Most of the buyers at Eden Island, the new 450 unit residential development in the Seychelles, are opting to use the developer’s totally comprehensive and very convenient furnishing service for the homes that they have bought here.

Eden Island employed Source (IBA) (Interior Brand Architects), a Cape Town based design studio headed up by Evon Smuts, to develop suitable indoor and outdoor furniture, décor, fittings and appliances as well as appropriate colour schemes for all three categories of accommodation available: apartments, maisons and villas.

Eden Island has also employed a full time interior design specialist, Astrid Diliberto, to take these furnishing concepts and work through them on a one-on-one basis with buyers, using an interactive website. Buyers are asked to choose between luxury and the standard ranges.

Diliberto is an interior design graduate from the Cape Technikon University of Technology and it is her role not only to liaise with clients but also to supervise the delivery and installation of all their furniture and fittings.

Within the two basic categories, luxury and standard, Eden Island then offers three interior design/furniture styles. These are “Seychelles Now”, which, as its name implies, is contemporary with a strong Seychellois flavour, “Plantation”, which harks back to the traditional colonial styles found on the island, and “Island Light”, which offers a more classical, albeit modern, look.

Owners are then asked to choose from four colour “ways”, all of which, like the furniture, have strong Seychellois associations. The four colour “ways” are Aqua, Forest, Driftwood and Sunset Orange. Thus far Driftwood, which has pale, neutral, light-reflecting colour tones, has proved the most popular colour choice.

Another service offered enables buyers to select complete audio-visual packages including televisions (all with LCD screens), music centres, iPod docking stations and DVD players. Drawings and photographs of all the various options on offer can be viewed online by visiting www.edenislandliving.com.

As the Seychelles have limited manufacturing and supply facilities, most of the items are being sourced from the Far East and the Philippines, but some of the appliances and equipment come from South Africa.

Once the sale of a unit has been confirmed, the buyers are supplied with a unique reference number and password which enables him or her to order online. They are, however, able to discuss their choices either face-to-face or over the telephone with Diliberto.

“It has to be emphasised that our service is all-embracing,” said Diliberto recently. “It includes all cutlery, crockery, kitchen equipment, bedding and linen. What is more, there are no extra costs for packaging, transport, customs clearance and the like, these are all included in the service. We can also be very flexible: it is perfectly acceptable to have different styles in different rooms.”

Craig Heeger, CEO of Eden Island, has stressed that the selection of appropriate furniture and fittings is a key to the success of the Eden Island development.

“We went to great lengths in discussions with our architects Dennis Moss and Associates to ensure that the building styles evolved for this unique project should be genuinely Seychellois, suitable to an area where many of the homes still reflect French, Malaysian and Indian influences. Having achieved this, it is absolutely essential that the interiors, too, are appropriate and harmonise with the islands’ cultural and ethnic heritage.

“I think we can now safely say that we have developed a truly acceptable furnishing solution, one which has been welcomed by the majority of our buyers, many of whom are high net worth individuals and very discerning in such matters.”

For further information contact Astrid Diliberto on 021 683 3568 or email astrid@edenisland.sc.