The villa in paradise

On the untouched paradise of Tiwi Beach where pure white sands and untouched beauty abounds, the unique home fringed by swaying coconut palms and unique flora and fauna speaks the splendour that qualifies the description of resort than a private residence of Mike Aussie and Sabine Funk writes Kelai WANJIRU.

In Mombasa’s tranquil South Coast, on the beautiful beach popularly known as a cottage country is the stunning and inviting home that oozes the gem of opulent living. Located on the stunning Tiwi Beach, one is spoilt between the view inside the home and outside. Offering a lifestyle that can only be imagined, the home offers a fantastic view of the Indian Ocean and indigenous greenery.

Just north of Diani Beach on Mombasa’s South Coast and 17km south of the Likoni ferry, Tiwi Beach is relatively isolated and it is with this in mind that Mike and Sabine Aussie who are very private, chose to build their home. Their expansive home is uniquely secluded in the very aspect of the word. As one walks through the corridors of their awesome home, one can’t help but see and feel the luxury and extravagance of every detail that went into the building of the spacious living environment.

The home, built with the environment in mind, utilizes a lot of nature’s goodness and easy to soak up in rays of sunlight are evident in every room of this fabulous development. The interiors are sterling as the level of creativity stuns even the home-owners. One is definitely stunned as they walked through the rooms and corridors of the home, we were so awed by the immense space and calming colours that instantly soothed the senses and lifted ones spirits.

The home, a concept known as Keringet Estates occupying an immense 25 acres, is owned by Mike & Sabine, an inspiring and talented couple who also own Funzi Furniture. As Mike and Sabine clearly stated , “our ideas were simple, our interests were simple”, the concept revolved around putting up a development that catered to people with similar interests and were very intent on living a healthy lifestyle and cared for the environment. Their home has a vibrant mix of air, light and warm earth colours.

Their home, which forms part of the estate, occupies one acre and offers absolute privacy and round the clock security. It is interesting to note that every other home also occupies one acre and each living environment with so many amenities and facilities is uniquely built to suit each person’s taste and preference and offers pure indulgence.

One of the unique aspects of the estate is the fact that although there is a single wall around the complex, there are no fences erected between the houses and no home is visible to the other. The complex also has a common garden area with an unspoilt view of the beach built with a classic design where home owners can entertain guests, have barbeques, and share a love for good food and wine. The estate discourages keeping of pets and no one is allowed to cut any trees. How is that for conserving the environment?

As one approaches the estate, which is a fusion of the Swahili and traditional African architecture, the indigenous forest, orchard and vegetable gardens will take your breath away. The homes which have provided employment to many locals in the area, have floors made from locally mined stone and polished with natural wax, all have Swahili lamps in every room and a lot of wood has been used in the development.

Sabine, who offers the unique feminine touch in the homes, wanted the feel of a tropical Africa in the coast and she was able to achieve all this by using purely local labour, expertise and materials.

The interior décor of the home is one to behold as it is as much unique and beautiful as it is environmentally friendly or “sound”. As one will notice from the décor on the walls, old wine bottles have been decoratively inserted into the walls. From their experience of designing and building furniture, came the expertise in building these award winning villas.

The story of the bathrooms is one humorous one that can be told over and over again. As told to us by the couple, Sabine wanted a very large, spacious bathroom with a custom bath and lots of glass and mirrors – any woman can identify with this, while Mike wanted a manly space, so a few weeks into the building of the bathroom, he cleared a bush about 20m up the hill and started putting up “his” bathroom that was to resemble a German sub-marine with visible pipes that could be easily fixed. He also wanted it to be spacious, open and have a view of the ocean and the golf course. He did not want metal or glass windows, wanted a power shower and as much wood as possible was to be utilized. As this development took face, Sabines’ bathroom was done and she started taking interest in “my bathroom”. She would come over to my new construction and start offering some good sound German engineering advice. I had wanted to put in a small waterfall with a fish pond just near the window and after a few disagreements, the fish pond ended up as a Jacuzzi and after a brief spell in the steam room at the Presidency Golf Club in Mumbai it was decided that our own steam room would be necessary. It was eventually positioned at the other end of my bathroom. It was becoming obvious that our one bedroom cottage was becoming a little more like a one bedroom castle, and everyone knows all castles require a kitchen. So the bathrooms were joined by a kitchen.

A truly nature inspired development, the couple have a lot of wildlife like the Dik Dik, duiker, bush buck, bush babies, mongooses, wild pigs and many monkeys. The owners have no trouble with the monkeys at all. Every evening the monkeys can be found at the golf hole practicing summersaults down the fairway. The man-made lake also attracts a lot of bird life.

Sabine owns three horses so a real African makuti stable had been built for their comfort.

The Keringet Concept is in full swing and very pleasing to the eye too. A novel and refreshing idea with a very warm, unique ambience!

He notes that storage is another important consideration with regards to the appearance and convenience of the bathroom. “The basic rule of thumb is to store items nearest to their point of use,” stresses Doshi adding: The ideal solution is to provide adequate storage alongside the bath for toiletries and fresh towels. Storage above and below the bathroom vanity is also very important to store items that are used regularly, such as toilet paper, make-up, as well as other grooming paraphernalia.”