Villa Ba’an

Villa Ba’an announces itself with a wall of dark breeze blocks, a staghorn fern trailing over the gate and a plaque that reads Villa Ba’an, set on a paved forecourt in Canggu. The timber door opens onto green: a narrow planted courtyard, banana leaves pressing against the glass and, straight ahead, the pool. The living room is light and generous, with a long linen sofa on a teak frame, a feature wall of split grey stone around the Smart TV and a collection of woven plates climbing the white plaster. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors slide back so the room and the pool deck run together.

Cooking here is a pleasure. The kitchen is fitted in warm timber, with a window for a splashback looking into a fern-filled light well, an oven, a full fridge and a stone-topped island where three timber stools face the cook. A dining table for eight with woven-back chairs stands between the kitchen and the garden glass, and just outside a tiny courtyard holds a round bistro table and two chairs, the place for a first coffee before anyone else is up. Pendant lanterns of rattan hang over every table, and arched doorways soften the clean lines of the house.

The three bedrooms each rise into a pitched ceiling of dark timber boards. One is entered through a sliding barn door of solid teak and has a macramé hanging above the bed; another has a round woven mirror and a lounge chair with a footstool; all have built-in wardrobes faced with rattan, lavender cushions, a bench at the foot of the bed and air conditioning. Each bedroom has its own bathroom, where a freestanding stone bath sits beneath the window, twin basins share a floating vanity under arched mirrors and a rain shower hides behind glass.

The pool is the centrepiece outside, its turquoise water curving around a planted island from which a gnarled frangipani grows, so you swim in the shade of its branches. A covered terrace under bamboo battens holds an L-shaped outdoor sofa and a chunky timber coffee table, screened by a breeze-block wall and climbing plants, and teak loungers with striped towels wait at the far end of the deck. At dusk the garden lights come up and the house glows through its glass. Staff clean every day and tend the pool and garden, and the concierge books tables, transfers and tours.

Villa Ba’an is a brand-new three-bedroom house for families and friends who want their own pool, generous bathrooms and a kitchen that invites cooking, with Canggu’s cafés and beach clubs about ten minutes away. Bigger group? Take Villa Hanua next door as well.