Fed up with gold leaf, fake Corinthian columns, painted friezes and marble urns, many of Dubai's property buyers are turning to a design company which offers inspiration and convenience in the form of ready-made room sets. With more than 100,000 Britons already living in Dubai and many more investing in property there, demand for high-quality interiors from internationally recognised designers has grown alongside the number of new apartments being built.
Luxe Interior is a company with offices in Dubai and London which formed last year in partnership with Sedley Place, a London-based design firm with 30 years' experience. The company has brought together a portfolio of international celebrity designers to create a range of "exclusive" furniture packages and signature designs for apartments and villas across the property spectrum. Mick Nash, the managing director of Sedley Place and a director of Luxe Interior, said there was a growing demand for original designs and luxurious products at a price which was within reach of Dubai's burgeoning middle class. "What appealed to me was that there is an enormous amount of construction taking place in Dubai and a less commensurate amount of interior design skill. We also perceived that there was quite a lot of bling fatigue."
Nash said that while the top and bottom ends of the interior design market were well catered for in Dubai, from personal designers for those at the top and IKEA for those at the bottom, there was a gap in the middle. "We wanted to provide an alternative choice that was more stylish and less obvious. The bright and shiny 'wow factor' tends to fade quite quickly and we wanted something less obvious but more enduring. In the middle of the market here you've got an ever more discerning group which has money but not necessarily the means to hire their own designers."
Luxe Interior has recruited celebrities including Terance Conran, Tom Dixon, Orla Kiely and Celia Birtwell to provide its range of furniture and fabrics. Celia Birtwell, the British textile designer who, through her marriage to the fashion designer Ossie Clark, was instrumental in producing haute couture in the 1960s for everyone from the Beatles to Bianca Jagger, has designed two schemes for Luxe Interior. The first is a classic scheme with bold floral printed wallpaper and striped sofas. The second is a contemporary scheme with densely patterned curtains and cushions in hot pink and blue. Orla Kiely is an Irish designer best known for her colourful couture handbags; for Luxe she provides a choice of two "retro" schemes defined by her trademark flower stem prints.
While a bespoke service is available for those who need it, Luxe Interior's furniture package offers an all-inclusive scheme designed to fit within a variety of environments and spaces, from a spacious family villa to a small studio apartment. Furniture packages contain everything from sofas, tables and chairs to lighting and cushions. On Luxe Interior's website, customers can choose from five different "moods" - classic, colourful, contemporary, neutral or quirky retro. They can then select from a list of designers or two: "Luxe Traditional" schemes, "Spice" and "Sun and Sand". The two schemes designed by Conran are "Lustre" and "Sheen". The theme of "Lustre" is the opalescence of pearls, once central to Dubai's economy. "Sheen", the company states, "takes its inspiration from the iridescent gloss of oil. Shades of deep chocolate brown combine with soft greys to create an indulgent and warm ambience."
Despite being the leading creative force at Sedley Place, leading teams of architectural, interior and product designers and co-ordinating external consultants and structural engineers, Nash claims not to have a "house style". "We always prided ourselves on quality and in really getting under the skin of what our clients want. It's not just what we think you need. Our aim is to make things more harmonious: there are more exciting challenges than applying our own taste."
The company's pitch appealed to Jumeirah Golf Estates, a property developer in Dubai which was looking to hire a company to custom-design a selection of interiors for the "Fire" neighbourhood at Juniper Way, a new collection of 70 four, five and six-bedroom villas with landscaped gardens, spacious courtyards, swimming pools and detached garages. "We did a lot of research on the whole picture, from the type of property that was being sold to the range of potential buyers. We came up with a concept and then modified it according to other potential types of buyer."
According to Nash, his firm offered "a specialised approach without the expense of custom designed interiors for each building." At the same time, the choice of building styles available within the Juniper Way property scheme allows for the possibility that no two villas would be the same. Juniper Way features eight different types of villas and customers can choose from three custom-designed interiors: Max, Ponti and Urbane. The Max interiors are cool and contemporary, offering "liveable luxury for design conscious people who are not too precious, so their kids aren't going to hurt themselves on the furniture". The Max bathrooms are soothing and spa-like, with teak double-basin counters and two-person walk-in rain showers. There is also a free-standing bathtub sitting on a bed of pebbled tiles, in front of a backlit slate wall.
The Ponti interior, Nash says, is the one which most closely fits with the villa exteriors, which are Mediterranean in appearance, with stone façades and pitched terracotta roofs. Inside there are warm Tuscan-style floors and kitchens in an elegant farmhouse style, with timber worktops, glazed tiling and range cookers. The Urbane interior feels confident and slick, built to appeal to people used to city apartments. Building at Juniper Way has not yet been completed, but buyers will be able to see drawings and handle samples of all the interiors at the launch of the "Fire" scheme in Dubai this week. "People want to hold the product in their hand," Nash said. "We don't want to impose too much on people's desire, but these signature features are very important in giving people a story to tell about the design choices they make. People are generally very informed about what they don't like, but we really have to get under their skin to find out what inspires them."
Luxe Interior Ltd: Warehouse No 3, Bin Desmal Warehouse, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai (04 339 4422), 15 Bell Yard Mews, Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3TY (0044 207 645 3340), www.luxeinterior.com The Fire Villas at Juniper Way at the One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai from 10am-7pm on 29 May daily until 6 June. For more information call 04 375 9999.
