35 San Roy Rd, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459

Few streets in Seagrove hold their ground the way San Roy Road does. Set one lot off the beach, the home sits close enough to the gulf to the south to draw its light and breeze, while Eastern Lake, one of the region's rare coastal dune lakes, curves in from the north, so the water frames the property from two directions and the horizon never fully closes. Over the past several years, this street has drawn some of the area's most considered new construction; this three-story residence stands among the finest of them. Set behind a palm-lined paver drive, the home reads as clean coastal contemporary: crisp clapboard, a standing-seam metal roof and stacked verandas that step toward the water. The interiors are the real event. They are knockout high-end without ever tipping into excess, exceptionally tasteful and precisely judged, nothing overdone and nothing left wanting. * * Spanning more than 5,200 square feet, the home offers six bedrooms, five full baths and two half baths, * * with pecky cypress running as a quiet through-line, worked into cabinetry and ceiling detail on nearly every level, its texture warming rooms that are otherwise bright, white and unhurried. Because the gulf-front lots directly ahead are already built, the water views from inside are effectively permanent, the kind of forever views no future construction can take away. The heart of the home is the second-level kitchen, a massively scaled space built for real cooking and real gathering, anchored by a waterfall-edge island, Sub-Zero refrigeration, a professional-grade range and custom cypress cabinetry. Walls of glass open it to the covered porches and the gulf beyond, and wide-plank white oak runs underfoot. Down on the pool level, a second full kitchen handles poolside entertaining on its own, so the lower floor never has to borrow from the one above. Marble baths, a built-in bunk room and multiple living areas give the house room to hold family and guests at the same time. Outside, the lot lives large. The backyard is genuinely expansive for the beach block, given over to a spacious private pool within a walled, planted yard and framed by multiple levels of covered decks and porches that trade gulf breeze for afternoon shade depending on the hour. Two separate single-car garages, each with its own overflow storage, handle the practical side of coastal ownership without asking the home to compromise. The result is a finely outfitted residence in one of Seagrove's most prominent settings, and one that has never been rented, its finishes and furnishings kept in original, uncompromised condition. Turnkey, thoughtfully built and moments from the sand, the shops and the dining that define this stretch of the coast, it is the rare home that asks nothing of its next owner. On a street like San Roy Road, homes at this level of finish rarely stay available for long.