Summary

With stunning views of the Gulf of Mexico, the WaterColor Inn, built in 2001, is a welcoming resort hotel at Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. To renovate its interiors, IA designed seven new one-bedroom and two-bedroom family suites, ranging from 500 to 1,220 square feet, and modernized the indoor-outdoor bar. The design concept draws on the relaxed comfort of a classic beach house, preserving original nautical design elements—shiplap, architectural arches, coastal colors, and authentic materials like white-washed wood, stone, and rattan textures—while adding contemporary features and the indulgences of a luxury boutique hotel.

Each of the seven remodeled one-and-two-bedroom family suites offers a living room and a dining room, a kitchen, and a master bath with separate dressing areas. The two-bedroom suites have a full-sized tub and cabana shower for privacy, relaxation, and unwinding. Throughout, nautical-inspired touches provide family fun, e.g., a boat-inspired look-through window and a built-in bunk room.

Outdoors, private terraces and covered patios, each with a wet bar, enjoy easy access to the family pool area with sightlines to indoor spaces. At the indoor-outdoor bar, adjacent to the pool, Southern hospitality in an ambience as warm and comfortable as home serves coastal cuisine with a global flair as well as family-style fare.

Blending traditional and contemporary design elements, a mix of washed and warm woods, luxurious new drapes, and accent pillows are complemented by artwork in watercolors. The WaterColor brand’s soft coastal colors are married to light contemporary hues. Canvas fabrics, marble surfaces, gray and blue area rugs, and textured tiles add to the beach house effect.