Hospitality interiors designed as immersive narratives — atmospheric, referential, and unmistakably unique.
Obsessive attention to detail, from first sketch to final installation.
Concept & Identity
The soul of a project is defined before a single line is drawn. We immerse ourselves in the operating partner's vision, the building's existing character, the surrounding cultural context, and the references that hold creative gravity for the space. Out of that immersion emerges a clear narrative point of view, a guiding story, and aesthetic identity that establishes how the venue should feel, who it speaks to, and what makes it unmistakably itself. This phase produces the conceptual framework, mood direction, and design language that anchor every decision to follow, ensuring that materials, finishes, art, and atmosphere all serve a single, cohesive vision.
Interior Design
Volenec Studio operates as a global practice with a team in New York City and an active design studio in Bangkok, allowing us to deliver projects fluidly across time zones, supply chains, and creative ecosystems. This dual presence gives us direct access to the craftsmanship, materials, and fabrication networks of both the Western and Southeast Asian design worlds — from custom millwork and metalwork in the United States to bespoke textiles, hand-finished furniture, and artisanal production across Asia. Our team travels with each project, embedding on-site at every critical phase, while our international footprint enables us to take on work in any market — from boutique lounges in Manhattan and Palm Beach to listening bars in Dubai and resorts across Southeast Asia — with the same level of detail, oversight, and creative consistency that defines the studio.
Global Delivery
The conceptual identity is translated into a fully resolved spatial and material reality. Working from the established narrative, we develop floor plans, elevations, and detailed millwork drawings that shape circulation, sightlines, and the rhythm of the room. Every surface, finish, fixture, and furnishing is specified with intention — bespoke joinery, custom upholstery, lighting design, hardware, stone, wood, textile, and paint — selected and sourced to reinforce the story rather than decorate around it. Art, objects, and curated layers of detail are integrated alongside the architecture so that nothing feels applied after the fact. The result is a cohesive, immersive environment where every element, from the ceiling treatment to the smallest piece of brass, works in service of the space's singular character. From the surrealist glamour of Mary Lou's to the raw industrial poetry of Honeycomb HiFi, each project develops its own DNA.
Selected Projects…
MARY LOU’S
PALM BEACH
A ‘surreal’ interpretation of 70s Palm Beach opulence and forward-leaning hedonism — Mary Lou’s is a visually dramatic and playful dialogue between past and present, where, as the venue's own ethos suggests, nothing is quite as it seems. In essence, Mary Lou’s is an eccentric stage-setting that blurs the lines between the former Berto's Bait & Tackle Shop and a new dream-like variation inspired by the eccentric fashionista & namesake Mary Lou. A lounge curated for the culturally well-heeled patrons of Billionaires Row. The arrival sequence preserves the unassuming shell of Berto's, a beloved local fishing outpost that occupied the address for half a century, keeping its rustic memorabilia and coastal vernacular fully intact as a foyer to the lounge beyond. Quirky decor thematically inspired by the original bait shop carries through into the interior, recontextualized as something far stranger and more glamorous.
HONEYCOMB HIFI
DUBAI
Inspired by the intimate, ritual-driven culture of the Tokyo listening bar, coupled with the honesty of deliberately humble materials elevated through precision millwork and detailing, we set out to translate that quiet reverence for sound, food, and gathering into a Dubai context — a hidden lounge tucked behind a boutique record store that feels less like a venue and more like stepping into a meticulously composed private den. In essence, Honeycomb HiFi is an exercise in restraint and material honesty. The entire interior is built from construction-grade plywood — a deliberately humble material that serves as both backdrop and instrument, warming the acoustics while creating a singular, enveloping shell that lets sound, art, and food take the foreground. At the heart of the lounge sit bespoke Ojas speakers by Devon Turnbull, integrated directly into the architecture rather than placed within it — sound becomes a structural element of the space. The lounge is activated nightly by weekly DJ sets and vinyl listening sessions, classic izakaya dishes from Chef Matt Abergel, and a rotating program of art exhibitions that keeps the walls in constant dialogue with the music. This layering of disciplines — architecture, sound, cuisine, and visual art — creates the kind of considered, evolving atmosphere that defines the great listening bars of the world, reimagined for Dubai.
STOKEHOUSE
LONDON
A modern take on a traditional British carvery, Stokehouse is located in Victoria, the heart of London. A combination of rustic materials juxtaposed with refined finishes define Stokehouse by creating an approachable yet elegant restaurant suitable for breakfast, lunch & dinner service. A couple examples of this approach are rustic wood beams juxtaposed with ultra hi-gloss ceiling boards, and reclaimed wood shelving assembled with thoughtfully detailed metal fittings. Within the overall interior design, we created multiple features, including a large British flag ‘wall’ constructed with beer cans from the local craft brewery BREW DOG. We used 3 different types of beer ‘flavors’ to compose the oversized flag, resulting in a playful, locally inspired feature.
