scheme throughout the house, from the living room’s abstract-print sofa (“It looks like flowers, but it’s actually people,” she says) and monochrome Moooi chess table to the primary bedroom’s modernist geometric curtains. In the bath, glossy olive tiles line the shower walls, paired with large-scale black-and-white checkerboard flooring that extends from the outdoor shower into the bathroom, pulling the exterior inward without mimicry.
Every element carries a story. The chess table reflects her husband’s love for the game. The living room floors are bare, making space for the couple to practice between ballroom dancing lessons. The piano traces to childhood memories. “Growing up, we had no money, but we did have an upright piano that my mother bought secondhand. She had to sell it, so as soon as I was able, I bought a grand piano,” Jenny says. Above it hangs a Swarovski Strass crystal chandelier for a glamorous touch. In the primary bedroom, a painting by Iranian artist Hessam Abrishami hangs above the bed. “I’ve had that painting for probably 25 years,” Jenny says. “It’s gone from house to house.” A piece hanging above a side chair, Lumiere de Vie, is by Daniel Berneche.
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world outdoor pool
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Photography by Robin Hill
h2 design naples meditera home old world outdoor fence
The iron entry gate was salvaged from Jenny’s former Fort Myers residence—a 1926 home built in Edison Park by Thomas Edison and developer James D. Newton.
Hannes’ office brings the home’s larger ideas into sharp focus. Painted in a deep green, the room echoes the region’s vegetation. The wall behind the desk is claimed by a photograph of the Everglades, taken by Jenny’s daughter, Cee Keegan, in collaboration with longtime family friend Doug Thompson, a protégé of Everglades photographer Clyde Butcher. “I built the whole room around this photo,” Jenny says. She divided the image into four vertical panels and printed it on canvas-textured vinyl. For Hannes, who spends his days in conversation with people around the world, it anchors the space in something unmistakably local. “It gives him a chance to talk about the Florida Everglades,” the designer says. In a home shaped by travel and collected memory, the design grounds the space in its setting and in Jenny’s sense of place.
Interior Design: K2 Design Group
Architecture: Harrell & Co. Architects
Builder: Landmark Homes
Photography: Robin Hill