Tell us a bit about where you grew up?

I was born in London & spent my first 6 years living there. We spent summers in Sandwich Bay, Kent & also in Greece where my grandfather was from & had a house by the sea. Although I grew up in a city I have the most wonderful memories of being outdoors most of the time which has always been so necessary for me wherever I have chosen to live now as an adult.

My Father being Argentine & my mother needing a change of landscape from London , they dreamt of bringing up my sister & I with more space & freedom in nature. So they decided to pack up & move to Argentina when I turned 6 & bought my great grandmother’s Quinta in the countryside, 50 min outside of Buenos Aires. I think that change is what gave me a real sense of freedom growing up. Being outdoors all day long & travelling all over Argentina during those first years, camping & feeling free in beautiful landscapes. It was quite a different place back in the early ’90s.

What brought you to Portugal?

After having my son Jack in 2016, I also felt I needed a change from Buenos Aires & felt like coming back to Europe. My ex-husband had to work in Lisbon for 4 months, so we came & tried it out. Portugal suddenly felt like it had it all! I couldn’t believe the places & beautiful spots we could visit just over a weekend. Coming back to Europe I felt I still had space & wilderness & it reminded me a lot of Uruguay, where I spent most of the summers.

I have now been living in Portugal for the past 5 years & love it. Lisbon for me is the perfect size for a city that I can manage & visually so appealing. I never get bored of walking its streets & of its light in every season. Complete wilderness & beach are just an hour away, I have to pinch myself to believe it is true. I haven’t travelled much in the North of Portugal, so I definitely want to do that this year. I would love to see the ruggedness of Gêres & the Serra da Estrela.

How did you settle & become inspired to stay?

The first thing that struck me most when I first got here is the warmth & welcoming manner of the Portuguese communities, everyone really made me feel at home in Lisbon & now I consider my close friends, family. I am lucky to have met so many incredible people who have shown me the country through their local eyes. When I arrived in the city, my partner, Pepi, & I, were proposed to do the interior design of a new restaurant by José Avillez & Estanislao Carenzo “Casa dos Prazeres/Rei da China”. Although we both came from different design backgrounds, we were eager to try something new & enjoyed it so much that we wanted to keep working together, so I decided to stay, & we did!

Tell us a bit about how Dora Daar came about?

When the pandemic arrived, Pepi & I both felt that our work needed to shift to become more meaningful. Neither of us felt fulfilled in merely decorating places for a world that was changing so fast, so we knew we needed to put our heads together & change something. This is how Dora Daar started. We were both stuck at home with nowhere to go, so we started to ask ourselves how our personal surroundings were impacting the way we feel & live our everyday lives. We wanted to redirect our energy to the way in which we can live more fully & comfortably & reflect that into what our homes can give back to us. I remember finding this quote by Alain de Botton at the time & it gave us a push to do more:

“We need a home in a psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for vulnerability. We need to refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves & to keep alive the important evanescent sides of us.”

Let’s get into your style, how would you describe it?

My style was always about the joy of playing with color. I was always the person who loved filling a house with objects, art, findings, mix of colours & patterns. I think I’ve now become more selective & love living with less. I do love white spaces, like a white canvas where each object, or textile you add, is like adding to a painting; carefully chosen to create a pleasing combination to the eye.

Describe the space where you have your best ideas?

I work from home which I love, & I have moved house recently so I’m working on slowly creating this new space that can hold a new chapter in my life. One where I can work & feel inspired but also disconnect & feel at home. I did have a studio where I once went every day, but for more creative work like studying painting. I now have recreated that space outside of Lisbon in Melides where my parents have a house. I like to spend as much time as possible there & in my free time to try to reconnect with creative work through painting & experimenting different things. Having this place outside of the city in nature to play & see what comes out by spending time into whatever I am doing, is a true blessing!

'A home that connects you with nature & beauty as fundamental agents for healing'. Tell us more about this philosophy.

We discussed this a lot with Pepi when we were creating Dora Daar; a life where you can surround yourself with nature as often as possible & where beauty is effortless because it is already given by so many different factors. It can start healing different issues caused by the anxiety that one can pick up so easily from city life & all our relationships. Creating small details at home that touch on your senses is a way of giving back to yourself. Beauty inspires & provokes positive feelings of hope in our lives, it is contagious. Whenever I am able to be in someone’s world, in their home, immersed by their details & what, for them, is beautiful, I immediately feel inspired & energised. At Dora Daar, we believe that we have a responsibility to care for the way we live in what we make, & what we fill our homes when it comes to promoting a more balanced & soul-filled universe.

What are the perfect ingredients for making things, then, that are soulful?

Good stories are key. I find when you can relate a story to your own it makes something feel more special & making things is a wonderful opportunity to tell stories & reveal purpose. Objects can’t be merely decorative, there has to be something that inspires you to believe that by using a certain thing in a certain way, you can tap into some kind of ritual that evokes memories & makes your home & everyday life more enriching.

How do you select & approach the collaborators you work with when you are making?

It really depends on each project & depending on what we envision we like to think of each collaborator as an ingredient that can add magic to the final piece. Up to now, we have always worked with close friends, people with whom we have an understanding, & most importantly who we can have fun with the process of making. We believe that each project is an opportunity to learn something new from someone & enjoy the ride, not thinking merely about the outcome. Work & play! To be able to laugh while working makes everything much easier!

Are there specific makers in Portugal that inspire you?

We have worked with ceramists from the Alentejo, & also with brass makers in Lisbon to create a candle applique we did in collaboration with Aprés Ski a close friend brand from Barcelona. We are eager to go into textiles next & see what we could create from there. The Arraiolos tradition of carpet makers is maybe a good starting point.

Let’s talk about ‘Responsibility’ & 'Community' in design.

Responsibility, for me, is about promoting change in the way we are working with the resources of our planet. It’s about working locally & not producing for mass consumption. Each of our designs is made in small quantities & for a specific purpose. In order to make real change around us, it is important to come together in our communities & believe in one another when collaborating. We don’t want to live in a world where we are all looking at our belly buttons, we want to inspire each other & spread inspiring messages through what we create. We believe in community-based design where change only happens through contagious meaningful ideas.

What is your dream project?

I think that any project is a dream project if all of these ingredients work harmoniously together. Slowly with time & experience, what we would consider a dream work state is one where there are no categories & borders, where things come together in an effortless way & give back to others whatever they might find lacking in that moment. A great community of people enjoying this moment in time now, using our creative force together to spread a meaningful message. Exciting our senses to want live more & fully.

Tell us about your creative plans for the future.

Through Dora Daar we are slowly starting to create more projects that allow us to travel & discover a little bit more each time. Our main priority this year is to take as much as we can outdoors & create from there, we have some fun plans that we will share soon that will be happening in Spain & also in Portugal. We want to slowly keep building our community & sharing what each project, place & person we find on our way teaches us, all while designing new pieces to add to our Dora Daar website.

Discover artisanal collaborations & interior inspiration via @natsly & @doradaar.