The thing about the Sretsis fashion brand is that they are not only lauded for their clothes but also for magnificent retail spaces that make a trip to their stores a dreamy visit to the galaxy of Victorian fairy tales, among other fanciful backdrops. As the brand's universe has creatively widened in the past few years, the name has grown to encompass food and beverage (a fine tea parlour), home décor (wallpaper with fantastical beasts) and dining ware (ceramic unicorn candle holders). Earlier this month, the three Sukhahuta sisters unveiled a home -- completely fashioned in the Sretsis style -- for anyone who wants to live in the whimsical flair the brand is so well known for.
Under the design theme "Tropical Magick Villa", this interior design collaboration is created with real estate developer Nichada Group. Within the large gated community spanning 160 hectares, houses within the Nichada Premier Place III project can opt to be decorated and fully furnished with a summery, Sretsis touch. The concept takes its lush, green surroundings into account and aims to provide the everyday comforts of a home, yet with a touch of holiday and villa qualities in mind.
With the ongoing pandemic that has curbed the number of incoming expats into this so-called "Expatriate Town Of Thailand", Nichada is shifting gears to reach out to locals looking to buy a prime estate in this pristine neighbourhood. These houses have been lived in before by previous renters but have never been sold.
"It's possibly a second home that well-to-do Thais could pick up," imagines Pimdao Sukhahuta, creative director of Sretsis. "Maybe it's a place the grandparents come to every weekend with the grandchildren like a holiday home, given its natural greenery, facilities and proximity to the international school, ISB."
The price tag that comes with each house is 32.5 million baht. Each house contains three bedrooms, a walk-in closet, a multi-purpose room, five bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, a full kitchen equipped with appliances, live-in helpers quarters and two car park spaces. The multi-purpose room was turned into a spa room at the showhouse although this can be anything from a workout studio to another bedroom. If future owners are Sretsis ladies, it is likely that the room would become a full-on closet -- for the extensive amount of frills they are sure to have. The houses will be sold starting at 23 million baht if without the Tropical Magick Villa interiors.
The Sretsis sisters: Matina, Pimdao and Klyduan Sukhahuta in the master bedroom. (Photos Courtesy of Nichada)
The youngest Sretsis sister, Matina Sukhahuta, is the main brain behind this project, following her previous experiences of leading the design direction for the brand's tearoom, Sretsis Parlour, as well as for her family's own home in Chaengwattana. What's immediately striking about Tropical Magick Villa is how it doesn't exactly strike you with a flood of patterns, prints and fantasy, once you first step into the 400m² house.
"Of course if it was a full-on Sretsis house, you would see swirly staircases and much, much more wallpaper," Matina laughs. "Some parts are still a blank canvas, so owners can add a touch of themselves too. It needs to have livability and our job was to give some life and colour to the house. For this project, I really wanted to make green the new white as the house features many different shades of green."
The artfully fashioned home mainly plays on mint green and pastel pink to create a reverie of a tropical resort. As a connoisseur and lover of luxury and design décor brands, Matina has selected distinctive pieces from both abroad and locally to create a modern Thai home.
Dining room.
The space is airy yet contemporary with rattan furniture and chandeliers from Corner 43 and finished with Jim Thompson pillows. Tailor-made velvet headboards in the bedrooms, plush velvet curtains and arches throughout the house are some of the discreet but whimsical design notes that bring a subtle Sretsis touch to the space. The tiles in the dining room and kitchen play on patterns Thais are used to but come in completely new custom-made colour swatches of emerald and cotton candy pink.
As Nichada is known to be suited to families with children, Matina has transformed the original formal dining room into a playroom. Quirky animal rugs from Doing Goods -- be it grizzly bears to giraffes -- can be found all around the house and reflect Sretsis's commitment to design and sustainability. No animals were harmed in the renovation of this house and a life-size Brachiosaurus plush doll is another highlight within this playroom. Sourced directly from the toy company Hansa, plush animals from this brand stand out for their true-to-life details and anatomically correct dimensions.
Girl bedroom.
"I love this room the most because Thais love to eat and talk," she says of her decision to add new doors to divide the playroom from the kitchen's dining area. "When we make clothes and see that customers keep wearing the same outfit again, it makes us really happy. With houses, it's the same. A house that people sit around a lot and spend all day in is very charming and warm compared to a beautiful, perfect house that has no life. There always needs to be that room kids can get messy in but you can still have your dinner parties so the guests don't see."
Another standout of Tropical Magick Villa is their curation of House of Hackney wallpapers -- a luxury home décor brand from the UK. These glorious patterns beautifully bedeck the walls, as Matina has been conscious to only pick prints that truly reflect Thailand. Take the Avalon print of sunflowers used in the kitchen, for example.
Girl bathroom.
"In the West, people can just go out to pick berries," the design director explains. "We wanted to go with something truly local and I started growing sunflowers during lockdown. Creating something that is native and true to our lives here was very important to the concept of this project. We wanted to create a Thai home but a contemporary one. That's always been the philosophy of Sretsis and here, it's translated into the context of housing."
The Sretsis household is no stranger to wallpaper and redecorating. Since Matina had lived there since childhood, their family home had seen no less than four changes of wallpaper.
"It was easy for me to work on this project because it was just like oomphing up my parent's house after I got back from studying [abroad]," the youngest sister says of their family home, famously known for their fairy-tale-like toadstool mushrooms by the swimming pool. "It was very fun for me. When it's something you are happy to do, you don't feel so limited with boundaries."
Although Matina is commonly known as the sister who handled all the jewellery design for the sisters' companies, the Parsons School of Design graduate actually studied product design. She eventually went on to study gemstones at GIA and decorative arts at Sotheby's, all of which explains her out-of-the-box vision.
Girl dressing room.
"I studied furniture design so I had loads of fun because I didn't have any restrictions when I designed our jewellery," she says of her background. "Or when I did furniture, it was fun too because I wasn't creating furniture to be sold but furniture for a store that sold jewellery. Everything I've done has grown me. You don't need to stick to one particular art, you just need to do everything with passion."
If you're looking for a house in the breezy tropics that instils a sense of wonder and a pop of "magick", look no further.
For more information, call 02-832-0088 or visit nichada.com.
