39th annual Longboat Key Garden Club Home Tour: Ivy league

The Smith home, 5341 Gulf of Mexico Drive

Enter the Mediterranean-style home of Adrian and Nancy Smith, and you’ll forget you’re in Florida. The three-building property sits on one acre with 100 feet of Gulf front and unobstructed views of the water.

The home was originally developed in 1963, and additions and remodels were completed in the early 1980s and 1990s. The Smiths bought the compound three years ago and have since updated much of the property.

“We were in Los Cabos, and my husband was looking up real estate in the area,” Nancy Smith said. “He called up Maureen Horn, and he went looking at places on Longboat Key, and we found this.”

The property has seven bedrooms total — four in the main house, two in the beachfront cottage and one in the carriage house. The buildings stand out for their ivy-covered walls, 56 French doors and robin’s egg blue shutters on each window.

The outdoor area includes a wide, grassy backyard with a pathway that leads to the Gulf and a heated pool with an electronic cover in between the main house and carriage house.

“I like this house because we lived in France for three years,” Nancy Smith said. “This has a definite flavor of France.”

—Kristen Herhold