How Kelly Behun and Bonetti/Kozerski brought residential design to a luxury yacht

For decades, luxury yacht interiors have followed their own peculiar visual language: glossy timber, formal salons and a succession of disconnected rooms that could just as easily belong to a five-star hotel as a vessel at sea. Architect Enrico Bonetti always found that strange. 'The interiors were inexplicable,' he says. 'You'd move from one room to another and everything would suddenly change for no apparent reason.'

That dissatisfaction became the starting point for one of the most influential yacht designs of recent years. It started nine years ago, when Italian shipbuilder Benetti approached Bonetti's New York-based architecture practice, Bonetti/Kozerski, to rethink the interiors of its new Oasis series. Rather than turning to another yacht specialist, the Italian builder deliberately sought architects from outside the industry, with no yacht experience, hoping a fresh perspective might challenge long-established boat-design assumptions.

Step inside the Benetti Oasis yacht by Bonetti/Kozerski and Kelly Behun

Working alongside British yacht designer RWD, Bonetti questioned almost every convention. Why should the main salon follow the same layout every other yacht had adopted? Why should stepping inside feel like entering an entirely different world from the deck outside?

Instead, the studio approached the yacht as it would a house, blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior so that the space feels like a continuous narrative rather than a series of disjointed statements. The teak decking continues seamlessly through the living spaces, large expanses of glazing dissolve the distinction between inside and out, and glossy white lacquer (made by a piano factory) reflects changing skies and water back into the interior. Bonetti says a client once told him, ‘When you step out of bed and put your feet on the teak floor, you already feel close to the water.’

Many of the ideas now seem obvious, but they represented a significant departure for an industry set in its ways. The Oasis 40M, launched in 2020, became one of Benetti's best-selling models, spawning a smaller 34m version and, more recently, the Oasis 42M. More than 50 have now been built, with the studio continuing to customise many of them for individual owners.

One of the latest examples, with interiors designed by New York-based interior designer Kelly Behun – featured in the Wallpaper* US400 for 2026 – pushes the residential sensibility even further. For the owner, who was simultaneously commissioning Kelly Behun to design a holiday home in Comporta, Portugal, the interiors of the yacht became an extension of that domestic project.

‘The brief was surprisingly similar to what it would be for any home,’ Behun explains. ‘To create spaces that feel elegant, comfortable, welcoming and distinctly personal.’

Designing for the sea inevitably introduces constraints unfamiliar to residential designers. Every material must satisfy marine regulations, weight is carefully controlled and every millimetre is scrutinised. Rather than limiting creativity, Behun argues those restrictions sharpen it. Furniture proportions, layered natural materials and tactile textures – such as timber, stone, leather and linen – were all carefully considered to create spaces that feel lived-in rather than overtly luxurious.

‘Let’s face it. When you're on a boat, you're often moving, often in the sun, often barefoot,’ she says. ‘A space that feels too studied or formal works against all of that.’

The result is an interior that feels relaxed and residential: warm timber panelling, subtle lighting and softly curved furniture replace the glossy finishes and theatrical spotlights that once defined the category. ‘There's an ease built into the material choices that mirrors the ease we were seeking,’ she says.

For Behun, that reflects a wider shift across luxury design. Yacht owners are increasingly looking to residential interiors, hospitality and fashion for inspiration rather than following an established nautical formula. ‘People are moving away from environments that simply communicate status,’ she says, ‘towards spaces that feel personal, layered and emotionally resonant.’

Bonetti believes the same evolution is happening across yacht design more broadly. What was once considered radical has rapidly become the new norm. Looking across today's launches, he sees many of the same principles his studio first fought to introduce almost a decade ago. 'Back then there were two main options: the old, very opulent designs, or complete white boxes filled with showroom furniture. Now you see a lot of yachts that look very similar to what we’re doing.'

For Bonetti and Behun, it seems, the best way to redesign a yacht is to stop thinking like a yacht designer altogether.