View through open black doors at 512 Fleming Street revealing a sunlit courtyard with brick pavers and tropical palms

Cloud 9

Key West, Florida

Designed by Karen Lockwood

Private courtyard pool viewed through ornate carved white doors, flanked by tropical palms and brick pavers
Step through the gate. Leave the world behind.
Open-concept living space with white sectional sofa, coral pillows, skylights, and natural light flooding the room
Light pours in from every direction.
Bright galley kitchen with stainless steel appliances, white cabinetry, skylight, and garden window
Every detail, considered.
Master suite with king bed, colorful art above headboard, French doors open to a tropical garden
Open the doors. The pool is yours.
Second bedroom suite with white linens, louvered doors, and garden-green accents
Where morning light meets cool tile.
Upper-level balcony porch with white railings overlooking tropical canopy
Above it all. The palms, the pool, the quiet.
Covered side porch with a white wooden swing bench flanked by tropical palms
A swing. A breeze. Nothing else required.
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The Vision
"What happens when you let the light decide?"

Cloud Nine began as a question. Karen Lockwood stripped back decades of renovation to reveal the bones of a 1920s Key West cottage, then rebuilt around what the house already knew -- that every room should open to the sky, the garden, or the water.

Fourteen sets of French doors. Original heart pine floors, sanded and sealed but never stained. Walls painted in a single shade of Cloud White, so the architecture speaks for itself. Nothing here is accidental. Nothing here is loud. Every choice serves the same idea: let the outside in.

-- Karen Lockwood, Interior Designer
The Details

Curated, not decorated

Original heart pine floors, restored French doors throughout -- 14 in total Custom ironwork gecko gate by local artisan Every wall painted Cloud White -- one shade, everywhere
Signature gecko gate with custom iron tropical leaf and gecko metalwork bearing address 512
The gecko gate
Open-plan living and dining with reclaimed wood table, white furnishings, and vaulted ceilings
Hardwood underfoot
Open entrance doors revealing the pool courtyard beyond, framed by the terracotta facade
French doors to the courtyard
Covered side porch with a white wooden swing bench flanked by tropical palms
A porch swing for two
Pool water feature with mosaic tile wall surrounded by dense tropical plantings
Water and stone
Street view of 512 Fleming showing the terracotta entrance with gecko gate between Old Town storefronts
512 Fleming Street
Private courtyard pool with loungers and umbrellas surrounded by lush tropical palms
Poolside, all day
Master bedroom headboard detail with colorful art and patterned accent pillows
Art in every room
Upper-level balcony porch with white railings overlooking tropical canopy
The upper porch
Second bedroom suite with white linens, louvered doors, and garden-green accents
The garden suite
Elevated view of Cloud 9 pool and white two-story cottage framed by tropical palms
From above
Pool water feature and mosaic tile wall nestled among dense tropical plantings
The water feature
Cloud 9 white cottage exterior with private pool, upper balcony, and tropical garden at dusk
Old Town Key West

Half a block from Duval.
A world away from everything.

Steps from the street. Minutes from the shore. A lifetime from ordinary.