Key West, Florida
Undeniably adorable, Key West Wabi Sabi vacation rental is a celebration of authentic Key West cottage style island living. Built in 1930, the front of the historic wooden plank house is held to vintage form with loads of original details, complete with welcoming front porch and saw-tooth tin roof. True to its name, the interior was lovingly redesigned to time-honor its nostalgic charm and simplicity and is beautifully renovated with luxury conveniences and amenities that complement the style. Brand new renovation and complete new interior and exterior design was completed mid-December 2013. Enjoy our architectural photographs of each room and the new back deck plus a detailed floor plan of the interior.
About the Design:
What’s in a name Wabi Sabi is often summarized as “the wisdom of simplicity” and finding the “natural beauty in imperfection. From an aesthetic standpoint, Old Town Key West, full of history nostalgia is an architectural reflection of this notion. It was this concept that inspired the make-over of this precious vintage house.
The owners love the aesthetic of Old Town Key West architecture and wanted to retain the vintage heritage of this house while at the same time making a vacation home that is light, airy, cozy, peaceful and relaxing. Committed to the life concepts of authenticity and sustainability, they traveled to vintage markets in northern California to hand-select a wonderful collection of one-of-a-kind re-purposed furnishings scaled to the size of the home. Period pieces were chosen for their curvy vintage lines and surfaces painted soft pastels and whites. A variety of wooden furniture styles and unique artwork are beautifully blended with unique lighting fixtures to complement one another to create a romantic shabby chic style. A touch of rich reds and bright greens and turquoise add a Key West tropical punch. The end result is a space where you can slow down, take a break from this crazy-mixed -up world, and recharge your batteries - island style.
Interior Layout: Sweet and sensuous, the alluring spaces of this delightful vintage cottage style house speak to the heart. Because it’s a tropical home, the floor plan has been re-worked to focus the main living area toward the back yard so that indoor / outdoor pool-side living is maximized. In this re-design, the front of the house became bedrooms. The living room is now accessed through a side entrance situated on the left side of the house from the private driveway. Step into the entrance hall and you’re faced with a door to your left leading to the living / dining / kitchen area, a stairway straight ahead that leads to the 2nd floor master suite, and a door to your right that leads to the 3rd and 4th bedrooms. Refer to the slide show of the first floor and we will begin our tour of the house at the back main living area.
Living room / dining room / kitchen:
Designed as an open concept great-room with double sets of single pane French doors that lead to the pool and wooden deck, this is the common living area where you will gather to visit, relax and dine together. Thick Mexican tiled floors and soaring open beamed ceiling painted white punctuate the cottage style and create an open spacious feeling. A beautiful hand hewed round white wooden dining table and chairs is set near the doors for garden view dining. A vintage style living room grouping of new sofa, period piece chairs, occasional tables and lamps is set on the wall facing the back deck. A newly renovated cottage-style custom kitchen with all the modern conveniences runs along the entire north wall.
Bedrooms:
The house provides 4 bedrooms, 3 which can be considered ‘master bedrooms’ since they provide full en-suite bathrooms. The 4th bedroom doubles as a den and offers a powder room (1/2 bath) with sink and commode. Refer to our slide show to clarify the layout of the bedrooms as described below.
Bedroom 1 - The 1st bedroom, with en-suite bath, is accessed through a door between the living room and kitchen. This bedroom has the same soaring open beam ceilings as the great-room, and with two sash windows that let in plenty of sunlight it feels airy and spacious. This bedroom is staged with a craftsman built wooden king size platform bed. A hand painted headboard and beautiful 'Beach House' sign perched above the door, combined with a combination of vintage and tropical furnishings create a special welcoming island feel. The full bathroom provides a tub, tiled in-tub shower, and free-standing sink.
