The villas · The main house

O'Leleshwa Villa

Named for the leleshwa bush — silver-grey, aromatic, native to this valley.

Sleeps eight · Four bedrooms · Lake view

The villa

The largest of the three, and the most ambitious.

A vaulted great room under makuti thatch, a suspended cone fireplace at its centre, and a wall of glass that opens onto a balcony running the villa's full length. Four bedrooms are distributed around the house, each with its own threshold to the gardens. The lake catches the morning light first; by evening the house holds the last of it.

The approach

The path comes down through the planting and crosses a low sandstone bridge to a pair of Lamu doors, salvaged from a Swahili-coast house and restored here. They open not into a room but into a walled, open-air threshold, where a wrought-iron spiral stair drops to the floor below. The bridge lands you on the upper storey; the house unfolds beneath you.

Flagstone steps rising between dry-stone walls to arched steel-framed doors, wall lanterns on either side. — Flagstone steps to the arched crittall doors, a lantern to either side.

The great room

One room, open to the whole height of the roof.

The O'Leleshwa great room — thatch vault, suspended cone fireplace, and the green glass-bead chandelier over the long dining table. — The great room in late light — the cone fireplace at centre, the Malawian-glass chandelier over the table.

Inside

A vaulted makuti ceiling; wide-plank cypress underfoot. The fireplace hangs from the rafters — a black cone over an open fire bowl — and holds the room's centre the way a hearth should. The long table was made for the room, live-edge timber and poured resin, set under a chandelier strung by hand from repurposed Malawian glass. The far wall dissolves into glass, and the property descends beyond it: pool, gardens, and the long view of Lake Naivasha.

The suspended black cone fireplace at close range, a log burning in the open fire bowl beneath it. — The cone fireplace, lit from mid-afternoon in the cool season.

The long dining table with carved black chairs under the chandelier of repurposed Malawian glass, sun through sheer curtains. — The table under its Malawian-glass chandelier.

The kitchen

Where the food becomes yours.

At the edge of the great room, the show kitchen sits beneath two deep plaster arches, each opening onto an arched garden door. Three hand-carved masks hang on the plaster — one inside each arch, one on the wall beside them — each under a shaded sconce that lights it from above. The heavy cooking happens in the kitchen cottage elsewhere on the property; here your chef finishes and plates in front of you — the last act of the meal, done where you can see it.

The show kitchen's sculpted black counter beneath twin plaster arches holding carved masks, arched glazed doors to the garden beyond. — The show kitchen — carved masks in and beside the twin arches, the sculpted counter in front.

After dark

Lamplight is the house's second architecture.

The stair landing at O'Leleshwa — carved masks in underlit arched alcoves, rattan pendants glowing above the iron balustrade. — The stair landing — masks in underlit alcoves, rattan pendants above.

The bedrooms

Four rooms, four thresholds to the garden.

All four beds are king, convertible to twins. The upstairs bedroom — off the same threshold you arrived through — keeps a sitting bay behind triple arches, with the lake framed in its windows. The other three are downstairs, distributed around the house, each opening onto a private garden or covered terrace, so no one wakes far from the planting.

The upstairs bedroom at dusk — arched windows going blue, sconces lit, leather safari chairs in the sitting bay beyond the bed. — The upstairs bedroom at dusk, sconces lit, the safari chairs by the arched windows.

View from the bed through triple arches to leather safari chairs and a carved Bamileke table, jacaranda blooming through the windows. — From the bed, through the arches, to the sitting bay — jacaranda in the windows.

The bathrooms

Rooms you sit in, not pass through: a freestanding tub against the estate's sage-green plaster, a couple's shower, and twin basins in terrazzo set with Kitengela glass by craftsmen from the coast.

A grey stone freestanding tub centred on a sea-green plaster arch flecked with mirror, framed by black steel doors. — The principal bath before its mirror-flecked plaster arch.

Looking up the arched stone facade and thatched balcony in golden-hour light, agapanthus on the terrace below. — The stone face at golden hour, agapanthus along the terrace wall.

Outside

The balcony runs the length of the house.

Below it the gardens descend in terraces — the pool with its boulder stepping stones, the wood-fired hot tub, the long patio — and the path to the estate's own airstrip leaves from the bottom of the hill. The first walk of the morning and the last of the night are both downhill into planting.

The materials

Nothing generic survived the build.

Cypress underfoot, makuti overhead. The sage-green plaster was developed with specialists from the coast; the terrazzo carries embedded Kitengela glass. Master craftsmen came from across Kenya for the stone, the iron and the thatch — and the Kasarani apprentices who came up through the build carried the ironwork, woodwork and finishes, and now look after the house they made.

O'Leleshwa Villa, in fact

Sleeps: Eight, in four bedrooms of 44 m² each — every bed a king on a plank timber headboard, each convertible to twins.
Bathrooms: Four en-suite, and a guest WC.
The house: 509 m² over two storeys, the veranda running the length of the upper level.
The view: Down the gardens to Lake Naivasha; Mount Longonot across the southern horizon.
The table: Eight seats at one hand-carved live-edge table, made for the room, under the chandelier of repurposed Malawian glass.
The bar: Off the great room, with a barista station — coffee at whatever hour you keep.
Altitude: 1,884 metres — as high as the Alps, on the equator.
Staff: Your own chef, butler and housekeeper for the length of the stay.

Curved stone steps rising at blue hour to the lamplit kitchen cottage, a table laid inside under thatch. — Blue hour on the estate — the kitchen cottage lit, supper on.

The evenings

You arrive for dinner as the lamps come on.

O'Leleshwa is taken whole, by one party at a time. Tell us your dates and the size of your group, and Jenetta Barry will write back to you personally.

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