Empress of the Abaco
Veranda|November - December 2022
In Baker's Bay, Bahamas, a new Palladian-style estate rises like a youthful heiress to classical island tradition.
ZOE GOWEN
Empress of the Abaco

Perched high behind the dunes in Baker's Bay, Bahamas, a grande dame overlooks the Abaco Sea.

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.

Denne historien er fra November - December 2022-utgaven av Veranda.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra November - December 2022-utgaven av Veranda.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA VERANDASe alt
Aged to Imperfection
Veranda

Aged to Imperfection

In the Cotswolds, Oka cofounder Sue Jones stirs an alluring cocktail of old and new in an agrarian compound, now her forever home

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
AMERICA'S ENGLISHMAN
Veranda

AMERICA'S ENGLISHMAN

From wide-eyed novice to decorating nobility: how Mario Buatta's journey to mad Anglophile draped a nation in chintz, silk, swags, and a legacy of humor and optimism

time-read
2 mins  |
September - October 2023
Estate of Play
Veranda

Estate of Play

MARTYN LAWRENCE BULLARD revives a romantic Georgian country home in Ireland, deploying grand artistry, craft, and levity in the footprint of local traditions

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
A PASTORAL PLAYGROUND
Veranda

A PASTORAL PLAYGROUND

Out of an ancestral millhouse, designer MARY GRAHAM raises a new family home in the country, alive with checks, florals, and ruffles

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
LONDON CORDIAL
Veranda

LONDON CORDIAL

MIXMASTER LORENZO CASTILLO DECKS A CHELSEA TOWNHOUSE IN IMMERSIVE PRINTS, RADIANT SEATING, AND A WELCOMING SPIRIT THAT TIPS TO THE WILD SIDE

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
Minding the Manor
Veranda

Minding the Manor

How are Ireland's old noble houses seeding their future? At Ballyfin Demesne, it glimmers in the forests, parklands, gardens, and a way of life that goes back centuries

time-read
5 mins  |
September - October 2023
Perennial Bloomsbury
Veranda

Perennial Bloomsbury

The creative troupe that ruled the English countryside in the early 1900s had a muse wilder than its lifestyle: the Charleston garden, reborn here in four riotous arrangements.

time-read
1 min  |
September - October 2023
ENCHANTED GLIN
Veranda

ENCHANTED GLIN

Along the River Shannon, landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald grows her family's castle gardens into a living wonderland bridging generations

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
Portrait Mode REVISITED
Veranda

Portrait Mode REVISITED

A new guard of English painters leads a resurgence of the deeply personal art form, capturing faces and figures in a fresh light

time-read
1 min  |
September - October 2023
The Bold SPIRITS SPEYSIDE
Veranda

The Bold SPIRITS SPEYSIDE

Scotland's famed whisky region reemerges as a stunning epicenter of Celtic craft. Single malt in hand, writer Tracey Minkin joins gallerist and author Hugo Macdonald to discover its decorative arts bloom

time-read
4 mins  |
September - October 2023