Sammy and Adita Bramantyo (and also their son, Amartyo) are always thrilled to go to tropical destination on holiday. What they seek is a place that surrounded by water, overgrown trees, and fresh air. That’s why when the family decided to build a house, the first thought that came in mind is: a home that is cozy and also make them feel like “everyday is holiday”. Just like the places they love to visit.

Located in Bintaro, South Tangerang, the land is about 590 m2. The house itself is about 280 m2, built by an architect friend named Rubi Roesli. This house features a simple yet functional tropical design.

The reason why they didn’t want the whole land to be covered by buildings because they wanted to have more outdoor experience, also they don’t want the walls to be attached back-to-back to the neighbours’. The land is shaped like a diamond with a small face up front, and a large backside. So their backyard is technically a side yard.

What do you and your husband do?
I own a digital agency and I’m currently developing a beer community and news portal called Beergembira together with a few friends. My husband Sammy, owns a clothing company which is themed around music and custom motorcycles called Lawless Jakarta, he is also in a band called Seringai and also a commercial voice over talent. Both of our professions evolve around creativity where we exchange lots of ideas among each other.

Tell us 3 words that describe yourself.
Perfectionist, dreamer, casual.

Tell us about the design concept of your home.
When we built this house, our architect friend spent a lot of times asking questions about us like our habits, where do we like to go on holidays, basically anything that we like to do. Sammy and I are frequent travelers, for work or leisure. When we go on a holiday, we prefer tropical places, be it beaches, islands, or anywhere with coconut trees. We are the type of people who like to stay in a private villa compared to hotel or resort on our holiday. After spending hours of talking, we came to an agreement and decided to build a tropical home with lots of sunlight and surrounded with greeneries.

Where do you get your home decor inspiration?
Among others, we got deeply inspired by the villas we had stayed in on our holidays, also cafes, restaurants, retail stores, and of course magazines and social media like Pinterest. But it’s very different when you see a house on a magazine compared to seeing it with your own pair of eyes. That’s why it’s very important for us to travel and see places. When you found a nice place, you don’t really have to wait for inspirations to come. It comes right there and then.

What is important to you in a living space?
For us, a living space should have lots of direct sunlight and good air circulation. That is why our home have lots of glass doors and windows all around. Every room must have windows, even our bathrooms and storage room have windows. Direct sunlight should come inside the house all day from morning till late afternoon so that we can reduce the amount of electricity used.

What makes you love design?
Sammy and I are visual-oriented people. We love to see anything beautiful, specially things that are related to design. Our daily jobs also design-driven works where we have to think of good design for every aspect in our works. What we love about design is basically because designing is pretty much creating something unique and being different from others.

Where do you usually get your furniture as well as your decor stuff?
When we travel, furniture or antique market is a must-visit place. A lot of our furnitures and home decorations are from central Java, like Solo and Jogja. Sammy grew up in a Javanese family and they treasure lots of ethnic Javanese furniture in their home. We wanted some things to make us feel homey yet feel fresh at the same time. So we combined lots of Javanese wooden tables, cupboards, and decorative items with modern styled chairs, shelves, lamps, sinks, vases, rugs, etc. We also have several old paintings with classic styled frames combined with modern contemporary artworks.

If you can pick one item from your home, what is your favourite and why?
Maybe not an item but rather a spot. Our favorite spot at home is the backyard veranda. We build the veranda big enough to fit a long wooden dining table that we use not only to have breakfast and dinner, but also to work, hangout with friends, and just to sit around to get fresh air while looking at the pool and the greeneries.

Can you share us some tips on decorating?
Don’t always follow trends. Every home should have its distinctive style which reflects the owner’s personalities. To find decoration items you love that are unique and special will help you differentiate the look of your home from that of your friend’s, and buying handcrafted things are always cooler and more meaningful than standard factory produced home decors.

Do you have any collection at home? Why do you collect those things?
We don’t really collect things. I don’t know if buying artworks from artist friends is so called collecting. Well, we have few of artworks that we buy from our friends that we think is cool and maybe one day the artwork will cost a fortune when our friends become famous LOL. We also have some stuff that is more than one piece, such as animal decorations, matryoshka dolls, or Lego bricks; but I don’t really count that as collecting.

How do you usually spend your time at home?
Usually we spend our time together during breakfast and dinner time on our backyard veranda. Our son really loves to swim, so mostly he spends his leisure time in the pool on our backyard. Everyday our activities evolve around the backyard and kitchen area.

Do you have any future plans for the home?
Actually, we felt that our home is not 100% finished, meaning that some of the furniture are not yet fully installed. For example, the guest room upstairs, inside there is only a bed and a rug, no other proper furniture and decoration yet. It’s not that we don’t want to décorate it, but we just haven’t found the right furnitures to fit the room. Moreover, our son’s playroom is now used to store some old toys, so now it just looks like a storage room rather than a playroom. We are planning to renovate that playroom into a working space for Sammy and I to work from home. Hopefully we can make that happen this year.

Last one. What is a home should be…
Comfortable and soulful. It’s a place to relax and to be happy.

Here’s a quick tour inside their resort-style home.

Thank you Adita + Sammy and also Amar!