DESIGN FILES :: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S REFUGE
Larissa Goncaleves and her family lived in this house for a little bit over seven months. A specialist in the world of photography they had taken the time to carefully choose their house in the most beautiful location of Al Barari in Dubai. Satisfying the crave to be surrounded by nature and beautiful design at the same time - a refuge from the busy Dubai life. A confirmed globetrotter (you can check her instagram for evidence!), over the year Larissa has collected an impressive collection of treasures from all over the world.
She created A welcoming setting, filled with a variety of materials and influences where Larissa's unconditional love for art and design is a thread that runs through everything. We absolutely love her choices and her personality that shows throughout the house!
Larissa, who are you? Who do you share your house with?
Passionate, caring, a fighter for fairness, also I love a job well done. A believer that common sense should be more common ;)
I live with my best person in the world, who I am lucky to call husband and our two labour’s of love (daughters who are starting their teen years).
Where are we here?
Our home in Al Barari. My husband and I fell completely in love with the abundance of nature in the various themed gardens around the complex. We moved from Brussels where we lived right beside the forest in which the morning walks recharged our souls. As soon as we saw that it would be possible to continue our lives with this blessing we couldn’t choose any other place.
What did you start your decoration with?
I definitely had to start my decorating with the pieces of furniture I already owned, trying to make them work with the very modern and sleek architecture of the house. So an eclectic style had to be the answer :) Also, to me, mixing different styles of furniture in an ensemble of old and new, traditional and contemporary, lets each piece stand out; they are not part of the pack, they become unique.
Can you describe your style in three words?
Fun, colorful and fresh
Do colors play an important role for you?
Extremely, I feel color is the soul of a house. It has the power to transform a room just like spices transform food.
What inspires you, in terms of decorating? Do you have a favorite era or a favorite designer?
Art to me is the best inspiring trigger to any room. It can set the mood of the space and be as well the source of the color pallet. In the same note, a beautiful fabric or a rug can play the same role.
My favorite era is probably mid-century modern. I feel it to be like the renaissance of design, although the braking of the mode (of traditional heavy furniture) started a few decades earlier, the mid-century modern was an explosion of creativity. The experimenting with new and old materials on how they could be played with and shaped in a way to meet function and form reached a high supported by industrial production. Good design was then, finally available to all. That’s in itself inspiring!
Is there a connection between your interior and your personal style?
Yes... Well, there should be one as they are both an extension of me...although sometimes I feel that it is much easier to express myself with my interiors than with my personal style.
What’s your favourite color of the moment?
I believe I will never have a colour of the moment. I like them all too much to pick one. Also colours enhance their beauty by working as a team, one tone helps the other shine. To pick one colour would be taking the merit of others.
If you had to reveal your favorite websites for finding ideas, which would they be?
It’s a pleasure to share my favourite website for interior ideas (and learning): https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/
Emily Henderson has a very professional, well done and organized website with useful day to day tips for interior dilemmas and inspiration. She and her team work hard on the content of it and it shows :) lucky all of us!
What’s your favorite part of your interior? Which room are you most proud of?
At this moment this is a very hard question to answer as most of my house is still unfinished... but given the circumstances I pick my daughter Gisela’s room.
Could you recommend some shops to us, either in Dubai or somewhere else?
I have a list for this one! It was hard for me to find contemporary, fresh pieces in Dubai (that I could afford), so in the end I had to resort to custom made.
So, for custom pieces:
- City Palace Furniture
-The line Concept
- Ghanim industries
For the not cheap, but “I’ll save money for that” category:
- Mood
- Caspaiou - have great pieces
And for the category: Absolutely LOVE but can’t afford:
- Ikon house
- D.tales
- The Odd Piece.
Foreign store I miss deeply: Anthropology
For lighting: Huda Lighting and I light you.
Larissa Goncalves
Photography @Larissa_lealgoncalves
We are scouting for houses to feature on our blog, so if you have a styled home with clever ideas that are breaking the rules, I"D LOVE TO TAKE A PEEK. ⠀
Email us pictures to: hello@harfnoondesignstudio.com
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