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Dream House | Designed to Captivate: A coastal sanctuary in St Elizabeth

Published:Sunday | March 23, 2025 | 10:02 PMBarry Rattray - Contributor
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Sensuous architecture, with full-length white curtains as the main visual elements.
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Sensuous architecture, with full-length white curtains as the main visual elements.
A comfortable bedroom.
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A comfortable bedroom.
A most romantic house, with its appealing fabric façade at night.
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A most romantic house, with its appealing fabric façade at night.
A walk-in rain shower bathroom.
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A walk-in rain shower bathroom.
The intimate interior, with its seductive sea deck roofed in fabric, features twin soaking tubs.
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The intimate interior, with its seductive sea deck roofed in fabric, features twin soaking tubs.
Businesswoman Marsha Parchment, the thrilled owner.
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Businesswoman Marsha Parchment, the thrilled owner.
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Heartfelt congratulations are in order for a one-of-a-kind house that was lovingly designed in tandem with the natural beauty of its site, with one goal in mind: to seduce you!

Its sensuous exterior (partly roofed in cloth), flirts with you upon arrival, with its powerfully appealing, hanging, full-length white curtains, creating motion in the breeze, elegance, and a softening of the architecture. These functional fabric panels draping the façade, so integral to the overarching design, weather protects, shades, cools and adds privacy to the continuous verandahs and the building’s interiors. The sunshade sails above also contribute to the intimate look and feel of the open-air deck spaces.

Your senses, as well, are highly aroused inside with the seductive, bohemian lifestyle layout and décor of the two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with their walk-in, glass door rain showers. The passionately crafted all-in-one living, dining, and kitchen space woos you intensely to be at one with the outdoors, stimulating you with a gazebo (with outdoor kitchen), two outdoor soaking tubs, an infinity-edge swimming pool, and a private beach below for leisure pursuits in unison with two outdoor showers. There are also tide pools kissing the shore, several seating and lounging locales, and an outdoor fireplace to gather excitedly around.

The one-acre property, with its 750-square-foot pleasure sanctum, is on a commanding elevation above the coastline, in a remote location, unseen and unheard of by most, in a place called Fort Charles in St Elizabeth.

The house, finished in 2023, is the fulfilment of a dream that began in the planning stages nearly 30 years ago by Marsha Parchment, of Mandeville, an importer and distributor of exquisite bathrooms and tiles, with her late father, along with her mother. A true labour of love, the house went through no less than 1,000 floor-plan changes before they settled on this desirous one for construction! For Parchment, this house is in tribute to a man, her beloved father, who was, and still is, her guiding light.

The real, startling takeaway from this article is that the architecture of a building can be quite simple and effective, like this one, with only an exterior decoration of textiles as the main design visual element. Thumbs up!

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.