Faith Hill And Tim McGraw’s Bahamas Home Took A Village To Finish

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have been together for 20 years. For most famous couples — or any couple for that matter — 20 years is an achievement. Now the country music superstars are opening the literal doors to the home that their love built. It’s a little slice of heaven in the Bahamas, which they call “L’île d’Anges” or The Island of Angels.

According to Architectural Digest, the country stars purchased the 20-acre private island in 2003. Tim shares that at the time there was just a little shack on the property. When the couple decided to buy the island, those living on it “just floated the shack away.”

Meanwhile, the couple didn’t move into their private retreat until 2012. The house, which took nine years to finish, consists of a collection of eight distinct “pavilions,” which were connected by thatch-roofed loggias.

“We were a little bit naïve, possibly, as to what the undertaking really meant,” Faith and Tim shared with Architectural Digest.

“We set out to build a house. We had no idea we had to build everything else. We basically had to build a little town.”

Tim clarifies that they had to build staff houses as a shelter for the original construction workers and the current caretakers.

“You’ve got to have staff houses. You’ve got to have infrastructure [for the construction workers]… Water. Electricity,” shared 50-year-old McGraw. “You don’t quite put all that together at first.”

The couple sought the expertise of architecture and interior design firm McAlpine, which had previously worked on their homes in Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee. Architect Bobby McAlpine and his partner, Greg Tankersley, designed the compound, considering their clients to be creative artists who need all the inspiration they can get to be able to create music.

“In its raw state, the island was already otherworldly, this clear water and white, white sand,” said Bobby. “I thought, ‘In paradise, you live in ways you can’t live in civilization.’ So every room is a separate building. You can bathe outdoors or climb a tower and feel that you’re being lifted up into the air. All these sort of romantic ideas, we got a shot at doing here, and we took them.”

For Faith, she explained that she wanted to feel connected to the outside. She loves the rawness of the island and how their home complements its surroundings.

“We wanted it set up so that when we brought people down, they’d get the same feeling that we got when we first came,” Tim shared. “The same reaction to the pristineness of it, to how relaxed it feels. The house is functional, but it really blends into the environment.”

Interior designer Ray Booth didn’t have to look far for his inspiration in designing Faith and Tim’s home. The house is bleached-out white all throughout, offering a “clarity and cleanliness in its aesthetic” and in some parts where there’s color, it reflects the beautiful Bahamas waters.

“We wanted everything to feel a bit cobbled together,” Booth says, “as if you washed up on the beach and had to figure out a way to decorate the house.”

Hill, who has obviously found contentment in their island of happiness, says that they are not planning to improvise at all. Having been around the world for most of their careers, they now consider their home in the Bahamas “a special place we couldn’t find anywhere else.”

McGraw couldn’t agree more declaring that the house still takes his breath away.

“Every time we land the plane and walk onto the beach and head up to the house, we turn to each other and say, ‘This is the best place in the world.'”

Meanwhile, Faith and Tim would spend much of this year touring North America for their “Soul2Soul” show. Moreover, they are also working on their first-ever album of duets, which is slated for release in the fall.

More images of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s beautiful retreat can be seen here. The video below offers a peek into their Bahamas home as well.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]