About us

Life doesn’t always go the way you plan it. This is very clear when you hear the story of Edwin and Marlon. The couple went to Ibiza for six months, with their son Lars and daughter Sienna, for a temporary break from their hectic lives. The plan was to simply go back to the Netherlands afterward. And they did return, but not for quite some time…

“For a few years, we’d been discussing taking a break with the family for a short while,” says Edwin, “to get away from our busy life in the Netherlands, where almost everything revolved around working. It got so bad that sometimes we were literally cooking with our coats still on and the children were kept busy by TV and social media. Getting time to actually listen to each other’s experiences and stories from the day was difficult. We decided it was high time to break that pattern.” This feeling only intensified when several people they were close to became ill and tragically some died. “This was the time to do it, to take a break for six months. We didn’t want to wait until we were sixty or seventy years old and possibly not be able to do everything physically anymore. It had to be now! We were well aware that it was an enormous privilege that we were in a position to make such a choice at all.”

Up until that point, the family only knew Ibiza as the holiday island they liked to visit and where they’d enjoyed all the famous places that everyone reads about, the famous markets, beaches, beach clubs, and restaurants. “It was (and is) the island for us where you can really find and do everything, but at the same time, you have to stay very true to yourself. Everyone who lives here or wants to live here will be confronted with temptations, whether they like it or not. The constant stimuli and enticements are so great that you always have to have the right feelers and filters on. If you can withstand that, the island will take you in naturally and you’ll be able to enjoy a thousand percent of all the beauty and genuine love that the island has to offer. Because pure Ibiza is the nicest thing there is. Have time for each other, absorb the wonderful scents of amazingly beautiful nature, and meet new people from all over the world… Many people who migrate here have already seen a lot of the world. And if you ask them why they finally settled in Ibiza, you always get the same answer: the magic and the culture. And we totally agree with that!”

And that’s how the thing the couple never expected to happen happened…

“In February 2016, we became the owners of an ancient Finca in Ibiza. Thoughts of the Netherlands played on our minds. What about work? School? The children? Family? Thousands of questions, but I still wanted to go back to Ibiza. The hustle and bustle of the Netherlands were beginning to disappoint me. Once we had that green light, it was just a matter of packing things, saying goodbye, and going. It’s a choice that we’ve never regretted to this day.

The main building, however, was so large – including the guesthouse it can accommodate twelve people – that the couple decided to rent the casita (the guesthouse) in the low season to people who want a nice break.

“In the months of July and August, we rent out the entire house while we go to the Netherlands on holiday.” For the family, it might feel like home, but they decided that their guests should not lack anything. “We didn’t want to start the rental until everything was completely finished. That meant new beds, new bath and bed linen, new kitchen utensils, and so on.” The intention was to do this in stages, but that turned out slightly differently than planned. “We started by creating a covered outdoor chill-out area and an outdoor kitchen. However, this was interfering with the casita entrance frame. So it meant moving it to the other facade. This was going to be such a major demolition job that we decided to renovate the entire casita. And once we started, we thought very carefully and decided to do everything: the casita, the terraces, the swimming pool, the entire main house… Absolutely everything was renewed during this major renovation that lasted nine months.”

And the final results speak for themselves. “For us, it was very important to preserve the authenticity of the Finca. For months there was a notepad on my bedside table so that I could jot down anything that came into my head. For example, I wanted to use a huge wooden beam in the new kitchen. And so I did; a tree trunk eight meters long, sixty centimeters in diameter, and twelve hundred kilos in weight. It was a huge job to get it to its place, using only manpower and creative thinking, but it worked. Marlon was shocked when she first saw the tree trunk, but now she too thinks that it’s the jewel of the house.”

During the renovation, Marlon went looking for the right colors, furniture, sanitary ware, accessories, fabric types, and so on, while Edwin ‘burdened’ the boys on the construction site with his overflowing creative mind. “It was a tough but wonderful process to experience together on an island where we, at that time, didn’t speak the language and needed to gather all the right people around us to realize our dream. We’re genuinely proud of the result: a mix of Scandinavian, bohemian, and local materials that together ensure unity and serene tranquillity.”