The tour starts in the majlis, the room for receiving guests, where carved screens and arched recesses set a decorative frame around the seating. Light here comes mostly from within: a chandelier at the centre of the ceiling and hidden fittings that wash the walls. The private side of the villa follows. The master bedroom is quieter and more ordered, built around the bed wall and its storage, and it leads on to the bathrooms, where the colours turn to stone and grey.
Striped silk covers the majlis sofas, its sheen and repeated lines answering the pattern of the fretwork. In the master bedroom, square upholstered panels line the wall behind the bed and give the blue headboard a soft, tactile backdrop. Pebble mosaic frames the bath and the vanity in the master bathroom, its rounded pieces adding texture against the flat stone. The villa is in Sharjah, UAE.