Arts meets designs for a blend of luxury

The pedigree of interior designs goes beyond a one-way street space décor, it is a combination of blending elements of visual artworks with custom touches that not only embodies elegance and comfort, but also appeals to your mood and style, whilst depicting your background, history and ethnicity aesthetically.

The combination of artwork with your interior designs stands as a constant reminder of who you are, who you want to be and where you’re headed. Waking up to behold the blend of art and designs aestheticism in your space can be a motivation to break new grounds in your daily endeavour or even brighten your mood as happiness emanates from what the eyes see.

However, these artwork touches come in variance of visual masterpieces like sculptures, imageries, paintings, drawings, traditional and cultural accessories, fabrics, photography, others, that reflects desired style of ideal space as showcased during this year’s NU MI Design House (NMDH) luxury exhibition, which took place at LASWA Yard Ikoyi, Lagos recently.

With some luxury designers and creative art curators such as Funfere Koroye, Tosin Oshinowo, Alaga collections, Olumide Onadipe Studio Lani, Oguma Adegoke and Kelechi Odu, showcasing quality interior designs and touches of artworks that reflect Africanism, the organiser of the exhibition, Tanwa Newbold, Creative Director and Founder of NMDH said the ideology is to promote creativity in Nigeria.

She said: “The point of the exhibition is for people to know that there is so much talent and creativity in Nigerian indigenous interior designers, architects, artists and curators. I want people to know that profound interior curators and designers exist in Nigeria with absolute finishing. This year, we collaborated with Paula Alakija, an artist, to do a kind of arts meets designs for a blend of luxury design. So we have her artwork for the dining area, bedroom and living room interiors. As a luxury designer, I am inspired by what I can do with space, which is what prompted this year’s exhibition. We also have some pieces from Nike Arts Gallery” she said.

Yellow fabric single sofas with adire throw pillow, artwork and accessory

Newbold furthers said all of the exhibited designs are made in Nigeria, however, some of the fabrics were imported but designed in Nigeria by Nigerians. According to her, the challenge with fabric is the request for diversity. “When we use Nigerian fabrics like Aso-oke, Ankara, locally made wool, others, we mix up for diversity based on clientele demand,” she said.

One of the curators at the exhibition, Lauretta Odusolu, the Executive Director of Laura Bentley Lifestyle, a home and décor interior design and lifestyle brand which caters for people who desires their home to truly reflect their personality and style. Odusolu believes in designing space according to individual style. She said: “If someone sees you and then sees your home, it should resonate without a contrast. The ideology is to incorporate you in your home, whether you’re a lover of simplicity or sophistication. Simple people want clean spaces without having flowers or artworks everywhere, they want standout minimal artwork, flowers and accessories” she said.

The curator further explained that those who go for simplicity are usually people who have a very busy lifestyle, so they want to come home and be at peace with the atmosphere without excess luxury. While some people on the other hand have a less stressful lifestyle, so they want their home to be exotically stylish which is why the brand incorporate everyone’s lifestyle into their space in order to suit their personality and mood.