St Barts, French West Indies
I went to a gorgeous all white villa today with our carpenter Stèphane to look at the walls we plan to do for our interior. Here are some images I snapped of the detail. We will be doing virtually this exact same thing. I love the texture especially when dealing with a lot of white. It gives the space a nice beachy feel while keeping it clean and a touch modern.
I arrived on the island a couple of days ago, and the carpenters had already begun work on the house. It was exciting to arrive and see the remodel beginning to shape. It’s incredibly rewarding when the ideas you have in your head manifest into something real. This morning I awoke to the most spectacular sun rise and snapped a quick iphone pic. We see this view from our master bed, and in the foreground you can see the new deck beginning to take shape!
I just arrived in St Barts to oversee the beginning of our remodel. As I walk around, I can’t help but fall in love with the island’s architecture. One of the most charming and visually pleasing things about St Barts is that virtually all the roofs are red, green, white or grey. This house is located on St Jean beach, one of my favorite beaches on the island, and a very short two minute drive from our house. This little place is about to get renovated, but I love the classic weathered beach shack look it has in its current state.
I created this mood board (thank you pinterest!) as the texture and color inspiration for our remodel of Villa Palmier. The remodel begins September 7th, and our fingers are crossed that it finishes up November 1st. I’ll be posting on pictures of the house as it transforms on this blog. Already it has been quite the adventure with myself acting as our general contractor. Most of the sub-contractors speak only French, so I’ve had to practice up and learn a lot of new construction related words like, “menuisier” (french word for carpenter, which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue!). I’m heading back to the island on September 10th to oversee the work. Of course the month of September is the heart of hurricane season, so please cross your fingers that it’s a quiet one!
As you can see from the mood board, we are going with a neutral (surprise, surprise) color pallet, inspired by the environment that surrounds the house. The house is completely open on both sides, so creating a seamless transition between interior and exterior is important with the colors and textures we choose. Ipé wood will be used for our deck and pool deck (pictured bottom right) which is a heavenly wood. Over time it turns to the most perfect shade of grey, and it feels incredible on bare feet. You’ll never get a splinter from this wood. We’re completely renovating the kitchen, which will have the quintessential french range, a Lacanche (pictured on the right), the same range one of my favorite chefs, Jean Georges, uses. He happens to have a restaurant on the island at Eden Rock. St Barts has great markets and access to fantastic food so we plan to do lots of cooking in this new kitchen.
Natural materials like linen, wood, and Italian plaster will be used extensively throughout the home. It has been a treat having access to the European furniture and design companies, which are normally a challenge to get in the US. We’re doing a very cool and comfortable white linen sectional from Gervasoni, along with linen slipcovered beds.Two of my favorite home stores on the island, French Indies Design and Yume have been excellent places for smaller items like chairs, rugs and decorative pieces.
One of my favorite photos in this mood board is the shot with three glasses of rosé. St. Barts feels like the rosé capital of the world, perhaps second only to the South of France. In some cases, rosé is actually cheaper than water on the island! I can’t wait until the project is complete and we’re spending warm nights lounging by the pool, listening to the waves crash and crickets chirp, with rosé in hand and crumbs of a fresh baguette scattered about.
