We are all creators, whether we realize it or not.
We are all living creative lives. The enjoyment of beauty is a creative pursuit. Seeking out new adventures is a creative pursuit. Being alive is a creative pursuit.
This speaks to our shared desire for a meaningful life, for intentional beauty, for art, design, architecture, and landscape. Decorative, yes, but also much more than that. We want to live among objects that carry story and weight. To be surrounded by things that were imagined, shaped, and brought into being by human hands. This is not indulgence. This is humanity. Since the beginning, we have made art for art’s sake. We have carved, woven, painted, and polished not because we had to, but because something in us insists on beauty.
Bali understands this instinct.
This week in Seminyak, between gallery visits, textile shops, furniture showrooms, and budding new friendships, we studied materials and meaning. A primer on petrified wood, millions of years old, found in deposits across Indonesia. Once living trees some 20ish million years ago, turned to stone through time and pressure. It is humbling to stand in front of something that predates everything you think you know, reimagined as art, furniture, and homewares. History made functional.
In another warehouse, objects from across the archipelago surfaced like buried treasure. Carved doors, fragments, relics that feel haunted - and historic. The past brushing up against dreams of the future. Where will this fit within my project? Is this the perfect piece for my villa? Can I ship this home to Los Angeles?
Lunch unfolded at The Long Table inside the John Hardy boutique, a setting rooted in craft and a stunning place of beauty. We ate surrounded by artisans at work, watching silver wire pulled and woven into the iconic designs that made the brand legendary. Skill. Repetition. Patience. It reframes the value of the objects entirely.
The afternoon drifted through showrooms of curated chaos. Indonesian and Indian treasures at Another Island Living, stacked high and layered deep. You have to dig. You have to touch. This is not retail for the distracted. It rewards curiosity and time.
At Piment Rouge, light takes center stage. Fixtures that feel equally at home in a dream villa in Bali or a Los Angeles lair. Sculptural. Glowing. Impossible to forget. Nearby, a brass emporium so packed to the rafters it borders on absurdity, hand-carved pieces filling every inch. Treasures hiding in plain sight for those willing to sort through.
What makes Seminyak especially compelling is its community of makers who arrived with vision and stayed to build something lasting. Melvin from France, founded an art gallery supporting her favorite artists - and she’s got an excellent eye. Emmanuel, also from France, the mind behind Soo Living, creating interiors that feel global and bold. Lucas from Argentina, whose work carries a different rhythm entirely, but the same clarity of purpose. All arrived with talent, time, and belief. All built businesses that now define some of the most interesting interiors on the island.
Bali still rewards patience, experimentation, integrity, and originality.
Yes, Seminyak is still cool. Not in a loud way. Cool in the way that comes from confidence. From being well established. From knowing that creativity does not rush. Exploring with my design team, we moved through texture, timber, and dust. The best conversations followed. About space. About proportion. About how beauty changes the way we live inside our days.
Bali, at its best, shows us how to live well. Not by accumulating endlessly, but by choosing carefully and honoring craft. By remembering that beauty has always been one of our oldest, most human pursuits.
