Homes: Holiday home

Businessman Martin Abramson is a closet interior designer as one can see in his Eilat vacation apartment.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Balcony (photo credit: Uriel Messa)
Balcony
(photo credit: Uriel Messa)
I wasn’t really planning to buy a place in Eilat, but as soon as I saw the view I changed my mind,’ says English businessman Martin Abramson, who made aliya with his wife, Karen, five years ago. “I just knew I could make it into a one-off apartment.”
They live in a beautiful home in Herzliya Pituah which is very much their private domain, but Abramson is so proud of the holiday home in Eilat that he is happy to share the story with others. A very successful businessman (“I’m totally self-made”) he is clearly a closet interior designer who loves nothing better than to take a house or apartment and refurbish it to express his vision.
“I love projects,” he says enthusiastically.
Over the years he’s had several homes on which he has put his personal stamp including several in his native Manchester. He also owned a palatial home in France which he redesigned together with a French architect from whom he feels he learnt a lot about the principles of interior design.
The first thing that attracted him about this apartment, the upper floor of a two-story building outside the town on the way to Taba, was the fact that looking out of his balcony he could see the whole bay stretching before him as far as the eye could see.
The balconies alone account for 200 square meters of space, while the actual interior adds up to 300 sq.m. The pool is 15 meters long and curves round to follow the shape of the outer wall. Inside are six bedrooms to accommodate the family when the three children visit with the 10 grandchildren, although he confides that this particular home is intended primarily for Karen and himself.
The emphasis is on total comfort and convenience, with the colors chosen to blend with the outside and in some way bring the sea into the home, just as in previous homes he had always tried to bring the garden in and make it part of the home.
As he is not trained as an interior designer he contacted Sari Danone, and the two worked together to produce the fabulous place pictured here. All the furniture was purchased in Jaffa, much of it imported from Italy by Hommage, where he was able to find the look he wanted.
The lounge chairs have been upholstered in three different fabrics, but all blending pleasantly together and all suggesting the colors of the sea. Over the dining room table hangs an unusual wooden light fitting, very striking and creating an impression of branches.
“I felt a crystal chandelier would not be right for a holiday home by the sea,” says Abramson.
On the far wall the collection of different sized clocks and wheels also makes an immediate impact.
“We needed something on the back wall that hits you between the eyes and this succeeded in breaking up the monotony of the wall,” he says. On the neutral couches, the same fabric as on the dining chairs reappears as cushions. Two easy chairs are covered in rich royal blue. Conveniently near the dining room is the open-plan kitchen, which is strictly kosher and has two of everything as well as attractive mushroom chairs around the breakfast bar which doubles as a work top.
The master bedroom boasts a four-poster bed painted in ebony black and is made up with elegant white sheets trimmed with black, and monogrammed pillows. The guest bedrooms all have their own color schemes, one of the prettiest being a twinbedded room in Wedgwood blue and white and another in delicate shades of eau de nil and cream.
On balmy Eilat nights they love to sit on the terrace at the end of the pool where a bar has also been set up and enjoy the lights twinkling over the bay.
Karen insists that she had no say in the decorating of the apartment and it is all her husband’s work. She is busy running her own photography business in Tel Aviv.
“We find it very peaceful and calming whenever we come to Eilat,” they say.
“We feel on top of the world.”