Moving from the Meadows to the newly finished Villa development gave Amanda and Nick and their three teenage sons the chance to spread out and enjoy the family-friendly open-plan layouts that attracted them to this community in the first place. With three growing boys, having a variety of living spaces was essential and this five bedroomed house has more than its fair share.
The heart of the home is undoubtedly the vast open-plan kitchen that was designed and fitted by Dubai-based company Under One Roof. Amanda wanted a social-feel to the kitchen where the whole family could eat together and entertain.
The central island unit was a must-have and it has a really interesting mix of materials between the marble used for the island’s countertop and the wood used for the adjacent breakfast bar. White cabinetry, white flooring and pastel floral blinds evoke a fresh spring feel that is helped along by the huge amounts of natural light streaming through the stunning conservatory-style glass roof of the adjoining dining room.
The colour palette for this room was conceived from an image Amanda saw on a design website, originally the focus was on mainly grey, black and green, but once it was all pulled together the injection of purple completed the scheme perfectly.
Rather unusually, each room in this stunning Mediterranean-style home in Dubai’s ‘Villa’ development was inspired by a sample of fabric. Bold stripes, delicate floral prints and soft silk mixes all take centre stage in the interior scheme, with furniture and accessories planned around them.
Amanda’s sister, Carolyn Hollands, is one half of the recently formed design duo Hollands and Hutton, together with her business partner Emma Hutton, and their advice proved invaluable in the renovation of the villa. Hollands and Hutton work very closely with Colefax and Fowler in the UK, and its four fabric brands - Jane Churchill, Manuel Canovas, Larsen and Colefax and Fowler – feature heavily throughout the home.
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In the vibrant red and green TV room, the bold stripe fabric for the blinds is from the latest Jane Churchill collection, and is called Furrow Stripe. The green oversized ottoman was custom-made for the space and the faux fur beanbag from Pottery Barn is the ideal spot for relaxing post-homework.
More muted tones were chosen for the formal living rooms, with creams, taupe and pistachio complementing the countryside feel created by the addition of wooden ceiling beams.
The glass-topped coffee table was designed by Carolyn and Emma who sourced the ceramic feet and the tempered glass from different suppliers in Dubai. They also made the square poufs that they then covered in a Colefax and Fowler fabric called Jasper Brown, “which worked beautifully with the rest of the scheme,” Emma says.
In many of the rooms, an Oriental flavour creeps in, Carolyn explains that a lot of the furniture was brought across from Asia when Amanda was living in Singapore and the couple’s collection of Vietnamese art also influenced the style of the rooms.
Moving upstairs to the bedrooms, Hollands and Hutton used predominantly tranquil colours such as blues and greens and they also chose to carpet the upstairs area “as we felt this softened the looks of the bedrooms and made the rooms more inviting,” says Carolyn. Jane Churchill fabric was again chosen for the window dressings.
The end result is a stylish and elegant house that reflects the client’s own style and that of Hollands and Hutton. Emma candidly smiles, “We always try and put our own stamp on every project without conflicting with the client’s brief, but in this case it was very easy because we all had very similar tastes and ideas, which made it much more fun!”
