A dramatic curving staircase was custom-built for this project, which was one of Tom Trout’s most unique and challenging whole-house remodels. Just about everything was custom-made and many of the finishes and materials were unusual or exotic.
A Touch of Morocco
The Kingdom of Morocco is a country located in North Africa. It has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It’s bordered by Spain to the north, Algeria to the east and Mauritania to the south. But there’s a little slice of Morocco in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Tom Trout Inc. transformed a circa-1980s block beachfront home into a Moroccan retreat at the behest of its owners, husband-and-wife attorneys. There were numerous challenges, however, not the least of which was Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) restrictions that prohibited changing the existing home’s footprint.
“We took this home down to the slab and kept a very small percentage of the exterior walls,” says Tom Trout III, company president, whose father founded the Jacksonville-based contracting firm in 1962. “You could call it an extreme remodel.”
Extreme indeed. Trout says that because of changing DEP and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rules, the same project couldn’t even be permitted today.
“The wife is also an artist,” says Trout. “When you work with an artist, you have to share his or her objectives and vision. This job was customized every step of the way. And the result is, the home is actually a work of art.”
Trout’s team removed the second floor and rebuilt it, larger, while expanding the garage. Consequently, the 2,405-square-foot home was transformed into a 4,556-square-foot home filled with exotic and unique Moroccan-inspired finishes and numerous one-of-a-kind features.
Among the more impressive additions is a custom-built domed foyer ceiling equipped with fiber-optic lighting and painted by an artisan to look like a sky view. It was framed in aluminum, carefully plastered and then hoisted into place.
The spectacular curved staircase is also a stunning piece of craftsmanship. “In fact, almost everything in this home was custom-made and extremely intricate,” says Doug Dye, Tom Trout’s vice president for development. “Nothing was off the shelf.”
Like the country that inspired the home, the finishes are eclectic, including French limestone flooring, custom light fixtures from Italy and Sapele wood trim—a type of mahogany—for all baseboards, doors and door casings, shutters and gates, exterior balcony handrails and even the columns on the exterior of the garage. The gas fireplace features decorative fireglass.
The columns in the kitchen are made of black walnut salvaged from a family farm in Ohio. “We had a couple of our guys rent a U-Haul truck and go to Ohio to get the logs,” says Trout. “But it’s a nice touch because the farm was special to the client; she had an emotional attachment to it.”
The home is resplendent with high-gloss cabinetry made of exotic woods. The master bathroom boasts a large shower with multiple body sprays, a rain showerhead, a steam unit and a clear glass enclosure. The onyx vanity top is illuminated via lighting beneath it. In the guest bathroom, a domed, freestanding shower was fashioned from glass tile.
The pool can be heated in cool weather and chilled in hot weather. It’s surrounded by a travertine paver deck. Nana Door systems open the house to the ocean and help bring the outdoors in while cable-style stainless steel railings allow unobstructed ocean views.
Less obvious but just as important in an oceanfront home is the water-proofing of areas around doors, windows and fixtures where water intrusion could take place.
“We specialize in oceanfront property, so we understand that you have to build an oceanfront home like you’d build a boat,” says Trout. “Our philosophy is to do it right the first time.”