WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
There are three elements that can transform a home into a tropical paradise: greenery, water and an abundance of natural materials. This Balinese villa has them all
Not many people would contemplate installing a palm
tree in their kitchen. But restaurateur Ben Jones designed his Bali home from scratch, so he decided to be creative. ‘ When I first suggested it, my architect and interior designer thought I was mad,’ he recalls. ‘But it softens the room.’ He’s completely right. It brings warmth and humour to this interior. And it’s just one of many ‘wow’ features in this spectacular home.
Welsh-born Ben splits his time between Bali and Singapore, where he runs restaurant business The Blind Group. His villa in Canggu, a coastal stretch on the south-west of the island, was completed just last year, and he shares it with his partner Nathalie and their English Bulldog Bill.
Ben fell in love with the site, which is surrounded by rice paddy fields, when he visited with his business partner (who built a very different house on the plot next door). He set out to create ‘a building that was striking and chic, but with plenty of home comforts’. In the Balinese climate, this means something slightly different from what Brits understand by the term: Ben’s home boasts a series of pools for cooling down under the tropical sun, and sliding doors where you might expect to find walls. ‘Bali is all about the indoor-outdoor lifestyle, so I designed the house with that in mind,’ he says. Is the notorious Bali humidity a problem? ‘ We’re very close to the shore, so the villa benefits from the sea breeze,’ explains Ben. ‘The latticed breezeblocks around the house, and the fact that the whole space opens up, mean the building cools itself.’ The ornate brick panels were added to allow daylight in, but Ben has screened them with a jungle of tropical plants to provide privacy.
The natural materials and ocean blues inside the house accentuate its al fresco feel. Working with interior design firm Design 4 Corners, run by Californian sisters Elaina Myers and Susanna Samaniego, Ben had bespoke furniture made from ‘ locally abundant’ materials such as sustainable teak and merbau wood. A huge bathtub was hewn out of a monumental piece of granite, and a slab of suar wood was transformed into an organically shaped dining table. One thing you won’t find here, though, is flooring that links indoors and out – it may be a common trick in the West, but the Bali climate won’t allow it. ‘The elements are severe here – extreme heat and torrential rain – so outdoors we used wood and stone that can take a battering,’ explains Ben. Indoors, the materials have more finesse.
Several other features were borrowed from restaurant designs that Ben has worked on, including the industrial copper lighting, the bar-style seating and the villa’s most luxurious feature, a poolside bar. This is surmounted by a second pool on the roof, which is glimpsed from beneath through glass panels. ‘It’s such a cool space – you can sit with your feet in the water, and the pool above glitters when the sun is high,’ says Ben. ‘Although the villa is very modern, it’s also really connected to nature. That’s what Bali is all about.’ The villa is available to let, head to facebook.com/themandalahousebali
‘It’s such a cool place – you can sit with your feet in the water, and the pool above glitters when the sun is high’