ICONIC Evolution

Walking from The Colony’s playful pink lobby, with its pagoda-framed fireplace and bespoke de Gournay wallpaper of cavorting monkeys and bejeweled panthers, it’s just a few steps to cross Hammon Avenue, the hotel’s home since 1947. There, tucked in a hedge, an unassuming gate leads to a shaded path and the pecky cypress front door of Villa Jasmine. But it feels miles away from the posh Palm Beach “Pink Paradise” hotel you’ve just left.

That’s by design. When Sarah Wetenhall, president and CEO of The Colony, wanted to reimagine the seven apartment-style “villas” located in the hotel’s historic Casa Mañana founders’ residence, she envisioned spaces that felt just as welcoming as the main building, but differed from its fanciful aesthetic.

For the Aerin Villa Jasmine, a 2,200-square-foot ground floor apartment, that meant partnering with another of Palm Beach’s power players: Aerin Lauder, the granddaughter of cosmetics