A Mid-Century Modern Home With a Flair for Drama

A designer adds layers of personal style — including rich color — to his own Orlando home.

Personal Point of View

Over the years, interior designer Marc Thee has designed hundreds of homes — and a handful of yachts — for clients, all with his trademark luxe look. But none afforded him the freedom to express his precise personal style until he transformed a circa-1960 modern home for himself. “This house couldn’t be a better representative of what my inner voice told me about color, aesthetic and feeling — how to combine materials to make you feel a certain way,” he says.

Curb Appeal

Most of the home’s stucco exterior is painted Alabaster SW 7008 (255-C2). “It feels crisp, it feels fresh, it feels white — but it doesn’t feel stark at all,” Thee says. “I’m not going to call it a warm white, but there is a rich depth to it.” Bold color — Urbane Bronze SW 7048 (245-C7) around the entry and Naval SW 6244 (253-C6) for the loggia — breaks up the expanse. “Colors like these that are dark but used in small moments are really wonderful,” he says.

Quartzite-covered walls pair dramatically with a guest bedroom’s Naval-painted cove ceiling.

Emotional Connection

Thee designed spaces to convey slightly different messages. “When you walk into each room, I want there to be a little bit of a different emotional tug, and paint does that so well,” he says. Walls in the living room, dining room and kitchen are painted Agreeable Gray SW 7029 (243-C1) but get darker and moodier in the bedrooms, including a guest suite with a ceiling painted Naval, the same color as the loggia.

The 1960 home, which interior designer Marc Thee purchased from the original owner, maintains its vintage look.

Getting Noticed

Every color contributes to the overall aesthetic in an important way. “The colors I used are incredibly committed, right down to the Alabaster and Agreeable Gray,” Thee says. “Those are the lightest tones, but they’re noticeable. I didn’t want to end up with an interior that was in any way murky or dusty. I wanted strength and crispness everywhere you look — a unified backdrop that allowed me to build my layers on top of it.”