Architect William Thorning Little, known for historically accurate Med Rev designs, seamlessly integrated old and new in the expanded 6,650-square-foot Hudson Bayou home, winning the approval of his clients as well as Sarasota’s Historic Preservation Board. In the new east wing, he added a master suite, nursery and laundry room above a sprawling main floor family room, wine cellar and fully equipped bar.

From the start, the Portanovas, who met while attending the University of Florida less than 10 years ago, immersed themselves in the house. “They could have torn down the house and built four waterfront estates on that property,” their architect says. Instead, the Portanovas created a vibrant family home that could inspire more young couples to preserve Sarasota’s architectural heritage.

“Old houses need young families,” Barbara Portanova declares, and there’s no mistaking her conviction. She enumerates myriad reasons, the same arguments that eventually won Zeb over to the historic home camp. The architectural details are timeless, imbued with character that’s impossible to replicate today. A magical sense of déjà vu pervades the home, yet the décor coaxes you back to the present—alluringly comfortable and alive.

“We wanted a forever-estate quality, but with a fresh bump to the antique look,” says the Portanovas’ interior designer, Kurt Lucas, of JKL Design. It’s a style Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn have perfected, he says, explaining that the stores are masters at using historic designs and colors in young, dynamic ways. Here, the look is Lucas’ custom creation, tailored specifically to his dynamic young clients: Barbara is a former TV news anchor, and Zeb a partner in the Proscenium development project in downtown Sarasota.

Lucas painted the living room walls a historic pale blue and mirrored the tone in vintage modern Barbara Barry-style corner chairs. He chose cotton sateen for draperies because it is soft and flowing. “It’s like young skin, always supple and fresh,” he explains. “The rods used for the window treatments give them history, but the fabric gives them youth.” Wrought iron is repeated in lighting fixtures everywhere, recalling the Med Rev theme, and vintage rugs include a silk Persian that once graced Zeb’s mother’s home.

Antique architectural elements are at once stylish and brimming with character. The 19th-century Egyptian doors that lead from the entry hall to the new family room wing were found at Sarasota Architectural Salvage. A powder-room sink has been crafted from an old Roman marble slab bearing a Latin inscription, which translates to “in ruins, the antiques live on,” Barbara explains. Upstairs, a fanciful Moroccan door from Just Morocco in Dunedin leads to a room someday earmarked as a children’s playroom.

Barbara purchased antique encaustic tiles for the entry hall’s staircase from L’Antiquario of Miami (she found them online). The tile pattern, in blue, brown, cream and white, determined the home’s color scheme. There’s a sophisticated mix of brown, blue and cream cabinetry in the kitchen, along with cream-toned marble and tile in every bath, while billowy beige curtains frame dark-stained windows covering three walls of the soft-blue master bedroom.

“The color scheme is very important,” says Lucas. “Everything blends across the whole floor plan and magnetizes you. When you stand in one room, color should pull you to another.” It does. But the interior design is meant to enhance, never overpower, the home’s incredible architecture, both original and new. “Thorning gave us a great structure to work with,” Lucas says.

After more than 15 years of studying Mediterranean architecture, Little says he’s still on a learning curve compared to any fourth-generation Italian craftsman. “People in Europe have been working in the vernacular for thousands of years,” he explains. “I’ve done a great deal of research trying to be authentic and not breakfast-table contrived.”

His research included a trip to Granada, where a bed and breakfast’s dining room ceiling inspired an adaptation in the Portanovas’ kitchen. The brick barrel-vaulted ceiling is not just decorative, Little says: “It’s doing a job, actually creating a support for the home.” The Portanovas also wanted a groin added somewhere in the house, and Little complied with one in the breakfast nook. “There’s a wonderful mathematics to groin vaults; you have two barrel vaults intersecting to create a cross,” he explains.

His design for the kitchen, executed by the project’s contractor, Murray Homes, blends old and new harmoniously. Recessed star lights sparkle from the ceiling; a Sub-Zero fridge, six-burner Viking range with grill and double oven, and Fischer Peykel dishwasher are state of the art.