Boutique 87 Ask for dates
A carved wooden bull's head with long curved horns, lit from the side, seen through dark window bars.

The collection

Nandi and the Gardens

A bull in every room, oils from Portobello Road, collages by Sri Lankan artists, and a kimono with a story.

Nandi is Shiva's bull and the guardian at his gate. Here he is less a guard than a boisterous force, and he turns up all over the house.

The owners call the house a living gallery, and they mean it: the collection is hung where you live, not behind ropes, and the garden is part of the show. Nandi and the Gardens is open now.

  1. An oil painting of a white bull with brown patches, in a heavy gilt frame, above a pair of dark urns.

    Bull 01 · The heart of the common area

    The portrait of Nandi

    Painted in the manner of the old European masters, with a gaze that seems to challenge and invite at once. The centrepiece of the collection.

  2. A grey stone bull lying on a plinth of rough red laterite, set into a whitewashed wall above a small basin.

    Bull 02 · On a whitewashed wall

    The stone Nandi

    A recumbent bull in grey stone, set on a plinth of red laterite above a small fountain in the wall.

  3. A pale sculpted bull with a garland about its neck, standing in front of a window with black bars.

    Bull 03 · Beside the window

    The white bull

    A pale bull with a garland around its neck: an artwork in its own right, standing guard indoors.

  4. A sculpture of a pair of golden bull horns on a dark post, on the white wall above a bed.

    Bull 04 · Over the Lakeside Suite bed

    The horns

    A pair of golden horns on a dark post, on the wall above the bed.

Also in the herd: the Lucky Senanayake Bull, a local sculpture of fortune with big, playful features, and an old bronze cow from a private collection.

A hall with an old dark cabinet, a gilt-framed painting of a cow, a pair of urns on a glass table and a latticed window.

On the walls

Gentlemen and vampires

“Brooding British gentlemen and enigmatic French vampires in sweeping romantic landscapes.”

European oil paintings, found on London's Portobello Road, hang beside bold collages and experimental work by Sri Lankan artists in the quieter corners.

An embroidered black kimono with birds and flowering branches, framed in red on a white wall above a bed.

In the Poolside Suite

The kimono

Above the Poolside Suite bed hangs Nina Dyer's own kimono: black, embroidered with birds and branches, framed in red.

Guided villa tours

Every corner has a story

A tour of the house, its collection and its history, from the staircases to the paintings. Ask when you book, or when you arrive.

Ask about a tour
WhatsApp Ask for dates