The long summer of Playa Palms

Some houses are designed to impress on arrival. Playa Palms is designed for the second week of the holiday, when the bags are unpacked, the children know every corner, and the best hours of the day are spent outside.

MAD Studio planned the villa from the garden in. An old olive tree stands on its own island in a shallow pool, with water running past it in a limestone channel. A timber pergola frames a long dining table and a stone bar, and deep sofas sit in the shade of the slats. Everything outside is built for staying put: wide cushions, warm stone underfoot and ceiling fans turning slowly overhead.

The materials are few and chosen with discipline. Limestone and lime plaster give the walls their soft, sun-washed surface. Oak brings warmth to the doors, the pergola and the joinery. Linen hangs at every window. Against that calm base the studio sets a single strong colour, a deep oxblood, and uses it sparingly enough that it always lands.

Inside, the living room opens straight onto the garden. Sheer curtains filter the light so the room glows rather than glares, and the furniture is low and generous: a deep modular sofa, a bouclé armchair in a timber frame, and pale stone tables you can set a cold glass on without a second thought.

The kitchen and dining room continue the same palette. A brushed steel hood, stone counters and a timber table with sculpted chairs make a room that works as hard for a quick breakfast as for a long lunch. Across the room, the oxblood returns as a lacquered frame around the media wall, set beside a carved timber screen that throws its own pattern of shadow.

Every bedroom is a suite with its own bathroom, and each has a character of its own. The master bedroom is calm and centred, with an oak headboard and a glass panel above the bed that holds the colour of a sunset. Its bathroom is lined in sage-green tile.

In the second suite, a terracotta velvet sofa and a folding screen in smoked glass turn the bedroom into a private sitting room. The guest rooms bring in art and a lighter touch, and the shared bathrooms are finished in burnt terracotta tile. Even the outdoor shower has been given care, with a sculpted mirror and an oxblood vanity set against the plaster wall, open to the planting.

What makes Playa Palms feel complete is consistency. The same stone, the same oak and the same red appear in every room, so the house reads as one idea from the gate to the last guest room. That kind of restraint takes more work than excess, and it is what MAD does best: homes that look effortless because every decision was made in advance.

Planning a summer home of your own? Speak to MAD Studio about your residence.

See every room of the house on the Playa Palms project page.