A Vacation Cottage Becomes Home

A coastal retreat is reimagined, renovated and redesigned after a devastating hurricane.

- By Meryl Schoenbaum

Have you ever vacationed somewhere and wished you could live there permanently? This beach house became the primary residence for its owners, but it was not intended to be that way. Instead, a massive hurricane changed their plans—as well as their address. In September 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall on the North Carolina coast and destroyed many of the homes there, including this one in Beaufort, North Carolina. One month before the hurricane hit, the owners hired Liz Goldberg, founder and principal designer of the interior design firm CAROLYNLEONA, to simply update some rooms. However, Mother Nature had other ideas.

“The clients hired us in August 2018 to remodel the bathrooms and kitchen in their Beaufort, North Carolina, beach house. The house was built in the 1980s and our clients were ready to update it,” Liz says. “Then in September 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall and badly damaged their vacation home and the scope of work changed to rebuilding the house, taking it down to the studs in every room.”