My lovelies, I’m finally getting around to sharing this bright and airy open living space with you. This living area of a Palm Jumeirah townhouse was actually something that we finished up a while ago, but somehow my very busy summer got in the way of getting it up on the blog. Nonetheless, we are back in Dubai, routines are settling in, I am back at it and very excited to show you this lovely home.

We designed and installed this lovely South African couple’s nursery last year and they were an absolute dream to work with again. As with the nursery, they afforded us creative freedom while designing the space. This project was more of an refresh and completion rather than a full makeover as we worked with many of their existing pieces. We pulled the room together by adding a few key elements including stament pendant lights, a feature wall in one of our favourite Jotun colours – Minty Breeze (the same colour I recently used in Kaitlyn’s room) and a large area rug that is possibly one of our most asked about rugs. In fact, I’m such a fan of it myself that I got one for my living room too. We added some more seating to the large room with a small grey West Elm sofa and the abstract artwork above it, by South African artist Xenia Venter, adds a focal point of interest and drama on an otherwise huge wall. An alcove on the TV side of the room presented some restrictions on our selection of TV benches, but we settled on IKEA’s gorgeous mid-century STOCKHOLM bench in walnut and love how it looks in this space.

On the dining end of the living area, we installed IKEA kitchen wall cabinets that serve as a sideboard with ample storage below a small window that opens into the kitchen. We love the versatility of these simple white cabinets as you can change up the styling every so often and you’ll feel like you’ve got a fresh new look. We also included some dimension and texture to the wall with two beautiful Nguni wooden heads by Vogel Design – a South African favourite.

The design and styling in this home was kept intentionally clean and minimalist to suit the family’s lifestyle.

All images by Marli Smith