Sea Island, Georgia, Beach House Tour

Sea Island, Georgia, is so much a part of Ela Lewis’ life that it’s nearly a family member. “It’s a place that grows with you over time and through the generations, really,” says Lewis, who visits often with her husband and two teenagers from their home base of Chicago. On their monthly trips, they spend their days playing tennis or joining resident biologists for early-dawn patrols to check on sea turtle hatchlings. “There are things to do for the smallest people and the oldest. It’s a beautiful and special spot on the Georgia coast,” she says. Her Atlanta-raised spouse grew up going to Sea Island, and their own family jaunts began when their first child was a toddler, some 15 years ago. “We really love observing the wildlife. A ton of unique bird species migrate through there, and it has one of the largest sea turtle populations in Georgia,” she notes.

Although Sea Island’s moniker might seem a bit on the nose, you have to give them credit for clarity: It’s a 5-mile-long barrier isle fronting the frothy Atlantic Ocean, with marshes on its western flank that are so worthy of verse they were memorialized by poet Sidney Lanier in the 19th century. It was this same glimmering wetland that sold Lewis and her husband on their own piece of paradise. “It’s very private and has marsh views both in front of and behind the house,” she says of their lot. “It also has the most amazing sunsets you’ll ever see. I mean, they’re incredible. When it came on the market, we just couldn’t resist.”

They enlisted designer Mark D. Sikes to make the waterfront perch their own. His relaxed color palette was informed by the natural surrounds of the home, which is featured in his new book, Forever Beautiful: All-American Style All Year Long. The environment also motivated the hand-painted mural in the powder room, where artist Paul Montgomery depicted Lowcountry scenes that resemble what you’ll find out the window. “We were definitely inspired by the Spanish moss, the water, and the sky,” Sikes says. “These marshy greens have more yellow in them—the colors of the sunset. There’s a muted, faded feeling.” The resulting retreat is as unequivocally timeless and inviting as Sea Island itself.

Find A Muse on the Premises

“There were lots of shutters in the house, and we decided to keep them. I liked the way they filtered the light,” says Sikes. They cast striped shadows when the sun pours in, and that became a jumping-off point for the designer. He took that same linear effect and applied it in many areas throughout the home, including the central stair hall’s wallpaper—Farrow & Ball’s Broad Stripe, installed horizontally—and the living room’s ottoman with Jasper’s Le Havre in a mitered stripe. “In general, we always try to apply fabrics to upholstered pieces in more unique ways,” he explains.

Romance the Room

“We hung custom portieres between the living and dining rooms to create some softness, especially since we had shutters everywhere else,” Sikes says of the curtains with pom-pom trim. He employed tone-on-tone color in the upholstery (with armchairs and pillows in Lee Jofa’s Nympheus Twill fabric) and in the painted accents, which highlight the beaded-board ceiling. “We had a lot of fun with paint,” he says of the choice to coat the walls, ceiling, and trim in three different Farrow & Ball hues—Skylight (No. 205), Borrowed Light (No. 235), and Light Blue (No. 22), respectively. They kept the existing terra-cotta floor to help foster a relaxed indoor-outdoor feel and layered rugs for texture. A colonial-inspired chandelier floats above.

Aim for a Sense of Age

“I think Sea Island has a very Americana, coastal feeling,” says Sikes, “It doesn’t seem tropical or like the Caribbean.” He followed the destination’s lead in the dining room and selected elements that underscore this nostalgic sensibility, hanging a pair of iron-finish lanterns by Visual Comfort & Co. and surrounding the long wooden table with the family’s existing—but newly painted—chairs. An antique mirror and a collection of vintage creamware (some of which the Lewises already had on hand) add further interest and give the space enduring style.

Strike a Happy Balance

Sikes and his team curated modern artwork (such as this mixed-media abstract by William McLure) to juxtapose with more classical design choices. Woven wicker furniture handcrafted by Bielecky Brothers delivers an airiness to a space that’s anchored by larger upholstered pieces, such as a sectional wrapped in Namay Samay’s Godavari in Verdigris.

Embrace Details Everywhere

The circa-1887 Willow Boughs wallpaper by English textile designer William Morris lends a lovely leafy touch to this hospitable corner that serves as a coffee nook for the family’s overnight guests. Sikes repeated the iconic pattern in the pillows on the banquette, which received a coat of Farrow & Ball’s Vert de Terre (No. 234). A John James Audubon print of an ibis from Whalebone Creek references the regional waterfowl, and the marble-top table is from Serena & Lily.

Evoke the Past in a Flash

In the son’s room, Sikes chose a sage green windowpane-print fabric with a flaxen background (Schumacher’s Luberon Plaid) for the walls to give a timeworn, sepia-washed effect. The woven Perriand Natural Rush Bed from Hollywood at Home provides another hint of earthiness.

Charm with Prints

The interiors are imbued with “a rustic, beachy-environment kind of look” throughout, says the designer. This sentiment rings especially true in the daughter’s room, where walls covered in Penny Morrison’s Vasari fabric in Blue/Orange cast a warm glow that mimics the spectacular sunsets outside. This pattern, which includes garden motifs, informed the room’s other floral notes, from the block print pillows (Penny Morrison’s Kalindi) to the framed botanicals. A wicker nightstand and side table, along with plaster lamps, temper the four-poster bed’s formality and dial up the beach house spirit.