Kerobokan isn’t where you expect to find magic. It’s more scooters than serenity, more warehouses than wonder. Yet somewhere between the clang of steel gates and the scent of rain on hot pavement, mixed with the smell of the subak, a different corner of Bali reveals itself. One built on craft, collaboration, and curiosity. There are no beach vibes in Kerobokan.
I spent the day moving through a maze of creative minds tucked behind unassuming industrial facades, meeting the island’s quiet geniuses. Architects, artisans, and alchemists of design. Each space was a surprise, a world within a wall.
There was Maverick Lee, an artist whose studio feels like a portal to softness hidden within a brutalist shell. Antique tofu cutting boards hang as sculptural art, fit for a palazzo in Italy. Maverick is an “ancestor stone” whisperer, holding relics and listening for their stories, then shaping them into furniture and sculpture that feel charged. You can’t make this up, nor would you want to.
We saw textiles spun from recycled plastic, boucle as soft as silk and destined for refined interiors. Scandinavian design meets Indonesian soul, crafted for the world’s most beautiful spaces.
At STELAR, we watched leather goods handwoven by seventh-generation artisans, rivaling any luxury atelier in Milan. Each piece carries a unique code linking you to the artisan who crafted it, a gentle reminder that beauty has fingerprints. They are single-handedly reviving weaving traditions that are truly endangered.
A family-run furniture factory opened its doors next. Generations of makers shaping wood into timeless pieces in a space the size of a small city. They’ve been shipping their work worldwide for decades. Chances are, you’ve brushed your hand across one of their sofas without realizing it. Your favorite pieces at RH likely came from here.
At the studio of Rizz, one of Bali’s most celebrated artists, we stepped into color and chaos. His muses smiling from canvases stacked against the walls. We talked about the tension between discipline and rebellion, where art finds its pulse. The space feels sacred and unrestrained, wild and inspiring all at once.
Lighting found its poetry too. One designer transforms the most unexpected objects into illuminated sculpture. Innovation masquerading as simplicity. They’re also behind the JIA Art and Design Festival, held each August in an abandoned amusement park, where the surreal becomes sublime.
And then, joglos full of Indonesian antiques. Ceramics and timber rescued from shipwrecks. Cabinets of curiosities. Real, world-class, and wildly beautiful.
By day’s end, my notebook was full and my mind alive. This was Kerobokan at its best, creative, unpredictable, entirely original. A pilgrimage through imagination and craft - design is the heartbeat of Bali.
If you know where to look, the island of the Gods is also a workshop of souls.
