chan wela – The Design Tabloid

by Rose McClement

I’m sitting here wondering how to get this article off the ground? Where do I begin? I’m a bit of a storyteller. So I’m wondering, should I start with “Once upon a Time”? …Nah! Not this time around. I’ll leave that for when I write my book. All I ask right now is that you try to stay with me until “The End”.

Back in September 2017, Design Monarchy was commissioned to assist with the interior design and project management of Chan Wela, a nail bar and beauty salon. I’ve always maintained that whether you design for residential, hotel, retail, or any other interior space, the processes and the principles are always the same. That being said, the interior design of a nail and beauty salon was a first for us, yet we were very keen and excited to get on with it.

Chan Wela Beauty Spa | Interiors by Design Monarchy — Chan Wela Beauty Spa’s manicure bar in Century City, Cape Town. Don’t you just LOVE the gorgeous mint velvet fabric we sourced for the manicure chairs? It was a very hard find!

Before I go any further, I think that it would be appropriate to open up the meaning of the Salon’s name. “Chan Wela” is Thai for “me time”. To this day, I still find the name and its meaning very enchanting.

There were two major challenges that we faced with this project. First off – the timeframe was extremely tight. The Salon’s PR driven celebrity launch party was to be on the 28^th of November. From the time that the deal was agreed upon to the big evening’s launch party, we basically had two months! In that time, we had to tackle challenge number two: converting a typically bland office space, in a typical office block complex, into a compelling top-of-the-range, fully-equipped, upmarket beauty salon. NO pressure!

The construction and building process of a project and converting an interior space is always a time-sensitive issue. The processes are all time-consuming – stress trigger points deluxe! Always! If you are planning an interior upgrade, please, factor insufficient time.Read More »

Believe it or not, this is not a blog post written from the “Other Side” – we are indeed still alive.

For the past few months Rose and I have been working on an interior design project that demanded every minute of our time.

It is actually quite an exciting project to share with you as it is all together different. Now, I don’t want to too much give away – we will share a nice meaty post with some lovely images next year. What I can tell you is that we here at Design Monarchy just completed the interiors of an upmarket beauty spa in Cape Town.

Chan Wela (meaning “me time” in Thai) is a gorgeous oasis in the heart of the Century City business district. The chosen colour scheme is calming combination of clean white and soft pastels, while the glitzy finishes and decorative accessories speak of total opulence. For those of you who are dying of curiosity you can read the following IOL article for the tiniest of sneak peeks: here.

If you are in the greater Cape Town area you can visit this space in the flesh – I hear they do the most amazing pedicures. Oh, and ladies – they have bubbly on tap! Talk about luxe!

So that, dear friends, is reason we have been missing in action – we apologise for the radio silence. We have really missed our readers and sharing beautiful design inspiration with you. Next year we will jump back into blogging and our social media accounts head first! Until then, Season’s Greetings to you all…