Bedroom 2 - Refer to the graphic in our slide show of the 2nd floor to begin our tour of the 2nd bedroom with private en-suite bathroom. Accessed from the wooden interior staircase, this is the only room on the 2nd floor. This room is ½ story, so the front half of the ceiling has a low slant. A non-issue only to be noted, there is plenty of head room to stand up straight and walk around in the rest of the space.
Considered the main master bedroom in the house, a little romance sets the tone for this 2nd floor story-book suite. Distressed wide wood planked floors with custom cut nails, and a little private balcony harken the authentic tone of the room. A queen size wooden plat-form bed painted white is neatly tucked in the dormered sleeping alcove on one side of the room. An adorable 1940’s vanity and re-claimed designer slipper chair with ottoman are set on the other side and curtains matching the peacock pattern chair and ottoman complete the decorator look. The vintage style bathroom, complete with claw-foot bathtub with in-tub shower, is pretty and peaceful.
Bedroom 3 - Located at the front of the house, on the left side as you face it, the 3rd bedroom is accessed from the main side entrance of the house. Designed to be used as a bedroom or a den, this room has received a total renovation by ripping out the old tile floors and ugly ceiling and adding fresh new cottage-style cypress wood planked floors a bead board ceiling. Three sash windows at the side and front of the house are kept in tack to invite in the natural daylight.
This is the smallest of the 3 bedrooms, but it is comfortably furnished with a trundle bed that can be made up as 2 twin beds or a king size bed. A charming vintage wood dresser, end tables and chair complete the dressed-down charming feel. This room provides a pretty cottage style powder room (1/2 bath) complete with an artistic corner vanity with round pottery sink, matching back-splash tiles, and a pretty little stained glass window set over the sink to invite in light from the entrance hall.
Bedroom 4 - Situated at the front of the house, on the right side as you face it, the 4th bedroom can be accessed from 2 entrances. Refer to the floor plan to see how an interior door joins bedroom 3 and 4, so these rooms can be opened to use together or separately. But please note, bedroom 4 is also accessed from the front door of the house, giving it a private entrance from the front porch. This gives the added option of using the front door entrance for bedroom 4 so as not to disturb persons using bedroom 3 for sleeping.
In the re-design, the 4th bedroom received the same cypress wood planked floors bead board ceiling as the adjoining bedroom 3. It also enjoys the same style sash windows, only on the opposite side and front of the house. For furnishings, this bedroom provides a king size bed and fabulous period furniture that includes a hand crafted armoire and dresser. A brand new en-suite bathroom with tiled shower, free-standing sink, commode and a vanity shelf nook was created during the renovation.
Grounds: One of the nicest features of the property is the indoor / outdoor tropical life-style it provides. Double sets of single pane French doors open from the great room to the back wooden deck. Visible from the main living area, the pretty pool with trickling waterfall is large enough to float around and relax, but like most pools in Key West, don’t expect to dive and do laps. The fully fenced deck area provides lounge chairs and an exterior dining chair and tables for poolside snacking.
At the front of the property, the house boasts a whimsical curbside appeal with a saw-tooth tin roof. An irresistible front porch spans the width of the building, with a center door framed by wood shutters and sash hung windows. A Key West signature white picket fence surrounds the front and sides. Simple tropical foliage grows in the small front yard between the fence and the porch. At the left side of the property in the front, is a private off-street parking place for one compact car.
The property was very clean and presented as listed. The location was awesome. The house management was quick to help with two problems we had.
The house is absolutely adorable, and it fit 6 adults (3 couples) comfortably. We had a lot of fun out by the pool. Everything is within walking distance. We parked the car and never used it again until we left. Our biggest complaint would be the tile in the kitchen. lots of broken and loose tiles. (sharp and dangerous) The upstairs room was hot when we first arrived but cooled down and was comfortable sleeping. Our friends that stayed in the room off the kitchen said they could not regulate the water temp in the shower. The couple that stayed in the front rooms only complaint was the delivery trucks at 5am for the grocery store next door. But we knew that when we booked. And the grocery store has everything! even a hot food bar. Beds were comfy, plenty of towels. Pool/patio area was amazing. Key west is hot in August. Would love to come back during a cooler month and open up all the double doors and have a cool breeze flow through. We would love to stay again, Just please fix those tiles!
