Kips Bay Palm Beach Decorator Show House

West Palm Beach, FL

Landscape Architect: Bell Design, Inc.
Landscape Contractor: Lopez Group, Inc.

We took inspiration from the architecture of the 1924 Mediterranean Revival–style home, mixing classic garden ornaments with contemporary furnishings and touches of fiction and fantasy to create an estate designed for entertainments of all sorts. The result is a layered, theatrical landscape—part historic villa, part tropical dreamscape—where every garden room tells its own story.

A Dramatic Arrival Sequence

At the front entrance, we placed monumental 19th‑century terracotta urns in masses of orange bromeliads to flank the gates, establishing a bold, sun‑drenched welcome. Along the entrance walk, Moorish‑inspired ikoro wood planters filled with silver palmetto introduce sculptural texture and a sense of exoticism. Beneath the façade, we repeated the palmetto and added frosty, serpentine ribbons of Snake Plant ‘Black Coral’, creating a flowing Art Deco theatricality that nods to Palm Beach’s glamorous past.

The Orville Bulman Garden & Pavilion

This garden and pavilion draw inspiration from Orville Bulman, the beloved Palm Beach painter whose riotous jungle scenes of the 1950s and ’60s were filled with animals, people, and fantastical filigree structures inspired by his travels in Haiti. Channeling Bulman’s exuberance, we composed a planting palette that is wild, colorful, and delightfully unexpected: bonsai Croton, cutleaf Monstera, and the extravagant Parasol Leaf Tree.

The pavilion itself references classic Chinoiserie and woven rattan patterns, yet is fabricated entirely from computer‑milled PVC, allowing for crisp detailing and durability in the Florida climate. Mirrors inset into the doorways add a touch of modern shimmer—Bulman’s whimsy translated into contemporary garden architecture.

The Dining & Cocktail Garden

Privacy and a sense of containment shaped the design of the dining and cocktail garden beneath the mature Indian Crepe Myrtle. Here, we used a lush mix of palms, elephant ears, and philodendrons to create separation from the busy front of the home, forming a cool, sheltered retreat for evening gatherings. We curated 19th‑century limestone garden antiques and paired them with modern furnishings in complementary tones, creating a dialogue between eras that feels both collected and intentional.

From the tree branches above, planted “hanging gardens” cascade in colorful mini‑jungles, animating the space and enhancing its sense of intimacy. The effect is immersive—part tropical grotto, part open‑air salon.

The Sculpture Garden

“Neuron”, by the late New Orleans sculptor Lin Emery, anchored our sculpture garden and embodies her lifelong fascination with movement, balance, and the natural elements. Its rotating circular forms—evoking cells, algae, or drifting motes—shift with the weather, a hallmark of Emery’s celebrated kinetic work. Trained in Paris in the 1940s, she rose to prominence with ecclesiastical sculptures before turning to water‑ and wind‑driven public art. Though Emery passed away in 2021, her pieces live on in museums and sculpture gardens nationwide. Neuron was graciously lent to our Kips Bay Palm Beach garden by noted collector Beth Rudin DeWoody

The Backgammon Courtyard

We transformed the empty carriage house parking court into a giant backgammon board—an exploration of scale, rhythm, and playful geometry rendered in stone. A sculptural McKinnon & Harris bench anchors the central axis, while custom fabricated wood benches echo the board’s patterning and extend its graphic language into the seating. The result is a boldly proportioned courtyard where classic Palm Beach glamour meets a touch of game‑board whimsy.