In Palm Beach Gardens, within what Palm Beach Gardens is described as “a resort style pocket lined with lush preserves and serene waterways,” Krista Watterworth Alterman, creative director of Krista + Home, the luxury division of Vesta Home, composes a residence shaped by clarity of line, controlled materiality, and moments of quiet surprise.
Designed for a New York family of five with a strong connection to global travel and philanthropy, the house draws on the “effortless global elegance of Belmond hotels,” while remaining deeply attuned to daily life with three children. “We wanted the home to feel like a calming escape,” Alterman explains, “all with a bit of fun woven in.”
The project hinges on what the designer terms “stealth luxury,” an approach that privileges discretion over display. Hidden doors, embedded within custom oak cabinetry and millwork, dissolve into the architecture, concealing a back kitchen conceived as both functional infrastructure and social device. “One push and you’re in the back kitchen,” Alterman notes, recalling how contractors “walked past the millwork dozens of times without realizing a door was there.” These “architectural Easter eggs” extend across more than 5,000 square feet, where an open great room, five bedrooms, and a loft for movie nights are articulated through seamless indoor outdoor flow.
“Materiality was everything,” she continues. A palette of warm whites, sandy neutrals, and limestone tones evokes Mediterranean atmospheres and the memory of Fowlers Beach and Flying Point. Matte natural stones are layered with wallcoverings by Phillip Jeffries and Arte, while lighting from Boyd Lighting and Visual Comfort establishes a calibrated luminosity. Furnishings, including a sofa and chairs by Baker Furniture, a custom sculptural dining table, a stone island, and a custom bed, reinforce a language that is both precise and tactile, supported by performance fabrics suited to real family living.
Fashion operates as an underlying framework. References to The Row, Khaite, and Nili Lotan translate into an interior sensibility that is “modern but warm, minimal but soulful, luxurious but completely livable.” Captured through the lens of Carmel Brantley, styled by Robert Rufino, and produced by Karine Monié, the residence ultimately reads, in Alterman’s words, as “a home that feels like a whisper, calm, curated and quietly bold,” where “beauty that doesn’t beg for attention; it earns it.”
