Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1366498
T his is not Celerie Kemble's first beach romp. A f o u r t h - g e n e r a t i o n Palm Beacher, Celerie heads up Kemble Interiors in NYC, while her mother, Mimi McMakin, leads Kemble Interiors in Palm Beach (see pages 40 – 41 for McMakin's redesign of The Colony Hotel). Kemble's Palm Beach childhood home was a rambling deconsecrated Gothic church surrounded by jungle and overlooking Lake Worth. This was far from gilded Palm Beach, and it's just the way Kemble designs her projects, from the Caribbean to Maine — filled with latticework, de Gournay wallpapers, hot Gauguin colors, coquina stone, and antique wicker. When she fell madly in love with a beach, Playa Grande in the Dominican Republic, she knew she'd found her family's Hyannis Port. She describes it as "a wild swath of mountainous jungle … rolling down to pastures of clear, wobbling minty- blue." Her new book, Island Whimsy: Designing a Paradise By the Sea (Rizzoli), follows her path to creating a stunning cluster of island houses centered around a shared clubhouse for family and friends. Magical. ISLAND OF HER HEART Celerie Kemble appears at Texas Design Week Houston for a talk, book signing, and cocktails Wednesday, May 19, 6 - 8 pm, at the new OKA store. TXDW is a ticketed event. Tickets and complete schedule, texasdesignweek.com. Celerie Kemble at Playa Grande 66