Functional Luxury
How the Makeover of a Well-known 1963 Home Epitomizes the Mission of a Growing Local Renovations Company
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY R. NICKSON INTERIORS
It’s fun to create narratives of what’s behind the walls of a distinguishable house that you pass by regularly, especially when it has been vacant for years.
So for Nicole Roe, owner and lead designer of R. Nickson Interiors, it’s a privilege and pleasure to not only bring her expertise to a home renovation that captures a client’s unique personality but to take locals inside spaces that are both beautiful and functional.
“...we brought in a maple floor that is a very clean floor, and it allowed all of the other wood details to kind of star instead of competing.”
One project, which her team lovingly calls “Courtyard Vibes,” is a great example of how her team can create cohesive designs throughout a home that play into a client’s design preferences and daily lifestyle.
In this 5,067 square foot 1963 home that you can see from Edgewood Dr., R. Nickson Interiors had a distinctive and somewhat atypical palate to work with from the day they walked onto the job site.
The courtyard style home wraps around a pool deck that is featured at the center of the property, meaning each wing of the home can serve its own purpose yet be connected by design elements. One of the challenges that came with this project that took nearly eight months to complete is that Roe’s company was called upon to join a project that was already well underway.
“The demolition had been completed, and the clients had started making design decisions,” says Roe, who started her company under the name Nicole Roe Design in 2019. “However, they quickly realized they needed someone with the creativity to make the space truly exceptional and the experience to execute it well.”
That may have frazzled some in Nicole’s shoes. But one of the distinctions that has aided her on her journey to building one of Central Florida’s most esteemed residential and commercial interior renovation companies is the fact she graduated with a construction degree from Georgia Tech University and began her career in business development and marketing for construction companies.
She jumped in with her trademark combination of listening keenly to her client and also providing a bold vision for an entire project within an allotted budget that doesn’t get stuck on individual elements.
As Roe puts it, her team helps people understand there are elements of a home that simply “aren’t going to be the star,” and convinces them that’s perfectly fine.
“For this home, one of those elements was the flooring. When [the buyers] came in, originally they had been looking at European white oak because that’s what everybody’s doing,” Roe recalls. “But that home had gorgeous woodwork…so we brought in a maple floor that is a very clean floor, and it allowed all of the other wood details to kind of star instead of competing.”
Not surprisingly, Roe and her team can go deep into color theory, the reasoning behind choosing one home furnishing over another, etc.
In this case, she said a standout feature of the project was the layering of moody colors, wallpapers and fabrics.
“In the front den we used Eskayel wallpaper printed on grass cloth above the original wood moldings, while a similar tone silk wallpaper was applied to the entry ceiling,” she says. “The powder bathroom features a deep plum wallpaper paired with an amber hand-blown sconce and a burl countertop, adding a rich and unique touch.”
Just as important to these homeowners as the aesthetics was creating a home where their teenagers would want to invite their friends to hang out during some of their most formative years.
R. Nickson Interiors enjoyed designing a game room that could easily host a dozen or more teens playing games, watching football and chowing down on food, with easy access to the swimming pool in the courtyard.
Being hospitable to guests was a recurring theme of the home, evident by the massive island in the kitchen that has seating on three sides. Still, there are little pockets and corners of the home to slip away to read a book, catch up on work or simply be still.
This project is a great example of the functional luxury R. Nickson Interiors aims to produce in every project it takes on. That means creating spaces that look phenomenal and also enhance your everyday life.
Nicole refuses to stick to a “set style” that guides her company’s work, instead leaning into an individual or family’s personality and interests as a catalyst for putting a one-of-a-kind plan in place for their home or business.
“I don’t wanna rinse and repeat with everybody—I design for you. I want it to be so you and your family that when [someone] walks in they can feel and sense that it’s you.”
One of the challenges, no matter a client’s budget, is that the cost of high quality furnishings and goods continues to rise. Nicole’s team helps people navigate that by agreeing on the “level” of products they would like to see implemented into a renovation so a realistic scope can be defined within a given budget.
“I don’t wanna rinse and repeat with everybody—I design for you. I want it to be so you and your family that when [someone] walks in they can feel and sense that it’s you.”
R. Nickson Interiors, which has an office and warehouse in Lakeland, in part so it can store special order furniture and furnishings while a renovation is completed, continues to take its reputation and brand to new heights. The company has been featured in a variety of publications, including the iconic Architectural Digest, and Nicole frequently shares her expertise and passion for design on blogs and podcasts that have national audiences.
As her company grows, she is set on staying tight knit, especially when it comes to utilizing only the finest, most trustworthy local contractors who match her standard of excellence.
“We’ve developed our team of trades. We don’t bid out things, and we tell our clients, ‘We’ve done enough projects that we know where [our budget] should fall and what’s fair,’” Nicole says. “We have guys that are just really, really good at the renovations and troubleshooting and making stuff work and coming up with solutions.”
Efficiency and great business relationships are a necessity for the budding entrepreneur to be able to effectively manage her other roles, which include being the wife of Geoff, who also earned a degree in building construction, and being a mother to four growing boys.
The R. Nickson Interiors team came into the renovation project for this 1963 Lakeland home after most of the demolition was complete and helped guide it to a successful completion.
She has her sights set on one day having a larger warehouse, expanding her company’s footprint outside of Florida and continuing to help Polk County residents understand they don’t have to venture beyond the county lines to get top tier quality and customer service.
“We want to just keep building spaces and designing spaces that are so personal to people, [and do it] unapologetically,” she says. “I think we are so programmed to kind of have a space like our neighbors or a space like we see on the internet, but want people to know it’s OK to have a space of their own that is renovated for them.”
