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Warm kitchen with a marble-topped island, integrated dining seating and glazed cabinetry

Studio Yulan

Beyond the need for space is the need for place.

Studio Yulan — Johannesburg

Studio Yulan is a Johannesburg interior design studio for high-end residential interiors and bespoke joinery, drawn with the knowledge of how they are manufactured.

The work begins with how a room is used before it considers how it looks. Circulation, light, storage and the ordinary sequence of a day are resolved first; material and detail follow from them.

About the studio

Selected work

Double-volume entrance hall with vertical oak slats, a floating stone console and concealed warm lighting

Valabh Residence

Johannesburg · 2026 · In progress

Double-height study with tall glazing and a black marble media wall

Shahaboodien House

Johannesburg · 2024

Hall of Diamonds kitchen with dark joinery and stone worktop

Hall of Diamonds

Sandton · 2024

Sunken retreat cut into a cracked desert plain, low walls catching late sun

Desert Oasis

Karoo

Workplace interior with curved meeting volumes, soft colour and layered translucency

SADAG

Johannesburg · 2024

All visualisationsAll projects — 10
Contained garden beneath a stair, lit softly, Valabh Residence

Philosophy

A room is understood before it is decorated. What people do in it, and how they want to feel while doing it, sets everything that follows.

Restraint is a working method rather than an aesthetic. Fewer materials, held to a tighter standard; fewer gestures, positioned precisely. Warmth comes from timber, stone and light, not from ornament.

Portrait of Nicole Sen, founder of Studio Yulan

Founder

Nicole Sen

Nicole studied interior design at Greenside Design Center, then spent two years as a designer and consultant at The Kitchen Studio — client consultations, cabinetry layouts, 3D renders, shop drawings for factory production, site measurement and final quality checks at handover. Studio Yulan carries that range into residential work of its own.

About Nicole and the studio

Process

  1. 01

    Listening

    How the space is used, what frustrates and what is worth keeping.

  2. 02

    Direction

    A spatial idea tested in plan and perspective before anything is specified.

  3. 03

    Development

    Layouts, joinery, materials and lighting resolved together.

  4. 04

    Resolution

    Documentation, fabrication and installation, overseen to handover.

The approach in full

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