By Lauren Weedon Hopkins
Images by Polina Pigulevsky Pictures
“It’s definitely worth the 21-year wait,” exclaims Caryn Karinshak of her “dream dwelling,” Cedar Shake Retreat in St. Augustine. Cary grew up in Atlanta and attended Florida State College. After graduating, she and her greatest pal determined to maneuver to the Jacksonville space. She started work in St. Johns County Colleges and met her husband Tom, a graduate of the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level, at that very same greatest pal’s marriage ceremony.
The couple settled into the neighborhood, welcoming their first son, Carter in 2000. Then, Tom received a job supply he couldn’t refuse, and the household moved to Northern Virginia in 2002. “I needed to remain two years, however that turned to 6,” laughs Caryn. Throughout that point, son Bryce, now 22, and daughter Erica, 19, had been born. Subsequent, Tom’s profession took them to Wilmington, Delaware and a house in Chadds Ford, proper exterior Philadelphia—the place they lived for 15 years.
In 2015, the household bought a house in Palencia to flee the chilly Pennsylvania winters and lived there full time through the COVID-19 pandemic. They loved the “walkable, bike-able and golf cart-able” neighborhood and determined to buy rather a lot there on the Intracoastal in 2020.
Constructing a house from the bottom up could be a problem however doing it from 850 miles away is much more tough. The house builder launched Caryn to Kelly Challberg, proprietor and principal designer of Draper Gray Interiors, who makes a speciality of full-service design from begin to end. “Kelly made it simple,” says Caryn. “Working with Kelly is a real collaboration.”
“I understood Caryn’s design aesthetic and will work carefully
with the builder on the outside and inside,” says Kelly. One design aspect particularly essential to Caryn was using pure supplies. Kelly notes she was fascinated with that includes actual wooden to “gracefully age and get higher over time.”
“Considered one of my favourite issues about the home is the cedar shake,” says Caryn of the outside siding. “It jogs my memory of the farmhouse look.”
They’ve additionally integrated the 1800s farmhouse Tom grew up in rural Pennsylvania, which had no electrical energy when his household first moved there within the Seventies. Tom’s mom was getting ready to promote the house as a result of his father had handed away and so they got here throughout some unique bricks stacked up within the basement. Tom knew he needed to include the bricks in some way in his eternally dwelling. They’re now a part of the outside fire. “It’s a dialog starter,” says Kelly. “The household has come full circle and it’s actually particular.”
Household is essential to the Karinshaks and Kelly notes it was central to Caryn’s imaginative and prescient for her dwelling. She needed it to be a spot the place her grown youngsters would wish to come again to and convey their mates. “That is an entertaining home and a hub the place everybody can come collectively and be comfy,” says Kelly. “In designing each room, that idea was high of thoughts.”
Kelly named her firm after her beloved childhood pet, a cat named Gray. “Animals are essential and must be thought of in design selections,” she says. “We make the funding up entrance for sturdiness and for actual life. Canine are going to chew and children are going to spill.” The Karinshaks have two canines.
Each coloration, accent and piece of furnishings within the dwelling displays
its lovely pure environment. The household enjoys the gorgeous views and needed to construct upon the marsh, the sky, the water and the sunsets. “The house has an open idea move,” Kelly provides. “The featured blues while you stroll in are lighter and as you transition room to room, the blues turn into darker the deeper you get into the house.”
The general vibe is serene and low key.
One room particularly enjoyable to design is for future grandchildren and is now utilized by a niece and a nephew, in addition to household mates. “Many of the dwelling has a coastal theme, however this one has hints of nautical,” says Kelly. “There are sailboats of their yard and Caryn needed to echo that. We have now rope accents and boat cleats on the custom-made bunkbeds.”
The pool space was designed with entertaining in thoughts, that includes loads of seating and offering a resort-type expertise. The flooring is sand blasted marble, one other pure materials. Distinctive parts embrace bowls that produce fireplace positioned on columns and a swim-up bar with glow-in-the-dark tiles on the built-in stools.
The summer season kitchen was a labor of affection. When choosing the tiles,
Caryn had so many favorites, she determined to include all of them. “The impact is a patchwork quilt of every one distinctive and painted by hand in Portugal,” says Kelly, who laid them out first and numbered each tile to make sure the general desired impact earlier than it was put in.
This consideration to element and dedication to telling the story of her household shine by means of in each room. When the household returned to Florida and moved into their dwelling in July 2023, 21 years later, it was the proper time. “We put our coronary heart and soul into the house,” provides Caryn. “We really feel so blessed.”