The U-shape building creates a courtyard through which the house is entered, a little like a Palladian villa

46-metre superyacht. ‘It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it really stuck in my mind and I wanted to be able to use that in a project one day’, he says.

That opportunity arose a few years ago, when a long-standing client bought a plot of land on a tiny island in the Bahamas. The owners, who have four children, had previously hired John to decorate their properties in england, so they trusted him to devise an interior style for a beach house that did not feel ‘too beachy’. designed by the Miami-based architects de la guardia Victoria, it is on a beachfront site of nearly one hectare and is reminiscent of the eighteenth-century plantation houses more commonly found elsewhere in the Caribbean.

The u-shape building creates a courtyard through which the house is entered, a little like a Palladian villa. The wings comprise bedrooms and service areas, leaving the main body of the house dedicated to places where the family can congregate. The first of these is a large loggia, pillared and pleasantly shaded, and used as an outdoor sitting and dining space that overlooks the courtyard. here is the first glimpse of how John made use of the combination he noted on Valentino’s boat, as wood and cane furniture has been teamed with cushions in blue and white.

While the architects made good use of the neoclassical symmetry and formality, John’s design has softened the edges. enter the ‘great room’ from the loggia and you encounter a large and handsomely decorated space where loose-covered george smith sofas and armchairs seem inviting, while patterned textiles and