I love a creative sink. I have been featuring them for a while here, and we designed our own ‘cantilever’ marble waterfall sink in our previous house. Soneva Jani provides not just another addition to my wash basin compendium, but three distinctively designed ones. A converted literal basin, a subtle carved wooden plank, and a glass bowl (which we also had in our master bedroom at home).
Best of the Maldives: Curvy Sink – LUX North Male Atoll
World Sculpture Day today. In the Maldives, one of the most common places for sculptural aesthetic are the luxurious bathrooms in the super premium properties. I’m a bit of a sink aficionado, so I was immediately enchanted by LUX North Male Atoll’s sink which combined a long, sinewy faucet over an elegantly carved wooden basin.
Slinky sink.
Best of the Maldives: Frog Toilet – Joali
Best of the Maldives: Glass Sink – Cocoon
The bathrooms in Cocoon come with a different type of view. The design is really enchanting and in a way is its own variation of “floating furniture” with the water seeming to hover over the floor below.
Best of the Maldives: Bathroom Sink Stand – Drift Thelu Veliga
A mixture of whimsy gives Drift Thelu Veliga’s sink stands a natural outdoor look indoors by dressing up their plumbing with roughhewn woodwork to give the impression of a Hobbit powder room. Adventure and imagination in every nook and cranny.
Best of the Maldives: Kids Bathroom – JA Manafaru
Maldives kids clubs are packed with miniature versions of the amenities their grown-up parents enjoy during their stay. One of the focal points of luxury in the resort villas are the lavish bathrooms. And JA Manafaru is no less accommodating to its kids club patrons with a restroom designed with their pint-sized scale in mind. A great example of knowing your customer and optimising the customer experience. I bet the kids feel like great big boys and girls when they use the Manafaru loo (and I felt like the Jolly Green Giant).
Best of the Maldives: Drench Sink – Shangri-La Villingili
What I get to uncover on my Maldives tours are the smaller details that really give a resort distinction. While the resort PR departments are all keen to promote their latest Michelin star chef or butler concierge service, these smaller touches are just as likely to impress the guest with a bit of “wow” factor. As any designer will appreciate, it’s the fixtures and fittings which set a property apart.
If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Shangri-La Villingili’s drench sinks get that highest praise. Lori and I have just sold our house and we are about to embark on building our next dream home. Of all the creative and extravagant features we have found in the luxurious world of the Maldives resorts, the one I am going to steal for our next house is Villingili’s sinks.
Drench showers are starting to make their way to the top resorts. They are the latest in the evolution of a sybaritic soaking that started with the introduction of power massage showers and then moved onto rain showers. I’ve seen several of the drench showers, but Villingili was the first drench sink I’ve come across. There is something deliciously sensual about a wafer thin sheet of water cascading silkily over your hands. An unsung water feature in the land of exceptional water spectacles.
Best of the Maldives: Wood Sink – Soneva Fushi
No wood week can go without a nod to Soneva Fushi and its all natural aesthetic. One of my favourite features was this ligneous lave at its main restaurant restrooms.
Best of the Maldives: Adventure Sinks – Six Senses Laamu
Avast me Hearties…swab ye necks of scurvy scum…
Just warming up for tomorrow’s ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’. And the mirror to practice in front of is at Six Senses Laamu where the bathrooms feature treasure chest basins for their sinks. The fixtures, specially made by a Thailand company for Laamu, have a gorgeous old world cachet. The five-star style trend is all contemporary styling, so Laamu’s funky pirate chic motif really stands out.
Shiver me timbers!