Inside Aston Martin's First Luxury Apartments

Aston Martin’s design language extends well beyond luxury cars. From helicopters to boats the British marque has now tried its hand at the luxury home, the latest of which sees a collection of five exclusive homes available for purchase in the enviable 130 William building – New York City’s premier new luxury residential development.

Together with developer Lightstone, architect Sir David Adjaye and Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman have worked select residence’s custom furnishings and architecture.

Adjate is responsible for the entire vision of 130 William – designing both interior and exterior elements – which holds 242 residences at over 244-metres and 66 storeys.

The exception being five fully furnished Aston Martin collaborated homes located on the 59^th and 60^th floors of 130 William with each featuring a private, expansive loggia spanning the entire length of the residence, while bespoke screens divide balconies into a series of distinct zones for dining and relaxing.

Furnishings boast a curated selection of handcrafted materials and textiles from the acclaimed Aston Martin Home Collection by Reichman and Adjaye with other nods to the British marque’s crosshatch pattern – found here in bronze – alongside a smoked glass mirror engineered by Aston Martin and which reflects the city’s skyline.

The flowing spaces combine with the kitchen featuring custom textured blackened oak Italian cabinetry, Gaggenau appliances, marble countertops and a cantilevered Nero Marquina marble top – which acts as additional bar seating.

Bathrooms feature a textured Italian Salvtori marble throughout with the master featuring a solid carved marble bathtub and carved marble double vanity sinks alongside a walk-in shower.

Of the master suite expect an expansive bed with custom cashmere headboard cushions, slender metal detailing alongside bedsides by Formitalia, spacious walk-in closets and wall-mounted lighting by Boffi.

Buyers will have the option of customising one of the rooms in the two-and three-bedroom homes in a racing simulator, an office and library space or bedroom.

As something of a sweetener, owners will also receive the 130 William Adjaye Special Edition Aston Martin DBX in a bespoke colour inspired by the building’s exterior and which features unique elements such as real stone accents, marble inlays matched with satin walnut wood interior finishes and leathers that includes ‘parliament green’ trim and a steering wheel from Aston Martin’s customisation service, ‘Q by Aston Martin.’

Priced from approx. $5.65m with penthouses from approx. $14.8m; astonmartinresidences.com

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Inside Aston Martin’s First Luxury Apartments

Buy the apartment, receive a special edition Aston Martin SUV.

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.