Priding itself on delivering a truly authentic approach, Lana Banely Design has been named as the Best Luxury Interior Design Studio 2024 – Croatia, an accolade it has attained for its unwavering approach that affords every project with equal dedication and authenticity, qualities that have come to define the company as it enters its fifth year of operation. Such an individualised attitude is offered to every investor and every family, aiding immeasurably when it comes to the crafting of a living oasis that has been meticulously designed to suit the lifestyles and needs of those who inhabit it. While every client may be different, their world views are quite similar, and with a shared passion for quality and taste, the team can create spaces that are full of character and tell their own unique story. CEO Lana Banely is on hand to tell us more.
Striking that sought out balance of uniquity while still bearing the distinctive mark of its maker, Lana Banely Design is headed up by its namesake, a CEO whose vision for what the company should be, and which direction it should go, remain steadfast. After a year of operation, Lana and her team were in a position to be able to pick and choose the projects that they wanted to take on, with Lana telling us, “we prefer to handle three larger projects a year than ten smaller ones, as this allows me and my team to leave our all on the field.” When it comes to upholding its reputation for luxury, having enough time to fully realise a vision and turn it into a perfect reality has proven paramount to the company’s success.
Lana continues, “quality time spent on and dedicated to a chosen project, complemented by an excellent cooperation with the clients – [is] the definition of luxury in the psychological sense”, and this is something that the team strive to attain every single day. Pioneering future advancements in the field by bringing together elements that initially seem impossible to combine has always been of the uppermost priority for Lana and the team, and only through such an unwavering dedication can spaces be born that are wholly authentic and different from anything else on the market, blending the timeless with the contemporary, so as to integrate new materials into the business’ offerings seamlessly.
Echoing the immortal words of Herman Melville, Lana tells us, “it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” Adherence to this belief goes considerable lengths in explaining why the team prioritise luxury projects, as the scope of such undertakings provide the perfect platform for this team to showcase their uniquity and carry out their vision to the fullest extent. Perhaps nowhere has this been better showcased than in one of the team’s current projects, which has seen them carry out the full renovation of the restaurant and café inside of the famous Olympia Hotel, located in the Croatian city of Vodice, a project that spans an area of approximately 1800m2.
This is not the only example of a recent project that radiates greatness however, with Lana and the team having also tackled the transformations of a boutique hotel that is situated inside of a glorious villa, dating back to 1894, in the centre of Opatija, both a luxury apartment and large villa in the center of Zagreb, as a well as a lavish contemporary villa located on a small Croatian island. With such a diverse set of offerings to boot, this team are more than afforded the opportunity to flex their creative muscles, and Lana tells us, “these are all projects which will surely be the talk of the town once they are finished”, underpinning her confidence in the ability of herself and the team to deliver excellence.
This distinction can be boiled down to a four-fold approach, spanning conceptual design, a view of the space, project design, and finally, supervision and field work. This process begins with the most important stage, getting to know a client. As Lana frequently states, “you are our inspiration”, and to this end, a client’s style, favourite colours, and budget are all afforded top priority when it comes to designing the digital layout. Once this preliminary design has been completed, the next stage entails a 3D visual, offering a view of the space that utilises the highest quality renders to appease any qualms before the process begins.
From here, the company’s experts set about working their magic, and a client is afforded the opportunity to keep their existing furniture or take advantage of the custom pieces on offer, with every centimetre of a room being transformed on paper as the whole vision begins to come together. Whether it be a suspended ceiling plan or the location of switches and sockets, the team’s holistic approach is on display throughout, fully adhering to a client’s wishes. The ultimate stage is supervision of the field work, something that the team are happy to take over should it requested, so as to ensure that everything goes accordingly.
Despite being based in Croatia and primarily operating across the country, Lana and the team are also happy to work worldwide and should those property owners the world over seek out an exemplary service to transform their own interiors, Lana Banely Design is more than up to the task. Lana exudes excitement as she tells us about an upcoming project the team have in Dubai, an apartment located on the tranquil Palm Island. Now setting their sights on the rest of the world, this team remain confident in their ability to create unique offerings that know no boundaries and span across continents, with the same incredibly high standards abundant across the board.
In an attempt to continually fortify the company’s position at the forefront of the interior design sector, Lana is leveraging the constant stream of new business ideas in her head to craft fresh and exciting concepts that are sure to reaffirm the studio’s authentic nature in a constantly developing sector, but the specific details of which are still under wraps. As Lana explains, “I see every new year as a new challenge, and at the end of each year I look back and analyse our performance. We have set the bar high as we are always striving to outdo ourselves. I always say that we are our own biggest competitors, and that our own limits are the only ones we like to compete with.”
Lana’s fiercely competitive attitude can be traced back to her previous career, where not only was she a member of Croatia’s national taekwondo team, but she also won the title of European Junior Champion in the sport, and for a time, was the third highest-ranking competitor in the word. Aside from this, Lana’s master’s degree in journalism and time spent as a sports journalist would also shape her future endeavour in the interior design space, as she has had the opportunity to travel across the globe and be provided with a unique insight into a multitude of cultures.
Elaborating on how this journey resulted in a career in interior design, Lana tells us, “during my sports career I developed an interest in hotels and accommodation properties where we stayed, and I noticed things others didn’t when it comes to design and aesthetics. I knew then and there that this would be my future calling and that I would share the experience I obtained while travelling with others and use it to shape their living spaces.”
Bolstered by such experiences that reveal themselves across the team’s vast portfolio, Lana Banely Design has quickly ascended the ranks of interior design, winning six international awards last year alone. Only four years into this journey, Lana and her team are really only just beginning, and having set the bar exceptionally high from the off, things are only set to improve as time and experience increase concurrently. In closing, Lana tells us, “we are continuing to grow and push past our own limits”, and by building off of perfection, one can only imagine what the future will hold for the luxury interior design landscape with Lana Banely as a key player.
For business enquiries, contact Lana Banely from Lana Banely Design on their website – https://www.lanabanelydesign.com/
