Villa Amber

A solid teak gate opens off a quiet lane in Bingin Hills, and the small bronze plaque beside it reads Amber, Villa 09 — the only hint that ten more houses share the same address at Lumera Hills. Behind the gate the ground lifts, and a short flight of travertine steps carries you up to a pool held above the terrace inside a stone box, its water sitting almost level with the deck. A sculpted white roof curves out overhead like a wave caught mid-break, throwing a band of shade across the bean bags and the low teak table below, and the dry ridgeline of the Bukit fills the gap between the planting and the sky.

The living pavilion sits on one level behind a wall of sliding glass, and with the panels drawn back the terrace simply becomes another room. A long banquette in oatmeal linen runs the length of the space under a vaulted white ceiling, facing a wall-mounted screen and a low timber table. Opposite it, floor-to-ceiling oak joinery hides the whole kitchen — cooktop, extractor, refrigerator and coffee machine tucked behind flush doors — while a honed travertine island runs out into the room with six timber stools drawn up to it. The dining table sits alongside in the same warm teak.

Both bedrooms are king rooms with their own bathrooms, and neither feels like the lesser of the two. Rattan-panelled wardrobe doors and a slim timber headboard set the tone, brass pendants hang either side of the bed in place of lamps, and full-height glass gives one room the pool and the other a planted courtyard. The ensuites are built from the same palette: a carved travertine basin floating on a stone plinth, brass tapware, a run of slender brass pendants along the mirror, and a walk-in rain shower behind travertine mosaic with a frosted window pulling in daylight.

Villa Amber suits two couples travelling together, or a small family who want the beaches and the cafe strip within a short ride but somewhere quiet to come back to. Book it for the raised pool and the outlook, and for a house where both bedrooms are genuinely equal.