Muted & Marvellous

Yasmin Farahmandy, the founder of Y Design Interiors, worked her magic on the refurbishment of The Grand Hyatt’s luxury private residences. 

By Roma Arora

The Grand Hyatt’s brief was to restore its internationally recognised villas for the first time in almost 18 years. The Grand Hyatt has long been one of Dubai’s most prominent hotels, and the client selected YDesign Interior to oversee the design of a new interior that reflects the hotel’s reputation for timeless elegance and is best enjoyed by largely long-staying guests.

Yasmin Farahmandy, explains: “Our end result was reached by entirely redesigning the interiors of the Grand Hyatt’s villas to create new-look spaces that are as open, homely, and flexible as they are timelessly elegant, muted, and magnificent. The dark and dated interiors of the past have given way to new bright whites and villas ready for the next generation of treasured family moments, born in one of the UAE’s most popular hotel resorts.”

Farahmandy’s first and most important consideration in remodelling the interiors of the villas was the end-user and what they felt they would actually want.

The design team had to keep the obvious foundation structure of each villa in their adaptive reuse, so the concept was centred on shifting the flow inside the living spaces that allowed families spaces to be fully together, yet at the same time – and when necessary – apart.

Originally, each villa’s space was very clearly divided into different individual zones: a kitchen and a living area. This allowed for absolutely limited flexibility, especially for long-stay guests looking to play around with their space over a prolonged period of time. The kitchens were small, which meant further limits on adaptive opportunities.

As a result, the walls were demolished. Specifically, those that divided the kitchen from the main living area, instantly opening up the space and making it significantly more adaptable for the end user. That one simple yet creative solution to a problem we suspected existed instantly created one completely open space, allowing all occupants total flexibility across the layout of their space, with no divisions allowing them to host guests with ease, plus have more general lounging area, or – by positioning the furniture to their liking – essentially two living rooms within the one central area, ideal for larger families or families with a noticeable age divide. In addition, they expanded the balconies on each villa to give more room in the living room area, and ensured we added more storage throughout.

The white marble floors and white wood panelled walls across the main living room and kitchen were chosen, instantly giving the homes the sensation of luxury tranquillity at its core. They introduced dark woods to the space (again elevating the luxuriousness of the aesthetic), most often in the upholstery of our chairs, tables, and lighting, and routinely contrasted with lighter whites, creams, and cereal shades handpicked for our material finishes – and, once again, balanced with the whites of the wider space.

In the quest for sustainability and ultimate efficiency, all the villas were designed with only natural materials, locally sourced and installed by a local team.

As well as the wooden elements, all tiling throughout each property is porcelain, ensuring long-term maintenance and durability, especially in the face of Dubai heat, against which they are particularly reliable and efficient. Porcelain tiles are also recyclable, and their production process creates zero waste due to their use of natural, and always reusable, materials.

Marble is the very definition of a sustainable building material, ergo our reliance on travertine marble throughout each of our villas. Travertine marble is incredibly durable and environmentally friendly, plus has the added benefit of being extremely easy to maintain and unabsorbant when it comes to dust or chemicals.

These villas can now be enjoyed in a whole new way, with more people than ever before able to gather and celebrate life, as well as new designs that scream elegance and luxury at every step.