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An accomplished interior designer tends to wear a number of different hats. He or she can be, at times, an architect, a decorator, a builder, a gardener, a negotiator, a marriage counselor and an accountant. But on most every kind and scope of project conceivable, the one thing a designer must always be is an editor, since, at its core, successful interior design is about knowing what to add and what to remove, what to keep as it is and what to change, what (and how) to choose from a virtual infinity of design choices, and how to bring those choices together so they sing.

In her recent work on a residence in Bal Harbour, Florida, Marjorie Shushan deployed her seasoned editorial skills pretty much from the get-go. The generous Mediterranean-style house, part of a quiet, secluded community with access to the Intracoastal Waterway, was originally built in the 1950s. Around 2002 it underwent a significant reconception. Shushan's clients, a young couple and their two sons, were planning to build a house from scratch when they were persuaded to swing by and take a look at the place. "It was one of those instant feelings," says the wife. "The neighborhood was safe and great for kids. The house stood in a beautiful setting. It had much about it that was good." The wife, whose parents are longtime clients of Shushan's, called up the designer and asked for her opinion. Shushan visited the house and said, "Buy it—and then we'll sort it all out."

Sorting it all out, for Shushan, meant setting in motion the editorial process. "You don't come into a house like this and sweep it all away," she explains. "You eliminate; you amplify; you think about how to make the house feel modern and appropriate for the people who are going to live there."

The house Shushan saw on her first visit had a handsome, if inconsistent, level of detailing. There was a very pleasing entranceway with a checkerboard stone floor, separated from the living room by an arched colonnade. The living room was long and had high beam ceilings. An elegant spiral staircase gave access to the second floor. All these features Shushan admired.

But the kitchen and baths were dated; the master bedroom felt dark and heavy; a media room needed to be better integrated into the main house; and the general decorative ambience was, as she puts it, "on the heavy side and vaguely Polynesian, whereas the house really wanted to be lighter, brighter and more streamlined in feeling."

Working with Brian O'Keefe, her longtime architectural collaborator, Shushan first set about making some structural adjustments. A small laundry room near the kitchen was converted into a playroom. The media room, which had been a kind of glazed passageway, became more fully connected to the main house. A new kitchen and baths were designed and constructed.

As these larger alterations were under way, Shushan began adjusting and redesigning the rooms with her usual light touch. In order to give the entrance a modest sense of drama, she chose to hang draperies along the entire front wall of the house; a visitor now proceeds across a brick courtyard, around a fountain and past an expanse of linen, an effect that is not unlike stepping onto a stage.

Yet there is little in the living room beyond that is stiff or theatrical. Shushan embraced the scale of the space while at the same time making it more hospitable. She laid down a striped rug and created two seating areas. In the first, near the fireplace, she used a quilted linen damask on the sofas, a family-friendly fabric that nevertheless delivers on style. The second she anchored with a pair of étagères whose strong silhouettes deepen the room's architecture and help balance the existing fireplace. "These are tricks, if you like, that you learn over time," Shushan explains. "You look for ways to add structure without always commissioning more millwork. There are simpler and cleverer ways to detail an interior."

Shushan is capable of making big gestures (a wall of draperies, a new kitchen), but she is also comfortable making smaller ones, as in the dining room, where she evened up a horizontal line by hanging round mirrors in the interstitial spaces between the tops of the windows and the drapery rod.

In the family room, she did add millwork—a large, solid bookshelf—but she had it painted a light-toned faux-bois to help keep the room feeling airy and understated. The new media room presented a particular challenge, since the clients wanted to be able to both watch television and play billiards; Shushan's solution was to put the seating area on a raised platform, which opened up the sightlines while also creating architectural interest.

Part of Shushan's gift is to know when to accept existing conditions and when to change them. In the master bedroom, for instance, she painted out all the woodwork, and suddenly the room felt more buoyant. But she also knows when to introduce new elements. Working within a contained palette—"I find neutrals calming," she explains—Shushan assembled a combination of modern and antique furniture, comfortable fabrics and stylish objects that added texture and nuance to the interiors and kept them all interconnected. "It's important for all the rooms in a house to feel related," she says. "Every house should have its own consistent story. A designer's job is to tease it out and fill in the gaps." Spoken like a true editor, indeed.