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"A little over a year ago, interior designer Larry Laslo decamped from a triplex on Manhattan&amp;#039;s Upper East Side to a charming cottage in Palm Beach, Florida. His new home, he quips, is &amp;quot;like living in Tahiti, with a Chanel shop six blocks away.&amp;quot; After all, where else can you nip into town for enough Swarovski crystals to bejewel 200 tulle gift bags, fill them with painted eggs, and then hide them beneath a tangle of 100-foot banyan trees and 80-foot palms? Laslo&amp;#039;s maiden Easter egg hunt last year drew more than 60 friends to his backyard, where he had scattered the bling around two koi ponds and under a sprawl of low-light ferns, philodendrons, hostas, and orchids. The luckier guests opened their gift bags to find promissory notes for a home-cooked dinner served under the palms, or a crisp (and generous) bill; the less fortunate discovered they&amp;#039;d been assigned a chore, such as postparty cleanup duty. &amp;quot;I love watching the children when they spy an egg, but I love it even more when the adults try to swap tasks,&amp;quot; he says. Laslo, who first came to the world&amp;#039;s attention with his dazzling transformation of Bergdorf Goodman in the 1980s, now attracts a sophisticated international clientele that appreciates his passion for traditional styles and his talent for adapting those styles to the present. The urge to put that talent into play kicked in when a friend showed him a bungalow in one of Palm Beach&amp;#039;s landmarked districts. &amp;quot;He was afraid it wasn&amp;#039;t stately enough for me,&amp;quot; Laslo says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always liked to live in a grand, historic way.&amp;quot; For someone who has owned an enviable string of New York City homes\u2014sprawling uptown apartments with multiple working fireplaces, private elevators, and million-dollar views of Central Park\u2014a 3,500-square-foot, two-\u00ADbedroom bungalow would hardly seem impressive. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;The Lush Life: Larry Laslo&amp;#039;s Palm Beach Bungalow.&amp;quot;  Then again, there&amp;#039;s nothing like a private piece of Eden\u2014and a one-block walk to the beach for a guy who loves to swim every day\u2014to expand a longtime New Yorker&amp;#039;s definition of grand. The 1939 cottage is one of several designed by Howard Major, an architect famous for working in the British Colonial style. But Laslo is characteristically modest. &amp;quot;I really just bought a small, untamed jungle with a chic little house in front of it,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I have a charcoal-black thumb, so this garden is perfect for me. It needs neither a gardener nor a watering system.&amp;quot; As pretty a mess as it is beyond the back door, the interior was ripe for Laslo&amp;#039;s measured flamboyance. The living room had been covered with wallpaper murals of Venice. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve seen those canals and bridges,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t need to look at them every time I turn the lights on.&amp;quot; Down came the gondoliers and the Bridge of Sighs. Nevertheless, Laslo left much of the original decor intact. He didn&amp;#039;t touch the whitewashed cedar floors and kept the outsize crown over his bed, painting it white. &amp;quot;I could have taken it down and put up a four-poster, but I&amp;#039;d rather call it the King&amp;#039;s Bed,&amp;quot; he jokes. That kind of exuberance shows up in every room, via Laslo&amp;#039;s ever-rotating mix of art and objets, furnishings from the 1930s and &amp;#039;40s, and doses of white-plaster pieces. &amp;quot;I buy things that I love wherever I go: at flea markets, junk shops, and 20th-\u00ADcentury dealers,&amp;quot; says Laslo. &amp;quot;I also give stuff away. If a friend sits on a chair and likes it, I give it to him. The Queen Mum used to do that,&amp;quot; he adds. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;The Lush Life: Larry Laslo&amp;#039;s Palm Beach Bungalow.&amp;quot;   Laslo&amp;#039;s talent for editing is as important to the success of his rooms as the pieces themselves. &amp;quot;You don&amp;#039;t want to turn into a Kardashian of design,&amp;quot; he remarks. &amp;quot;Decorating\u2014and life\u2014is about moderation. Splurge, then pull your jets in for a while.&amp;quot; Despite his taste for change, Laslo has managed to hang on to some of his favorite 20th-century pieces, including pairs of Serge Roche shell consoles and plaster torch\u00E8res that he found in the 1960s, and a Gilbert Poillerat marble-top side table. &amp;quot;I find that white plaster looks just as great in the tropics as it does in New York,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;On the other hand, I can use a lot of real shells here, whereas they look corny in the city.&amp;quot; Laslo did leave behind the urge to fit out his second bedroom for guests, instead turning it into a combination library, office, and TV room. &amp;quot;My friends have lived in my houses more than I have,&amp;quot; he points out. Now, they just as often stay at the Breakers or the Colony, and he entertains them in his backyard. &amp;quot;I believe in good deeds and charity,&amp;quot; Laslo says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not worried that there won&amp;#039;t be a penthouse for me in heaven. And I&amp;#039;m sure it&amp;#039;ll be in all-white plaster.&amp;quot; Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;The Lush Life: Larry Laslo&amp;#039;s Palm Beach Bungalow.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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