Architecture | Interiors | Planning
PORTHOLE: SERENITY BY THE SEA 
by Sharon Jaffe Dan
Photography by Richard Leo Johnson
The owners of this Italian-style home in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina can survey the changing tides on the beach from the privacy of their own soaking tub. Their master bathroom is undeniably opulent, with its vintage Murano glass chandelier and marble floor and tub surround. But it's the fine workmanship and attention to detail that really set it apart, according to architect Rick Clanton of Hilton Head's Group 3, who designed this home and four others in the oceanfront enclave called Stella del Mare.
Custom crown molding encircles the oval-domed ceiling and Fortuny silk was painstakingly applied to the 12-inch thick walls. "If in Italy they had built bathrooms with really nice materials 300 years ago, I like to think they would have built something like this," he says. "We really tried to do things the way they used to be done."
