“It’s not all the time that you’re friends with your clients,” AD100 designer Andre Mellone says with a smile, referring to British-Bahraini fashion designer Misha Nonoo. The pair first collaborated on the transformation of her Greenwich Village duplex and has since reimagined two homes in New York for Nonoo’s family.
Her latest project brought the Brazilian-born, New York-based interior designer (and AD PRO Directory member) to a sleek Meier Partners building in Miami, where Mellone says they were met with “travertine floors and white walls.” His mission, he says, was simple: “To lay out this open space, with no gimmicks, no tricks—just furniture.”
“It was very important to me that it felt warm,” Nonoo shares, noting the polish of the unit. “But not warm like a rustic beach house, more European, as we were working with very fine materials, despite the proximity to the beach.”
Upon entering the apartment, the strategic placement of art guides guests through the distinct areas of the open living space. Nonoo, an avid collector who collaborated with advisor André Viana, worked with Mellone to ensure that each piece—from the striking (and stripey) Daniel Buren to a vibrant, egg-yolk yellow Steven Parrino—complements the surrounding design.
Eschewing any element that read too “Miami Beach,” the friends drew inspiration from the coastal textures of raffia and wicker, playing up a woven motif that also nods to Nonoo’s sustainable wares. “We found two Donghia club chairs with a heavy weave, and then a Dunbar woven cabinet,” Mellone remembers. The subtle theme expanded from there.
To anchor the living area, Mellone specified a seafoam green rug—a chromatic first for the neutral-leaning designer—which echoes the colors of the palm trees and ocean. “Misha loves that you can see the palm trees from the terrace,” Mellone reflects. “You feel like you’re in nature.”