A Home Curated with “The Spirit of Monozukuri”

Timeless and eye-catching homes are not curated overnight; they take proper foresight and planning, which is why hiring an interior designer is the perfect option for when you have a dream home you want to materialize. Mieux Design is an award-winning interior design firm that recently undertook a project for a young family who wanted to transform their property into a one-of-a-kind home.

The homeowners originally from Japan had requested that the interior designers create a space that exudes a luxurious and elegant feel while keeping it comfortable and cozy. They also wanted to incorporate their heritage and habits into the home by integrating their everyday lives into its design. To do this, the interior designers attained detailed information about their daily routines and began curating a home, especially for this family.

Opting for a cohesive color scheme, the entire home flaunts neutral hues to achieve a timeless appeal. A design trick that they often use is to ensure all built-in storage, cabinetry, and the main furniture be of a neutral color but allow bursts of tones when adding decor items and miscellaneous furniture. This helps achieve a cohesive and harmonious balance. It is also an easy way to help the homeowners switch out decor without making significant changes to the home’s aesthetic. Aside from the choice of colors, the interior designers used historical castles, royal mansions, and European museums as inspirations when designing the house. In the early days, Europe was a notable region for its high standards in architecture, design, and craftsmanship, which is why Mieux Design borrowed elements such as marble, gold trimming, and mosaic patterns from their designs. This is prominent in the living room, where metallic gold trimmings can be seen in the wall borders, lighting, and even furniture. They curated a one-of-a-kind ceiling feature that perfectly reflects off the marble flooring to enhance the look further.

The interior designers particularly honed in on marble throughout the home as it gives off an air of grandeur and elegance. “It (marble) is a very important element for this home design, not only for its aesthetics but also for its cooling feature. Which is why we installed marble in the living room floor, the TV cabinet backing, the kitchen countertops, and various other places in the home.” As the homeowners now reside in Malaysia, the often hot weather can be tamed by the cooling sensation that marble provides in their home.

As the project is heavily influenced by the property owner’s Japanese heritage, where workmanship and craftsmanship are greatly appreciated, the interior designers paid close attention to the details in every corner of the space, especially the bedrooms. Each bedroom has a unique character as it flaunts various custom and built-in features alongside a stunning pop of color. The master bedroom features white and brown tones, accompanied by a beautiful hue of baby blue that brings so much personality, especially with the unique headboard. The second bedroom features another shade of blue that wraps around the room to create a feature wall. Aside from the bedrooms, the interior designers also applied their creative touch to the bathrooms, and they state, “We want to design each bathroom to be very unique and have their own characteristics that reflect the user’s lifestyle, habits and preference materials. We want to achieve that the bathroom can be as interesting as other spaces, so they would not feel bored when doing any activities in the bathroom.”

To further enhance the home, Mieux Design upgraded the exterior by curating a Japanese-inspired garden with Japanese Koi fish pond and Japanese Zen elements to keep the Japanese heritage and spirit alive. This was inspired by the Japanese term “Yamato-Damashi,” which means Japanese spirit or Japanese heart. Overall, the home is a unique space that combines elements from Asian culture and blends them seamlessly with old-school European design. Mieux Design truly outdid themselves with this project as their goal was to make every corner of this home an art piece, and looking at this project as a whole, and they accomplished just that.