In the Naples At Faro showroom, one-of-a-kind, organic, modish furnishings made by artisans across the globe are arranged in artful vignettes. A low-lying daybed with a live-edge base doubles as a table on all sides, holding handmade lanterns and pottery. “It may look simple, but the pieces have a lot of detail,” art director Fadia Bechara says, sweeping her hand over a side table made from petrified wood, polished into a perfect cuboid with marble-like graining.
While her design preference leans modern, the half-Lebanese Colombian native values historic architecture and its innate connection to nature. “Biophilic is not a trend; biophilic is the old way,” she says. Fadia honed her interior design skills in Los Angeles and Miami before spending 16 years as an art director for the century-old Italian stone company Travertini Paradiso. When she returned to the United States, she landed in Naples, a short drive from her family in Miami.
In 2023, she opened her custom furniture line, At Faro, in the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt. Named after the Spanish word for ‘lighthouse,’ At Faro seeks to shed light on worldly craftsmanship through cottage industry production—each piece created on a microscale, often within a family home. Fadia frequently taps artisans from Colombia and from Indonesia, which is known for its artisans’ sustainable practices and quality wood. “Everything they cut down, they replant,” she says.
Last year, Fadia met interior designer and Mayo Clinic-certified health and wellness coach April Raque through a mutual friend. The two joined forces to collaborate on April’s preexisting Wellness by Design program (run through April’s Wellness Design Group company), which helps clients create spaces that promote well-being. The design duo uses the golden ratio—a mathematical equation that yields calming, aesthetically pleasing proportions—biophilic design, sensory details (think soothing scents and soft textiles), and thoughtful spatial planning, blending April’s experience with wellness and Fadia’s organic furnishings. “When we first met, we were talking about hormone balancing and how so many women go through so much in midlife. If you can set up your space to support that, your quality of life will improve,” April says. “The colors, the way the furniture is placed, the sounds or the smells in your house—all of it plays a role in creating this feeling of wellness.”
In a home they staged, a modular outdoor sectional made with intricately woven fibers and plush, white cushions calls for backyard family gatherings. Native sabal palms and saw palmettos frame the scene. The home office has a slatted teak desk across from a traditional wood-posted daybed with a decorative throw blanket trimmed in dried grass fibers to promote a balance of work and rest.
Back at the showroom, Fadia brews her family’s single-origin Colombian coffee for anyone who walks in. She sells the grounds and artisanal, jarred goods behind an oyster stone bar with bits of fossils set into the creamy, textured surface. She and April are planning health-centric design events in the space. “I want people to understand that it’s more than a shop,” Fadia says. “We’re hoping to raise the community vibration,” April chimes in. “If we get thinking about what their home is doing for or against their quality of life, then it ripples into the community as a whole.”