Loft Ludo 3

Gang Yudistira turns off Jalan Pantai Berawa between two warungs, and fifty metres down it a door opens onto a timber deck and a small teal plunge pool. Loft Ludo 3 is built the way Berawa builds now: a hundred square metres over two floors, polished concrete underfoot, a stone-clad wall carrying the loft’s monogram, and greenery spilling over the walls that hold the lane out. Two blush beanbags and a rattan daybed sit along the water, close enough to the folding glass that the living room and the deck behave as one space. It is a compact address rather than a grand one, and breakfast is a two-minute walk away.

Inside, the room goes up rather than out. A skylight lifts the ceiling through two storeys, and a flight of concrete treads climbs the wall on a single black steel stringer, unguarded and frankly sculptural. Below it a grey leather sectional turns the corner under monochrome kilim cushions, facing a screen set on a rattan-fronted sideboard, with a full-height panel of sepia botanical mural alongside. The kitchen closes the far end in white gloss and dark stone, black dome pendants over a solid timber table with black leather stools, two green botanical canvases on the wall and a patterned kilim on the floor. Carved Balinese figures and old timber-framed mirrors keep it from reading as a showroom.

Up the stairs, the single bedroom takes the whole upper floor behind a steel-framed glass partition that looks back down into the void. One wall is left as exposed red brick, the bed set against it under a strip of warm light, with white built-in wardrobes opposite and a black leather armchair beside a window that runs the length of the room above the treetops. Black-out blinds do their work by seven in the morning. The en-suite is grey microcement from floor to ceiling, a walk-in shower with twin heads at one end and a rectangular basin on a dark counter at the other, lit through a slot in the roof.

Staff come in daily to clean, a welcome drink is waiting, and the concierge handles the rest, from airport pickups and a car or a scooter to a cook, a massage, laundry and a table at whichever Berawa restaurant is currently impossible to get into. The warungs at the top of the lane are fifty metres away, Berawa Beach and Finns are about five minutes on a scooter, and Batu Belig and Canggu beaches only a little further. Two guests, one king bed and no children: this is a loft for a couple who want Berawa on the doorstep and a dark, quiet bedroom to retreat to.

Loft Ludo 3 is small, dark-floored and quietly theatrical: a room that climbs two storeys, a staircase with nothing holding it up, and a pool you can reach from the sofa. For two people who want Berawa’s coffee, surf and clatter within reach but not within earshot, it does the job neatly.