Nicole Kristmann grew up cradled in the southern charms of Charleston. She sketched her way to earning an interior architecture degree in London, and mastered her skills at top design firms in New York. Now the principal designer and owner of Kristmann Design Group, Inc., Nicole regularly jets off to Belize, Italy and other parts of the globe in search of that rare find that will add pop to a design project and keep well-heeled clients coming back for business.

But it's when Kristmann returns to the Cocoa Beach home she shares with her husband, Fabian, and their daughter Mia that she feels most at peace.

"I exhale the moment I walk through the door," says Kristmann, an ASID interior designer with more than 23 years of experience. "I love my house. I feel like it's a part of me, from my roots in South Carolina to all of the places I have traveled," she says of the nearly 4,000-square-foot bungalow along the banks of Edwards Bay.

The family has lived here since 1999, when Kristmann first walked in the house and fell in love.

"Back then it had cedar siding all over the walls, nasty carpeting, and two fireplaces covered in flagstone," she says. "But it also had great bones, which I loved."

So she stripped the structure bare and clothed the interior in travertine marble flooring, natural woods, custom window treatments and a décor filled with mixed echoes of South Carolina and Europe, all accented with interesting design pieces Kristmann picked up during her travels over the years. The result so far has been an eclectic masterpiece worthy of any designer showroom, but Kristmann is quick to note that her only intention is to constantly fill her home with items that are of special meaning to her and her family.

"Our home reflects who we are and where we've been. I completely love it because you know something about me when you just walk through the door," she says.



In fact, you get a hint of Kristmann's personality just by looking at the wall hangings in her foyer. There, two dozen colorfully painted miniature clay and ceramic sculptures depicting various home doorways hang as a greeting to visitors.

"Everywhere I go, this is the treasure I collect," Kristmann says, eyeing the brightly colored hangings, including three or four that she picked up in Buenos Aires, Argentina alone.

"I remember every day, every trip that I bought each of these."

The foyer flows into the main living area of the home, where a 150-year-old cream Duncan Phyfe sofa that belonged to her grandmother, Estelle, anchors the front seating area.

"I used to comb her hair while sitting on it when I was 6 or 7 years old," Kristmann says.

A glass coffee table sits in front of the sofa, while an Italian table built in 1790, complete with its original paint and gold gilding, stands proudly in the corner.

"If there's anything I know, it's antiques. I learned all about them by growing up around them, and studying them, too," Kristmann says, adding that one of her happiest pastimes is spending a day in a warehouse filled with old architecture and antiques. "There is something about structures and things from the past that just call to me."

That's evident by the two tall, baby blue and white wooden doors that cover portions of the family room wall behind the baby grand piano Kristmann's brother, Kary, gave to her daughter. The doors are 120 years old and came from an Italian estate. "The family fell on bad times and lost everything. They shipped furniture and other pieces of their estate to Charleston to sell them, and that's where I saw the doors," Kristmann says.

The doors, which now front a wet bar complete with Southern Comfort, are hand-painted and still have their original gold gilding. Although they are from Italy, Kristmann says the doors' design are also reminiscent of décor seen during the era of Robert Adam, a neoclassical architect and interior designer who was considered by many to be among the most influential designers of the late eighteenth century.

"He was famous for including colorization in architecture, and for bringing classical architectural elements indoors," she says. The main seating area, located just beyond the piano, is awash in whites, crèmes and blues. French blue toile is carried from the front seating area to cover an accent chair.

A blue French floral was chosen for pillows on both sofas in front of the fireplace, fitting in perfectly with the European feel of the room. One cream-colored sofa is finished with ostrich skin, the other is covered in linen. The hearth is made of Rojo Alicante marble, a red limestone from Spain. While definitely eye-catching, the real focal point of the area is the fireplace mantel.

Gone is the flagstone façade that greeted Kristmann when the family bought the house. The mantel is now shrouded in a ceramic-glazed door surround from an exterior building in Paris. A cartouche at the center of the piece emphasizes its French design.

Kristmann first saw the door surround while on a shopping trip in Charleston.

"It was an architectural salvage that got shipped into Charleston. It was still in pieces when I saw it but I knew I had to have it for the fireplace," she says.

She had the dozen or so pieces – each weighing about 125 pounds - loaded into the back of her Denali Yukon and drove them from Charleston to Florida. Her husband says she's fortunate to have made it back safely. "The back of the car was only inches from the ground," Fabian Kristmann says.

It took several subcontractors and plenty of her husband's friends to get the entire piece mounted. But Kristmann says it definitely was worth it.

