A bright and breezy house in the Bahamas by Tino Zervudachi
The gravel driveway of this property in the Bahamas curves gently until it touches a wide stone path. The roof and pillars of the house are fringed by tall palm trees, their long fronds sweeping down to frame the architecture. And peeking through the front door, at the heart of this scene, you see a rectangle of pure intense blue: the sea and sky of the Caribbean.
When interior designer Tino Zervudachi’s long-standing clients invited him to view the house with them before they committed to buying it, what confronted them could not have been more different. Overgrown trees and shrubs obscured the ocean. The front door, which is now made of glass with a pattern of delicate metal fish scales, was then in a forbidding dark wood with heavy metal studs.
‘It was a heart sinker,’ recalls Tino. ‘Inside, everything was gloomy and depressing – the woodwork on the doors and ceilings was very dark, and the enormous sofas and fussy curtains were all in deepest chocolate velvet. Extraordinary for a beach house in the Caribbean.’
Tino also noticed redundant corridors, rooms with strange proportions, an oddly shaped pool with a surrounding wall painted in turquoise and a ‘hideous’ sunken mini putting green with artificial grass. Most astonishing of all was the fact that there was no view of the sea from the front terrace.
‘If you are just a few steps from the sea, you really want to be able to see it,’ he says. ‘The house looked like it had never been properly finished. It was a huge job, a challenge, but I could see that it had genuine potential. And I was very confident that we could make it exactly what my clients wanted – wonderful and fresh and spacious.’
With the help of the US-based architect Kiko Sanchez, of FGS, the work was completed in two six-month phases. ‘We didn’t alter the footprint of the house,’ Tino explains. ‘But we did move round the internal partitions to provide better spaces for the bedrooms and bathrooms, and lowered some of the ceilings to improve the proportions of certain rooms. We also created a staff apartment in the attic. We changed the way that the house is lived in.’
In fact, life is lived primarily outside here, so Tino created terraces on every side of the house to take advantage of the sun and shade, and to provide protection from the wind throughout the day: ‘We raised the level of the front outdoor terrace between the house and the beach, so you can now see right down to the ocean.’ A wooden bridge that leads directly to the shore spans a new L-shaped swimming pool, where a lap pool meets a toddlers’ wallowing spot.
The level of the former putting green was raised to create a secluded area for drinks and dinner. Overhung with vines, this has generous white sofas, brightened by lime-green cushions, set around a low table. A small space through which to view the ocean has been cut into the surrounding vegetation and a spacious loggia – open on one side, with a roof and stone pillars – offers an effortlessly elegant area for relaxing, dining and entertaining outdoors. Here, there is ample room for large family gatherings, where handsome white metal chairs with Kuba cloth cushions are mixed with sturdy rattan ones. There are comfortable sofas, white ceramic side tables and lamps, and an ancient Indonesian painted wood panel on one wall. ‘Even when it rains, it’s a delicious feeling to sit here, protected and dry,’ says Tino.
In the entrance hall, the walls are covered in mirrored panels, in front of which sits an 18th-century table, rescued from storage and now painted white. ‘It wasn’t particularly good or special,’ says Tino, who had no hesitation in modifying it. Better antique pieces from the owners’ storerooms have been used throughout the house to give the freshly minted rooms a feeling of being subtly layered and lived in.
Unusually positioned in the centre of the airy, pillared hall just beyond the front door is an 18th-century daybed. This is a tempting place for an afternoon nap, or simply daydreaming and looking out to sea. ‘Having something low means you get that important first glimpse of the ocean from the entrance,’ says Tino. In the adjacent drawing room, a pair of vast blue and white striped sofas stand back to back, alongside rattan chairs, a gilded mirror and a console table. Large abstract paintings complete the deceptively casual mix.
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In the bedrooms, a colour scheme of icy blue and white prevails. A curvy canopy frame in slim white metal, made to a design by Tino, surrounds the bed in the main bedroom. In the largest of the spare rooms, a grid of 24 prints of tropical flowers, which came from a book that the owner has had for years, makes the room dreamily pretty.
This holiday house, about which its owners were once so doubtful, has become somewhere in which they now happily spend a considerable part of the year. And what does Tino say of this immense project completed in rapid time? ‘It was fun.’ Oh to be so insouciant. And so clever.
Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi: mhzlondon.com | FGS Design: fgs-a.com
Paul Massey1/7An armchair and footstool in TylerGraphic's ‘Tunis’ fabric completes the picture in the sitting room.
Paul Massey2/7In the dining room, Rose Tarlow chairs in a Studio Four NYC fabric partner a David Iatesta table from John Rosselli & Associates, below a ‘Crosshatch’ chandelier from Ironies. A large painting by John Graham Coughtry is displayed on the far wall.
Paul Massey3/7In the main bedroom, an unusual artwork by Ivica Arandus is seen through the custom-made metal baldachin bed frame, based on a similar design in a house on Antigua. The wooden bedside table by David Iatesta and a Holland & Sherry rug enhance the restrained palette.
Paul Massey4/7In the main bathroom, a black and white photograph bought in Cuba provides an interesting focal point above the bath, while an antique armchair helps to soften the space.
Paul Massey5/7In the spare room, framed pages from Flowers of the Brazilian Forests by Margaret Mee set the tone for this verdant scheme, with an end-of-bed bench in Galbraith & Paul’s light mineral ‘Tusk’ and curtains in ‘Sofia Multi Minor’ by Mally Skok Design.
Paul Massey6/7
Paul Massey7/7A pair of loungers from Janus et Cie provides the perfect place from which to admire the distinctive bronze sculpture by Philippe Berry that extends above the horizon.
