Island Life: Inspirational Interiors

The daughter of designer David Hicks and the granddaughter of Louis Lord Mountbatten, India Hicks spent a decade as an international fashion model""before moving to the Bahamas with former advertising executive David Flint Wood."" The two collaborated on building, restoring and decorating three homes, as well as a hotel; their book documents the results of their design efforts, and offers how-to tips on getting similar effects. Over 200 full-color photos by David Loftus offer calm, lovely looks at the couple's Bahaman interiors (as well as a few exteriors and landscapes--along with occasional looks at the photogenic couple and their three children). If not for the authors' explicitly invoked pedigree and a foreword by Ralph Lauren, this book might look a little plain, with a layout straining toward Williams-Sonoma catalogue quality but not quite hitting the mark. The final page of the book offers information on staying at three of the homes documented herein, including one of David Hicks's own, which was""designed and built by him in 1969 and completely restored in 2002.""