Unbelievable Transformation: Beautiful Indonesian Home Design
In today’s article, we will be featuring an 8,000-square-foot property facing the beautiful lake of Perdana Lake View in Cyberjaya. Farah Michelle Kimball, humble owner of this grand Javanese house, is a writer born in Washington, DC. She studied in Iran, resided in Bali, and currently chose to continue her globetrotting life journey in the tropics of Malaysia. The Indonesian property is designed by Farah herself, with the ingenious guidance of her designer-architect friend, Encik Osman.
“I’m Farah, also known as Michelle Kimball. I spent most of my life living in Santa Barbara, California. Not that long ago—maybe 15 years ago—I moved to Bali and bought a very beautiful property that sort of revealed itself to us after. From there, I started to really do a lot of interior design and architectural design. I’m also a writer, but art and design have always been a passion for me.”
“Most people wanna show off that they have a big house. That’s the last thing I wanna do. I think what I did here would be almost impossible to recreate. Yeah, if I had known… if I had known…” shared Farah Michelle Kimball.
The inspiration emerged when Farah and her family faced an unconventional choice – to either demolish their cherished residence in Bali or carefully disassemble and relocate it? Deeply valuing the use of natural materials that had been sourced for constructing the home, she found it difficult to surrender to the constraints of time and the notion of destroying a house in Bali crafted from an abundance of beautiful timber.
Consequently, she resolved to transport the wooden elements as they embarked on a new journey. Little did she know the challenges that she was going up against.
“It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing because we had sold this property, and we were told that if we wanted those old houses, we would have only three days in which to take them down—which is impossible. But we were able to get 50 people to do this in three days. And you know, over there in Bali, it’s mostly women who do this hard labour.”
The most astonishing part of this project is that this house was an existing home built in Bali 14 years ago. It was then torn down part by part, bit by bit, and rebuilt here now again in Malaysia. How crazy is that?
“It took three years, every single day, having to be on top of it all the time. I am so grateful because the Indonesian workers were amazing. So I was deeply appreciative of them and what they could do,” explained Farah Michelle Kimball.
Before she went to Bali, Farah was a peace activist working on global peace issues.
“So my focus has always been on peace, and I love to create spaces that people feel really good in. So you know how satisfying it is and you know, mostly when people come in here, they just say, ‘Oh wow, I feel such a serene presence and everything.’ So it’s also generating peace, it’s all connected.”
“In Bali, doors and gateways are very special – you know, mystical and spiritual.So we have that one gate out there. We started with small hedges, but they grew and they grew and they grew. And the gardeners often times wanted to cut them off at the top because they were getting so high. I said no. One of the reasons it was because that almost everywhere, from up there, you see a lot of greenery outside the windows. From the outside, you can’t even see the house—and that’s fine with me.”
Farah Michelle Kimball shared with us, “And then also on the outside when you come in. This is like a total, you know, nice environment. You can sit on those benches out there and it’s very charming and nice. It’s a kind of a magical sort of Bali style garden. The front of the house is totally different from the back of the house. If you go across the lake, it looks like a completely different image.”
“We planted these beautiful jungle-like plants, and they took off on their own. They just do really well. There’s heliconia and ginger fruit, so we got nice pops of color. This is like one of the most beautiful parts here.”
Both Joglo and Limasan houses represent the rich cultural heritage of Java and showcase the skillful craftsmanship and architectural wisdom of the past. They offer unique and practical design elements that continue to inspire architects and homeowners today.
Farah Michelle Kimball said, “The Joglo is very special because of all the wood carving up there. And the more elaborate the wood carving represents the higher the nobility of the person who owned the house. A Joglo is made without any nails— and it all fits together like a puzzle. It’s a very traditional Indonesian structure with a very recognisable roof.”
“I wanted the whole house to have a lot of natural light. So even in the Joglo, where they traditionally do not use much glass, and certainly not up above where I put it, I had a concept so that you would never need to turn on a light in the daytime—not even in the bathroom.”
“I’m charmed by the light blue, the red and the silver and the pineapple carving and all that and even if, you know, their condition like – isn’t so perfect, I still like the look of it. It adds a little bit of something different inside the Joglo.”
“The upstairs, even though it looks like it’s a wood structure, it’s actually got brick on the outside, except for the loft. Indonesian Limasans are only one storey but we made ours two storeys here because we needed the extra space. And then we made the roof like I said, to kind of mimic the Joglo so it’s just a bigger space. The Limasan is simply just more rectangular,” shared Farah Michelle Kimball.
“The contractors we talked to wanted to have a ground floor superstructure – cement superstructure and so then, that’s why we used the upper floor for the traditional wood houses even though we’ve used all the panels and things down here so it should all go together.”
The Balinese bathroom design is always distinguishable and commonly incorporate natural materials like stone, wood, bamboo and rustic repurposed furnitures and organic ambience. These materials not only reflect Bali’s natural surroundings but also contribute to the sustainable and eco-friendly aspects of Balinese architecture.
“Because we couldn’t do completely outdoor bathrooms here, so I put a lot of plants in this one and that’s why it had to have big windows. So I was kind of mimicking those beautiful outdoor bathrooms that we had in Bali. In Bali, we had the ironwood shower stand, sink stand already made there, so we brought them here. Basically just to mimic the outdoor so I used a lot of the pebbles.
