Design Your Way Around the World

Your living space says a lot about who you are. Are you a bookworm who loves to read? Maybe you love entertaining and your home is designed to maximise interaction. Perhaps you just want an oasis of calm, and fill your home with serene shades of blue and grey…or maybe, you’ve been bitten by the travel bug and want to show off your favourite foreign city? If you fall into the last category, you’re in luck! Today, we’re looking at some of the most stylish and exotic cities from around the world to bring you some interior design tips and inspiration on how you can bring the world to your cosy little home in Dubai.

Cape Town Classic

The Mother City is a design lovers’ dream, quietly building up an impressive community of artists, artisans and design supremos alike – the likes of which industry heavyweights travel across the world to experience. If you want to inject a little Capetonian chic into your home, think beyond kitsch ‘African’ animal prints. Cape Town is known for its juxtaposition of old and new, so architectural pieces such as a stone and metal coffee table would not go amiss. Being a port city in the shadow of Table Mountain is also integral to the Cape Town identity, so find yourself some foliage to add colour to the room and bring a little bit of the seaside inside with lamps draped in ropes (think nautical). If you love colour, gather your most colourful books and place them on a shelf to evoke a sense of the ultra-bright Bo-Kaap neighbourhood.

Since Cape Town is known for revitalising the old rather than throwing it away, interior design inspired by the city is the perfect place to breathe new life into old things. Do you have a bicycle that was bought with all good intentions, but is currently being used as a coat rack in your bedroom? Spray paint it and mount it on the wall. Old jamjars? They make the perfect vases…you don’t even have to peel the labels off. To bring the room together, find a geometric, almost tribal print carpet. If you really do fancy animal prints, however, don’t go all Liberace on us. Less is more, so throw an accent cushion onto your couch. To really feel like you’re on holiday, find a candle with a scent along the lines of ‘ocean mist and sea salt’.

Samba in Rio De Janeiro

Lovers of energy, this one’s for you! Rio is an explosion of colour and joy, you don’t have to look much further than their Carnival to see this! Head to the furniture store and pick up cushions, candles and other pieces of home decor in every colour of the rainbow (and textures, Rio loves their feathers!) to add a splash of life to your living space. Pop them onto a solid coloured couch so as not to be too overwhelming though.

If you want a room inspired by Rio, find prints or paintings (or head to a studio like thejamjar and create your own!) of serene beachscapes in green and blue hues and hang them in unassuming frames. Head to the beach and collect some seashells to place in clear glass jars and find oversized vases for you to place colourful plants (or even large feathers) in. Oh, and make sure you have a good sound system in the room as well, Rio equals music! This means it’s also the perfect room to put your guitar/piano/bongo drums in, without seeming like you’re trying to show off!

London Calling

Samuel Johnson once said that “if a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”, so it makes sense that the city is the perfect inspiration for an interior design scheme! London is known for its subtle energy, it’s a hotbed of culture, history and innovation…and it’s proud of its accomplishments. Case in point, the London Underground. If you’ve been to the city, find (or better yet, print) a station sign that means something to you or customise it with your own name. If that’s a tad too narcissistic to your liking, use the iconic blue and red colours for a throw, table runner or even artwork theme.

London is also known for its social scene, so now’s the time to dig out all the coasters that you’ve somehow acquired over the years and collage it for an interesting art piece. If a more traditional approach is more your scene, wallpaper is having somewhat of a resurgence (and you’re more likely to get your deposit back if you correctly remove it!). Large-scale floral prints instantly add a bit of cottage-chic to any room – just don’t apply it to more than one wall. For a more subtle ‘English Rose’ feel, a delicate ceramic vase can go a long way – you don’t even need to break the bank, pick up an inexpensive one and offset it with luxe fabrics and materials.

To stop the area from looking quite so twee, choose a dark green plant, pop into a black pot and place it near a cigar lounge-esque heavy leather armchair. Bonus points if your coffee table has heavy tomes on works by Banksy or perhaps another hip and happening graffiti artist. When it comes to the scent of the city, you can’t go wrong with a stylish “London” candle by Tom Dixon.

Interior Design Tips Fit for Royalty with Jaipur

Located in the dusty western part of India, Jaipur may be known as the pink city but it’s by no means your only option for colour when it comes to home decor! This royal city was beloved by decadent kings and queens and features intricate stonework fit for a maharajah. This means that it’s time to bring out the most luxurious, embroidered fabrics that you can find – there is really nothing to opulent here!

Echo the onion-shaped domes seen across the city with interesting objects for the coffee table or bookshelf and to really feel like you’re in another country, eschew the sofa for a low-lying divan upholstered in red, with mirrored accents. Wooden benches with metal rivets is also a great addition to a Jaipur-inspired room. Another common (untraditional) motif of Jaipur are the vintage, British cars beloved by the Royals, so maybe find a few models in toy shops or online to add a quirky little touch to the room. If you can find one of these cars that double as a lighter, it will make it all the easier to light some incense (easily available in Karama, Satwa or Bur Dubai), to really take you on a trip to India!

Hong Kong Chic

The island nation of Hong Kong is characterised by the fact that space is at a premium, as is the notion of less is more. The city is known in equal parts for its innovation as for its cultural roots, which makes a Hong Kong-inspired room lend itself perfectly to that flat screen TV you’ve been wondering whether to hide or not!

If you want to bring a touch of Hong Kong into your home, think of clean lines and light coloured furniture. Add a splash of colour with bright red cushions or hanging prints and don’t forget the bamboo! Light coloured curtains are also a must since Hong Kong design lovers are huge fans of making the most of natural light, offset by glittering city lights at night. Tom Dixon has a deliciously scented diffuser called Orientalist that will add that little extra touch of Hong Kong to your home as well.

Parisian Decadence

No list of interior design tips inspired by famous cities would be complete without the most stylish city of them all – Paris. It’s also one of the hardest styles to master and it’s easy to go overboard and a bit too Louis XVI if you’re not careful.

If you’re interested in a Parisian inspired room, Coco Chanel’s famous atelier is a great place to start! Find a vintage (or vintage inspired) sofa to be the focal point of your room, and surround it with subtle and not too overbearing design pieces in hues of dusty pinks, greys and whites – with gold accents. Buy a cheap mirror and place it in an ornamental frame to make your room look even bigger and print out black and white photographs of stylish Parisians by the Seine or of course, the Eiffel Tower to really transport you to the city of love. You also can’t go wrong with an ornate chandelier and faux fur throws on armchairs to add a touch of that Parisian decadence we all know and love. If you’re in the mood to be a little tongue in cheek, see if you can find a vintage cake stand as a throwback to Marie Antoinette!

Whichever home decor path you choose, just remember to make it your own and be sure to avoid these Dubai design fails. But if a room inspired by a city sounds like too much of a commitment for you, check out these interior design trends for 2018 or simply get some interior design inspiration from Muby Astruc and upcycle your own furniture!