A space immersed in nature, where sleek design blends the indoor with the surrounding gardens, toes dipped in a pond under the cherry blossoms, or sitting by a chimney gazing at the snow and stars, Perch, a lodge in Chabrouh, Lebanon was built from a story of love.
The story of Perch began 21 years ago, when Sandra and her husband chose Chabrouh for their first date. From then on, they vowed to spend every August 15, in that area, where her husband has family ties. On a wild land his family purchased a long time ago, surrounded only by trees, foxes and birds, lay a pond, nearby which they decided to build a wooden cabana, to go from time to time. Except, once they got married, they realized they were spending more time building that small wooden house in Chabrouh, than their actual apartment in town. When the house became ready, and their first friends started coming, they would exclaim ‘it’s so beautiful, we do not feel in Lebanon,’ people even started coming for photoshoots against the gorgeous nature backdrop. Sandra who has always been in awe of how beautiful Lebanon is, wanted her friends and passersby to discover the area. After having built the cabana with traditional wooden logs, and when the couple had children, they realized they wanted a more permanent place to spend time in Chabrouh. Around 2014, the idea for Perch emerged, they had a land a few minutes away from the pond, and, at a bookstore, Sandra had come across ‘Rock the Shack,’ about contemporary wooden houses, which had started trending in Europe. She showed it to her husband who said ‘ok,’ but added there were no such constructions in Lebanon yet, and it would be difficult to find the know-how. He worked in a related field, so he started doing research and a few weeks later, invited his wife to the atelier, where he showed her a mini house with windows and a door, and the technique used. They pulled their knowledge together, him adding a carpentry leg to his business, her leveraging her background in interior architecture, after having worked and taught in the field for years. The couple made a prototype model, then started building Perch in 2017, weathering snow closed roads, and rough winter times. They first opened on December 25, 2020, and it was an immediate success.
Inspired by the pond near their cabana, where sheep come to drink, and frogs hop on waterlilies, the couple created at Perch a natural swimming pool, that emerges among the lush vegetation. The chalets scattered across the domain, were conceived like telescopes, with an open view on the surrounding nature, inviting the garden inside, and in winter, snowflakes float around the panoramic bay windows. Inside, fully immersed in the outdoors, comfort is key, by the warmth of the chimney that also ensures heat to the radiators, in the cozy lounge area, or the kitchen to prepare your own home cooked meals all the while gazing at the view. Each chalet boasts private terraces to sit among the trees, and some even have their own pool. The couple curated the outdoors as much as the indoor, and the garden transforms throughout the season, taking on yellow and red hues in autumn, covered by a bed of purple and pink flowers in spring, sunset shaded blooms popping in summer and back to a white coat of snow in winter. The two lovers behind Perch live there yearlong, and the place is imprinted with their lifestyle, a blend of nature and design. Sandra, who is also an artist, painter, illustrator, and sculptor, with works sprinkled across the rooms, more recently started creating massive installations made of oxidized metal, that reveal themselves through a promenade across the outdoors, intertwining her story with that of Lebanon. She tells us of one sculpture representing her face, ‘mother earth’ rooted by a cedar, from which emerge migrating birds, her children, who like many Lebanese children, left their country in search of opportunities abroad. Her works of art, just like Perch, evolving with the seasons, growing organically with the passage of time and the visits of guests and art amateurs, are a poetic ode to a country the couple invites us to fall in love with.
