{"id":3133,"date":"2025-03-15T05:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T21:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2025\/03\/15\/ebony-lodge-a-new-take-on-classic-safari-style\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T05:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T21:32:02","slug":"ebony-lodge-a-new-take-on-classic-safari-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/ebony-lodge-a-new-take-on-classic-safari-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebony Lodge: Una nuova interpretazione dello stile classico del safari"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

On a recent trip to the Singita Ebony Lodge, I found myself cataloging the experience from a design perspective. While many of the design elements of the lodge are reflective of a reimagined British colonial safari style, some feel a bit more natural. Namely the 300-pound Kudu antelope standing in your path as you approach the door to your room.<\/p>\n

The guides and staff members at the South African lodge, situated in the Sabi Sand Reserve of Kruger National Park, are helpful when it comes to preparing guests for such sightings. But although I was successful in following their instructions to act calm and not pet my new Kudu friend, I can\u2019t say I managed to adopt that same relaxed, neutral behavior when I first encountered my guest suite.<\/p>\n

In my defense, each room has an open-plan bedroom\/bathroom with a full glass fa\u00e7ade overlooking the bush in a way that makes even washing your hands feel immersive\u2014and I am pretty sure an antique dark wood armoire won\u2019t charge a human when startled by a gleeful shriek.<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of Singita.<\/p>\n


Above: Each guest room is unique but contains shared elements such as Leadwood beams, cladding from locally gathered stones, and traditional tent roller blinds as inside-window treatments. Leadwood is named after its hard-as-lead texture, and the wood throughout the Ebony Lodge has been salvaged from nearby trees that have died from natural causes. <\/p>\n

The Singita hotels were founded in 1993 with the construction of the Ebony Lodge, and today the group has 11 locations, each with a mission to conserve and protect the surrounding environment and its inhabitants. The properties are built in a way that encourages the free-roaming of animals throughout\u2014including regular visits from the vervet monkeys during mealtimes, who apparently love pain au chocolat<\/em> as much as I do, and occasional leopard sightings\u2014and the day-to-day hotel operations have an emphasis on environmental preservation, from all-recyclable paper trash bags to a lack of disposable water bottles or dishware.<\/p>\n

The Ebony Lodge has undergone a small handful of redesigns since it was originally built, including the most recent project two years ago. C\u00e9cile & Boyd, a South Africa\u2013based firm, is behind the interiors, and describes the latest refresh as a return to a neutral palette. \u201cWe added earthy colors, hand-loomed fabrics, and incorporated very natural-feeling textures,\u201d says Geordi De Sousa Costa of C\u00e9cile & Boyd.<\/p>\n

,

Above: The open-plan bathrooms contain frameless glass showers, which create a sense of \u201cinside art,\u201d says De Sousa Costa. The entire floor of the bathroom area is continuous slate tile, with a slight downward slope toward the shower drain. The roofing of each guest room is composed of skinny timbers of Saligna wood. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were inspired by modern camping style. In order to achieve this new take on the classic, we took a few concepts and ran with them,\u201d says De Sousa Costa. One is upscaling pattern, she says, incorporating Berber carpeting with painted geometric wall patterns. \u201cAnother concept we had fun with: combining light with heavy. We have that contrast playing throughout the furniture,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then of course, taking traditional British antiques and adding a bit of an industrial element, with steel trestle tables and raw stone tops.\u201d<\/p>\n


Above: A brass outdoor-use sink commissioned by C\u00e9cile & Boyd and created by a local manufacturer. From time to time, the sink is polished with a brass cleaner to manage its patina. <\/p>\n

Guest rooms and common areas at Ebony Lodge play on the relationship between indoor-outdoor spaces in a way that makes almost any vantage point feel integrated into the surrounding terrain. \u201cThe previous architecture was oppressive\u2014heavy stone walls and thatched roofing. The spaces inside were quite dark as a result. We wanted to open up the experience from a light and visual point of view,\u201d says De Sousa Costa.<\/p>\n

,

Above: \u201cFor the most part,\u201d De Sousa Costa says,\u201dthe standalone kitchen doesn\u2019t attract many animals\u2013but for the occasional vervet monkey visit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting to combine heavy architecture with lighter, more contemporary African architecture. We decided to demolish a lot of the more oppressive elements on the front parts of the rooms and public areas and replace them with light canvas and glass,\u201d says De Sousa Costa. \u201cDoing that not only allowed us to introduce better views but also brought a lot more light into the spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n


Above: To complement the smaller private dip pools on each guest room\u2019s deck, Ebony Lodge has a larger shared pool constructed from locally sourced rocks. The directors chairs around the lodge, which have leather armrests, are from South Africa\u2013based Melvill & Moon. <\/p>\n

For more of our favorite directors\u2019 chairs, see our guides to Canvas Directors Chairs and High\/Low: Safari Chairs.<\/p>\n


Above: Guests are encouraged to congregate around the fire pit for a cocktail before the traditional South African outdoor barbecue dinners. This area is called a
\nboma<\/em> and is fenced in with Saligna branches. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durante un recente viaggio al Singita Ebony Lodge, mi sono ritrovata a catalogare l'esperienza dal punto di vista del design. Sebbene molti degli elementi di design del lodge riflettano uno stile di safari coloniale britannico rivisitato, alcuni sembrano un po' pi\u00f9 naturali. Ad esempio, l'antilope Kudu di 300 chili che si trova sul vostro cammino quando vi avvicinate al [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interior-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}