The retreat is ideally situated in a tranquil cul-de-sac, yet with the area’s famed shopping, restaurants and beautiful beach in close reach.
Meticulously renovated and designed by Zoë, the sanctuary offers expansive facilities to ensure absolute relaxation for unaccompanied female travellers or small groups of friends.
“With all of the spaces I design it’s about the visual, emotional, connection and experience first and foremost,” explains Zoë of her design philosophy.
“As soon as you walk in the door it needs to feel like a sanctuary, and I was first introduced to this idea by Jamie Durie many years ago with his new development of outdoor spaces and outdoor rooms.
“For me, I don’t look at indoor and outdoor as two separate spaces, they are simply different areas to encourage different experiences, feelings and emotions.”
Two outdoor living and dining spaces, an on-site yoga shala, shaded meditation pod, massage bale overlooking a sparkling pool and a calming tropical garden, make up just some of the sanctuary’s impressive facilities.
“The expansive wooden decking creates the warmth and connectedness to the long luxurious pool which needed to be framed, so I chose light stone goddess statues down the side closest to the wall with a gorgeous tropical garden and lights underneath each statue, so at night from the inside looking out it creates such a beautiful feel of peaceful paradise,” Zoe says.
“I loved that the garden was so long and went from one end to the other. As soon as I walked in and saw the space I knew I wanted a gorgeous bale overlooking the pool with draped crisp white mosquito nets – simple, elegant with an experience of luxury relaxation.
“It’s like the middle eye of the garden, where if you look from one end you see the gorgeous gold Buddha head at the end of the garden and from the other end you look through to the pool.”
Each of the guest rooms overlook either the pool or garden, ensuring that the pull of the outside is always there, wherever guests may be.
Key, too, is a sense of locale, and unique touches have been incorporated within every area of the sanctuary to create a personal connection between guests and the space.
“It is important to me that guests connect with Bali,” says Zoë. “I very much look for pieces that I love individually and then bring them altogether to create something beautiful as a whole.
“Some pieces don’t make the cut but most do surprisingly, and the way they made me feel when finding them – like hidden treasure in the back streets – is the way that space now feels for our guests who get to experience it as a safe, gorgeous, embracing, joyful, relaxing sanctuary.”
