Client: Michael Hou, Tahiti, French Polynesia
A tap on my shoulder at a 25th high school reunion resurrected a childhood friendship that had lapsed for decades. After a few hugs, I learned that Mike was living in Tahiti. Feeling so fortunate to have reconnected, we vowed to stay in touch and visit often. It helps that Mike is a pilot for Air Tahiti Nui Airlines!

My most memorable trip to Tahiti occurred at Mike’s 50th birthday party. I not only planned to surprise him by attending, but I would extend my stay to help him with final touches on the house he had been building.

On my flight from LAX, I wondered in what architectural style it was built .... British Colonial filled with Indonesian mahogany? A thatched roof hut? A Victorian with a big white porch of the Colonial era? I finally realized that it didn’t matter as anything built in the Tropical Style - whether South Seas, West Indies, Gold Coast or Ivory Coast - would depict a mood and philosophy shared by many a soulful romantic, including me.

Since Mike's party was a surprise, it was his mother who picked me up at the airport - just as she had picked me up every day at St. Apollinaris grammar school so many years before. The tropical air hit me as I hopped into her classic 1963 Porsche 356C, aka "the bathtub", and for the next 2 weeks, I seemed to walk and talk in slow motion. We drove through scenery of volcanic mountains, high waterfalls, lush greenery, turquoise water and white beaches.

A delay at LAX had caused me to miss the initial "Surprise!" so with the party well underway,  we snuck in just as Mike was proposing toasts to each of his friends. Then, like in a movie, I came into his field of vision. Luckily at 50, one's heart can take 2 surprises in 1 evening.

What is the Tropical Style? As far back as 1856, designer Owen Jones yearned for a serene connection with nature. 
Paul Gauguin, the most radical of the Impressionist, dreamt of finding “ancient, sublime, religious things” in Tahiti. Running from the Industrial Revolution, Gauguin sought a more natural, organic, minimalist lifestyle where his surroundings and possessions would be primitive, textured, imperfect, and exotic.

Many islands were influenced by European design during various Colonial periods such as Spanish and French in the Caribbean; French, English and Dutch in the South Seas. Tropical paradise can also be found in the Far East where tansus, mats and shoji screens are commonly used. The Ivory Coast has a tropical climate where animal motifs in ebony and ivory (faux ivory!) add flavor to their design. In the West Indies, the color scheme tends to stay white and beige with dark, heavily carved and lathed woods. If you want to recreate a tropical design and have your heart set on color, then let an organic landscape or even an authentic Hawaiian shirt be your inspiration! Batik and Ikat patterns also work. 

Our Color Scheme:
The morning after the party, Mike and I, and his zoo of cats, dogs, and chickens sat down to a large pot of glorious black coffee and crepes topped with luscious fruit leftover from the party. We sat in his indoor-outdoor living room overlooking the southern Pacific Ocean. Given that I was about to spend two weeks in these surroundings, I don’t know if helping Mike was my gift to him or his gift to me.
 
I had stayed in his guest quarters the night before - a thatched roof bungalow situated down the gully from the main house - and awoken to sunlight streaming through 6 louvered doors facing the ocean. Mike had left the framing of the walls exposed which seemed natural in this setting. The colors of the pastel bedding resembled a tropical bouquet and popped against the dark toned bamboo floors.

This was the first time that I had a chance to take an objective look at the house. He had followed a Balinese design, using wood and bamboo for most of the structure. There was no decisive color scheme as yet other than the magnificent vegetation at hand with pink, purple, red, yellow and white flowers growing wildly on his property.

While working on our second pot of java, the dogs dashed around the deck into the arms of the ever-smiling Palo. While I had just met him the night before, Palo and Mike met in 1975 when they were both rowdy bartenders at Captain Bligh’s Grill. Palo is one of those souls you bond with immediately. Possessing a rare combination of free-spiritedness and an unwavering work ethic, he had built a few of the hotels on the island and also helped Mike with the construction of his house.