"The fireplace is such an elegant feature in our family room. It helps in making this area very relaxing and peaceful," Kristmann says.

The home's open floor plan allows those in the living space to move easily to the dining area where a French dining table is anchored by two English captain's chairs that belonged to Kristmann's grandmother.

Italian dining chairs covered in an eggshell fabric flank either side of the table while a crystal-and-gold gilded Empire chandelier – a gift from Kristmann's mother-in-law – hangs above it.

Tall seagrass has been arranged into two decorative features along the wall. Between them is a painting of a scene evoking a summer day in Charleston, when the sun dances through Cabbage Palmettos and majestic live oaks adorned with Spanish Moss.

"I really love the light in the painting," Kristmann says. The kitchen features a stove with a copper hand-hammered hood imported from India and decorative Italian tiles.

However, the most unique feature of the area is at the base of the kitchen sink island, which is covered in six wainscoting pieces salvaged from an old church in Argentina. Wainscoting uses various types of woods, normally applied to the lower sections of walls, to add Old World charm and warmth to a room.

These panels are commonly found in churches, courtrooms, and libraries. However, Kristmann discovered a novel use for them after seeing the exotic woods in Charleston.

"Nobody does anything like this anymore. This is craftsmanship at its best. Why not reclaim what the masters did in the past and use them as a decorative feature in today's houses," she says.

Sally Carmany, an experienced decorative artist and master faux finisher working with the Kristmann Design Group, said Kristmann's use of wainscoting is definitely a conversation piece.

"Who thinks to take wood panels from a church and use them in their kitchen? Nicole takes things from old buildings and turns them into architectural pieces of the house," Carmany says.

Carmany was instrumental in helping Kristmann to complete her vision for the master bathroom. "I wanted this bathroom to be a breath of fresh air when you walk in," she says, her hand caressing the edge of the whirlpool bath. The wall behind the tub shimmers with iridescent glass mosaic tile.

The space features two mirrors atop separate his and her clear glass sinks, each with real sand and glass pebbles in the vanities underneath. Travertine with striped mosaic glass continues the shimmery effect in the shower.

As if those features weren't enough to catch the eye, the bathroom's Venetian plastered walls cause visitors to do a double take.

"Venetian plaster was started over 200 years ago in Italy. You see it a lot in some of the older homes in the South, especially in South Carolina and Georgia," Kristmann says. Carmany, who spent over a week applying the effect, said the plaster is mixed with crushed marble that is pigmented, then burnished and waxed. It is applied in several layers on the wall.

"The beauty of it is its glass-like finish," Carmany says.

A mahogany four-poster bed dominates the master bedroom, which also features a sliding glass doorway to the large veranda and pool area outside.

No matter where Kristmann travels, she says the most serene spot for her is her bedroom. "It's extremely tranquil. Sometimes I'll just lie in my bed and look at the dolphins and manatees," she says. Just outside of the bedroom is a lounge area with a 150-year-old bench from Argentina.

"I travel a lot to South American countries because of my husband's business, and really love the qualities of the antiques and woods from there," she says, referring to Fabian's Cocoa Beach-based business, Gulfstream Pools, Inc.

Kristmann completely designed the veranda, which was site-built without draft plans.

"There is this place in Belize that we visited that I wanted to replicate out here," she says, her eyes soaking in the veranda's cedar beams, heartof- pine decking, cast stone tiles, brick pavers and large Corinthian Italian columns.

The whole effect takes the Old World and Southern themes that are dominant inside the home and brings them outside as well.

Just beyond the veranda is a custom-made Jacuzzi splashed with colorful Italian tile and a stately lion's head fountain.

"I designed the fountain but my husband had to talk to six different subcontractors to make this happen," she says.

A bamboo tiki bar sits just beyond the Jacuzzi, giving the area a cool island vibe.

In addition to directing the efforts that made his wife's vision for the outside space a reality, Fabian Kristmann also put his own stamp on the area by designing the compass-like table in the pool.

"Between the back yard and the house, I feel like I have a little piece of paradise to myself," says Kristmann, adding that he and his wife chose a lot of the pieces in the house and on the veranda together.

His wife appreciates the design business she has built up over the years, including working on projects like the new Trump World Tower in the United Nations Plaza in New York.

But the designer, who sketches out her designs by hand before having them drafted on a computer, feels that her biggest accomplishment has been making sure the Kristmann home reflects each member's personality and interests.

"My home is like my sketch pad come to life. That's why I get a little excited every time I return here and walk through the door," she says.