When interior designer Leila Garadaghi moved from London to Dubai with her financier husband her first project was to find a house in a great location that she could transform into a perfect environment for modern living. Her no-holds-barred approach meant a complete renovation and restructuring of this Emirates Hills villa – stripping it back to its shell, moving walls and installing materials of great quality and style, mostly sourced on frequent trips to her favourite suppliers in Italy.
The result is a wonderfully airy, openplan space; it’s very European in style and sensibility yet ideal for living in this climate, with a natural flow from indoors to outdoors, large expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass, and plenty of shading on the sunnier side of the house as well as in the garden. The ground-floor spaces are unified by flooring in cool grey marble and whitepainted walls, with each area defined by a feature wall in stone or wood. Surrounded by garden on two sides, formal living and
dining rooms flow in logical sequence into the less formal and family areas, allowing for different styles of entertaining. Casual lunches and dinners – when not outdoors by the pool – gravitate to the open-plan kitchen/dining area, where sleek SieMatic cabinets and top-of-the-line Gaggenau appliances create a focal point. Upstairs there’s a fantastic, 1,200-squarefoot master suite with huge walk-in closets, a private sitting area and a gorgeous bathroom with a sauna, steam room
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