On one wall is Sarasota artist Virginia Hoffman's 6 x 16-foot sculptural construction, which is itself a wall. It appears to be metal but is actually wood treated with a custom metallic paint made from industrial polyurethane powders. "At the housewarming party, people kept going over to the artwork and tapping it because they could not believe it was not metal," says Holladay.

Hoffman notes that each of the three panels weighs about 50 pounds. "If we had used metal, each panel would have come in at 300 pounds and we could not have achieved the subtle, soft qualities that we got with wood," she says.

On the other side of the room, a cherry wall behind the sofa conceals the staircase. The architect devised the wall to ground the furniture in the space and rein in the volume, making the room intimate as well as grand. The cherry wall measures 17 feet tall and 20 feet wide. Varying sized square windows have been cut into the wall. These niches allow natural light to flow through and provide pleasant views of other areas of the home, visually connecting the spaces inside and out. Some of the windows are small and set at a child's height for grandchildren going up or down the stairs.

"All the spaces in the house have a direct relationship to the great room," explains the architect. "The windows in the cherry wall were one more way to maintain that relationship and also to maximize light in the stairwell. One of the tricky considerations was equalizing and balancing the light inside and out. We didn't want glare or harsh light. So a lot of attention was paid to where light was coming from and how much light we wanted to admit. The walls of glass are on the east, or water side. On the west-the street side-the windows are deeply buried. That also means that Luci doesn't need a lot of window treatment for privacy."

More artistic touches are seen on the ceilings and walls in the master bedroom suite and bath. Painter Larry Andersen created original textural patterns in soft swirling blues and greens that mirror the world beneath the surface of the bay-the same bay that provided the inspiration for the home and furnishings and for the way of life that Luci Gorski and her family have come to cherish. "We were looking for a house that was unique but in keeping with the surrounding community," Gorski summarizes. "We wanted an elegant home that would also feel casual. We wanted to feel connected to the environment, enjoy views of the water and be able to entertain with ease. We had a wish list pages long, and it all came to fruition."