BLUEPRINT

The inspiration board Jaime Blomquist created before starting the remodeling of the Venetian Isles’ clubhouse.

The benefit of living in a gated community is the opportunity to have privacy with your single-family home or villa, but being able to take advantage of its communal amenities.

For many of SoFlo’s gated communities, the most important amenity is the clubhouse. And for the past three years, Interior Architect Jaime Blomquist has been working on the renovation of Venetian Isles’ clubhouse.

Venetian Isles is an age 55+ gated community located in West Boynton Beach. The community includes over 1,000 homes nestled within six distinct neighborhoods. And at the center of its active lifestyle is its clubhouse.

The goal was to create a clubhouse that made better use of its 24,000-square-foot interior and offer a more extensive array of amenities. The project required renovating the theater with a larger footprint; expanding the poker and card room to hold more players; redesigning the ballroom and library; and adding a full-service restaurant. And all of this had to be done without altering the building’s exterior architecture.

When thinking about the clubhouse’s interior design, Blomquist wanted to create a space that gave the residents the feeling that when they leave their homes, they are going somewhere special.

“To me the clubhouse must be grander and more luxurious,” she said. “So, I played it up a bit by adding a little funk with such things as crocodile-imprinted vinyl for the barstools.”

But when it comes to designing a commercial space, Blomquist explained that there are many elements that need to be specifically considered, especially when it comes to material selections.

“Choosing commercial materials are very different than when making choices for a residential project because everything must meet specific standards and codes. For instance, the flooring must have an ADA slip coefficient and the wallpaper and foam used in furniture must be fire rated,” said Blomquist. “I also use wallpaper much more in commercial projects because it can make a space feel very contemporary, even a little edgy.”

Blomquist also pointed out that in commercial spaces it is very common to use wallpaper even with a design where walls are suppose to look like dry wall because it is more durable than blank walls.

Computer renderings of Blomquist’s ideas for the renovation of the Venetian Isles’ clubhouse.

And when it comes to public spaces, it is important to invest in higher quality wallpaper products because, as Blomquist explained, it protects the walls while giving a luxurious feel and making a stylish statement.

Blomquist also loves using lighting to enhance a space’s design style.

“Light fixtures are like jewelry. You can be wearing a simple neutral-colored dress, but when you put on a great pair of earrings, it really makes the outfit,” she said. “To me lighting finishes a room’s look. I probably spend more time finding lighting than other furnishings.”

Another important aspect of the clubhouse’s design that Blomquist had to consider is the layout of the seating areas.

“Before the renovation, the clubhouse had several segregated seating areas, but I wanted to create one large area with big and inviting sofas that encourage people to interact,” she said.

The clubhouse’s custom-made furniture, including the sofas, were specifically designed to play with dimension and height.

“I believe the foundation of design is scale. But for this project, I also had to think about the ergonomics so the residents would be able to easily get up,” she said. “I am keenly aware of the important scale of furniture for humans but in this case it also had to be proportionate to the space’s 30-foot ceilings.”

Another aspect of the clubhouse project required was specific knowledge of ADA requirements and materials wear-and-tear.

“For the bathroom, I picked darker hues of gray for the flooring as I knew it would wear better. I did the walls in Calcutta porcelain with gold veining to create a cohesiveness with the lobby,” said Blomquist. “For the partitions between the toilet stalls, I used a laminate with a wood grain texture and elevated the doors off the ground to allow the air to circulate.”

Like the lobby, Blomquist used neutral colors for the bathrooms’ built-in items.

“I believe you can create interiors that are timeless if use a foundation of neutral colors. And then when design styles change you can easily update the space with new and/or reupholstered furniture,” she said. “For instance, Calcutta marble has been used since the dawn of time. It is a classic and never goes out of style.”