Tour a Bespoke, Art-Filled Yacht Conceived by Bryan O’Sullivan

The 67-meter, ten-year-old Feadship vessel had a lot of heavy mahogany paneling. “Yachts can often feel like 1980s leftovers,” says O’Sullivan, who set about lightening the entire interior, simplifying the overcomplicated gold-painted ceilings, and filling the space with color. “The clients liked the work we’d done at Claridge’s over the years, so we bent toward Art Deco, which is the primary design of that hotel.”

Known for a light touch, O’Sullivan balances the contemporary and the traditional with a steely eye for details. A motif of a fan now appears throughout the yacht’s new scheme, in metal grills and mosaic flooring; bronze door handles are handmade by the Belgium company Van Cronenburg. “We changed all the ironmongery,” says the designer, who featured the project in his debut monograph, Bryan O’Sullivan: A New Glamour (Rizzoli).

The primary cabin is the place where the most design magic happened. Storage was eliminated from the main bedroom, and the walls were lined with gold-embroidered lambswool. Bedside tables are custom creations in honey-colored burl with blue onyx tops. “Jean-Michel Frank is definitely a go-to inspiration,” confesses O’Sullivan. The space’s pièce de résistance is a bespoke dressing table finished in navy blue shagreen, with lacquered-wood door handles adorned with long ivory silk tassels.

But although many pieces were custom created in the designer’s studio, he likes to include plenty of unique, patinated discoveries as well. “We went on fabulous shopping trips together,” says O’Sullivan, who sourced a Fornasetti malachite lamp from Alfies Antique Market in London and other selections from PAD. “She likes FontanaArte lights and the midcentury, so we worked from that, too.”

Contemporary luxury comes in the form of mega-sofas by Charles Zana and Achille Salvagni, while vintage modular Camaleonda seating by Mario Bellini, upholstered in zingy orange velvet, fills a casual sitting room that looks out to a balcony. “It’s also a workspace, so it needed to be less formal,” says O’Sullivan, a Galerie Creative Mind.

Color was a constant consideration: The artist client has a keenly developed sense of it, and O’Sullivan—wearing a lemon-yellow, fine-knit polo shirt; black trousers; and dashing turquoise socks—definitely has his own as well. He is also a stickler for the perfect finish. In the sky lounge, a cocktail table crafted by his studio has three leaves that fan from a burl base, their tops clad in parchment.

Although reluctant to remove all the existing paneling—“A good client doesn’t mind a bit of salvage,” says O’Sullivan—the one thing the boat needed was a decent gym. The original was completely stripped out, and with full-height windows installed, it is now a high-tech, indoor-outdoor fitness zone.

“We went full contemporary,” he says of the workout area, for which he continued the teak of the deck and put in perforated doors. “It does feel like a different sort of space. You really need that sometimes on a boat.” That said, it’s hard to imagine anyone getting cabin fever on this skillfully reappointed yacht.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Summer Issue under the headline “Sea Change.” Subscribe to the magazine.