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The artful eye – Casa Bedouin

The artful eye – Casa Bedouin

Words Sonia Espinosa

Photos Sofia Gomez Fonzo

This Cala Carbó interiors showroom and store, curated and run by Peter Fieret, is all about colour, craftsmanship and a healthy disregard for conventional decorating rules.

A beautiful room is easy to recognise but creating one requires an elusive talent. Good taste is essential, obviously, but so too is an instinct for proportion, colour and texture. Style can probably be taught, but taste is innate, as is the confidence to put together an unlikely combination and somehow know it will work. Peter Fieret, founder of Casa Bedouin, an interior design service and décor store in Cala Carbó, has spent his working life experimenting with seemingly disparate styles and finding innovative and stunning ways to bring them together.

His early career in set design, window dressing and store design provided plenty of opportunity to hone that instinct, and these days Casa Bedouin is a playground for Peter’s artful eye. Shoppers and clients will not find trends here, nor will they find the same old tired looks. Peter’s insatiable appetite for design is focused on his own interests and eccentricities, a combination that sees him mixing established design houses with smaller independent makers, artisanal pieces collected from around the world and his very own creations.

Always inviting like-minded folk into his world, Peter’s latest collaboration is with ELPELUT, an Amsterdam and Ibiza-based label spanning fashion and interiors. The partnership happily refuses to observe each craft’s respective boundaries. Voluminous kaftans and embroidered garments sit alongside rugs, elongated crocheted ‘fishermanlamps’ and canopies – all crafted using natural materials, sensational colourways and beautiful patterns. At Casa Bedouin, the distinction between something to wear and something to decorate a room with becomes simply a matter of imagination.

Behind the ELPELUT collection is a network of women artisans working with traditional techniques that have been passed down through generations. The processes are intentionally slow and the small variations that come with hand-production are very much part of its appeal. This ethos fits snugly into the Casa Bedouin philosophy, where craftsmanship and individuality are always highly valued.

Textiles are something of an obsession for Peter, and among the selection found at Casa Bedouin are options from Pierre Frey, the venerable Parisian house founded in 1935, whose collections run from linens, velvets and jacquards to embroideries, prints and high-performance outdoor fabrics. Portuguese designer Barbara Osorio contributes printed linens and materials in predominantly natural compositions, while Spanish manufacturer Jover produces cloth for upholstery, curtains, cushions and outdoor furniture.

Aside from decorating clients’ homes in a rainbow of colour and texture, Casa Bedouin dedicates part of its enviable textile collection to making bespoke lampshades. Manufactured in Ibiza using a constantly changing selection of vintage and contemporary prints, these unique lamps add colour, pattern and individuality to any room. In an atelier above the store, Casa Bedouin’s own tailor works with the same extensive inventory, creating made-to-measure curtains alongside cushions and upholstery for bespoke interior projects.

Furniture is another important element of the diverse mix of elements at Casa Bedouin, sourced from a varied roster of designers and makers. Danish brand Tine K Home combines Scandinavian design with traditional craftsmanship, working with artisan workshops and materials sourced across Europe, Asia and Africa. Bamboo is something of a signature, appearing alongside teak and rattan in pieces designed for both indoor and outdoor living.

Spanish company Dareels takes a different approach to natural materials, with sustainability playing a central role in its production. Pieces are made using 100% reclaimed teak, alongside rattan, wicker, seagrass and recycled yarn. Netherlands-based Versmissen brings yet another perspective. Founded in 1970, the company designs furniture, lighting and accessories while also sourcing unusual pieces from around the globe, and its extensive collection at Casa Bedouin moves freely between contemporary and vintage inspirations, European antiques and African art.

The smaller decorative objets at Casa Bedouin provide just the je ne sais quoi to complete a room. Artisanal ceramics from Morocco share space with pieces from Belgian design house Serax, whose catalogue encompasses tableware, lighting, furniture and décor created in collaboration with an international roster of designers. British ceramicist Deborah Brett has a particularly appropriate connection to the store. A former fashion editor with a home in Ibiza, Brett creates porcelain and stoneware bowls, platters and sculptural pieces. Her work comfortably straddles the line between something useful and something pretty to look at.

Of course, furnishing a home means giving almost as much thought to what sits outside as what goes in. At Casa Bedouin, the distinction between interior and exterior decoration can become fairly academic when daily life in Ibiza migrates outside for much of the year. Italian company Crema Outdoor supplies parasols in a wide variety of forms and sizes, while Jover’s In&Out fabrics bring colour and geometrics outdoors, with designs engineered to cope with strong sunlight, stains, salt and chlorinated water.

There’s no requirement for any of it to match. Good interiors rarely come from buying an entire room from the same collection, however beautiful that collection may be. Luckily for those needing guidance, Casa Bedouin offers full-service design consulting, with Peter at the helm of course. Leave it all in his creative hands – from lighting and bedding to tableware and art – because sometimes good taste simply means calling in the experts to break the rules.