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In Baker’s Bay, Bahamas, this empress of a Palladian-style retreat whispers of romance with views of the Sea of Abaco. corona chandelier
The classical coralina stone-clad house is new to the island scene, but in some ways she has been brewing for centuries. With a sandy-linen facade and a loggia in the Tuscan order, she conjures visions of fabled estates throughout the archipelago and the Caribbean (Nassau’s 19th-century neoclassical governor general’s home, Oscar de la Renta’s Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, to name a few). And like those and others that rose up before her, she comes with a name, Windsong, and a story.
It began when the effervescent Bahamas-based decorator Amanda Lindroth received a call from an old friend, a bachelor she had met in his Duke undergrad days. He went on to buy a place in Nassau, and “then off he went and married the most enchanting woman,” says Lindroth. A subsequent vacation landed the man and his new wife back in the islands, this time in Baker’s Bay, a community on the slim island of Great Guana Cay. It’s buffered by the rocky Atlantic beaches on its easternmost shore and the pinkish coastlines of Abaco on its western side. The San Francisco-based pair were deeply romanced by the private enclave and who could blame them? “Even by Bahamas standards the beaches of Baker’s Bay are extraordinarily beautiful,” notes the designer. The couple resolved to build their vacation home there, and they wanted Lindroth to design it.
She, in turn, rang her frequent collaborator, classicist architect Maria de la Guardia with Miami-based de la Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists, Inc., who, to Lindroth’s eye, knew better than anyone how to design the romantic estate the couple were after. “I once asked Maria, ‘Why do I feel better in your rooms than others?’” recalls Lindroth. “And she said, ‘It’s not arbitrary. It’s math and proportions.’” In other words, harmony of shape and scale. De la Guardia’s principles are rooted in classical forms, ensuring that the height of every ceiling and the detail of every column’s capital feels just right.
The Palladian-style estate that followed sits at the end of a meandering beach-sand drive flanked by a crush of palms, banyans, bougainvillea, bay-rum trees, and hibiscus, which Lindroth describes as “the jungle.” Beyond an arabesque-shaped courtyard, a two-tiered loggia extends out from a wide hipped roof and affords views straight through a central living room to the rear veranda and the Sea of Abaco. “I wanted the approach to be consistent with the traditional Bahamian greeting ‘Welcome home,’” says de la Guardia. “Once you hear that and receive a big hug, you are forever part of the place. It never leaves you.”
Embedded in this uniquely local greeting is coralina stone, a vernacular material quarried in the Dominican Republic and endemic in a trade shared across the island nations. “Dominican fabricators work alongside Bahamian locals, teaching them the specialized skill so that they carry it through to future generations,” explains de la Guardia, who employed the stone throughout the loggia, living room, and veranda to seamlessly connect indoors and out. “In the Bahamas it’s plan B to be inside. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are always eaten outdoors,” notes the architect. For this there’s an octagonal dining pavilion attached to the veranda and a poolhouse on the beach side across the lawn, drawing activities closer to the sea.
Against this classic, almost elemental backdrop, the clients’ first request for the interiors—a pink La Cornue range—initially stumped Lindroth and project manager Céline Lotmore Jones. “Until I stumbled across a magazine spread featuring some London It girl sprawled on a pink chesterfield surrounded by an aqua de Gournay paper,” recalls Lindroth. The combination was an aha moment for the designer, who doubled down on the cheeky, playful color combo by repeating it in a pink faux leather breakfast banquette and wrapping the entire room in an aqua hand-painted, jungle-inspired wallpaper.
Imaginative gestures flourish throughout, including a two-tiered custom shell chandelier crowning the living room, Brian G. Leaver’s Indian-inspired paisley stencils on the primary bedroom walls, and a breathtaking shell-encrusted powder room by English craftswoman Linda Fenwick that was inspired by the work of 18th-century Georgian architect Robert Adam. But perhaps the most romantic decorative note arose from a request from the husband: He wanted Lindroth’s help finding something special to give his wife as a housewarming gift. The designer immediately dialed up her friend John Fondas, who literally wrote the book on sailors’ valentines (Sailors’ Valentines; Rizzoli), the octagonal shellcraft souvenirs that originated in mid-1800s Barbados when a tourist shop began selling them to seafarers to bring home to their sweethearts. Lindroth amassed 30 of the rare valentines and, with de la Guardia, designed a display for them in the living room and even echoed the octagonal forms throughout the house’s design.
The valentines, says de la Guardia, became the subtle geometry of the grand island home. Amid architectural principles long established here, the silhouettes whisper a new, decidedly youthful language, spoken between the inhabitants and adopted from the sailors who skimmed the neighboring Caribbean islands centuries ago.
Featured in our November/December 2022 issue. Interior Design by Amanda Lindroth; Architecture and Landscape Design by Maria de la Guardia; Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna; Styling by Rachael Burrow; Written by Zoe Gowen.
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