Interior designer in Hobe Sound, Florida

Hobe Sound's oldest neighborhoods sit around Bridge Road. Zeus Park follows the Olympia Improvement Company's 1920s plan, with streets such as Olympus, Mercury and Athena radiating from a circular green laid out like an Olympic arena. Banner Lake, west of US 1, grew from a small 1920s subdivision into a traditional grid of single-family houses, and Old Hobe Sound mixes larger homes on big lots along Laurel Lane with smaller houses on winding streets.

Many of these houses are compact, so the plan has to do the heavy lifting. We find room for a working kitchen, a proper primary suite and real storage, detail built-ins where stock furniture never fits, and keep the scale that makes these streets pleasant to walk. Parts of this area fall inside the Hobe Sound Community Redevelopment Area, which has its own section of Martin County's land development code, so we confirm with the contractor which standards apply before exterior-visible work is drawn.

• Kitchen and bath redesign inside existing footprints
• Built-in storage, window seats and home offices for compact rooms
• Screened porches and outdoor rooms planned with the interior
• Lighting plans for low ceilings and small rooms

South of Bridge Road, the neighborhoods closest to the Intracoastal Waterway look east across the water toward Jupiter Island. Homes here deal with salt air, strong reflected light and rooms that should open to porches and docks, so we choose fabrics, finishes and hardware for that exposure and plan lighting so evenings outside work without glare.

North of the village, club communities such as Loblolly pair homes with golf and club life. Where an association or club reviews changes, we prepare the drawings, finish boards and 3D renderings it expects, and our project direction service keeps that approval moving alongside the contractor's schedule. Martin County's comprehensive plan also holds buildings to four stories and 40 feet, which keeps Hobe Sound low-rise.

The Town of Jupiter Island is a separate municipality, incorporated in 1953, with 804 residents at the 2020 census. It occupies the barrier island from the Palm Beach County line north to the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, and it runs its own building department for zoning, permitting, plan review, inspections, contractor licensing and code enforcement. Its Development Review Board hears variances and decides whether a proposed plan is of the same general character that the town's land development regulations call for.

The island also works to the town's calendar. Construction hours are shorter from November through April than in summer, the permit forms include an exterior lighting self-certification, and the town's sea turtle lighting ordinance dates to 1992. We plan interiors, lighting and deliveries around those rules and send photo and video reports to owners who are away.

Hobe Sound is unincorporated, so mainland projects follow Martin County's rules and permitting, while work on Jupiter Island goes through the town. Gava Studio Design is a design and consulting practice, not a contractor: permits are pulled and structural, electrical, plumbing, window and door work is done by licensed contractors, with an architect or engineer when the scope requires one.

Most projects start with a walk-through and a written concept and scope. From there the work can grow into measured plans, finish and lighting schedules, custom furniture drawings and 3D renderings built from the real specifications. For a house on Laurel Lane or a cottage near Zeus Park, a pre-purchase consultation can also show what a renovation would involve before you commit.