West Indies Revival Home Showcases Dramatic Juxtapositions

Designer Kate Jackson infused new character into this Wellington house for her clients, even though it didn't lend itself to this aesthetic. “It was a Mediterranean home built in the 1990s,” recalls North Carolina-based architect Craig Dixon, for whom this was the second project with these homeowners and Jackson. In a word, the original home was, yes, glam—but in an over-the-top sort of way. “There was a columned two-story entry, high ceilings everywhere, multiple trayed ceilings in half the rooms, a lot of glass and mirrors, and the house was full of hard angles,” recalls Dixon.

Architect Craig Dixon, along with his colleague, architect Ken Pursley, performed substantial edits on the home. Ceilings were simplified, and out went columns, mirrors and glass. To soften the angles on the exterior, Dixon cut a voluptuously baroque shape reminiscent of Dutch architecture into the entry, giving the house a look he describes as West Indian Revival.

Because the West Indies lifestyle is about the connection between indoors and outdoors, Dixon also opened the house up with fenestration. Many existing windows had been arched in a faux Mediterranean manner, so he squared them off and enlarged them, painting the wood frames in several rooms to look like steel.

John Saladino sofas in Perennials fabric and Bobbin chairs covered in C&C Milano ticking offer cushy comfort around a Bunny Williams Home coffee table in the living room. An antique English console adds an anchoring volume, as well as a perch for vintage lamps. A sisal carpet from Stark delineates the seating area. Art by Georgia Nassikas supports the feeling of casual serenity.

“Architecturally that was a challenge,” says builder Guy Bartels of opening the house to the outdoors. Bartels' crew, including onsite project managers Raymond Fechtel and Dan Bouthillier, was charged with the task, as well as with crafting and installing all the millwork (cabinetry, vanities, custom doors and more). This was because the home’s sight lines made several rooms simultaneously visible from most positions. “The difficulty was making sure all the lines throughout the house were the same,” Bartels says, “even though the rooms had different ceiling heights.”

A pecky cypress barn door crafted by Yellowfin Builders slides to conceal the television in the family room; seating from Worlds Away, Sherrill Furniture sofas covered in Rogers & Goffigon fabric, and a pair of chairs in a Schumacher print, accented with Madeline Weinrib pillows add to the home's extravagance.

To reduce the preponderance of stucco, which, combined with tall ceiling heights, added to the home’s extravagance, he brought in pecky cypress. Applying it to ceilings and walls instantly warmed rooms and brought ceilings visually down to human scale.

With help from in-house designer Ashley Baratta, Pursley Dixon Architecture designed the settee in the breakfast area; Cunningham Interiors dressed it in Aesthetic’s fabric. It joins a table from the owners’ collection along with a Formations iron chandelier and chairs. Drapery sheers by Romo filter in natural light for a soft and serene feeling.

Jackson and Dixon gave the interior envelope a soft white cast. Some of the home's pecky cypress was simply sealed, but most was washed with a diluted coat of the white on the remaining walls. “It took us six days to figure out just the right custom shade,” says Jackson. But it’s the perfect foil for the many 19th-century wood antiques throughout the house.

Custom cabinetry and woodwork, designed by architect Craig Dixon and fabricated by Yellowfin Builders, includes a Dutch-style island leg that enhances the West Indies feel--a central theme for the project as a whole. The countertop stone is from AGM Imports Granite & Marble in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was fabricated by Haifa Limestone.

At this home in Florida, designer Kate Jackson says her clients “are mostly in sneakers, shorts and T-shirts or in riding gear, and there are five rescue dogs jumping on the furniture." Their more social life includes hosting occasional large events and fundraisers. So, says Jackson, “The interiors are uncluttered and unfussy.” She resisted the temptation to fill the expansive rooms with oversize furniture.

RH's Belgian Camelback chairs pull up to a vintage English table in the dining room, found from Rhode Island--where interior designer Kate Jackson is from. A contemporary Visual Comfort & Co. chandelier lights the setting and adds to the already present natural lighting. Romo draperies extend luxuriously from ceiling to floor, adding to the elegance of the space.

An intervention on the ceiling of a long hall leading to the husband’s office imparts a feeling similar to that of the home’s entrance.

Fitting the wooden theme in this section of the house, the desk in the husband’s office was custom-made by craftspeople at IYRS School of Technology & Trades in Rhode Island using boards rescued from the boat pictured on the wall. Atop the desk is a Jamie Young Co. lamp, and in the hall is a Thomas O’Brien Hicks pendant by Visual Comfort & Co, perfectly fitting the office theme.

The owners brought almost nothing with them to this project, so Jackson appointed it from scratch. Her criteria was simple: “With each piece I selected or presented to them I would ask, ‘Do you love this?’ And then we decided where the piece would be placed.”

Builder Guy Bartels and his team executed the millwork in the library-trophy room, where a comfortably worn antique English wing chair from 1stdibs sits atop a vintage rug laid over a Stark sisal carpet, completing the New England feel to the room. Along with an antique tea table, it faces a sofa swathed in Kravet mohair while Schumacher silk draperies keep the sunlight at bay, or let light flood in when desired.

“This is the opposite of glam,” says Rhode Island-based designer Kate Jackson of the interiors she curated for longtime clients. “It’s warm, lived-in, elegant and down-to-earth.”

In the master bedroom, John Derian’s Dromedary sofa for Cisco Brothers sits against an Oly bed dressed in custom linens. A vintage Louis Vuitton trunk rests on an antique Oushak carpet, itself laid over an Elizabeth Eakins rug. The bedside chests are by Noir. In an alcove lives an artwork purchased from a vendor at Scott Antique Markets in Atlanta. All of this fits the design mission described by the interior designer: “ 'The interiors are uncluttered and unfussy.' She resisted the temptation to fill the expansive rooms with oversize furniture."

Designer Kate Jackson felt compelled to counteract the sharp angles of every room. “There were so many octagonal rooms with all these corners,” she says. In many cases, her remedy was installing billowy floor-to-ceiling draperies. She also deployed quite a few upholstered pieces with skirts and rounded, curved or arching silhouettes.

A Formations lantern presides over a Waterworks tub and fixtures. A 19th-century Italian campaign chair found on 1stdibs, a floor candelabrum from a Rhode Island antiques shop, an Oushak carpet sheepskin rug, and Romo draperies are all unquestionably tasteful, of course. But by scaling back its built-to-impress aspirations, the mood is relaxed and comfortable. A dose of glamour, after all, is just a short ride east to Palm Beach.