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Tour Of A Luxury Beach House

A couple provides the luxury beach experience for their guests

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By Amy Saunders | August 6, 2018 | Interiors

by Jura Koncius, (c) 2018, The Washington Post

 

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware - In a shingle-style home about a mile from the boardwalk, there's usually a house party going on.

 

The weekend home of Washingtonians Shawn Evans and Joe Petrone is designed for friends and family to relax, recharge and have fun. With seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, three kitchens and a never-ending stream of music, the place is styled to entertain a crowd.

 

The goal is "to have our guests feel transported to a luxury resort, making them feel pampered in subtle ways," Evans says. "We appeal to their senses with great food and drink, good tunes and fresh flowers," things few people have time to focus on in their day-to-day lives.

 

The 4,800-square-foot home has a U-shaped design centring on a pool (with water usually at 85 degrees). A folding glass wall leads from the pool into a 30-by-30-foot great room lined with linen slipcovered sofas. You can not only put your feet up on the 5-by-7-foot whitewashed wood coffee table, you can dance on it. (It's happened.) This room opens into the main kitchen, where a large marble island and eight chairs beckon guests to hang out or help shuck the corn.

 "Every home has a heartbeat. In our house, it's this courtyard, where the pool and great room join. That's where life happens," says Petrone, who grew up in Puerto Rico, where this style of airy, breezy architecture is popular. "We eat, we talk and we tell stories."

 

Evans, 49, a designer who owns suburban design firm P Four, a and husband Petrone, 57, a real estate agent with Monument Sotheby's International Realty, are expert hosts who strategize meals and party plans in advance so they can also enjoy their time at the beach about 120 miles east of Washington.

The exterior was inspired by New England coastal-style shingled houses, says Greg Sparhawk of GPS Designs Architecture, who worked with P Four on the project. "They wanted a space that was wide open, with indoor-outdoor living," Sparhawk says. "They asked for something that allowed for different levels of entertaining both large and small groups."

The main floor has the great room, dining room, main kitchen, prep kitchen, butler's pantry and bar, master bedroom and bathroom, a guest room and bath, mudroom and pool bathroom. The second level has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. There's also a one-bedroom apartment over the garage.

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