island girlBritish-born India Hicks revels in her home in the Bahamas.

RENOVATION, INTERIOR DESIGN AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN BY INDIA HICKS AND DAVID FLINT WOOD PHOTOGRAPHED AND PRODUCED BY MIGUEL FLORES-VIANNA WRITTEN BY INDIA HICKS

India tailored Hibiscus Hill to suit her passion for island life. this page:

Coconut palms hold sway. opposite, clockwise from far left: India and

Domino at play. In India’s study, a sketch of her mother. Gone barefoot.

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sits on three acres of rolling garden that stretch inland from

the top of the dunes, with jungle on two sides and a valley of

coconut palms on the other. The site looks out over the distant

rooftops of town to the harbor and the setting sun.

When we originally saw the house, peeking in the windows

together, it was love at first sight. David remembers that I said

simply, “It feels like home.” That was in 1996. During the next

fifteen years, we have enjoyed transforming Hibiscus Hill.

Wherever possible, David and I removed the original

cement, tile and glass and replaced them with the softer and

more natural materials of wood, paper and straw. In the dining

and sitting rooms, we overlaid the floors with wood, using some

unusually large fir planks that are a foot wide and, in some

cases, sixteen feet long. We stained them a dark oak shade,

although they now boast an aged patina of their own.

Travel is one of our most effective sources of inspiration, and

we found a large quantity of our furniture, including our din-

ing table and chairs, in New Orleans. Almost all the rooms in

the house are decorated in fairly muted tones, offering a

respite from the brightness outside. That is, apart from the odd

moment when we broke the rule and painted a staircase

bougainvillea pink, upholstered a sofa in dusty watermelon

and painted a study in screaming fire-engine red.

Our two studies express different styles: his and hers,

decorated without compromise. Hers, the red office, took four

coats of gloss to cover the drywall. His is the more predictably

masculine study, where the atmosphere is something like

a captain’s cabin on an old schooner. The mahogany-stained

bookshelves and the flush brass door handles were purchased

from a boat chandler.

My famed interior decorator father, David Hicks, was

renowned for using almost any available flat surface to create

what he termed “tablescapes.” This inheritance has become

something of an obsession in our house. The center of our

sitting room is dominated by a mini-museum of disparate and

eccentric objects.

Our bedside tables offer another opportunity for table-

scaping, although continually subject to review. Beside these

tables is our aptly named Lord Mountbatten Tester Bed,

a large and particularly tall four-poster that sits comfortably

beneath the tray ceiling—so called because they look like

inverted trays. Tray ceilings are typical of Caribbean homes.

The bedroom walls are covered by hand-colored tropical

bird prints, found in London and dated 1820. They reinforce

the feeling of a period plantation house. We cherish the

original floor tiles, manufactured by Cubans and brought to

Nassau in the 1950s.

We try to give the rooms of our four children a strong sense

of individuality yet never drift too far from our DNA: a combi-

nation of international lives, classic British taste, including its

eccentricities, and the traditions and flavor of the Caribbean.

Our home is a storehouse of family history, a living archive

that holds the treasures of our personal life. It speaks of where

we’ve been, who we are and the distinctive style cultivated by

our journey together.

opposite, clockwise from top left: Felix, Amory, Conrad and Domino’s playhouse, designed by their father and painted red, white and blue after the Union Jack. A shaded pergola is perfect for a midday nap or a quiet conversation. No swimming allowed when Neptune rules the waves. A study in white on white on the veranda off the master bedroom. Jenga, the family’s macaw. center: India and Domino on a lazy afternoon.

has evolved over time, layer upon layer, into a truthful representation of who we are. It is not a status symbol and certainly lacks pretension. Hibiscus Hill was built in the 1950s, but we endeavored to make the villa look like it was built in the 1850s. The house

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from our DNA: a combination of international lives, classic British taste, including its eccentricities, and the flavor of the Caribbean.

clockwise from top left: David’s study, in mahogany and

Brazilian ipê, charts a masculine course with its zebra-hide

safari chair, sailboat model and seascapes. The dining room,

with antique furniture, bespeaks hospitality by way of pineapple

table lamps and a bronze ice bucket as centerpiece.

A vignette in red, dark wood and leather. Art brings global

allusions to the island house.Classic Caribbean low-key style

mixes with a French antique mantel and mirror. opposite:

India’s travels on safari in Africa inspire her to set a formal

table outside in the open.

clockwise from above: Always in the pink, Domino’s antique bed nestles in a nook amid hand- colored English prints. India’s desk holds one of her favorite mementos: a rose from Princess Diana’s bridal bouquet. (India was one of the flower girls at the royal wedding.) Taking a cue from India’s father, another sterling tablescape. A traditional cotton canopy dresses the four-poster bed named after her grandfather. India and Domino share a mother-daughter moment in their sun- kissed private world. opposite: An unprecious blend of furniture in a breezy guest bedroom.