Opulence Aplenty

When money is no object it is easy to get carried away and furbish your home in an flamboyant manner but reigning in the urge to be glitzy and replacing it with something more subtle can give you a super-luxe abode

When you are designing a home, colour combinations are paramount to ensuring your home appears stylish, chic and in-line with the current trend without overdoing it. While refurbishing your home every once in while gives it a fresh look, if you select the right colour combinations for your home, you will never grow tired of its classic and timeless appearance or find the need to revamp it ever so often. An all-time popular colour combination is black and gold.

Black and gold is a combination that dates back to the time of ancient Egypt, Constantinople and Rome. During their heyday, the pharaohs and Roman emperors used actual gold to accentuate their status, wealth and power so gold featured prominently in their lives. Fast forward to current times, most of us have to rely on gold coloured materials such as a paint, wallpaper, and furnishings to achieve the desired result. But in Dubai, money were no object to a particular VIP who decided to go back in time and recreate an abode decorated in black and gold. And when we mention gold…we mean 24K gold, literally.

The individual requested for this winning combination and commissioned Celia Sawyer to replicate an abode that is unabashedly bold, glamorous and fabulously masculine and Celia together with her team delivered on all fronts. Celia Sawyer is an Interior Designer and the founder of Celia Sawyer Interior Architecture and Design in London. The establishment has been discreetly providing both private and commercial clients with bespoke ground breaking luxury interiors for over 20 years. Celia has worked on an array of assignments and her clients range from royalty to celebrities, sporting individuals and High Net worth Executives. In 2018 Celia was listed as one of the top 10 Interior Designers in the World.

For this large 3-room duplex, the individual requested for a very strong, dramatic interior with glamorous yet masculine edge and with that brief in hand, Celia and her team opted for the black and gold colour combination as this duo are two of the colour spectrum’s most timeless, versatile and luxurious hues.

When it came to designing the interior for this unit, Celia and her team wanted to use a vast amount of black marble, with striking gold running through it. The fear with using black excessively is that it can make a space appear smaller, moody, and somber but with clever planning by Celia and her team this duplex apartment looks nothing but regal. Aided by the many large windows this apartment has been bestowed with, natural light floods in to light up the room.

One of the pivotal points to note when working with an entirely black surface is to make sure everything else in the room pops against it and in this case the lighter colour furnishings and gold furniture works well to bring much-needed balance to this space. According to Celia, because black is such a dark material to use, she wanted to create light reflective areas around the property by employing mirrored sections that not only create impact but also reflects the outside. It was also an opportunity for Celia to showcase the black and gold’s effortless ability to tap into a sophisticated mood.

If the use of black marble throughout wasn’t dramatic enough, Celia also designed large inset light boxes to show off the cut crystal to add on to the theatrics and it is a win as the client enjoyed the effect it had on the overall ambiance of the space immensely. For juxtaposition, the furniture were all chosen to compliment the interior colours and that resulted in lots of gold and crystal being applied in addition to large scale lighting including the main chandelier which is a very strong element in the design.

Even though the unit is spacious, placing big furniture can quickly take up too much space that can make the area looking clumsy and cluttered. To avoid this from happening, Celia kept the lines clean but instead created zones within the space. Some of the accent furniture will astound viewers and guests to this home as this home boast an art installation by Stephen Cawston – a British artist who is known for his Contemporary Pop Art.

Stephen reanimates the skeletons and unlike in museums, where skeletons are held together with wires and frames, Stephens have none. These skeletons are brought back to life and it is some of these masterpieces that adorn a space in the living area. The client has invested in a real Arabian horse skeleton, male skeleton and a bird of prey skeleton that is covered in 24 carat gold and becomes the focal point of view for anyone entering this palatial duplex.

Taking a look at this unit, one can arrive at the conclusion that this space was designed to shock the senses of its owners and guests and Celia together with her team have done an outstanding job in crafting a home that is regal, masculine yet comforting and liveable. This winning style makes everything look super-luxe and for now no other interior compares.

CELIA SAWYER INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | www.celiasawyer.com 

Celia Sawyer, Interior Designer and Founder

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”