Lovely to look at (and live in)

Location. Location. Location.

Sometimes you find a place in just the right spot and you know you have to have it. Unfortunately, most of the time, someone else had that same thought years before and has left you with sloppy seconds (aka ugly tile and wallpaper). Still, it’s the location that counts, and for the new owners of this 4,700-square-foot Marco Island condo, the location overlooking Hideaway Beach was too good to pass up — even if the unit screamed everything that was iffy about the early ’90s.

But they knew enough to call Jenny Provost of K2 Design. As the photos suggest, that was a smart move.

“They knew they wanted something startlingly different from what they purchased,” says Ms. Provost. “They liked the square footage, and the views are second to none. I’ve actually seen sunsets from their place that made me tear up. It’s just stunning. So they wanted the condo to be something that could stand up to the power of that view.

“They were interested in modern and clean, but they wanted it to be warm — and they noticed the thread of that running through our projects.”

Ms. Provost and the K2 Design team employ what she calls “tropical modernism” — a perfect balance of South Pacific resort with modern, clean lines and a hint of minimalism.

So the tiled floors, vinyl covered cabinets, confining partitions and awful wallpaper all had to go.

Knowing the redo would take time because of the size of the unit and the wholesale changes involved, the owners bought another condo in the building next door to live in while the work was underway. Another reason for the time it would take: “There are serious restrictions on when work can occur in a (condo building, usually May through mid-October),” Ms. Provost says. “They just shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘Whatever it takes,’ and we plowed forward.”

The owners are big sports fans, so there had to be a lot of ways to watch TV. In fact, a large image that looks like a Clyde Butcher photograph is actually bi-folding panels. Photographer Doug Thompson went into the swamp and took that photo. It was then printed on vinyl and wrapped onto the panels that retract to reveal an enormous television.

“We flipped what was the family room into the dining room and made it so that you can see the whole place,” Ms. Provost says. “Then we turned the family room into a little media room.

“We used a lot of mahogany, and we used a stone that is exactly the color of the beach sand outside,” she adds. “It feels seamless, even though (the beach) is eight floors down.”

Beautiful from top to bottom, indeed.

— K2 Design 25081 Bernwood Drive, Bonita Springs 444- 5205; www.k2design.net