The Inside Story Behind YSG’s Famed Fantales Living Space

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As a design and renovation professional, it’s almost impossible that this boundary-pushing concept design, named the ‘Fantales’ interior, has not caught your eye – or the gaze of your clients. Born from the creative collaboration between Laminex and the design powerhouse YSG, it displays a distinctive materiality and a novel way to use trusted products and traditional finishes. For the story behind the space, we caught up with Yasmine Ghoniem, principal and founder of YSG, to chat about her remarkable vision for the living area.

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The New Reality of Residential Design

The Fantales living area is named for its nostalgic ambience and warm, caramel-hued palette. The liberated form of this space is immediately apparent, but Ghoniem’s vision was largely driven by functionality.

“I was asked to create a hybrid living space with an integrated study nook, given the pandemic was accelerating the working-from-home phenomenon,” says Ghoniem. “Essentially, the combined spaces needed to reflect the new reality of residential design: that homes are places where we must be able to live, work and play.”

Despite the waning of lockdowns, Ghoniem believes the shift to working from home is not just a passing trend. “Whilst creating makeshift offices were initially rushed kneejerk reactions, now I’m finding new clients requesting integrated study areas in their homes – from dedicated rooms to smart spaces. This concept is here to stay,” she says.

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A Layout Where Work Meets Play

For the living room, Ghoniem drew on an open-plan layout. The sofa, coffee tables and cupboards are clustered at the relaxation end of the room, while the work zone is located in a corner of the rear wall.

As well as zoning, Ghoniem altered her use of laminates to differentiate the work and leisure areas. “The woodgrain laminates are more concentrated in the sitting area to achieve a weighty gravity away from the work area,” she says. “Floor-to-ceiling cabinets and chunky coffee tables really stabilise the room.”

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The home-office space is marked by a sliding screen that reveals and conceals the custom built-in desk and shelving. “The integrated study nook needed to be a dedicated working area, which is why it faces a wall at one end of the room, furthest from the lounges,” says Ghoniem.

Both zones sport red pops of Laminex Pillarbox Natural finish laminate and Danish Walnut Chalk finish laminate. The seating area introduces bands of Laminex Milkwood Natural finish at the base of the built-in joinery, while Porcelain Blush Natural finish laminate forms a neutral wash against the study wall.

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Integrating the Home-Office Zone

Unlike most living rooms that were not initially intended to function as home offices, Ghoniem used meticulous planning to ensure the work zone was not an afterthought.

“The bullnose linear screens above the desk surface comprise two units, with the outer screen permanently fixed between the desk and ceiling and the inner screen being able to slide across,” she says. “This conceals equipment and paperwork on the desk area, should guests arrive or the homeowner want to switch off from work for the day.”

To ensure the screen can be easily pulled and pushed across the work zone, the dimensions of each batten fit snugly in the palm of one’s hand.

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Introducing battens also adds a sense of depth and intrigue. “Using a solid laminate would have darkened that corner of the room into a dense mass, and we liked the idea of the shelves and their ornaments piquing visual interest, even if the screen was partially drawn over them,” says Ghoniem.

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Creating Cohesion With Furniture, Fixtures and Finishes

In the seating area, custom coffee tables echo the same materials and finishes used in the fixtures and joinery.

“Working with Laminex reduced the need to explore other materials, such as solid timber and natural stone, so it was a huge time and budget saver. Case in point is the surface of the two coffee tables,” says Ghoniem. The designer clad the coffee-table bases in Tasmanian oak veneer with solid Tasmanian oak at the foot of each leg. The tabletops are in a rich, saturated Laminex Kalamata, framed by a 10-millimetre perimeter of Pillarbox laminate. “Had I tried to achieve this with a dark stone I would have had to purchase an entire slab,” says Ghoniem.

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The designer was also drawn to laminate as it allowed her to infuse the space with her signature curved designs. “YSG interiors have a carved, sculptural appeal with gentle bulges, rounded edges and interconnected spaces, and I’ve managed to achieve all this with the laminate,” says Ghoniem. “Rather than simply adhering laminates to customary, right-angled joinery surfaces, its sculptural dexterity demonstrates the diversity of the product and hopefully pushes people to extend their imagination.

“I learnt a lot about the dexterity and malleability of Laminex’s laminate materials and was really impressed with their post-formed high-pressure laminate. The team was really open to carving and sculpting my design ideas. Their flexibility enabled me to craft some great features in the living area – from the bullnose profiles of the shelves to the curved screen.

“It’s a super-light product, so you can basically apply it upon any surface you wish,” says Ghoniem.

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Three Cheers to Home Entertaining

The cupboards in the Fantales living room concept function as more than general storage. “Influenced by growing requests for liquor cabinets in homes as a result of lockdowns, we entertained the idea of creating a cupboard that looked equally as good with its doors open via its punchy red internals – from shelving to wall and door surfaces,” says Ghoniem. “Located behind the sofa, there’s no reason why it can’t always peep open!”

The designer repeated the laminates throughout the room in the cupboard joinery for cohesion: Pillarbox Natural Finish red laminate for the handles, recessed base and internals, and a mix of two woodgrain laminates for the externals.

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“For the cabinet doors, I mismatched the Danish Walnut Chalk finish laminate, so the two cupboards possess tapestry-like appeal with their abstracted linear patterns, which are grounded by vertical bands of Laminex Milkwood Natural finish at their base.”

With functionality top of mind, it was important to Ghoniem that the materials she chose were hard-wearing and low-maintenance. “Unlike natural stone, laminate can handle harsher cleaning agents. It’s not porous either, so it doesn’t stain like stone can if something like lemon juice spills across its surface,” she says.

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Featured in the Home-Office Space
Drawer: Laminex Danish Walnut Chalk finish to the exterior and Laminex Pillarbox Natural finish to the interior.
Wall and bench: Laminex Porcelain Blush Natural finish.
Sliding screen: Laminex Danish Walnut Chalk finish.
Shelves: Laminex Pillarbox Natural finish.

Featured in the Living Space
Coffee tables: Laminex Kalamata, Laminex Pillarbox and Tasmanian oak veneer.
Joinery: Laminex Danish Walnut Chalk finish, Laminex Milkwood Natural finish and Laminex Pillarbox Natural finish.
Sofa: DOMO Toga.

Contributors
Design: YSG Studio
Photographer: Derek Swalwell
Stylist: Natalie James
Creative Direction: Ortolan

More: To find out more about Laminex Solid-Colour decor, Woodgrain laminates and veneers, visit Laminex’s website.

This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.