By brenda kageni

Koki Muli’s family home is the kind of place you would choose to live in if you ever considered the prospects of working from home. Set in a quiet neighbourhood in the upmarket Ridgeways, Muli’s home maintains a refreshing tranquillity that strangely

A section of the living room. The rich brown coffee table and flower vase complements the yellow walls.

defies any hot atmosphere. The first thing you notice immediately you enter into the home is the neatly stacked row of books on a wooden shelf. This is a good preamble because that scene is notoriously repeated throughout the house.

In the study, for instance, books make up two entire walls. "I love to read," Muli says.

"I read everything."

Books aside, the rich wood tone on her bookshelves is a prominent feature in the house, right from the in-built cabinets in the kitchen to the wardrobes.

"We love natural colours," says Muli of her family — husband and two children.

The exterior of her house is painted green.

"It is the colour of life," she says. Rooms come in different shades. The dining is painted in mustard; the hallways a shade of green; the study and master bedroom come in blue, forming the blue wing. The living room is a warm shade of yellow while the adjoining conservatory is a lighter yellow shade that is almost unobtrusive.

The seats, coffee table and flower vases are a rich brown. The dining table with its intricately designed tabletop is an amazing work of art that Muli confesses she is absolutely in love with.

"We chose to stay in this house many years before we returned home from abroad." The family has lived in the house for nine years now.

Seats from Lamu

Inside the conservatory where the family takes time to relax.

However, it was not until June, this year, after Muli resigned as the Executive Director of the Institute for Education in Democracy that she finally found time to work on her rock garden, which she proudly shows us.

"This garden is my joy," she enthuses. "When I have time, I sit here and simply enjoy nature."

Muli says she used a collection of rock garden photographs from her travels to rework it. The conservatory is the relaxing room. From the garden, it is designed in a way that exudes a new dawn.

"At night when the lights are on, it resembles the rising sun," she says.

Inside, wooden lounge chairs from Lamu occupy most rooms. The floor is made of natural stone while most walls are glass, albeit reinforced with steel grills. "This room was supposed to be a glass gallery, but because we have to be realistic, we put the burglar proofs."

The room has now become a quiet room of sorts where the family relaxes. No radio or television is allowed there. There is only a big fridge. "We spend a lot of time here talking." Muli also intends to put big sculptures and other works of art as centrepieces in the room, and perhaps stock on the wine rack.