Where Villa Encantada began
When I was ten, my family moved to the outskirts of Madrid. While we were in school, my mother studied art history with a professor she’d found there. On weekends, she turned her lessons into our adventures. Every Saturday meant a new village: the art she’d been learning about, the local food, the churches and plazas that had stood for centuries.
What I noticed, in every village, was the quality of everything. The food at the restaurants, the pottery in the shops, the linens, the ironwork on the gates. Nothing was ordinary, and every piece had a story: who made it, how, and why it was made that way. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning what real craftsmanship looks like.
I came back to the US to study interior design, and I spent many years designing restaurants, hotels and homes. But Spain never let go of me, and I kept going back.
On a birthday trip to Mallorca, I found roba de llengües, the island’s traditional ikat, woven on the same looms for generations. I fell completely in love with it. And I knew what I wanted to do: bring pieces like these, and the people who make them, to the designers and rooms that deserve them.
The name came from something I’d loved since I was a girl. In Spain, you greet with a kiss on each cheek, and very often, “encantada de conocerte”: delighted to meet you. I always found it so charming, that warmth offered to someone you’ve only just met. It’s how I want every maker and every designer to feel when we bring them together.
That was the beginning of Villa Encantada.
Today we represent makers from Spain and across Europe, the US and Canada. Every line we carry has what I first noticed in those villages: quality you can feel, and a story behind every piece.
— Kristina Eckert, founder