Master Bedrooms in Goa

A master bedroom in a Goan villa or bungalow is usually several spaces in one. There is the bed and the wall behind it, a sitting area by the window or the balcony, a walk-through dressing space, and an en-suite with its own small window. Each part has different light and different needs, and the room only feels calm when they are planned together rather than one window at a time.

These rooms also tend to have the biggest openings in the house — full-height glass or a pair of French doors onto a balcony that faces the sea, the fields or the garden. Ceilings are often 3 metres or more, and in older Portuguese-era houses higher still. That is wonderful in the evening and a challenge at six in the morning, when the person who sleeps on the window side wants the room dark and the other wants coffee on the balcony.

We plan a master suite as one design: layered curtains or blinds for sleep and for the sitting area, a statement wall behind the bed, mosquito protection on the balcony door, a rug for each zone, and — where it makes life easier — motorised tracks on the windows nobody can reach. Then we fit it in a single, coordinated job.