Meet Nini Andrade Silva, One of Portugal’s Best Interior Designers

Meet Nini Andrade Silva, One of Portugal’s Best Interior Designers ⇒ Nowadays, it’s impossible to talk about Portuguese Interior Design without mentioning Nini Andrade Silva. The Portuguese Interior Designer was born in Funchal, Madeira, and is the personification of the mission and values of Secrets from Portugal: to take the Portuguese culture abroad, elevating it. That’s why we had a lovely talk with one of the most prestigious Interior Designers in the world where, besides discovering more about her vision and concept of interior design and architecture, we got to know a little bit more about her love and passion for the country that saw her be born.

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The woman that “doesn’t follow any trends. Instead, I seek to create them”, has interior design and architecture projects all over the world. Nini Andrade Silva has been recognized for her superb work by many institutions, and she has become a frequent presence in prestigious publications such as The New York Times, Financial Times, Wallpaper, Condé Nast Traveler, Architecture Digest – just to name some of the most important. The Portuguese Interior Designer is also the author of different and unique furniture lines. She’s known for her versatility as she embraces her passion for painting, with her work exhibited in important collections and contemporary art museums, such as Ireland and New York.

Her passion for design started with the travels “to the outside, where the design was already seen as a future career”, she told Secrets from Portugal. The United States, she mentions, was way ahead in the area of design, “and that was fascinating”. “I knew I wanted a career that would allow me to “spread my wings” or to create fantasies and magic, and design is a bit of all of that!”

“In design, there’s no right or wrong. There’s magic, dynamic, function, matter, aesthetic, passion…” I like to surprise people with different and unexpected ambiences, allowing people to enter into new worlds and have different experiences! When we work with the universe of emotions and sensations, everything is possible!”

When we talked with Nini Andrade Silva about her design projects, we couldn’t help but notice that she can’t pick just one to distinguish as her favourite or the most challenging one: “It’s like with children!”. “I say it with a great dose of honesty. I only accept a challenge if I know I will be able to do my best. I have a great team that’s 100% dedicated to every single project. Therefore, the final result can only be something that we proud ourselves of”. Besides that, Nini Andrade Silva doesn’t deny that there are more challenging projects, depending on its nature.

In her creative process, “a story” is all it takes to start a new project. “It can be just a detail or a curiosity that gives sense to the creation. I used to say that the wind and rain inspire me, a wrapped paper, an unexpected moment, a person… The starting point is a click for the process”. And Nini Andrade Silva also doesn’t disregard the importance of getting to know the surrounding environment.

Besides not having any references nowadays, Nini Andrade Silva confesses she’s an admirer of her peers all around the world, “because there are more and better professionals in design and not only that, but I prefer to focus on my own references searching for the new and unseen”. Nini Andrade Silva is a seeker for daily inspirations, that live inside a process that defines the DNA of her Atelier and the people that work with her.