Villa Solani

The gate sits halfway down Gang Gunung Agung 3, a lane so narrow off Jalan Pantai Pererenan that you could walk past it, and behind it the whole plot has been given over to water. Villa Solani’s pool is a slim green channel running almost the full depth of the lot, a timber deck down one side and a wall of areca palm, banana and heliconia down the other, planted thickly enough that the neighbours simply vanish. A low daybed waits at the far end in the shade. The house rises on two levels at the head of the water in raw concrete and teak, so the first thing you see through the glass is the ceiling: honey-coloured battens pitched up into the roof.

The ground floor is a single room, and a well-judged one. The floor drops into a lounge of built-in seating gathered around a solid timber block that does the work of a table, facing a full-height wall of rough-cut coral stone that runs the depth of the house, with a television set quietly into the joinery. Behind it a thick plank of dark timber serves as both dining table and kitchen bar, woven cane chairs along one side, black cone pendants hung low above. The kitchen is timber cabinetry, a stone counter, a slatted wine rack and a fridge, which is enough for smoothies after a swim or a long dinner at that plank, and a slim steel stair climbs from beside it.

The bedroom takes the entire upper floor: a king low on a timber platform, board-marked concrete walls, the teak ceiling again, and glass on two sides so the palms are all you see from the pillow. A live-edge desk runs along one wall with a smart television above it. The en-suite sits behind the bed, two basins carved into a single long slab of dark cast stone with black tapware, full-height mirrors and frosted glass to the shower. Downstairs a second bathroom stands beside the kitchen half open to the sky, with a rain head, stepping stones over river pebbles and a young palm growing against the glass.

The timber deck beside the pool has room for two things: a mat and a massage table. The concierge can supply a teacher for the first or a therapist for the second, early enough that the water is still in shade. A private chef is the other call worth making, since the dark timber plank that works as both dining table and kitchen bar seats a couple properly and the wine rack is already stocked with glasses. With two guests the daily housekeeping is barely noticeable; laundry, on the other hand, has to leave the house, as nothing here washes clothes. Worth knowing before you carry a case up: the steel stair to the bedroom is steep.

Villa Solani is small on purpose. One bedroom, one long pool, one room downstairs that does everything, and a screen of palm thick enough that you stop wondering whether anyone can see in. Couples come here to do very little in particular, and the lane outside makes that easy.