On a narrow stretch of land in Duck Key in the Florida Keys, a newly built waterfront home demonstrates what’s possible when outdoor technology is treated not as an add-on, but as an integral part of the design narrative.
Conceived and executed by D’Asign Source, the 10,350-square-foot property extends living well beyond the walls of the home—layering architecture, landscape, lighting, and audio into a unified coastal experience. At the center of that effort is a fully integrated system from Coastal Source, engineered specifically to withstand the harsh environmental conditions of the Florida Keys.
Designing for How the Home Is Lived
From the outset, the project was driven by lifestyle. The rear of the home unfolds into a series of connected zones: pool deck, outdoor kitchen, lounge seating, turf area, and dock—all oriented toward the water. Rather than treating these as separate destinations, the design team focused on continuity.
Lighting and audio were planned to support that flow. The goal wasn’t to saturate the property with technology, but to enhance how each space is used—whether that’s entertaining by the pool, relaxing in the hot tub, or moving between indoor and outdoor environments.
Inside, a Sonos platform provides whole-home audio. Outside, Coastal Source loudspeakers extend that experience seamlessly, ensuring music—and control—travels uninterrupted across the property.
“It’s a seamless experience across the whole house,” says homeowner Matt Eberhart. “We can move from inside to outside without interruption, and everything is controlled from the phone.”
A Landscape-Led Lighting Strategy
While audio enhances how the space is used, lighting ultimately defines how it’s experienced.
Along the seawall, LED tiki torches introduce both functional illumination and a sense of place, reinforcing the home’s coastal identity. At the front of the property, lighting is intentionally restrained, allowing reflected light and shadow to create depth without overwhelming the architecture.
“The idea isn’t to flood everything with light,” explains project executive and landscape architect Nicholas D’Ascanio. “It’s about creating a natural look that highlights the property without calling attention to the fixtures.”
Infrastructure First, Flexibility Always
As with many high-performance outdoor projects, success hinged on early planning.
Conduits were installed from the home’s low-voltage panel through a crawl space and into the landscape, creating a flexible backbone for both lighting and audio. This approach allows the team to adapt as the project evolves—and even after move-in.
That flexibility proved critical. Once the homeowners began living in the space, small adjustments and additional fixtures were introduced to fine-tune key areas, all without disrupting finished surfaces.
Built for the Coast
In a waterfront environment, durability is non-negotiable.
Salt air, humidity, and constant sun exposure demand systems designed specifically for those conditions. Coastal Source’s fixtures and Plug+Play cabling were selected for their ability to resist corrosion and deliver long-term performance—ensuring the system remains as reliable as it is visually impactful.
For the homeowner, that confidence was essential. “When you’re investing in a home like this, you want equipment that will hold up,” Eberhart notes.
A Fully Realized Outdoor Experience
Completed with much of the collaboration handled remotely, the project reflects a growing reality in luxury residential design: highly coordinated, multi-disciplinary environments delivered across distance, yet executed with precision.
Today, the Duck Key residence stands as a clear example of how integrated outdoor systems can elevate a property. By aligning lighting, audio, and infrastructure with architecture and landscape from the beginning, the team created an environment that feels cohesive, adaptable, and deeply connected to how the home is lived.
It’s not just about extending the home outdoors—it’s about redefining where the home begins and ends.
