Interior designer Manar M Alali and her family spend the day making memories in Abu Dhabi’s newest haven of luxury living – Ramhan Island

Photography: Žiga Mihelčič
Make-up: Lina Dahlbäck
Styling: Chloe Louise
Words: Sophia Dyer

Walking through the grand front door of the seven-bedroom Sky Villa on Ramhan Island for the first time, interior designer Manar M Alali can’t help but exclaim, “Oh, it’s beautiful,” as she begins to explore the spacious ground floor with her husband and four children. 

Moving from the stately formal dining and living room area to the expansive family living room that effortlessly flows into a large kitchen on one side and – through floor-to-ceiling patio doors – a wide terrace and azure blue pool overlooking the tranquil waters of the mangrove, Manar marvels at the impressive attention to details she notices wherever the eye alights. 

Manar and her family relax in the Sky Villa, Ramhan Island. Abaya: The Kape

“With good design as a foundation, the villas offer a real luxury experience,” Manar muses as she moves between the upstairs bedrooms, while her children call out their discovery of a handy elevator and debate which room they want to claim as theirs. 

Located just off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the island is a new residential and lifestyle concept set to open soon. Promising an oasis of tranquillity and refinement that will also cater to every need of its residences with on-site fine dining restaurants, hotels and luxury shopping experiences at their fingertips. As a marker of what’s to come, currently, there is a cluster of waterfront villas, each no short of a design feat. 

This is why Manar, as one of the city’s more renowned interior designers, was one of the first guests invited to have an up close and personal experience with the isle. 

All smiles: Enjoying the sunshine on Ramhan Island

Journeying to Ramhan Island early on a Saturday morning, Manar is joined by her children, Zayed (ten), Sara (eight), Meera (five) and Rashed (two). “Design affects me very much,” she explains. “It’s the one thing that I do every day, starting from my house to my family’s houses, but even when I go out to eat, or go on vacation, I choose places based on the way they look.”

Founder of boutique design firm ByManarAlali, Manar’s passion for interiors was something innate, rather than taught. “It wasn’t something that I studied or learned, it was just naturally within me. I think some of it came from my mum, as she would change the interior of the house around Ramadan each year. She’d renovate something or change the chairs or the sofa, so I think because I grew up in a family like that, I noticed that change is needed to keep things beautiful and fresh.”

With a self-professed eye for detail, the mother of four is interested in exploring every aspect of the large home – from the outside living area that features an impressive barbeque set-up and a space designed for open-air family movie nights, to the master bedroom with its walk-in closet that even the most die-hard fashionista would love and a wall of windows looking out onto the sparkling island waters. 

Exploring the minimalist designed space

“It’s simple, minimal and so well designed,” Manar says with feeling. “Everything just comes together nicely.” 

Visual synergy is important to the designer. “It even affects me when choosing colours or clothes for my kids and myself,” she laughs. “I noticed that I love to colour-scheme them. I want them to look the same or to have the same feeling, even when I choose clothes with the same textures. It is in my head all the time, like 24/7.”

Led by their caring but playful older brother, the three youngest children waste no time settling in the villa. Running from inside to out, they happily play together. With their father keeping a watchful eye, Manar retreats upstairs for a quiet moment alone, flicking through a coffee-table book in the master bedroom. She later tells us, “Ramhan Island has inspired me a lot. I noticed how the designer carefully placed things. Every detail, down to the books that they have placed around the property, was done so well.” 

Child’s play: The outdoor area of the Sky Villa is perfect for children

This passion for decoration is something that manifested in Manar’s life while building her first family home. “I didn’t use any interior designer, I did it all myself,” she explains. “That was when I discovered how much everything affects the look of a room. The lighting, the flooring…they are all so important.” Discovering a drive for crafting beautiful spaces, Manar left her job in the government to pursue her dreams. “I then took courses here and outside the country, along with several online ones just so I could understand it better.” 

Taking to her Instagram account, Manar began building up a following and subsequent client base. After seeing the results of her home renovation on social media, the sister of influencers Marwa, Mthayel and Mashael began to build a strong reputation in the Emirate. As well as posting pictures of the finished rooms, “I pointed out the mistakes that we’ve made that I knew other people would fall into,” she says. “Then I started to get a lot of positive feedback from people telling me how I helped them and saved them time. That’s when I realised I love to educate and help others.”

Admiring the interiors of the Sky Villa on Ramhan Island

Her nurturing qualities are indeed evident as she helps her smallest children draw pictures in the bright Sky villa living room while making jokes with the older two who are excitedly hopping about the large space. “Interiors should be constantly changing with the people who live in the space. They should be dynamic,” explains Manar. “This fits my personality. To be honest, I don’t like routine. I am a person who loves change.” Talking about how she approaches her own home she remarks, “It’s always continuously changing with the people. It’s very dynamic.”

With four young children, it’s quickly evident why Manar feels inspired to be ever-changing. Each with different personalities, the parents, though relaxed by the serene environment, have their hands full. 

“My friends ask me all the time how I manage to work and look after my kids,” Manar laughs. “I think it’s all about organisation. I plan everything, but I’m open to changes. I divide my days according to the needs of myself and my family and business and plan the day down to the minute. Actually, my husband pokes fun at the way I plan every hour of the day.” 

Manar sitting pretty in the master bedroom of the Sky Villa. Abaya: The Kape

Spending time with Manar on Ramhan Island, her passion for organisation manifests in more ways than one – her children’s perfectly pressed matching outfits being one of them. It also appears in the way she systematically captures content on her phone. This is not to say it’s staged – quite the opposite, Manar has an eye for recording life’s sweet nanoseconds. And at the end of the day, her camera roll is neatly filled with countless Insta-worthy shots that she posts to her account in hopes of inspiring others. “I like to capture nice moments and share them. I have galleries of pictures and videos on my phone,” she says. When it comes to posting on her account, which has a following of 155,000, Manar only selects the very best. “I love to share positive moments,” she says. “I put pictures up to inspire people to relax, you know, maybe light a candle.”

Relatively new at influencing, Manar, who plans to release her own niche collection of homeware soon, is careful about her brand identity. “I don’t want to be a mass content creator,” she shares. “There are so many accounts on Instagram, so I try to keep my content focused, 20 percent is about my life and style, but the majority is interior design.”

Looking out to sea: Manar and two of her children take the boat to Ramhan Island

The statement is easily backed up by paying a visit to her grid, which is awash with neatly captured corners of a home, each as zen-inducing as a spa. “The key to good design is about the feeling,” explains Manar. “Some spaces just make you feel relaxed, while others make you feel energetic. Ramhan Island, for example, makes me feel so homey.” 

More than just aesthetics, “all the spaces in the villa have a synergy with each other. Even the smells here work in harmony with the design,” she says. And as the sun sets over the sea with the day drawing to a close, it’s clear to see the impact good design can have, particularly on someone with a penchant for crafting beautiful spaces herself. 

Visit eaglehills.com and follow @manarmalali on Instagram.