Villa Imperiale: Maximalist Italian Luxury in Dubai’s Emirates Hills
Villa Imperiale rewrites expectations of residential luxury in Dubai, UAE, trading quiet minimalism for exuberant maximalism. Etereo Design shapes this house in Emirates Hills as a tailored home for a young European family, where vivid color, layered materials, and expressive objects frame daily life. Every room carries its own mood, yet the narrative threads back to a shared taste for Italian craft and unapologetically bold interior character.
Light skims across travertine and rare marble, catching on bronze edges and deep blue stone before dissolving into the greenery outside. A bright toy in a children’s room, a glint of chrome on a supercar, a reflection on an onyx wall all hint at the layered life within.
This house is a 1,700 mq family villa in Emirates Hills, Dubai, conceived by Etereo Design as a committed embrace of residential maximalism. Commissioned by a young European couple who reject restrained luxury, it becomes a made-to-measure home that folds together personal collections, saturated color, and opulent materials. The throughline is interior character expressed through surfaces, furnishings, and light rather than empty showmanship.
The clients arrived in 2022 with a clear brief and a villa they considered polished yet soulless. Etereo’s team, led by co-founder and designer Stefania Digregorio, leaned into their appetite for color, strong materials, and emotional impact. Over more than two years and a 50 million AED investment, the studio reworks everything from garage thresholds to rooftop terraces, always using finish, pattern, and art to translate personality into rooms.
Maximalism As Daily Setting
This is not a show house; it is a large, lived-in villa with six bedrooms, a gym, spa, cinema, studio, and open kitchen with dining. Every room carries its own chromatic temperature and material mix, from vivid children’s quarters to a hushed primary suite with a neutral palette and small shots of red. Public areas lean into layered textures and bold silhouettes, where art, sculptural lighting, and collections sit in dialogue with natural stone. Walking through the house feels like moving through a playlist of genres, each room shifting rhythm without losing the overall narrative.
Stone, Metal, And Light
Across the common areas, travertino in varied textures and finishes establishes continuity, wrapping floors and walls in a calm yet tactile base. Onto this surface, Etereo composes inlays and volumes of Calacatta, Onyx, Patagonia, Deep Blue, and rare green marbles, using them as focal points that draw the eye and anchor furniture groupings. Dramatic chandeliers and custom pieces by Czech studio Kolektiv, paired with architectural fixtures from Linea Light, are not mere accents; their glow activates the stone, bouncing off veining and polished cuts to enrich depth. Tobacco-toned leather, bronze-lacquered wood, and sheer metallic textiles introduce warmth and sheen, softening the stone’s cool precision.
Italian Craft At The Core
Furniture across the villa reads as a survey of contemporary Italian makers, with pieces from Fendi, Molteni&C, Poltrona Frau, Giorgetti, Minotti and others placed for impact rather than brand display. Each room layers upholstery, wood, and metal in different densities, using pattern and proportion to control energy levels. The open kitchen, crafted in Italy by fit-out firm IFO, becomes the house’s social core, where marble Patagonia surfaces, walnut cabinets, and bronze detailing frame both everyday cooking and large gatherings. Premium appliances by Gaggenau and Miele sit within this composition, their technical presence tempered by the richness of natural materials and precise joinery.
Rooms With Distinct Temperatures
Contrast drives the interior journey. A study lined with green stone, assertive-veined marble, and herringbone parquet sets a serious tone, amplified by strong, directed lighting. The primary bedroom shifts to softness, using quieter hues and subtle red accents to create calm rather than drama. Downstairs, a cinema and entertainment area riff on amusement-park energy with saturated color and playful graphics, while the spa at the opposite end of the plan leans into muted finishes and a slowed pace. Children’s rooms explode with vivid tones, imaginative forms, and graphic motifs, while the Technogym-equipped gym expresses a more minimal, functional attitude.
Interior Life And Tropical Edge
Material richness does not stop at the threshold. Large panes of glass frame a deliberately lush garden, turning travertine floors and stone walls into viewing platforms for a tropical scene. Four outdoor lounges—one on the upper level and three at ground—pull living outward toward baobab, banyan, and other exotic plantings. Etereo extends its interior sensibility into the landscape, specifying an advanced irrigation system and robust species that can withstand Dubai’s climate while still reading as dense and generous. Even the twin garages, fitted with security systems, are treated as luminous exhibition galleries for the owners’ collection of luxury cars.
By the time one returns to the entrance, the villa’s maximalism reads not as excess but as a catalog of personal choices made visible. Stone, metal, leather, and planting hold stories of taste, travel, and shared life. In a city defined by polished restraint, this house leans into saturation and texture, proving that character can be as luxurious as discretion.
Photography by Shuga Films
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