Boca do Lobo, in partnership with Coveted Magazine, presents you with a selection of 7 Interior Designers’ interviews. Today, we’ll show you an interview with Juan Pablo Molyneux, a well-known interior designer. Keep reading this article, to learn more about this iconic interior designer!

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE INTERIOR DESIGNER, JUAN PABLO MOLYNEUX

Boca do Lobo and CovetED had the incredible opportunity to sit with one on one for a conversation with the vibrant interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux. 

His art is audacious, varied, humorous, and undeniably his own. France and the United States are two of Molyneux’s favourite nations. One of the designer’s favourite cities has always been Paris.

Considering himself privileged to be doing the best job in the world, in his eyes every day is different. Depending on the project, his team and him get to explore different worlds, styles, and eras.

“One day, it will be eighteenth century Russia or Mughal period India, and the next day the Golden Age of French furnishings, and then the most refined modernism. The only link between these styles and eras of design is my own taste and my way of mixing materials, textures, colors, works of art. The secret is to know how to combine it all together in harmony, to establish a dialogue between the different elements of a setting, like when we host a dinner and choose the guests carefully, some serious, some playful.”, said the interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux

When asked about his career, the interior designer affirmed that the very variety of projects entrusted to him, his work consistently provides a challenge. This diversity prevents him from endlessly repeating the same thing, becoming the best vaccine to protect against the infection of boredom.

“Of course, the common denominator between all projects remains my own person, but each project inspires me, modifies my approach, makes me discover new worlds.”

Juan Pablo Molyneux

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His projects always stimulate his imagination, and the challenges of each project oblige Juan to find new solutions, to build on his experience and passions. Also, the variety of clients also pushes him out of his comfort zone, each client with their own tastes, lifestyle, and culture. 

“For example, if my client has an established collection of Old Master paintings, that will inevitably impact the project in its very composition.  If he is crazy about racehorses or if he is a music lover, I will infuse the project with these particular components, use them as a leitmotif in the symphony.” 

Juan Pablo Molyneux

Building a fantastic career, Juan has almost achieved everything in life. The journey was long and it is not over, he proudly claims, and any experience in a man’s life has meaning and influences his present and future, and among them, his country of origin is of great importance.

“Chile is the country of my childhood and my family, and it therefore occupies a place apart in my heart. That said, I have always traveled a great deal, even since my childhood. At the age of 20, I went to Paris to complete my studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Ecole du Louvre. I even undertook a coming-of-age road trip in what was called, then, the USSR! After that, I worked for a few years in Argentina in a design firm that I established there, then I went to New York where I opened the design firm, J.P. Molyneux Studio, Ltd., that exists today. In a few years, I was proud to become an American citizen.  More than 20 years ago, I also founded my firm’s Paris office. As you can see, I do not care about borders, as I consider myself a citizen of the world.” Juan affirmed. Also, regarding his ambitions, the interior designer amusely said one of his ambition, if invited, would gladly decorate the Mars colony. 

Like any creative process, interior design is subject to the whims of fashion and passing fads, themselves driven by what the industry calls “trends”. This is all quite normal and part of the universal and very human desire for change and innovation. When asked about what was teh trend at the moment, Juan said he does find it tiresome when, in the name of the latest fashion, the end of tradition is proclaimed yet again and everyone praises the new trends to the skies, presenting them as the true future of interior design.

Whith no specific there is no rule in the type of clientele, Juan affirms that for 10 clients you will have 10 totally different personalities with their own specific pasts, their unique sensitivities, desires, and requests. That’s what makes his profession so rich. No day is like another.

“I believe that I have the best job in the world that allows a permanent cultural enrichment and a constantly renewed openness to influences. One day, you work on neoclassical Russia, the next day on French Châteaux, and the day after tomorrow on Palladian villas.  In my offices, this perpetual movement of the spirit inspires us all to creativity and inventiveness. Enjoying what you are doing is one of the secrets of a successful project.”

Juan Pablo Molyneux

Regarding his relationship with his clients, he is always accessible and accommodating with clients from the very first contact, placing a great deal of importance on this availability. Most of his clients are busy people, and he appreciate that they do not have time to waste.

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At the end of this dialogue, a contract is drawn up for the initial general design phase of the project. It is then for Juan to make a proposal by submitting the general plans of the project and some elevations that allow him to make 2 or 3 “Renderings” of the main pieces. These color perspectives are very close to the final result both in terms of color, the rendering of materials and materials, furniture, fabrics … Molyneux’s customers are often amazed to see how the final result is faithful to the renderings that he presented a few months earlier.

“What I expect from a client for the project to be fully successful is to be motivated and that at the end of the proposal phase, he has made a decision about my proposals. There is nothing worse than indecisive personalities. Of course, changes are always possible, as long as they do not impact the main lines of a project, its foundations if you prefer.” he added.

As a global citizen, Molyneux brings a wide-ranging curiosity about all things beautiful to each project he does. His interiors have a strong sense of location about them. They’re the result of a long dialogue with the customer. They’ve been meticulously made. With over four decades of experience, he accepts and interprets—and reinterprets—the past in his work, building a legacy that will for sure, endured the test of time.

Stay with us to discover more Interior Designers!

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