SUNNY OUTLOOK

A SUNSHINE STATE CONDO SEAMLESSLY MERGES OCEAN VIEWS WITH A NEW STELLAR DESIGN.

- NANCY A. RUHLING

Vacation homes are all about living a luxury experience. They embrace their surroundings and enfold us in their beauty.

The minute we walk in the door after weeks, or months, of absence, they make us feel as though we are on vacation yet are right at home.

Florida's Longboat Key had long been a special spot for a couple whose primary residence is in Long Island, New York.

Their roots in the Sunshine State's beach town run deep: It was where their families had homes and vacationed when they were children.

And it is where the couple took their own children. At first, they rented. Then they bought a condo in L'Ambiance at the Longboat Key Club, a resort-style development that debuted in 1992 and that has a golf course, tennis courts, guest apartments, a gym, a pool, and a spa.

After several years, when a corner beachfront-facing unit became available, they snapped it up and asked Elizabeth Sesser, studio director of interiors at New York City-based Kligerman Architecture & Design, to transform it into a resort-style winter home.

"I had a very clear vision of the space I wanted to create," the wife says. "It was important for me to incorporate soothing colors, natural materials, and interesting patterns and textures in the finishes and the artwork. My vision was that the apartment's design would blend with the vast ocean and sea views, where nature and design seamlessly merge."

To achieve those goals, there was much work to be done because the unit, which looked much as it did when the original owner had bought it, was "extremely dated," Sesser says.

The gut renovation of the 3,200-squarefoot unit included altering the floor plan to open the entry.

"Now, when you walk in the front door, you get hit with a view of the Gulf of Mexico," Sesser says.

The couple, whose primary residence is traditional in style, asked Sesser to create a light-filled modern space.