Island Life: Inspirational Interiors [Hardcover]

The daughter of designer David Hicks and the granddaughter of Louis Lord Mountbatten, India Hicks spent a decade as an international fashion model "before moving to the Bahamas with former advertising executive David Flint Wood." The two collaborated on building, restoring and decorating three homes, as well as a hotel; their book documents the results of their design efforts, and offers how-to tips on getting similar effects. Over 200 full-color photos by David Loftus offer calm, lovely looks at the couple’s Bahaman interiors (as well as a few exteriors and landscapes—along with occasional looks at the photogenic couple and their three children). If not for the authors’ explicitly invoked pedigree and a foreword by Ralph Lauren, this book might look a little plain, with a layout straining toward Williams-Sonoma catalogue quality but not quite hitting the mark. The final page of the book offers information on staying at three of the homes documented herein, including one of David Hicks’s own, which was "designed and built by him in 1969 and completely restored in 2002."
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It's the ultimate escape fantasy: Trade in the rat race for life on a tropical island and all the languid luxury that it evokes. For India Hicks and David Flint Wood, the dream became reality when, after high-profile careers-she as a fashion model, he as an advertising executive-the couple left the city behind for the Bahamas. Five years and three children later, the husband-and-wife team have impeccably restored three houses and one hotel. Fusing traditional European design with Asian, African, and Caribbean influences, the resulting interiors reflect their love of intense color and their keen sense of style-inherited on India's side from her father, the renown interior designer David Hicks, and further enhanced by the family's travels.

In Island Life, the secrets of these sumptuous, unique homes-used as locations for Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, and Vogue magazine, among others-are revealed in intimate detail. With panoramic color photographs, David Loftus captures not only the eclectic combinations of antiques, flea market finds, and modern furnishings, but also the overall ambiance of the tropics. For those who share David and India's dream, this is where to start planning.

INDIA HICKS, daughter of David Hicks and granddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten, spent a decade working as a fashion model in New York and Paris before moving to the Bahamas with her husband, former advertising executive DAVID FLINT WOOD. This is their first book. Photographer DAVID LOFTUS specializes in fashion and design, and is well-known for his work with celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Tamasin Day-Lewis.