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Designer
with Middle East Experience
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Joins Clive Daniel
Home
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Naples,
FL – May 2019 / Newsmaker Alert / From designing sumptuous palaces
of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s top royalty to helping a family renovate
a three-bedroom condo in Boca Raton, Clive
Daniel Home’s newest designer, Thuraya Khatab applies the same principles
she has used during her 25 plus years as a professional interior designer.
“The
environment may be different, but clients still want to be surrounded by
beautiful things that make them happy, no matter where they are,” she says.
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Born
in Beirut, Lebanon, Thuraya’s father was a developer in Lebanon and Kuwait,
where she graduated from an American school. She earned a B.A. in Interior
Design from North Texas State University with intentions to work in civil
engineering with her father. But her love of architecture and interior
design led her to spend 15 years as a commercial and residential design
professional in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Fresh
out of college, she worked with an architect to remodel the home of a senior
Kuwaiti government official, later the Saudi King’s grand-daughter’s custom
35,000-square-foot palace. Other residential and commercial jobs followed
in Lebanon and Bahrain, including retail shops, model homes, commercial
banks, hospitality projects and a dining room to seat 100 guests. Working
with an architect, she provided design consultancy from start to finish
for all interior aspects of an eight-story hospital exclusively for plastic
surgery patients and presented a series of 20 weekly TV episodes on Interior
Design.
In
a region where women were not allowed to work and men were the only designers,
she quietly did her own trailblazing by teaching interior design and computer
art to many of Saudi’s top families. Her membership in exclusive ladies’
organizations opened doors to commercial and residential projects. Adjusting
to the culture and traveling with a bodyguard was challenging, but she
remained focused on every job.
In
reflecting on her time as a design professional in the Middle East, she
recalls, “Where ever I lived, it was important to learn about the culture
of the area to fulfill the design requirements of clients. They were well
traveled, luxury demanding and clients’ budgeting was not an issue. Materials
came from all over the world, many custom made.”
In
2003, she and her husband decided to move back to the US to raise their
two boys, eventually settling in Florida. She worked closely with builders
and architects in designing medical clinics, waterfront condos, clothing
boutiques and kitchen/bath remodels. For six years, she worked with Bryan
Ashley, providing interior designs for five-star hospitality projects.
She was also a design consultant for the Breakers, Trump Towers and several
Margaritaville hotels, working with interior designers and architects.
These
diverse transitions have given her a perspective rarely experienced by
many designers. Adds Lori Mutobaya, General Manager of Clive Daniel Home’s
showroom in Boca Raton, “We are delighted to have Thuraya on our design
team. Her international experience has enabled her to bring a new perspective
to what we do.”
Located
at 1351 NW Boca Raton Blvd., the 70,000-square-foot $12 million Clive Daniel
Home showroom opened in January 2016 and employs about 65, including 26
professional interior designers. The flagship Naples Clive Daniel Home
(www.CliveDaniel.com) opened
in 2011.
Clive
Daniel Home: Hospitality
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Contact:
Marge@LennonCommunications.com
for
Clive Daniel Home
239-841-0553 |