Life & Style | Home & Interiors
A Skygardens apartment with a distinctly vintage feel
A couple's love for the reconditioned and unusual gives this Dubai apartment a unique and welcoming edge
- By Charlotte Butterfield, Editor, InsideOut ; Styling: Jeanette Jensen
- Published: 00:00 January 15, 2012
- Image Credit: Svend Dyrvig/ANM
- A portrait of the King of Thailand hangs proudly in the living room; the canvas was chosen for its vibrant pop art feel from a provincial Thai art fair.
Towering above the bustling Trade Centre, yet overlooking the serene expansive grounds and stables of Zabeel Palace, Roy and Nyree McFarlane's vintage-inspired apartment is a haven of warmth, comfort and happy contradiction. A far cry from the sleek minimalism that many of their neighbours favour in the Skygardens building, this two-bedroom apartment has been filled with a fantastically eclectic mix of furniture, accessories and art. Each piece was painstakingly picked for its resonance with the couple and their outlook on what a ‘home' should be.
Scottish-born Nyree is half Kiwi, but spent her early years in the Middle East and South East Asia. By the time she was 16 years old, she had moved ten times, a fact that's served to strengthen her resolve to feel at home wherever she lives. "My mother always made sure we felt comfortable straightaway in every new place, and I've definitely inherited this ethos," she says. Growing up in Cape Town with a French mother, Roy too has experienced the need to surround himself with items that immediately "feel right". The couple are always on the lookout for accessories to add to their burgeoning collection. Roy laughs, "Individually some of the pieces are quite hideous, but put together it works!" He adds, "Quite often if you buy one or two bright pieces rather than the whole set, the overall look is more striking." Case in point are the mismatching chairs from Pan Emirates that are placed around the dining table next to an orange office chair from Q Home Decor, which is where the couple also found the gold chair that sits majestically in the hallway.
"We're both drawn to the old, the reconditioned and vintage things, but living in Dubai, there's no real outlet for second-hand furniture and accessories in the same way as in Europe or other parts of the world, so I've had to adapt pieces myself. I must admit I'm at my happiest when I have a sander in my hand!" The welcoming wooden dining table that Roy spotted in THE One Outlet started life as gleaming and veneered; he immediately set to work stripping the top down to its original thick teak planks. "It now looks like reclaimed wood, which fits much better into the shabby vintage style we love." Roy smiles, "Nyree's very understanding about my carpentry obsession, but even she is getting a bit tired of sawdust on the living room floor!"
Accessories play a huge part in the couple's quest to make whatever space they live in homely and their eye for art has led them to purchase some startlingly unique pieces, none more so than the gigantic Buddhist statue bought from Indigo Living in JBR that now stands guard outside the couple's front door. It's a strategic placement borne more out of sheer logistics than desire as Roy explains, shaking his head in disbelief at the memory of this particular purchase. "I bought it on a whim not really thinking too much about where I was going to put it afterwards. Alarm bells should have started ringing when it wouldn't even fit in the store's elevator, so I had to use the service lift, and again when I got to our building, staggering up to our apartment in the service lift, getting it to the front door, only to realise that it couldn't fit through it! Hence it just took up residence outside our door. A neighbour was having a party and one of the revellers thought it funny to punch a hole in the top of it, which explains the makeshift plaster on its head!"
The apartment is not short of other talking points, including the dramatic oil painting of the King of Thailand that takes centre stage in the living room. "We were on holiday in Hua Hin in Thailand and we popped into a small art fair going on in the town and we just loved the pop art colours of this canvas," Roy explains. Other decorative pieces displayed in the dining area include pictures bought at the Safa Park Flea Market, fabric samples that have been framed and even illustrations from some of the couple's best-loved books. He adds: "The key is to use things that make sense to you, which in turn means that you can't fail to enjoy it."
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