5 Steps to Instant Island Style

Knowing my affinity for Bahamian history and that I would find his story an interesting one my father introduced me to John Armaly. John is the grandson of W.J. Armaly who started Armaly Brands here in The Bahamas in the early 1900’s. Operating in a warehouse located on East Bay Street, which then and still to this day is a main thoroughfare on which tourist frequent, W.J. began locally harvesting and processing sponges which would be bailed and shipped worldwide.

To make a relatively long story short, John has recently returned to the birthplace of the business and purchased a home here in Nassau. However, not just any home or on just any property. Fate and persistence would have it that after 10 years of waiting for the original family beachfront property to pass through the hands of a non-relative he would be the one to purchase it. There now stands a house built in the 1970’s by John’s Uncle Thomas, the original family home unfortunately having succumbed to the elements over the many years. Walking the property together he points, with an undertone of affection, to fruit trees planted by his Great Grandmother and the original Bahamian rock wall; the unfinished rough native-stone structures, built flush against the streets create quaint and narrow thoroughfares throughout The Bahamas and street scenes similar to those found in the older quarters of European cities, as defined in A Living Tradition, Architecture of the Bahamas. 

It was during John’s most recent trip I found myself, he and his lovely partner Barbara flipping through Coastal Living: Our Favorite Beach Cottages for interior design inspiration and later scouring local furniture and interior design shops such as Bamboo Bamboo (Coastal Living magazine approved) and Maison Décor & The Pritchard Design Group, just to name a few. Needless to say, this led me to thinking what are some instant and affordable ways to create instant island style in to your home, so here it is, my top 5.

How’s that for a long story, that wasn’t so short?

P.S. Not pictured in line-up, Ikat Throw Pillow available at Etsy.com, $50.00 and Sisal Rug available at NaturalAreaRugs.com, $55.00 – $89.00.