Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Forgot your password?

Lost your password?
We will send you an email with instructions on how you can reset your password.
You will have 10 minutes to reset your password.

Wrong Email!

Back to log-in

Please do not change this field

Error message here!

Error message here!

Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Close
Boca Chanel

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty visits an inspired house on the Boca Raton Riviera, Florida and receives a lesson in style.

The closets seem particularly important at 299 NE Spanish Trail, Boca Raton, Florida. Now this may seem strange when there are so many other features to thrill at this sumptuous and stylish palais sur la mer. They are all described very well indeed by Premier Estate Properties online, on video or in their excellent brochure. Yet it is still hard to convey this special interior. It has something of a Parisian grand salon about it. So grand that residents may feel the need to dress accordingly – hence the closets. The reception rooms look perfect for a grand soiree. The spiral staircase with its ornate ironwork suggests Art Nouveau Paris. One could half imagine Coco Chanel sitting elegantly on a step casting a critical eye over what the guests are wearing.

Boca Raton is a smart place for smart people – the sort of people who might wear Chanel. They are fortunate. The label is available at Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue in Boca Raton, and of course at the Chanel boutique in Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, just up the coast a bit.

French, Italian and even Moorish – it is difficult to pin down the exact style of this house. That is because it has its own style. Themes have been drawn from various sources. But there is great merit in that. Coco herself did the same with her couture.

But if the house is Little Black Dress territory in the evening then the days are perfect for that blue and white striped Breton shirt and wide bottomed trousers, especially by the pool, the waterside loggia or a highly varnished classic yacht, were it to occupy the deep-water dock.

Back to those closets: in the privacy of the upper floors the chambre privée is a haven of quiet grandeur and romance, a place of sophisticated retreat and toilette. Yes, Coco should have liked this house. She wouldn’t just have been close to her stores, she would have liked the luxury – as she once said, “Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

299 NE Spanish Trail may not be exactly Coco Chanel but it certainly is Boca Chanel.