April 3, 2022 By Andrew Sessa Robb Report
Celebrated architects and decorators known for shore-side projects are increasingly taking to the water, where they’re proving they’re anything but “at sea.” Armed with high-profile yacht commissions, these designers are throwing the cookie-cutter layouts and tired aesthetic tropes of typical marine interiors overboard. Instead, they’re employing floorplans that flow more gracefully, luxe furnishings and blue-chip art that would feel at home in the most sophisticated urban pied-à-terre.
The force of this shift could be felt at September’s Monaco Boat Show, where new designers brought an outsider’s eye to the industry. One especially envelope-pushing case in point: Oceanco recently began an initiative to reimagine the super yacht from top to bottom, tapping forward-thinking Dutch interiors studio Tank as well as former Rolls-Royce design lead Giles Taylor to make it happen. While we wait to see, and sail on, what they’ll create, we’ve gathered an elite crew of star decorators, many brand-new to the life aquatic, whose genre-changing work is on the water right now.
Ken Fulk, New York
A consummate showman, Fulk just completed his first yacht interior, a wooden sailing vessel for longtime clients. It combines historic inspiration with whimsical contemporary twists. The ship’s name, Halekai, means “home on the sea” in Hawaiian, which points to the state of mind of both clients and design team. With Honolulu’s Iolani Palace as a jumping-off point, Fulk combined the European and the indigenous, creating such evocative details as carved teak doors and custom marquetry in teak and koa wood and embroidered headboards based on a royal Hawaiian wedding quilt.