By Pamela Fink
Remember that 90's movie where everything was black and white until some newcomers start to add color to their lives? Well, just as the protagonists of Pleasantville took it upon themselves to inject emotion into the “perfect life” of that place, Maye Ruiz dyes to Saint Michael of personality.
The interior designer who created #Nomasmurosblancos some time ago did so with the full intention of showing her rebellion against the apathy and fear that many people had regarding the use of colour in large proportions of paint. Although they were reluctant to leave their grey comfort zone, the surprise would be enormous when they loved the final results of the interior designer in their spaces.
For Maye, when people told her that opting for an intense color bored them, she couldn't help but think to herself that a blank wall that would never change would be more graceful.
Another of the peculiarities of Ruiz's interior design style is his fondness for symmetry when modifying existing spaces. A very modern formula that his technique follows before changing the space is to imagine the photos on social networks like IG. Being such a visual network, it really makes you aware of the space and how it would look in a photograph; something similar to what happens on film sets.
It is no coincidence that some of its most notable spaces take references from the passionate tones of Almodovar's sets, also taking as reference the feature films of the great Agnes Varda and Luca Guadagnino.
And although one would think that her colorimetric vision could contrast with the tradition of San Miguel, this turns out to be quite the opposite. Living in a city as beautiful as ours makes her feel inspired by the beautiful shapes we possess and her curiosity explores the artisanal works of the area. It is this “imperfection” of the handmade that awakens a creative boom in the work of the interior designer.
Such was the case of Ark House when he was commissioned to design the new interior of his restaurant respecting the concept with which the historic place had been founded: Noah's Ark.
The biggest challenge for Maye was to respect this biblical concept and adapt it to her modernist vision. To do so, she sought out zoomorphic crafts and found inspiration in Mexican kitchens using handcrafted tiles from Dolores, Hidalgo.
The result was so spectacular that the awards were not long in coming and the space was awarded “Best Kitchen Design.” Receiving such an honor felt like winning an Oscar for Maye and helped her to be less hard on herself by emphasizing that her choices had been the right ones for the space.
Another tip we got from the creative in her process was that when she gets to know clients and their spaces, she usually gives them a color based on her first impression, which is rarely wrong. So for her, there are red, green, blue, yellow and Mexican pink people. Identifying a person with a color allows her to paint the blank canvas of the space together with the client and give the results that most resemble their souls.