Although his interest in the decorating aspects of the house was minimal, his pride in showing me the local shops was surprisingly enthusiastic. By noon, the three of us found ourselves in the one and only paint store in Papeete hoping to trigger some colorful inspiration. To our amusement, it was Palo who fawned over a deep ocean blue color called “Maui”. It was definitely yummy and we all agreed to use it on the guest bungalow’s louvered doors. Since both the blue paint and the dark floors were intense and dramatic, we kept the wood planked walls and exposed framing a simple flat white.

Mike wanted a monochromatic scheme in the main house. With dark brown bamboo floors, reddish-gold bamboo ceilings, and large terracotta tile in the indoor-outdoor living room, our trio moved down the paint aisle to the coral hues.

Mike’s master bedroom also had a bank of louvered doors which he had already stained dark brown to match the floors. We chose a light coral paint for the walls and careful not to call it "pink”, I suggested it for the rest of the house. In the late afternoon, the tones of this color would look like a sunset - although they reminded Palo of a Missile popsicle. In Mike's office, separate from the main house, we paid homage to Gauguin, and painted the walls a beautiful turquoise.

Our Flooring:
We chose bamboo for its durability, easy maintenance, and resistance to moisture and insects - a benefit in the tropics. For those who are “green-conscious“, bamboo is also eco-friendly and highly renewable. And, in my opinion, just as beautiful as hardwood when stained dark.

Given the indoor-outdoor lifestyle of the tropics, we left the floors bare except for throw rugs in the bedrooms - brown and ivory Kilims, that are easily shaken clean.

Our Window Treatments:
Although most of Mike’s windows were really doors, louvered and decorative in their own right, there were a few that needed dressing. On them we hung simple skinny bamboo shades stained to match the bamboo ceiling.

We couldn't help but channel a couple of old movies - Tyrone Power’s “Rains of Rancipur” and Elizabeth Taylor’s “Elephant Walk” when we thought of the master bedroom. Whether accurate or not, we imagined the beds in these movies to be tented with mosquito netting. Since his platform bed did not have a canopy to hang fabric from, we turned to each pair of louvered doors and draped them white linen gauze panels. To this day, I can still see how they swayed with the ocean breeze.

Our Furnishings:
The outdoor bazaar in Papeete was a world market heaven for me - the goods, the colors, the people, the romance. I wanted to ship everything home and redecorate my own house but Mike kept me focused on our mission at hand. Intent upon draping “mosquito nets” on at least one of his beds, we browsed the streets in search of a canopy for the lonely mattress in the guest bungalow. We happened upon a dark, heavily carved mahogany 4-poster that we bought from a happy and animated couple, Hiro and Moeava. As we strolled through the bazaar, we spotted an old Balinese altar. Not knowing where or how to use it, it was nonetheless too original and quirky to pass up. As the afternoon progressed, it occurred to me that the altar could sit behind Mike’s bed and be used as a headboard - an unconventional use but we loved the creative twist.

Accessorizing:
By the end of the afternoon, we had also picked up a large wooden trunk and a few metal rain drums to be used as end tables throughout the house.

It had been a long but productive day of bargains and color schemes and to help us wind down, Palo treated us to a seaside dinner. The salt air was both exhilarating and calming. Still recovering from the previous night, we skipped the menu of sweet drinks with little umbrellas and ordered nutritional noni juice. Palo and Mike’s barbecued pork and my ahi was reviving enough to give us the energy to browse a row of tourist shops on our way home.

While Mike balked at the thought of purchasing at tourist prices, Palo worked his charm on the sales lady who reduced them. By the end of the afternoon, we had arms full of clay pots, bright woven baskets, primitive art posters and a series of large antique maps depicting the South Seas from days long gone. These items, along with the grass shaded lamps and banana leaf ceiling fans that Mike had previously purchased, gave the house just the right dose of Bohemian personality.

My flight to China to start my next project wasn’t scheduled for another week. How lucky could a girl get with such time on her hands, surrounded by warm beaches, delectable beverages, and a couple of guys in tool belts?