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What is truly memorable about a master bath, or—for that matter—an
entire stateroom?
Often it’s that finely detailed gold faucet in the form of a
swan or dolphin set between crystal knobs, is it not? A perfunctory though
exquisite fixture such as this creates a special aura that focuses one’s
attention, delighting the heart as well as the hands that cup the water flowing
out of it.
Top: A Christian Grande minimalist bath. Photograph courtesy of Christian Grande & Partners/Sessa
Marine. Bottom: Bling, Andrew Winch-style, is faux-crocodile door handles. (Click images to enlarge)
The challenge facing designers when it comes to installing this
kind of "yacht jewelry" is not affording the gold—their clients have the means.
The challenge is to do the gold without the gaudy. Designers are our editors
when it comes to yacht interiors, helping us decide what to leave in and what to
leave out. They’re the ones who try to make sense of the daunting vocabulary of
faucets, levers, escutcheons, drawer pulls, hinges, keyhole covers, robe hooks,
soap grabs, towel bars and myriad architectural details. It’s these details that
can mean the difference between memorable and just OK.
And in the course of this process, no designer worth his or her
platinum-plated sconces would encourage a client to plate everything in gold,
just certain strategic items and conceivably nothing at all. This exercise
of editorial restraint especially holds true in our twenty-first century
modern moment. Ornamental doodads devoid of function are enemy No. 1.
How, then, to add visual interest—"bling"—while at the same
time remaining as simple and elegant as the sweeping lines of the hull itself?
How, in epic terms, are our most able designers managing to navigate between the
twin sea monsters of style: the Scylla of Super-Minimal Starkness and the
Charybdis of so much Pretentious Clutter? We checked out various design projects
in progress to find out and came across three basic approaches to evading these
beasts when it comes to using yacht jewelry: Baroque, minimalist and
transitional.
Let’s start with Baroque. Baroque? Isn’t Baroque synonymous
with too much stuff? Talk about clutter, talk about gold-plating everything in
sight. Actually, upon closer examination, Baroque is compellingly logical when
done well. Consider Rubens, and all those fat babies massing around the Virgin
Mary, surrounding her with magnificent, focused energy. Granted there’s a lot
going on, but it is hardly random or chaotic.
Katalin Bard refitted the 116-foot Benetti Quivira with an element
of yacht jewelry by selecting several prominent fabrics woven with gold. Photography by Bard Design Group Inc. (Click images to enlarge)
Katalin Bard, a Hungarian-born yacht designer based in
Hollywood, Florida, refitted the 116-foot Quivira, a tri-deck
built by Benetti, in a fine, contemporary mode. Bard is now involved in a
project in its preliminary stages; something quite different from Quivira.
Her new project is an unabashedly Baroque, gold-leaf yacht interior filled
with jewel-encrusted hardware that Bard has dubbed the "Shimmering Splendor."
The reason its over-the-topness works is the sense of order and restraint Bard
brings to the scheme. There’s a general paring down of the color palette to just
beige and silver with a few purple accents here and there in honor of the
amethyst slabs in the head.
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