Caribbean Eclectic

The Caribbean Sea and a Banana Tree

I love the Caribbean. And I miss it. All the time now. I try to go home at least once per year. And by home I mean either Barbados or Jamaica. I think Jamaicans and Barbadians alike would wonder how the two places can be home to me. Well, that’s easy. I find all the things I love in both countries: fried fish;warm smiles; lusty,noisy, happy women and their children; charismatic men with the sweetest lyrics, like “baby mi woulda leave my shoes anda yur bed any day”; blue-turquoise, diamond-studded seas; real honest-to-goodness-fresh fruits; and the sweetest little houses I’ve ever seen…

Colonial Architecture, Trinidad

When I decided to move to Brussels it was clear that I had to take pieces of the Caribbean with me. I tried to infuse my home with the colours, textures and the “look and feel” of the Caribbean. I didn’t want to be literal about it: I mean I didn’t want bamboo chairs and colonial design furnishings suffocating my living room. A sprinkling of this and that would do. I am an eclectamaniac and I love clutter and I have to really concentrate not to infuse a big measure of bohemia into every room I design. So, I wanted Caribbean elements, mixes and mismatches, burlap-like textures that remind me of Saturday morning market-shopping with my grandmother and the little burlap sack (aka crocus bag) we used to carry home filled with oranges, mangoes, ripe bananas and star apples.

Tall order for my Brussels home. I love traditional furnishings with a big design twist to help it into the realm of different, unusual, special, me. So I had to really think about how I could get the turquoise of the Caribbean sea and lemony sky and lush banana tree greens into my home.

My friend Eve, a Frenchwoman of effortless elegance and incredible astuteness was the first person to tell me how much the apartment felt like a whole other world to her. The colours made her happy, she said. Well, I felt accomplished. Because to get anyone to step from a dreary Brussels afternoon into a Brussels apartment and to feel transformed to another world seems quite a feat. Of course it may have helped that I was able to add to my kitchen a maturing banana tree.