Meandering along nearly three acres of richly landscaped lakefront is a 12,000-square-foot mansion by the name of Mediterra. The elaborate mansion—a fully furnished spec home in Delray Beach’s Stone Creek Ranch—is designed to replicate an authentic Italian piazza.

The sweeping barrel-vaulted Venetian plaster ceiling in the dining room is hand-stenciled with Italianate patterns that reflect those of the chair fabric. (Click image to enlarge)

Builder Steve Charlse of Charlse-Watt Estate Homes in Boca Raton, Fla., blessed the mansion with every royal treatment with the help of his design team, including 18,000 square feet of outdoor living space. “From the perspective of what we’re going to put into a home, we know that a $10.8 million buyer expects the finest,” says Charlse, who, with his Naples-based partner Steven Watt, builds more than 20 lavish Florida homes annually. Charlse worked in concert with architect Randall Stofft of Randall Stofft Architects in Delray Beach and project designer Jennifer Clark of the Decorators Unlimited in Palm Beach Gardens.

When it came to incorporating technology into the home, Charlse selected a system that was “very complete but could be expanded if the client chose that direction,” he says. Everything—from the Lutron lighting system to climate control, security, pool temperature, and the audiovisual system—is controlled like magic from the user-friendly Crestron touchscreens.

The adjoining living room, shown top, also bears an elaborate ceiling treatment and an extraordinary height of 22 feet. (Click image to enlarge)

As a result, Mediterra boasts the best of today’s integrated technology, which is discreetly blended into the home’s rich decor and architectural detailing. For example, consider the paneled cherry wood library, the dining room with a converging barrel-vaulted ceiling, the sun-kissed family room that steps up to a billiards room, or the lavishly appointed home theater, which serves as the heart of the house.

“We decided to put the theater in the family zone rather than the master library zone [because] it’s the heartbeat of the house,” Stofft says. “The theater works extremely well adjacent to those spaces.”An added benefit of this configuration is the room’s step-up elevation—a mini stadium-seating environment. While this layout offers the drama that’s usually found only in professional theaters, Charlse opted for this extra little luxury.

In the family room, the devil is in the details, including the hand-scraped hickory latticework of the flooring. Like elsewhere in the house, the high ceiling is topped with hand stenciling. The media room can be accessed through a secret door concealed within the custom mahogany built-in that anchors the billiards room. (Click image to enlarge)

Project designer Jennifer Clark balanced elegance with comfort, basing the screening room’s appeal on a rich color scheme of gold and deep red. Millwork in a gleaming cherry finish complements the palette. A layered cove ceiling elevates the elegance with faux-painted red leather and crushed velvet iridescent fabric. While concealed lighting imparts a warm glow, the carved panel moldings below blend with antiqued gold pilasters, each punctuated by a delicate sconce that flaunts a flirty-fringed silk shade. Walls are bathed in bronze silk tufted fabric from Robert Allen/Beacon Hill, while crushed velvet drapes conceal the 106-inch Stewart screen. A drop-down SIM2 projector retracts into the ceiling via a panel of custom moldings.

Clark made a gutsy move by choosing to prominently expose the equipment rack near the front of the room. A hall closet accommodates behind-the-scene electronics. “I was told that a lot of male clients like to admire their audiovisual equipment,” she says.

Clark placed ottomans and oversized Marge Carson theater seats—“chairs and a half” as she calls them—in the front row. The Cashmina-Cayenne upholstery fabric from Robert Allen is echoed in the back row’s custom sectional, which is accented by Kirk Brummel’s patterned St. Thomas-Cayenne fabric.

Nearby, a carved wrought iron lamp table with a green marble inlay by Maitland-Smith imparts a tasteful contrast. “My clients prefer an informal, comfortable seating arrangement over theater seats,” Clark says. “This [arrangement] is better for conversation and snuggling.”

Custom installer Michael Squitiro joined the design team when the site was just a dirt pile. Squitiro, one of three owners of Media Systems South Florida, says the approach to the technology was straightforward. “This caliber of home should have one-touch access to everything electronic––lighting, security, audio, video, you name it,” he says. Thus, the foremost goal was to create a system that is a no-brainer to operate and can be expanded upon with ease. “We’ve got 80 percent of it covered for whoever moves into the house,” Squitiro says. Crestron’s Ultimate Control Package is the brain of the system.

The den is awash in a glowing cherry wood as well as mahogany, which frames the circular desk that is topped with a hand-tooled leather inlay. A Turkish area rug and velvet draperies with a tapestry valence and bullion fringe add depth and texture. (Click image to enlarge)

Among the major elements that add to the audio magic are a Lexicon surround-sound processor, a Rane four-channel equalizer, Genelec powered loudspeakers, and B&W surround speakers. “Between the furnishings and the building of the room, this is all world-class,” Squitiro says.

World-class is a recurring theme throughout the home. The dining room, with its converging barrel-vaulted ceiling, could easily have been plucked from a 1920s Palm Beach mansion, which happened to be Clark’s inspiration for the design.

Tomlinson Furniture’s hand-carved host chairs in a saffron-colored Kalagh weave fabric are joined by hostess chairs covered in a cognac-colored upholstery by Lee Jofa. This seating arrangement flanks Henredon’s Grand Provenance Louis XVI French Regency table, which is crowned by an Originals 22 chandelier. The foundation of the design is Amarillo Parador marble from Spain.Lending an old Palm Beach flavor to the family room is the faux-painted pecky cypress finish. Squares of Amarillo Parador marble flooring are framed with hand-scraped hickory, while the black background of a Pakistan Oushak rug is dotted with hues of gold and burgundy. To contrast, Aston Garrett’s woven rattan and leather chairs feature a colorful pomegranate and bone fabric by Decorators Walk.

I was thrilled to be a part of such a fabulous home as this. I wanted to give it the feel of old-world grandeur, yet keep it warm and inviting at the same time. —Jennifer Clark, interior designer (Click image to enlarge)

The adjacent billiards room hosts a custom-designed mahogany bar and an Olhassen Louis XIV Heritage carved-oak billiards table. In the living room, graced by 22-foot-tall Venetian plaster ceilings, an 8-by-9-foot mantel subdues the scale. Gold-leafed and antique-glazed moldings counterpoint the softness of the burgundy velvet drapes.

In the lustrous cherry library, complete with cherry flooring, the diamond patterned ceiling sets the tone for a gentleman’s retreat. Leather seating, a light mahogany desk with a Sienna leather top, and a painting of an old-world harbor by Paul Robinson reconfirm the room’s masculine theme. But while every room exudes grand elegance, the home theater stands out for one reason. “It’s as close to actually being there as you’re going to get,” Squitiro asserts.