Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 7/29/2008

Question
Have you ever been into a Tommy Bahama store? How about a Hollister store? I like the way both of these stores decorate the interior as well as the exterior. Tommy Bahama has more of a warm feel with a lot of decorative wood trim and light green colors, i call that style "old world florida". Hollister is more dark, dim lighting, painted wood flooring,small octagon tile flooring and dark stained wood shutters all around the inside. Can anyone tell me exactally what style of design or architecture this is? Alot of people tell me things like "beach", "florida", "Key West", "So-Cal", but I can never find anything on those styles that look like what i want.Please Help. Im building a house and i have just sat down with an architect and I was wanting to combine both of these styles and have my architect come up with something but I dont know how to describe it to him, niether can i find any referance material for him to look at.
Thanks
RaceReed

Answer
Race: Thanks for your question!

You're not finding anything on those styles because they don't exist as "styles".  The store planners, archtitects, and marketing people at both of those companies spend a lot of time and money researching what atmosphere will sell their clothes, and they create a custom environment around it.  It is a huge endeavor, they've spend many millions coming up with the "look".

The inspiration for the architecture/decorating of those stores comes from ALL of the sources you've mentioned; you're not going to find one place, one house, one style that pulls it all together.

But there is hope!  You've already made the right first step in involving an Architect.  Your Architect's job is to gather together all the sources that inspire you and create your home from that.  Assuming you've made a studied and thoughtful choice of Architect, he should be leading you that way anyway - he should be asking lots of questions and looking at the things that inspire you.

If you've told him what you've said in your question above, then you've already "described it to him".  It's his job now to start pulling the information together and begin a design.

In fact, I'd suggest to him that the two of you travel to Key West and other relevant tropical locales to do some on-site research.  A colleague of mine in Ft. Lauderdale did just that for a client (they researched homes in Bermuda) and was able to create a very special home for a client with wishes much like yours.  I've made similar road trips with my Arizona clients on many occasions - it makes all the difference in the world.

Don't expect that you're going to tell your Architect what you want and he'll instantly draw it up; the architectural process involves a lot of back and forth - you'll get what you want by constantly challenging him.  It takes time!

The kind of home you're looking for comes from a good relationship bewteen client and Architect - spend time exploring your ideas with your Architect and you'll be much closer to getting the design you want.

Finally, be sure you've left room in your budget for a professional Interior Designer who knows his/her way around tropical styles.  They'll be very important as your design evolves (not a bad idea to include them on the road trip either!).

Hope this helps!

Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtaplans.com