To reach The Cloister, the venerable resort on Sea Island, Georgia, you must cross a bridge over a scenic river. Here, on the cobblestone avenues of grand oaks, life eases to a slower pace.

The Cloister, designed in 1928 by the famed Palm Beach based architect, Addison Mizner, blends Mediterranean and Moorish styles. In recent years, the old hotel was replaced with an updated, new set of buildings that closely hews to Mizner’s original design including a new spa. Like the hotel, the spa’s new space feels and looks as if it had graced this spot for decades.

Interior designer Pamela Hughes, president of Hughes Design Associates of Sarasota, Florida, began working on the décor when the spa was still colored renderings. “Our job was to make the level of finish and luxury consistent with the hotel, to make it a welcoming and hospitable and warm place,” she says.

“You can’t leave this fabulously detailed and elaborate hotel and walk into a plain space. We wanted the spa to be simple, but it still had to be elegant. We used the same luxurious, high-quality materials we used in the hotel, but we toned it down with the design and the colors,” Hughes continues. “That’s how you achieve that same level of elegance without being formal or fussy.”