We bought the property as a working hairdressing salon. No pool, no backyard worth speaking of, no real outdoor space at all — just good bones, the right location, and a courtyard waiting to become something.
The transformation from salon to villa compound is the project we've been quietly building together for the last few years.
The brief we wrote ourselves was simple: as serious travellers ourselves, what would we want to walk into? Somewhere that feels lived-in rather than staged. Somewhere with the design considered down to the cabinet hardware, but with the easy familiarity of a Bajan home — pots that actually cook, hosts you can actually reach.
The property is design-led and beautifully finished, and it's also somewhere you can actually live for a week — kids in the pool, wet towels on the railing, the kitchen used properly, the gazebo with a table you actually eat at, not just photograph.
Cozy, well thought out, and well situated. The kind of place where you can experience Barbados properly and still feel completely at home.
That's One Maxwell.
A Barbadian husband-and-wife team. He runs operations. She runs design. Together they built the property they wanted to find when they travelled.
Born and raised in St Andrew on the rural east coast, with a background in engineering and operations management.
Most of what I do at work comes down to systems and attention to detail — getting operations to run quietly in the background. Same instincts run through One Maxwell. I'm the one walking the property before every check-in, noticing the things you'd only notice if they were wrong. The 9pm WhatsApp reply with a recommendation, a fix, or a story is usually me.
I'm also handy with a drill — every repair, mounting, and small fix at One Maxwell has come from me. When I'm not working, I'm spending time with family and friends, or watching sports.
Also Barbadian born and raised. Studied Chemical Engineering at UCL in London for four years before coming home. I work in Strategy now — after a few years rotating through engineering, finance, sales and marketing, which is a longer way of saying I see the whole picture of how a business works.
Outside the property, I love family, travel and food, and live for the intersection of those three things.
One Maxwell's design is deliberately editorial and restrained, which differentiates it from the brightly coloured, locally-styled vacation rentals that dominate the Caribbean market. The brief was straightforward: travel magazine spread, not vacation-rental listing.
The property is one coherent design system expressed in two registers. Both units share the same DNA — editorial restraint, brass accents, monochrome with botanical green as the only colour, statement lighting as a recurring move.
Within that shared vocabulary, the Main House leans cooler — charcoal, dark hardwood, brushed brass. The Cottage leans warmer — timber-look tile, oak slat detailing, lighter neutrals, gold accents. Bathrooms invert the rule. Two related design statements in conversation, not one identical aesthetic.
The wordmark started as an architectural decision — a flat white wall at the head of the pool that needed something on it. It became the brand anchor.
Booking direct means working with us — Renaldo and Khadija, the people behind K.R Lifestyles Ltd, the company that runs the property. We reply personally to every enquiry, hold our own calendar, and can be more flexible on rate, on early check-in, on long-stay terms, and on the small asks that don't fit anywhere else.
For now, booking direct is an enquiry-first process. You send us your dates; we reply personally; if we're available, we send a quote and confirm payment. It's a more deliberate flow, and it's the one we're starting with on purpose.