No stranger to the construction business, Wilbert Hamstra began his Indiana development firm right out of high school with a small loan co-signed by his dad. “I just love to build things,” he says. But when he and Peggy, his wife of almost 50 years, decided to purchase and renovate a home on the French Caribbean island of St. Barth’s, they relied on friends better versed in tropical building traditions.“It took some imagination,” says Naples, Florida, architect Chuck Schmitt. “We all fell in love with the view, but we agreed the house needed a lot of work.” The property, on one of St. Barth’s highest peaks, captures postcard vistas of azure waters, distant islands, and cruising watercraft. Chuck’s challenge was to make the home worthy of its awe-inspiring setting.
The Hamstras both worked on a wish list for Chuck. To replace the concrete backyard, Wilbert asked for a serene garden. Where walls crowded living areas, Peggy imagined a great room open to the sea air. Chuck’s design incorporated these requests and more. But to accomplish the task, he had to remove most of the original house.
The new configuration called for four bedrooms, additional baths, outdoor showers, and open-air living spaces, including an infinity pool and outdoor kitchen. The plan focuses on a central gathering space with hallways leading to bedroom suites on each side. “There are no windows in the main living area,” Chuck says. “The climate is easy to live with year-round, and having butterflies floating through the dining room is true to the lifestyle here.”
A fountain stream flows from the great room and connects it to a pavilion, known as an ajoupa, in the garden. “Wilbert wanted a kind of meditation garden, a relaxing, spiritual place where you could look through the house and see the Caribbean,” says Naples, Florida, designer Jeffrey Soffer.
Jeffrey approached this outdoor room the same way he did the rest of the house—by taking his cues from the view. The home’s color scheme—blues, golds, and terra-cotta—comes from the sea, the sun, and the red roofs visible from the site. “I like to use a lot of bright color,” he says, adding that the Caribbean setting and Peggy’s love of yellow made his job an easy one. Jeffrey chose bold prints and hot-hued solids to dress furnishings, cushions, and throw pillows. “No matter what I did to the house,” Jeffrey says, “I couldn’t compete with the view. That’s what makes it beautiful.”
ALSO:
See more pictures of this caribbean paradise.
