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"View Slideshow\n\nIn The Arabian Nights, the ideal of comfort was soft, billowy cushions, zephyrs wafting through waving draperies, the tinkle of fountains and a cool dimness, a welcome respite from the desert glare. In the contemporary Arab world, these conditions tend to rest on a cushion of oil, the excess of which is often mirrored in the excesses of the buildings and hotels that are thrown up for sheikhs and Western visitors.\n\nHow refreshing, then, to find in Bahrain, a small island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, a resort that is luxurious in the true sense of anticipating every need a visitor might have, while presenting a pleasantly unpretentious appearance. The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel Spa comprises a 247-room hotel and\u2014the jewels of the complex\u201423 villas, each with its own beach, terrace and pool.\n\nThe villas were built by the government of Bahrain soon after 2000 to host the Gulf Cooperation Council, in which Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other nations around the region participate. In 2003 Ritz-Carlton was offered the management of the hotel complex. \"Bahrain is a holiday destination for the Arab world,\" says Jean-Marie Lascelles Lloyd, a designer with the Bahraini firm Decovar Orient, which reimagined the interiors of the villas in the summer of 2007. \"The brief was to create a holiday feeling,\" notes the designer. \"The Bahraini government is more tolerant about the cinema and the use of alcohol than many Arab countries, and, combined with accommodations such as the Ritz-Carlton villas, that makes it appealing.\"\n\nDecovar Orient is connected to the royal family of Bahrain, for whom eight of the 23 villas are reserved. The other 15 are now available to the public.\n\nEach villa has three bedrooms, and affluent Saudi families will take a block of villas and stay for several weeks. Guests often bring their own cooks, but the hotel provides each 5,000-square-foot villa with a butler.\n\n\"The exteriors have the peaked roofs, clapboards and gingerbread trim of Caribbean villas,\" says Lascelles Lloyd. \"As it happens, the gingerbread is also characteristic of late-19th- and early-20th-century European architecture in Bahrain.\"\n\nThe designer deliberately chose not to echo the architecture in the interior spaces, but the pairing of vivid hues and dark wood was also a function of his style. For instance, the furniture in the living areas is covered in a vibrant striped fabric in Proven\u00E7al colors because \"we wanted to go wild with color,\" he says. \"I'm more contemporary, and the resort is more colonial, so that's why the interiors are a bit more eclectic.\n\n\"These bungalows are used by heads of state,\" he continues. \"We wanted to make them luxurious in subtle ways. We used unique finishes, such as green and brown Indian slate for the floors, as well as parquetry. The furnishings are a mix of contemporary styles and some ethnic fabrics. There is a collection of Bubble Club sofas and chairs on the terrace of each villa in tan and bright yellow, designed by Philippe Starck.\"\n\nThe art, for the most part, is restricted to images of palm trees, which are emblematic of relaxed warm climes, from Bahrain to Miami to Hawaii. The palm references throughout the villas reflect the lush plantings outside around the pools and terraces. \"I wanted it a bit more timeless,\" notes the designer.\n\nHe also added Asian touches, including teak floors and finishes. \"There's no wood in Bahrain,\" he points out, \"so it's a luxury, and teak is the top class of luxury.\"\n\nWhere some designers might see having to incorporate a television as an obstacle to their plan, Lascelles Lloyd saw it as another opportunity to be creative, designing turnable sections for the cupboards, also made of teak, that separate the master bedroom and the sitting area. \"I'm a big fan of TV cabinets,\" he says. \"I like to make them turn or pop up or raise from the ottoman or some other unexpected place.\"\n\nBy everyone's account, the baths are where the sybaritic existence really kicks in. \"It's what I was most proud of as a designer,\" says Lascelles Lloyd. \"The tub is filled from the ceiling, and the walls are glass. There's complete privacy because of the plantings, but the inside and the outside seem to be one, and the whole experience is like bathing in a tropical waterfall in a castaway movie from the 1940s.\"\n\nIn the living/dining rooms, he also blurred the line between the inside and outside by utilizing large louvered doors that retract. \"In Bahrain,\" he says, \"it's very hot six months a year, but if you're by the sea, it's pleasant.\" The light allowed into the bungalows was a big aid to the designer, who could \"go with dark finishes and be free to use whatever I fancied.\n\n\"I like light and space,\" he adds. \"These are the real luxury, not marble or gold or whatever.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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