Skip to main content

Jack Diamond's tropical living room.Tom Arban

A founding principal of Diamond and Schmitt Architects, acclaimed master builder Jack Diamond has designed the award-winning Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, a new symphony hall for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (opening in September) and a new opera house for the Russian city of St. Petersburg, complex projects all. But when it came to creating a Caribbean retreat for himself and his family, he designed a tropical beach house he called Simplicity. "The trick in the tropics is to be clean, cool and simple," explains Diamond, whose living room, his favourite in the house, is deliberately spare in design to allow the majesty of the long, pink-sand beach and large conservation area, seen just beyond the shuttered windows, to shine through. "It is truly a simple beach house," Diamond says. "Building it was a dream project."

1. THE PALETTE

"I wanted simplicity, comfort, connection to the outdoors and a cool atmosphere. Hence the white and light-blue colour scheme."

2. THE SHUTTERS

"The light-blue shutters are in contrast to the coral-coloured stucco. The plaster colour, mixed by myself, was achieved using red sand, white cement and a pinch of yellow colouring."

3. THE ART

"Given the corrosive salt atmosphere, the art is almost all in reproduction form and includes Matisse and Beaux Arts drawings. Some of the silkscreen work is by our daughter, Suki."

4. THE BOOKCASES

"They are really niches in the plastered masonry walls. All the classics are there, as there is really time to read them; there is also a collection of early travellers' diaries and journals in Africa, the Middle East and India. I also have books on tropical plants, local birds and fish life as well as a number of contemporary Canadian, English and American authors. I have a fondness for good whodunits, from Georges Simenon and Josephine Tey to John le Carré."

5. THE FURNITURE

"The sofas and soft armchairs are arranged around three sides of a big, low coffee table. This makes conversation and gatherings congenial. You can sink into the deep sofas and put your feet up on the coffee table. Most sofas aren't deep enough for comfort. I bought these at [Jasper]Conran's Habitat store in Boston. All the soft chairs are slip-covered in either denim, cotton duck or linen for easy washing and maintenance. Most houses on the island, including mine, are rented out when not in use by their owners, so low-maintenance fabrics are key."

6. THE FLOORS

"Given that the diurnal and seasonal temperature range is only about 5 degrees Celsius, the floors are also stucco on concrete. The floor surfaces are smooth and the exterior walls are rough. Interior walls are smooth stucco painted a flat white. The rafters and board tray ceilings and all door and window frames have been painted a high-gloss white."

7. THE VIEW

"I grew up in Natal in South Africa, which has a subtropical climate and is on the Indian Ocean, so the climate and vegetation and fruit trees [here]are all very familiar; they are what I grew up with."

Interact with The Globe