A family with a vacation house on Maryland’s Gibson Island hired Anthony Wilder Design/Build to make the lower level more hospitable for friends and family visiting on weekends and for extended stays. “We were asked to create a fun space, a kind of ‘flop house’ big enough for all the kids,” recalls architect George Bott, who collaborated on the project with principal Anthony Wilder and designer Shannon Kadwell.

The Wilder team enlarged the existing basement bedroom by combining it with an adjacent secondary laundry room. Inspired by the waterfront locale, Kadwell conjured a nautical theme in the bedroom. “The bunks mimic ships’ quarters, with white-painted wood frames and ceiling supports wrapped in rope,” she notes. Blue sliding barn doors complement crisp blue-and-white ocean tones. Says the designer, “The palette creates a spacious feel—and it never goes out of style.”