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"View Slideshow\n\nThe couple had planned to hire a professional boat designer for the interior of their new one- hundred-and-twenty-foot yacht. But at the time, Juan Montoya was busy converting seven apartments into one 6,000-square-foot space for them on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. \"They casually mentioned that they were doing this boat,\" he recalls, \"and asked if I would be interested. Obviously, I wanted to do my own thing, so my ideas were very different from what a yacht specialist would do.\"\n\nConstruction of the Lady Elizabeth was about to begin in Viareggio, Italy, but even when it was in that infant stage, Montoya saw the boat as a home, and the concept he proposed for its interior reflected that. \"I use Lalique, for example, as an element throughout. I designed most of the cabinetry. I selected fabrics that aren't usually used on boats.\"\n\nOn land, the couple's taste runs to the sleek, the comfortable and the well detailed. Yet this was not their first boat, and they had learned from their mistakes. \"They knew what they didn't want,\" says Montoya, \"and understood what works for them.\" A boat this size generally has four cabins, to accommodate eight guests. The owners, however, preferred to have fewer guests and more gracious cabins, so Montoya gave them three suites with queen-size beds.\n\n\"Of course we needed objects that could be secured to the surfaces,\" adds Montoya. \"They didn't want too many superfluous elements either. Everything had to be accessible and uncomplicated.\"\n\nUncomplicated did not mean the typical nautical d\u00E9cor of white canvas and blue pillows. The couple entertain regularly on board, and although comfort was essential, Montoya thought the fabrics in the main saloon should be rich in texture and color. The silk-and-cotton stripe\u2014selected from local vendors in Viareggio\u2014on the streamlined banquettes caters to both objectives. A feeling of luxury is also captured in the sensuous curves of the low table and bar. \"I wanted the shape of the table to be soft enough so that if you bumped into it, you wouldn't get hurt, but I designed it in the shape of a boat. The top references a deck with brass railings.\" Though Montoya never tries to re-create a specific period in his work, the bar is evocative of the Art D\u00E9co style. The leather stools, also Montoya originals, are antiqued hand-dyed cowhide. The custom-made pieces echo the curved ceiling. The light fixtures are from the sixties and seventies.\n\nThe dining room is a continuation of the main saloon in terms of wood selection. The clients were attracted to a sample of mahogany but were afraid it would be too dark. Montoya assured them that his design would, in fact, make everything lighter. \"The wood adds warmth and gives the space a cozy feeling.\"\n\nHe chose decorative items that would never fall or rock. Reflected in the recessed mirror is a crystal mask by Lalique that the owners had long admired and wanted to use. The dining table has insets of blue marble. \"Juan saw the marble at a stone yard in Italy, and I fell in love with it,\" says the wife, \"so I asked him what I could do with it. I would never have conceived of it as inlays for the dining table.\" The same holds true for the fabric on the dining chairs. \"I wear sweaters that are made out of this fabric, but who knew you could put it on a chair?\" she says. The sconces are Art D\u00E9co. Again, the room conjures up that era, yet Montoya avoids mere period re-creation. \"It's always difficult to find a balance between Art D\u00E9co and modern,\" says the designer. \"It's easy to make a boat look too retro. You want it to be contemporary but not too theme-oriented.\"\n\nThe three cabins are large by boating standards, but Montoya still had to solve a classic yachting problem: how to create an illusion of spacious and luxurious accommodation within an ungenerously sized space. To give the rooms a sense of height, he upholstered the walls behind the beds in the same cotton fabric he used for the headboards, bed- coverings and banquettes.\n\nHe also departed from traditional boat d\u00E9cor by lining the ceilings in off-white Ultrasuede, which, combined with beige carpets and blue-and-white fabrics, expands the rooms visually. In spite of the limited space, dressing tables, with soft, rounded edges, were installed.\n\n\"The hardest part of designing this boat was finding a way to have elegance and beauty as well as function,\" says the wife. The master bath is as impressive as one found in a four-star hotel. Montoya divided the space to create his-and-her quarters and then connected them with a shared shower. All the surfaces are done in Macaba marble from Brazil. Imaginative touches also find their way into unexpected places. In the case of the stairway leading from the main saloon on the upper deck to the lower cabin level, Montoya could easily have put in a handrail in the same wood used throughout the yacht. Instead, he joined four Lalique door handles that extend from the floor to the ceiling and illuminated them from within. \"I wanted to add drama to this tight space,\" he explains. \"You always see a railing in wood, so I thought, Why not Lalique?\"\n\n\"It's easy to fall into so many traditional things on a boat, and Juan stopped me from doing that,\" says the wife. \"Our previous boat wasn't customized to this extent, and it wasn't as big. There were so many details to consider, it would have been overwhelming for us to do it on our own.\"\n\nMontoya had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of his labor when the couple invited him to join them for a seven-day cruise off the Italian coast. With the exception of the four barstools that he insisted his clients have instead of the three that they assured him would be better, it was smooth sailing.\n\nThe Lady Elizabeth was Juan Montoya's maiden voyage as a boat designer. It will not, he hopes, be his last. For the moment, however, he's testing his talent for innovative ways to marry form and function in another design\u2014this time for an entire town."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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