A vibrant family home in Barsha

She says that when they were looking for a new house to move into, “the first option for me was to live in Barsha because I like the houses. I like that they’re a little different from the other areas in Dubai and they’re not all exactly the same as the neighbours… We liked the design, the floor, the kitchen tiles – it’s fun, it’s a bit different.” She adds that she and her husband were also attracted by the fact that it was spacious enough to accommodate their growing girls, but not so big that it would feel empty.

On entering the home, guests are greeted by incredible eye-catching striped printed wallpaper by Eijffinger. “I saw it in Holland years ago. We didn’t do this right when we moved into the house and for a long time we wondered how to use this space under the stairs, but it worked out pretty well. Every colour is there; it’s so nice when you come in. I love it.”

For the first few weeks after moving in, the living room, dining room and entrance hall were empty. “We didn’t want to have all new stuff right at the beginning; we wanted to see what we needed and what we wanted to add over time. So we swapped things in and out two or three times before we made our decision.” One of the things that stayed was the dining room table, which Alieke brought out from the study where she had been using it as a desk. “It was a light wood but I wanted a darker colour, so we stained it. And from there I realised that the walls needed to be darker too and that’s when we came up with this brown, which I think is perfect,” Alieke says.

The dining chairs from THE One were originally brown leather but when Alieke stained the table, she also stained the legs of the chairs and reupholstered them in magenta, purple, blue and pink. “I saw this in a magazine and I really liked it. It’s such a bold statement!”

For the master bedroom, Alieke began with the curtains and blinds, which she got from Designers Guild. “I chose grey for the walls, but I knew we weren’t going to make it all grey, so I decided to spice it up with a little lime – and it works!”

With a creative mind, an eye for colour and an artistic knack, Alieke is always thinking of new ideas for her home. “I would like to do a little more outside, especially around the pool area.” She bought some daybeds in India that she’s keen to set up once they arrive – especially now the weather is perfect. “They have a steel frame and the guy who was making them was weaving blue ribbon through, so they are going to be nice when they come. And I was thinking I am going to make some blue cushions for them.”

This story first appeared on InsideOut in December 2013