Crystals in interior design: how a Dubai designer maps a space with stones and paintings

How are crystals used in Dubai buildings and restaurants?

The best-known case discussed is AVA, a Dubai development where crystals are placed in the foundation and inside the building. Oleg, who covered it in an earlier episode, puts the number at about 10,000 crystals. Natalie attended the launch of the second AVA project.

She calls it one of the best projects she has seen, though she sees no real difference between the first and second buildings in how stones are used. Her reasoning is that any crystal can be given a task.

Oleg recalls a large black tourmaline on a stand in an office in Dubai Marina and what he read about it cleaning the air. The notes to the video are more cautious: tourmaline is piezoelectric, but an effect on ozone outside dedicated generators is not scientifically confirmed.

Natalie adds a restaurant on the Palm's West Beach whose whole concept rests on stone: a large raw crystal at the entrance, a table cut from a slab, and crystal rests for the cutlery.

What the examples show is a market fact rather than a physical one. Some owners of very large companies are seriously interested in minerals, and that taste now reaches the buildings they commission.

How do her paintings work in a room?

Each painting is made for a state and a place: one for the study, one for calm in the bedroom, one for energy near the front door. Clients can buy a single work or commission one after she visits the space.

Her 2026 series consists of nine paintings and a tenth, main one. Two are already in a private collection, and the series is due to go to an exhibition.

In the studio Oleg described what he saw in one canvas: a butterfly, two snakes, a wolf's muzzle, a girl in a white dress, fire at the edges and stability in the centre. Natalie said the work was made for balance, structure against chaos.

The link with Rorschach inkblots is deliberate. The left and right halves look alike and are never identical, which she reads as a statement that nothing, and nobody, can be copied exactly.

A recent commission was for the office of a new company in Dubai, with paintings intended, in her words, to keep the flow of money running. No results were offered, and none should be assumed.

Why do expensive homes have such high ceilings?

Natalie connects very large rooms with focus and control. Oleg notes that penthouses often have double or triple height ceilings and studies the size of a hangar. In her reading the owner wants distance and wants to see everything.

She separates control from power. Control means knowing what is happening around you: who went where, who called whom, where the cameras stand.

She also sees a cost. Managing a large volume of information is hard, she says, and such a person lives with a conflict between calming down and keeping control.

Do concrete, glass and bright colours affect how a home feels?

In Natalie's view the material matters less than how it is used. She calls a standard concrete and glass building depressing, then explains that the causes are ceiling height, the kind of light and the colour range, not the concrete itself.

Direct light, she says, is perceived by the nervous system as an aggressor. Bright lime green, orange or pink have the same effect, and she has often seen clients combine everything at once and then feel uncomfortable at home.

Her argument comes from nature. Garish colours are rare in a forest and usually belong to poisonous creatures as a warning, so she treats them as an irritant indoors.

A cosy apartment, by her definition, is one where each zone has a clear purpose and the nervous system can rest in silence, warmth and calm. This matches what Dubai buyers increasingly ask for: luxury that is also restful.

What is ThetaHealing, and how does she use it?

ThetaHealing is a private American method that Natalie studies and teaches. She describes it as work with the conscious and subconscious mind: finding inner beliefs that hold a person back and replacing them with ones that serve them.

She is in her sixth year of study and holds 18 certifications. Five more, she says, would bring a master's level. Oleg clarifies on camera that this is not a state qualification, and she confirms it is entirely private.

She presents it as the source of her approach to space and links mood directly to money: how you feel affects how you think and what decisions you make. She teaches the method to groups online and in person.

Three tips for a calmer home

Her first rule is air. The more objects a room holds, the more energy it takes from you, she says, so declutter: throw things out or give them away. She calls this the foundation of being able to relax.

The second is the bedroom. She advises against a television there, because the thoughts you fall asleep with tend to be the ones you wake up with. Keep a separate zone for screens.

The third is to work on understanding yourself, with a coach or a psychologist of your choice. In her method the interior follows the person, not the other way round.