A Sydney-based design studio is proving that a home doesn’t have to change—or sacrifice its aesthetic integrity—just because a family grows.
Main Facts
The contemporary interior design landscape has long operated on an unwritten, yet rigid, binary: a home can either be aesthetically curated for adults or functionally optimized for children, but rarely both. For decades, expanding families have been forced to accept a domestic dichotomy, relegating brightly colored plastic furniture, stark safety gates, and disposable decor to the periphery of their carefully styled living areas, or shutting the nursery door entirely when guests arrive.
Enter Nuage Interiors, a Sydney-based design studio that is systematically dismantling this compromise. Founded on the simple premise that parenting and refined interior design do not have to be mutually exclusive, the brand has carved out a unique niche in the Australian design market.
At the heart of Nuage’s philosophy is a commitment to artisanal craftsmanship, tactile materiality, and uncompromising visual sophistication. Their flagship product, the Arca Table Set, encapsulates this ethos entirely: a sculptural, round oak-veneer table accompanied by three curved nesting chairs that slide seamlessly into the table’s frame, collapsing into a single, cohesive geometric form when not in use.
Named Nuage—the French word for cloud—the studio builds its identity on softness, elegance, and durability that can withstand the unpredictable, high-traffic reality of raising young children. Operating out of Sydney after launching in Adelaide in 2021, co-founders and married couple Najah Baroudi and Fares Al-Sarawi have transformed personal domestic frustration into a thriving commercial enterprise that is challenging how modern families conceptualize their living spaces.
Chronology
The Genesis: A Search for a Rocking Chair (2021)
The story of Nuage Interiors began not in a corporate boardroom, but out of a very specific, universal maternal frustration. In 2021, while pregnant with her first son, Malik, co-founder Najah Baroudi set out to find a nursery rocking chair. Not just any chair, but a specific bouclé piece that possessed enough design merit to belong seamlessly within the home she and her husband had spent years thoughtfully curating.
To her dismay, the market offered no such middle ground. Retail options were rigidly bifurcated: pieces were either purely utilitarian—prioritizing basic mechanical function while ignoring aesthetic value—or entirely impractical for a nursery environment. The prevailing market consensus dictated that the concepts of "nursery" and "home" were spoken in two entirely different design languages, forcing new parents to choose between a functional space for their child and a beautiful sanctuary for themselves.
From Conviction to Conception: Founding the Studio
That initial friction quickly crystallized into a deeper conviction. Baroudi realized that she could not be the only parent unwilling to compromise her home’s aesthetic standards for the sake of child-rearing. Partnering with her husband, Fares Al-Sarawi—whose professional background in pharmacy uniquely primed him for precision, supply chain logistics, and operational execution—Baroudi laid the groundwork for Nuage Interiors, launching the brand in Adelaide later that year.
Relocation and Expansion to Sydney
As the brand gained traction among design-conscious parents seeking alternatives to conventional children’s furnishings, Baroudi and Al-Sarawi relocated operations to Sydney. The move placed them at the heart of Australia’s vibrant design and media landscape, allowing them to scale production and expand their product ecosystem while maintaining strict quality control over their artisanal pieces.
The Family as a Testing Ground
Today, the founding duo are parents to two boys: Malik, who is nearly five, and Hadi, eighteen months. Far from being a distraction from their professional pursuits, their children serve dual roles within the company structure as the studio’s most rigorous, unsparing product testers. Every item conceptualized by Nuage must survive the daily chaos of toddlerhood—spilled snacks, climbing, coloring, and heavy daily wear—while continuing to look like a high-end designer object.
Supporting Data & Product Breakdown
The Philosophy of the Filter
Every single piece of furniture considered or produced by Nuage Interiors passes through a singular, rigorous filtering question: Does this belong in a home I love?