MAISON NUR & THE STUDIO
NEW YORK CITY
Nur Khan's latest — a French-American fine dining restaurant at 217 Bowery that fuses old-world elegance with contemporary artistic provocation. Guests enter through a tunnel of perforated metal etched with Harif Guzman's signature eye motifs and emerge through dusty rose velvet drapery into deeply patinated walls, plush mohair banquettes, and dimly flickering candlelight. Museum-quality works by Damien Hirst, Neil Grayson, and Harif Guzman disrupt the classic atmosphere with jolts of the unexpected. Downstairs: The Studio, a nightclub with a stellar sound system and a cozy dance floor.
BUTTERFLY
NEW YORK CITY
The design inspiration for Butterfly originated from the sensual eccentricities of Casa Mollino and the parallels of style / taste that we saw in Carlo Mollino & the operating partner of Butterfly, Nur Khan. Volenec Studio decided to deliberately blur the lines between these two personalities, designing the lounge in a free-style fashion that feels as if you are stepping into a playful fantasy-version of Nur's private living room. In essence, Butterfly is an eccentric layering of four creative masters, all of whose work is distinct in style. Carlo Mollino-inspired leopard print walls, butterfly display, & landscape mural serve as the general backdrop to Butterfly. Ettore Sottsass-inspired rugs create a layer of visually playful discord. Damien Hirst butterfly paintings and Sante Dorazios photographs adorn the walls, personalizing the space by making Nur's friends artwork a permanent fixture in Butterfly. This layering creates a visually dramatic & playful dialogue between these four masters, both past & present.
GRANDMA’S HOME
NEW YORK CITY
A contemporary design narrative that weaves the brand's Chinese heritage with the rhythm of New York. Vibrant modern Chinese art, traditional screen partitions, and curved banquettes resolve into a casual-yet-sophisticated dining experience.
ALLEYCAT AMATEUR THEATRE
NEW YORK CITY
Situated within a raw mechanical room off of old Theater Alley. Found-elements from an ‘abandoned theater prop-room’ decorate the space in a ‘non-precious / DIY fashion’. Theater-props hang from the ceiling, interspersed within the existing mechanical systems, creating playful overhead textures and a cozy ceiling-compression that is the antithesis of the grandiose Beekman lobby atrium. Scenic-theatrical-backdrops loosely hang on the walls behind seating groups, mimicking ‘stage-sets’, (where in the words of Morris Lapidus), the patrons will ‘play out the evenings scenes’. The Beekman Cellar Lounge has an air of seductive-illicitness, with theatrical over/undertones woven throughout, blurring the lines between a contemporary lounge & remnants of a speak-easy-theater that has somehow crossed-back-over from another century...
NEW YORK CITY
STARS N’ BARS
DUBAI
Iconic symbols of California-cool are the guiding principles of the Stars ‘N Bars La Mer design. These elements are incorporated to create an exciting & playful Cali-inspired restaurant on the beach of La Mer in Dubai. Within the overall interior design, the finishes & decor reference vintage surf & skate history, from the Vans-inspired checkerboard floor, to a ‘surf-til-death’ neon sign & general surf / skate related memorabilia.
MISS LILY’S
DUBAI
A reggae fantasyland in the middle of the desert. Miss Lily's first international outpost landed inside the Sheraton Grand Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, bringing the best of Jamaica dialed up to 11 — good vibes delivered through music, food, and festive visuals on every surface. The colorful island interior pulses with a musical theme that runs from wall to ceiling, transplanting reggae roots and Caribbean warmth to the streets of Dubai.
NSFW - FEMALE GAZE
EXHIBITION
New York City
The design inspiration for NSFW: Female Gaze originated from the unflinching, deeply personal nature of the work itself — a group show of over twenty-five emerging women artists reclaiming sexuality on their own terms, co-curated by Marina Garcia-Vasquez of VICE's Creators and Lissa Rivera of the Museum of Sex. Volenec Studio approached the gallery not as a neutral container but as a co-author of the work, designing an exhibition environment that mirrors the rawness, intimacy, and confrontational honesty of the artists' own visual language.
In essence, the gallery is conceived as a deliberate counterpoint to the polished white-cube convention. The architecture is stripped back and tactile, allowing each artist's medium — textile, painting, photography, film, GIF, and net-native work pulled from Instagram — to occupy the space on its own terms rather than be smoothed into a single curatorial tone. Sequencing, sightlines, and lighting are choreographed to move the viewer through shifting registers of fantasy, identity, and desire, with quieter, more meditative pieces given the breathing room they require and louder, more provocative works staged to confront directly.
The result is an eccentric layering of disciplines — feminist net art, BDSM imagery, soft sculpture, intimate portraiture, and historical reframings of the male gaze — held together by a gallery design that refuses to sanitize any of it. Built in collaboration with Mark Snyder as Director of Exhibitions, Serge Becker as Artistic Director, and a production team of Trey Tyler, Cletis Chatterton, and Joey Agostinacchio, the space functions as both stage and amplifier, creating a visually dramatic and unapologetically charged dialogue between the artists, their work, and the viewer.
