Betsy Wentz Interior Design Featured in Traditional Home Spring 2026

We are in Traditional Home Spring 2026!

Dunbar is a Mediterranean Revival new build in South Florida — crisp stucco exterior, terracotta-tiled roof, expansive windows, wooden beams. But more than that, it's a 20-year story.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT

These are longtime clients. We’ve worked together for many years — from updating a room, to a total renovation, to new builds.

When they decided to build in Palm Beach, our clients brought in architect Tom Kirchhoff and me. Tom and I had done Kips Bay Palm Beach 2020 together — so reuniting for a full ground-up home felt natural. As Traditional Home wrote, winning combinations are worth repeating.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL

This was a true collaboration of clients who have become good friends. They trust and respect my talent, and I trust how they live.

The brief: design a home for a couple to entertain and host guests, but also to relax, cook, and garden every day. Not a formal show house. A real house where indoor-outdoor flow matters.

It's always a pleasure to work with these clients, and to have an architect like Tom Kirchhoff leading space planning.

THE DESIGN APPROACH — ROOM BY ROOM, COHESIVE WHOLE

We went room by room making sure each space flowed and the whole project was cohesive. That's how you do a new build well.

Mediterranean Revival characterizes Palm Beach. Tom drew inspiration from his experience renovating historic 1920s Mediterranean Revival homes there — but the clients wanted a cleaner, more contemporary version. Traditionally that style can be dark and moody. They wanted light.

So the architects kept the soul — arches, stucco, tile roof — but opened it up. Cleaner lines, higher ceilings, larger windows to garden, lighter wooden beams instead of dark stain.

Inside, our goal was Mediterranean-like feel without leaning into dark, moody tones.

We used Cyprus for warmth, soft palettes — putty, bone, warm white, muted sage — and layers of texture to create sophistication: plaster walls, bleached oak, honed stone, linen, raffia, antique wood.

Public spaces for entertaining — living and dining in neutral tones with luxurious accents that let art and garden be the color. Kitchen planned for how they actually cook, with performance materials that take real cooking. Every main room has expansive windows to the garden — you cook what you grow, you bring guests outside.

Where Kips Bay was wallpapers and maximal pattern, Dunbar is texture stacking instead of pattern stacking. Same layering instinct, quieter palette. Serene and sophisticated coastal retreat, but still unmistakably Palm Beach.

BRINGING IT TO LIFE

The hundreds of details of a new build are always a challenge. Every finish, every beam, every window placement.

What made Dunbar easier: homeowners knew what they wanted and were very detailed. When you have 20 years together, you speak the same language. That makes the hard parts faster.

Thank you to Traditional Home for featuring Dunbar in Spring 2026, to Tom Kirchhoff for brilliant architecture, and to our wonderful longtime clients for trusting us again.

See more of the project: Dunbar

See where this Florida chapter started — Kips Bay Palm Beach 2020 AD PRO