The courtyard is the center of the Holmes concept—a private outdoor room that connects the home through water, landscape, light, and music.
The main living space opens directly toward the pool, while the covered lanai creates a second place to cook, gather, and spend time outdoors. The music room sits prominently along the courtyard rather than being hidden away, allowing it to remain visually connected to the life of the home. Across the pool, the primary suite becomes a quieter retreat with its own sense of separation.
Together, these spaces create a home that is experienced as much from the courtyard as from within its walls.
The front of the home is designed as a transition from the outside world into a more private environment.
Rather than revealing everything at once, the arrival is layered through architecture, mature landscape, warm materials, and a framed view into the home beyond. The entry establishes a clear sense of destination, while the integrated parking and surrounding greenery remain part of the overall composition rather than dominating it.
From the front door, the view begins to open toward the interior, courtyard, and pool—offering the first glimpse of the life organized beyond the entry.
The plan brings the individual parts of the home together around a central outdoor experience.
The kitchen, dining, and living areas form an open main pavilion with direct access to the courtyard. The primary suite is positioned beyond the main living spaces to create greater privacy, while the guest suite, office, music room, and detached art cottage are each given a distinct place within the composition.
The covered lanai becomes the connective space between the main house, pool, and primary pavilion. More than a passageway, it extends daily living outdoors with room for cooking, dining, and gathering beside the water.
This is an initial organizational study—not a final floor plan. Its purpose is to establish the relationships between the spaces before we begin refining dimensions, circulation, openings, storage, and the details of how each room will function.
Once the overall plan and architectural relationships begin to take shape, the process moves inward and each important space is developed on its own.
For this first study, I chose the music room because it is both a focal point of the courtyard and an important part of how you described your life in the home. The room is envisioned as more than a dedicated DJ space. It can be a place to listen, play, collect, create, or simply sit with music while remaining connected to the pool, landscape, and main living area.
The two views begin exploring the room’s atmosphere, lowered floor, equipment layout, acoustical ceiling treatment, lighting, materials, furniture, artwork, and relationship to the rest of the home.
And I hope you like Jimi Hendrix. If not, we will replace him with someone you do.
The music room also illustrates how the design-build process will continue throughout the home.
As the plan evolves, we will give the kitchen, primary suite, bathrooms, art cottage, outdoor kitchen, and every other important space the same focused attention. We progressively work from the architecture of a room down to its materials, cabinetry, lighting, fixtures, equipment, and individual details.
By the end of that process, the renderings are no longer simply inspiration. They become a visual record of the decisions we have made together and a guide for what we intend to build.
This concept is intended to give form to the ideas Donna and Frankie shared with us: a private home connected to nature, with meaningful places for music, art, cooking, outdoor living, and time together.
It is not presented as a finished design. It is the beginning of a collaborative process—an architectural direction that we can now respond to, question, adjust, and gradually make your own.
The next step is to review what feels right, what you would change, and what may still be missing. From there, we can refine the plan, develop each space in greater detail, and begin aligning the design with the property and the appropriate scale for the project.
