BLUE HUES

AN INTERIOR DESIGNER DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM THE SKY AND SEA FOR THE INTERIORS OF AN ABU DHABI OCEANFRONT ABODE.

- NANCY A. RUHLING

Set on a sandy white beach on Abu Dhabi's super-luxe Saadiyat Island, there's a newly redecorated apartment whose interior design, carefully curated and crafted, embraces its waterfront setting without upstaging it.

When the couple with two young daughters bought the vacation home, they asked interior designer Ksenia Mezentseva, whose eponymous firm has offices in Russia and Dubai, to create a serene retreat that enhances its environment.

Set in a modern building that looks out over a Maldives-like beach and a boardwalk lined with cafés, restaurants, and chic boutiques, the 2,690-square-foot apartment is set, like a gem in an engagement ring, near the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the National Museum, and the soon-to-be-completed Guggenheim.

Although the apartment's layout was workable, the interiors needed cosmetic updating. Mezentseva gave the place its new look by changing the flooring from tiles to wood, replacing a damaged ceiling, adding structural and decorative light, upgrading the bathrooms, installing a new kitchen, changing the built-in closets, creating new storage spaces, and, of course, redecorating.

Inspired by the varying blues of the sky and the sea, the white of the sand, and the lush green of the palm trees, Mezentseva created what she calls "a balanced and stylish interior" that exploits the ocean, which is showcased, like a living mural, through the floor-to-ceiling windows.