What happens if you are the owner of an breathtakingly beautiful villa and you give the interior designer Robert Kolenik carte blanche to dream up and execute your interior design?

Kolenik explains: ‘A living room design starts with the routing and the sight lines. Then I look at furniture, colours, materials and finishes. For this project, I needed to reflect a certain tension. This was because there were multiple family members. The working parents and growing teenagers all had their own taste and were keen on privacy. At certain points, they all wanted to be together, for example at breakfast time, or for a dinner with friends. But at other times, they wished to go their separate ways.’ The interior design went down well right from the start. The clients’ eyes lit up the moment interior designer showed them his materials. He proposed using contrasting natural materials, from different varieties of wood to multiple types of natural stone.

The striking eye-catcher in the sitting room is a six-and-a-half-metre long sofa from Proud, Kolenik’s furniture collection. But the design doors were also real eye-catchers. And when there is a communal meal, it’s great fun. Family and friends love to gather around the table with its white onyx tabletop. This is subtly lit and supported by the trunk of a lychee tree.

©KOLENIK