The location of this property is right in the heart of Key West which makes for an easy walk to nearly all of the great local attractions. The pool was perfect for lounging and cooling off. The property could use some minor upgrades. If you love historic Key West properties, this is for you!
Great place at a great location
We came with friends to enjoy the Rokisland fest and absolutely loved this property and enjoyed having our own pool.. The only thing that I would recommend to change would’ve the couch, it wasn’t very comfortable but the outside area totally makes up for it!! We definitely enjoyed our stay and would stay here again!
This house was wonderful for our group for Mile 0 Fest! Check-in/out was super easy and they provide easy to understand directions. It was the perfect location to access our favorite venues and for the most part was quiet. The front bedroom is loud in the mornings with all the trucks making deliveries to the grocery store as well as garbage trucks and street sweepers. The other bedrooms were quiet and they provide box fans which helps cut out the noise. The backyard was beautiful and cozy! We used the pool 2x for a relaxing soak at the end of the day. My only complaint is the single-ply toilet paper provided. We hope to stay here again!
We had a great time in this comfy rental! Small, but spacious and well done remodel. Our family and friends had privacy and plenty of room to be together, and we felt very at home here. The plunge pool was just great for an evening splash to cool off after a day/night of playing. Location is great to be able to spend time exploring all the fun on Duval, but secluded from the craziness. A short walk to the harbor or southernmost point and everything between. *Of note…there is a great little grocery store just across from the rental, but early morning deliveries are noisy. Don’t put your light sleepers in the front bedroom. Located just around the corner from Clemente’s where we maybe had the best meal of the week!!!
Nice location
It's a good house and a good neighborhood (renters need to be told that loud food delivery trucks are busy ALL DAY and at very EARLY hours that did cause us some issue...but we were still grateful for the store and the convenience) .A good pool (fountain and lights are lovely. the size was tiny, but the photo depicted that well.) Beds were comfortable and the bedding was great on all but one bed. (my sheet had fabric bumps/peeling and stains). Our stay was good as we always make the best of situations, but there are just some odd things about this home. The obvious DIY remodeling with make shift closets, strange space in front bathroom, front door of house on a bedroom, flooring in serious need of repair in bathroom off of kitchen (extra rugs had to be placed to prevent tile cutting guests feet...bad!) NOTE: 3 bathrooms have pretty decorative glass, but allows no privacy to those in the bathroom. I was at the kitchen sink on first day and gasped when i realized i could see straight into the bathroom of my friend's room. The ½ bath has a decorative window right off the main entrance...no privacy. The upstairs bath has filtered glass, but still...no privacy. (we all found it very odd.) Also, the upstairs loft bedroom furnishings had to be totally rearranged so that the foot of the bed wasn't 18 inches from the edge of the stairwell...causing concern for a major trip and fall. My friends who stayed up there also really disliked showering in the antique tub (although cute) as the shower curtain would stick to them and was not practical for its intended purpose. The bathroom rugs in all bathrooms need to be replaced or just removed to use foot towel?bathmat only. The nik naks in living room and kitchen are old, with vases of faded flowers, and to be honest look sad next to the beautiful sofa and pretty decor colors. The round dining table had a sticky surface from the paint breakdown due to repeated cleaning. While this is understandable due to covid and rental use, a glass top or a table cloth provided would have been nice. (we had to use an extra sheet as a table cloth to be able to eat and play games there.) While there were many things that were not expected nor up to VRBO standards, I would still be able to recommend this property for its geographic area and the property management was very good! Cheers to successful future and repairs for nice updates!
Wonderful property! Great location. Key west has so much to do and it's gorgeous. Our friends and I had the time of our life. Suggestion: replace hair dryers.
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