No one knew how to do the pebblework here. They knew how to do it with small stones but they didn’t know how to do the big one. So by the third bathroom, I was instructing them on how to do it because I watched enough videos for things to see how to do it,” explained Farah Michelle Kimball.
“Of course, the solid Riverstone bathtub—it’s not cement. It’s carved from a giant boulder. And you know, the Onyx sink—it was when I saw that Onyx sink, with all its beautiful patterns, that I thought was amazing,” shared Farah Michelle Kimball.
An element of surprise in this property is that every door I open leads to either a bewildering bedroom or an artistic Balinese bathroom. Speaking of doors, can you make a wild guess how many doors there are in this house?
We were informed by Farah that she salvaged a total of 99 doors, and most of them are operable—be it for the entrances, closets, cabinet doors, windows, and even a few left for wall paneling.
“I actually collected doors in Indonesia as well. Some of them are quite amazing. There’s even an Art Deco door—I don’t know if you noticed it upstairs. Then, of course, all these intricately carved doors and portals, which I think are incredibly difficult to find these days. We did design around these pieces of wood.
Most of these panels were originally the indoor-outdoor walls of small, traditional Indonesian houses. We used those dimensions in our design. For example, this gateway here dictated the width of the hallway. We have a very wide hallway, and the other rooms were also designed so that the doors and panels could fit. That played a huge role in making this home a spacious place.”
“I really appreciated the Javanese carved work, the geometry and the slightly more simple designs, if you can call them that. I just appreciated what they did, you know, these are simple people who made these beautiful carvings. And they put different elements together and it all works. Even though I got the Joglo structures in Bali, they’re not the typical Balinese style. But they call this whole house ‘Bali style’ because of all the wood and plants and everything.”
“I truly appreciate the ornate details and refined artistry of the teak wood furniture and stoneworks – especially the freestanding Riverstone bathtub and basins. These embellishments add a touch of elegance and cultural richness to the design.”
“You know, there’s an island in the kitchen and this big counter and they’re both solid made out of teakwood of science labs. You can tell because there is an indentation where you could – someone could sit. Back then, the wood they used most was teak wood. Now, teak wood is super expensive here and not as available, even over there in Indonesia anymore.”
“Well, I went to a secondhand place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and I just saw these pieces and I fell in love with them. To me, they’re much more beautiful than any modern pieces I could have had. I mean, I like modern things too, but this was like so overwhelmingly aesthetic to me. And then the ox cart – they’re teakwood. Can you believe they used to use teakwood for ox carts?
Like this table, I saw that someone in Bali had this table carved out like that, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s you know, that’s very unusual!’ So I had him do it. It’s over three meters long.”
“At that secondhand place, they had three boxes of [teakwood tiles]. They asked if I wanted them, and I immediately said yes. I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve never seen them anywhere else. How unusual to have teakwood tiles! So the teakwood is so unique, it’s got holes in it, but to me, that looks like, very beautiful, very unusual. So you know, you have those pots over there, with the holes in them—I don’t know, I just find them more beautiful than if they were perfect.”
“And those mirrors—I found them so unusual-looking. To see a frame that’s kinda just all over the place, but I thought it was quite aesthetic, so yeah, I got quite a few of those. Many of the doors and items actually got weathered over there. They weren’t properly protected in the very beginning when I first got them. And they didn’t look great when I saw them. However, thanks to some wonderful, masterful carpenters, they were able to sand them down, polish them, and make them look like new almost.”
“Now we had – I had a whole lot of extra pieces of carvings, so I made that art piece on the stairwell. And we put it together. The carpenters could do just about anything with the wood. This cupboard here – it’s from various parts that they put together.”
“You know in general, the size of the people is smaller, and so we would have to be ducking our head if we went through some of them. So I talked to another architect and he said you know, no problem and he knew exactly how to adjust the height—too low, and people could trip; too high, and it wouldn’t work. So we made sure the level was just right, and now, no one even notices that they’re stepping over.”
My favorite spot in this Indonesian inspired property has to be the tower deck. Perched at the top of the tower, it overlooks a mesmerizing view of the serene lake, disturbed only by the occasional splash of a fish. This daydreaming deck is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the city.
“It’s very lovely now—you can enjoy this huge patio up there, and the view is not obstructed at all.”
“I think even in Malaysian architecture, they use a lot of interesting elements to keep the houses cool. I actually keep the windows open at the top, because you know, even in traditional Malaysian architecture, it’s built that way so that the hot air you know, goes up.
So I think there’s a lot you could learn and plus, the aesthetic is quite interesting so yeah, I do think it would be great to incorporate some of that knowledge of those houses and why it was made that way. I think it could help not having to use as much air conditioning and that kind of thing. I think there’s so much you can get from upcycling and using traditional ways,” shared Farah Michelle Kimball.
Yet another astonishing episode featuring one of Malaysia’s most extraordinary homes, taking full advantage of the tropical climate. Most houses in Malaysia are built with large window openings to allow for natural lighting and potentially a great view connecting to the outdoors. However, we find most openings often being covered by curtains and blinds.
We hope some of our videos can convey a message across to all our viewers to be courageous and like-minded to learn to appreciate what’s there for us in this tropical environment we call home. Learn to appreciate the rain, sun and tropical breeze connecting to nature.
For more beautiful green houses in tropical climates, don’t miss out on the Floating Treehouse and the R House.
Thank you for taking the time to read this Article. Stay tuned for more updates!
