Silvia Ceccarelli, GM of the design firm Innova Italia gives us the tour of her latest residential project at District One, Meydan in Dubai

Silvia Ceccarelli comes originally from Rome (Italy), where she established Innova Italia with her husband in 2009. For her, the design is her way to express her art and enjoys working closely with her clients to produce the best results. “We need to create a strong relationship with the client since the beginning when we exchange reference pictures and preliminary sketches. To get to know each other’s tastes, it’s a process that takes a bit of time, but it’s important to create an interior space that reflects the client’s personality.” Ceccarelli shares: “We had a great chance since the beginning of our adventure, to develop many high-end residential projects like villas and prestigious apartments. Innova Italia’s approach is to consider each project as tailor-made, we always develop our design considering all the possible details, to get exactly what we expect from the final result.”

Her recent completed six-bedroom villa project at District One spell luxury and grandeur. The dominating area of the villa is the entrance hall, it’s a double-height space that connects the living and dining area with a suspended kid’s living area. Ceccarelli says: “We underlined the vertical direction of this space with two very long chandeliers and kept a bright colour palette. One guest bedroom is located on the ground floor, while the other five rooms are on the first floor. For the rooms, we played with the colours to get a warm environment and a vibrant contrast between each side of the room.”

Ceccarelli was hugely inspired by the interplay of colours and materials for this project. She explains: “I would say I got my inspiration from the vibration in colours and materials, and in gradual contrast of both. The idea was to give a different look and personality to the room walls and elegantly decorating the areas using eye-catching furniture and accessories.” Ceccarelli enjoyed using different materials in different areas of the room. She says: “For the entrance hall, we used large statuario marble slabs opposite to a neutral colour wallpaper. The wallpaper itself is interrupted by thin steel profiles in order to create a “rhythm”. For the rooms, we mostly played with wallpaper of different colours and textures. All the furniture has been selected amongst prestigious Italian brands.” One of the biggest challenges she faced while executing this villa was to turn a big white empty space, that was completely impersonal and boring and turn it into a cosy home for a family. “It was a challenging yet exciting deal for me to do this perfectly.”