I have to apologize- I’ve been a little MIA on MG Dallas lately because we’ve been out of town on our honeymoon. We spent a week catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation. The past few months have been beyond crazy, so I welcomed a quiet, desolate island that had cold weather (AKA weather that was thirty degrees cooler than Dallas).
After two plane rides, three cab rides, one rocky boat ride, and three trips through customs, we finally made it to the Viceroy Anguilla. It was just the place that we needed to unwind. Since I’m a workaholic, I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that we stayed in a hotel designed by Kelly Wearstler (hey, a girl has to incorporate design into her travels!) and it’s probably not shocking that we also asked if we could get a tour of the hotel the morning after we arrived. We had a day to unpack and settle in and then our tour of hotel de Kelly began….
We met said tour guide in the hotel lobby at 10 am. She started off by telling us the background of the hotel-
The British West Indies property consists of thirty five acres divided between a resort and residences.
Construction at the Viceroy was supposed to be done in three years but just like every project, there was some unanticipated drama. They were having trouble getting a bunch of the materials there. Things were coming in broken from being shipped long distances, among other mishaps. Fast forward five years, and the Viceroy is finally done with construction. Everything has been going great since then and during the year and a half span that it has been open, they’ve had travelers (and celebs) come from far and wide to visit this unique establishment.
The guide also told us why the colors of the hotel were so muted and neutral. The purpose was to have the hotel’s natural elements pop out (sand, sky and water) and to “bring the outdoors in”.
The entrance to the hotel had an intricate stone pattern that was apparently a collaboration between KWID and Walker Zanger.
The lobby looked so different from day to night-
They used a ton of natural materials in the Viceroy. The stones that they used in this hotel were nothing short of AMAZING and were brought in from Italy, Turkey and China.
Kelly had prototypes made of everything before she ordered, so there were no design surprises!
An abundance of silver travertine from Italy filled the outdoor walkways and hotel room interiors…I’d never seen so much in one place!
These petrified logs are from South America. They bought eight hundred of them!
Not only was their bar, dubbed Sunset Lounge, a great place to fall asleep while reading The Help, it also made for some amazing photographs. This Black Rainbow Granite was brought in from China and covered the entire back wall of the bar.
This mirrored bar was right up my alley…
These vinyl upholstered bar stools were a far cry from the typical “icky” vinyl and had such great style…
The bar countertop was made of “new silver travertine” (I’ll explain more about this later when we arrive at Kelly’s personal villa!)
Our guide also told us that they are still figuring out how some of the materials they specified work in Anguilla’s environment/weather. She said that since there is so much more sodium in the air and the sun is so strong, things tend to corrode quicker.
In Sunset Lounge, they installed Iroko Wood on the floor underneath textured jute rugs. They originally specified a lot of teak, but it was too expensive. Our guide explained to us that Iroko wood is the “poor man’s teak”.
White slipcovers covered a lot of the furniture at the Viceroy. I asked our guide if they were nervous about wear and tear (because who wouldn’t be with that much traffic) and she said they were a little bit worried since they only bought one more set of off white slipcovers for the Sunset Lounge!! I have been known to spill a time or two (at each meal), so Ben and I were extra careful when eating on the lounge “beds”.
{The infinity pool..}
Glass railings were used throughout the property in order to avoid obstructing the gorgeous views…great decision on their part I must say!
Also, the teak chairs surrounding the property have since weathered to a gray tone. Don’t worry, this was all planned out from the beginning. If you can believe it, the designers wanted it to have this look, so it was all part of their master plan. Gorgeous!
The silver travertine never ends at this hotel!
It took me a while to realize that these faces were functional! They are wood chairs that face the ocean…sigh….
We then made our way to the Italian restaurant, Coba. It was empty at the time, so we got a really nice close up look at the space.
The limestone flooring and pink shellstone walls were nice backdrop materials for the swanky sculptures that were in recessed metallic nooks.
This photo has scared a few of my family members when I’ve shown it to them, but I actually thought this adobe-looking statue was quite interesting when I looked at it closely. It had coconut hair and a cork breastbone-
Our guide showed us how there are a lot of color variations in the pink shellstone since it was quarried earlier than when they actually purchased it.
The sunburst is the Viceroy’s logo, so in Coba we saw them everywhere- they were in statues and ceiling light fixtures. The ceiling lights were custom-made from Triton Lighting. They got them made in brass so they would have natural patina.
This seems to be Kelly’s signature chair…
The landscaping was done by George Gerban. The landscape is pretty much all green and white (the way Kelly likes it). Apparently she is not a huge fan of colorful landscaping. Also, the guide said that Brad, Kelly’s husband, is very much into landscaping and had revised the design quite a few times so it would be perfect.
Reverb Co. did the signage (company out of Los Angeles). Don’t you just love the men and women’s bathroom signs?
Now let’s go to the spa! It’s truly incredible. There is a pool on its balcony overlooking the ocean and the furniture, upholstery and sculptures in this place are nuts (in a good way).
Now let’s enter Villa 9, where all the magic happens!
Villa 9 is the Villa that Kelly owns with her husband Brad and his father. They stay in this one when they visit (apparently).
Upon entering, you immediately notice a really cool brass light fixture and bronze screen.
Oh look- it’s our friend Silver Travertine again!
Like we always say, don’t be afraid to mix your metallics! Kelly shows that she has no fear of mixing warm and cool tones.
I’m pretty sure I’d be happy with showering outside for the rest of my life if this was my shower-
The living room was my favorite part of the Villa. A dash of soft pink in the pillows, linen upholstery and driftwood lamps were just a few things that caught my eye. Our guide said that the cowhide rug in the living room was starting to curl up a bit at the edges, is getting dirty and going bald. Yikes!
The lamps near the TV are sliced quartz with a lucite base…wowza!!
The guide told us something interesting…that Anguilla really doesn’t have commercial building codes. Can you imagine!
The kitchen was downright dreamy…and after a few days I was really wishing our hotel room had one too.
Such amazing exotic stones gathered from around the world…this one is Black Mosaic.
It’s hard to tell in the photo, but these nightstands are made of a hammered foil…
Some people had commented how the lamps cover the artwork too much (it’s like this in every hotel room)..what do you think- yay or nay?
And as you can tell, they love ambient lighting here!
There’s a luxe dual showerhead in the bathrooms…
Not such a shabby view from the upstairs…
The upstairs houses the Junior Master Bedroom and the Master Bedroom Suites.
Now for the master suite!
The doors throughout are made of a very interesting veneer…
Notice the hanging bed on the balcony…
Look at the size of that closet! I don’t even have that many clothes split between my summer and winter wardrobes, let alone enough to fill it for a one week vacay!
It’s hard to tell in this photo, but “new silver travertine” was used on the vanity countertop and plain “silver travertine” was used on the bathroom floor. I learned that the difference between these stones is that the “new silver” one has more brown in it and the “regular silver” has more gray. I suppose they mixed in both for contrast?
This is a little thing that most people probably didn’t notice (but something that I had to point out) was how Kelly accented the neutrals throughout the hotel with pops of soft purple. All the towels were muted purple as well as the hot tub tile on the balconies of each room. I thought it was a nice touch since it pulled that subtle purple color out of the travertine and inserted it throughout the hotel.
The Viceroy was a really remarkable hotel and I would recommend it to anyone- design aficionado or not. Hope you had as much fun on the tour as we had! Until next time!
EJ Interiors}