While deceptively simple in its phrasing, this question guides a rigorous curation and design process. Baroudi relies on an intuitive design eye sharpened by years of international travel, absorbing diverse architectural styles and global ways of living. Meanwhile, Al-Sarawi applies structural and logistical scrutiny to ensure that materials are sustainable, durable, and structurally sound.
Deep Dive: The Arca Table Set
The piece that most clearly distills the Nuage philosophy into a physical object is the Arca Table Set.
- Design & Form: Constructed from high-grade oak veneer, the set features a round table paired with three precisely curved chairs. When playtime or snack time concludes, the chairs slide entirely into the perimeter frame of the table, effectively vanishing and leaving behind a singular, clean, sculptural silhouette.
- Dual Functionality: Scaled specifically for young children—accommodating drawing, snack times, and quiet reading—the set is finished with rounded safety edges and a smooth, natural wood grain. However, its sophisticated profile allows it to double seamlessly as a low-profile coffee table or accent piece in an adult living room. As one customer review noted, guests frequently fail to realize the sculptural wood object in the center of the room is actually a children’s play set.
- Technical Specifications:
- Material: Premium Oak Veneer
- Components: One round table and three nesting chairs
- Target Age Group: 18 months and older
- Dimensions: 468mm (Height) × 970mm (Diameter)
- Retail Availability: Available exclusively via Nuage Interiors and showcased weekly via architectural and design features like Roomhints’ Studio Visit.
Official Responses & Design Philosophy
The underlying ethos of Nuage Interiors is rooted in a direct pushback against the infantilization of family interior design. The founders have articulated a clear brand mission that rejects the notion that parenthood requires aesthetic surrender.
“There’s a moment when you’re expecting your first child and the world suggests you choose between a beautiful home and a functional one. We refused that.”
— Najah Baroudi, Co-Founder, Nuage Interiors
This refusal forms the ideological backbone of the studio’s customer interactions. When clients remark that a Nuage piece feels as though it has "always belonged" in their space, Baroudi notes that validation is the ultimate metric of success:
“That’s everything. That’s the whole point.”
By focusing on pieces that harmonize with pre-existing interior architecture rather than disrupting it, Nuage has tapped into a growing psychological shift among millennial and Gen Z parents who view their homes as extensions of their personal identity, rather than temporary holding pens that must be surrendered to childhood clutter.
Implications
The rise of studios like Nuage Interiors signals a broader cultural and economic shift within the interior design and retail sectors. Several key implications emerge from this niche movement:
1. The Maturation of the Children’s Interior Market
For decades, children’s furniture has been treated as a distinct, isolated category characterized by primary colors, temporary utility, and low-grade materials destined for landfill once children outgrow them. Nuage’s success points toward a future where children’s furniture is designed with circularity, longevity, and multi-generational aesthetic value in mind. Furniture that transitions smoothly from a toddler’s activity table to a chic low stool or accent surface represents a more sustainable, considered approach to consumerism.
2. The De-Stigmatization of Family Life in High Design
Historically, high-end interior magazines and architectural digests heavily curated spaces to omit signs of children, reinforcing an unrealistic standard of domestic perfection. By demonstrating that functional family life can coexist with sophisticated curation, brands like Nuage are helping to shift editorial and cultural standards. The modern luxury home is increasingly defined not by its sterility or absence of children, but by its capacity to adapt gracefully to human life without losing its soul.
3. Direct-to-Consumer Craftsmanship and Niche Specialization
Operating out of Sydney and originally founded in Adelaide, Nuage exemplifies the modern, agile design studio model. By leveraging digital platforms, targeted social media storytelling (such as their active Instagram presence @nuage__interiors), and strategic design features, boutique makers can bypass legacy retail gatekeepers. They can connect directly with a globalized audience of design-literate parents who value narrative, tactile quality, and intentional living over mass-produced uniformity.
Ultimately, Nuage Interiors is doing more than selling furniture; they are offering peace of mind. By solving a fundamental spatial dilemma for growing families, they are proving that welcoming a child into your home does not mean locking the door on your personal taste.
