From Cannes to Dubai and Prague, the founder of Kain Interiors uses MattoBoard to turn early material ideas into layered palettes, considered compositions and resolved interior concepts.
For Dominika Yushchenko, materials are not the finishing touch. They are where the design begins.
As founder of Florence-based Kain Interiors, Dominika’s approach is grounded in materiality, with natural stone, wood, silk and textiles chosen not only for how they look, but for how they feel, age and endure. Her background in Art and Design in Milan and Florence has shaped an approach where atmosphere, craftsmanship and functionality are considered together.
That material-first philosophy makes mood boarding an important part of the process.
Across three private residences in Cannes, Dubai and Prague, Dominika uses MattoBoard to bring products, finishes and textures together before the interiors themselves take shape. Each project begins with a different sense of place, but follows a similar progression: establish the mood, explore the material language, compose the palette, then translate it into the room.
At Kain Interiors, materials act as a foundation for the wider concept.
Rather than beginning with a fixed visual formula, Dominika looks at grain, texture, color and how individual surfaces interact. The studio’s philosophy places particular emphasis on natural materials that develop character with time, with the belief that longevity is part of luxury rather than separate from it.
MattoBoard creates a digital space to explore those relationships before every decision is fixed.
Products can sit alongside material swatches. Upholstery can be considered against timber. Stone can be balanced with metal. Color can be introduced and removed without having to rebuild an entire presentation.
The mood board becomes less of a final collage and more of a place to test the design.
And across Dominika’s three projects, that process takes a different form each time.
For a private residence in Cannes, the brief was for a warm, layered retreat with a distinctly European character.
The material language draws from the Mediterranean setting without relying on an obvious coastal palette. Raffia wallpaper establishes texture across the walls, while walnut and oak bring warmth. Brass, velvet and burgundy ceramics add richness, balanced by quieter green accents and vintage French references.
The early studies show Dominika exploring those relationships before arriving at one fixed composition.
Four different boards test variations in texture, visual weight and color. Some lean further into timber and warm neutrals. Others introduce stronger greens, reds or statement pieces.
This is one of the most useful ways to approach mood boarding professionally.
Rather than asking, “Does this board look good?”, the question becomes:
“Which version best expresses what this room needs to feel like?”
Dominika then brings the selected palette into MattoBoard, layering product cut-outs and real, sourceable material swatches into a single composition.
Raffia, timber, terracotta tones, burgundy and green are no longer being evaluated individually. They can be seen as one visual system, making it easier to understand where the palette needs more contrast, where it feels too heavy and where a quieter material is needed to create balance.
From there, the material direction translates into the rendered spaces.
In the living room, the raffia backdrop sits behind a warm caramel sofa and darker floor treatment. The same palette carries into the bedroom and entrance console, creating continuity without simply repeating identical combinations from room to room.
A strong material palette does not necessarily mean using the same materials everywhere.
Dominika’s Cannes scheme shows how establishing a shared material language first can give individual rooms freedom while keeping an interior visually connected.
If Cannes is about warmth and texture, Dominika’s Burj Khalifa residence takes a quieter approach.
Designed as a serene retreat within Downtown Dubai, the scheme combines soft neutral tones, warm metals and diffused light. The concept takes inspiration from the moment a flower begins to bloom, translated through sculptural forms, woven textures, dark walnut, brass, muted olive and controlled touches of burgundy.
It is a restrained palette, but not a simple one.
That distinction matters.
Neutral interiors often rely on subtle differences between surface, texture, sheen and proportion, which can make individual materials particularly difficult to judge in isolation.
Rather than trying to resolve everything within one mood board, Dominika separates the scheme into more focused MattoBoard compositions.
One board explores furniture, lighting and accessories. Burgundy plaster introduces depth alongside marble, sculptural seating, brass lighting and smaller decorative elements. Individual pieces can be considered against the wider palette before they become part of the final room.
A second board shifts towards softer forms and materials, bringing together bouclé, stone, textured neutrals and table lighting to complete the palette.
It is a useful approach for complex projects.
A single enormous mood board can quickly become visual noise. Breaking a scheme into smaller studies allows the designer to solve individual relationships first, then bring those decisions back together.
The rendered dining room, living room and salon show how those separate decisions eventually become one interior language. Curved forms, walnut, warm ochres and pale textured surfaces repeat throughout, but in different proportions.
Dominika’s Prague residence begins somewhere different again: with a sketch.
The concept is deliberately calm, balancing soft forms and warm textures against richer timber.
A sculptural modular sofa anchors the living room, complemented by organic furniture forms, curated lighting and dark wood panelling. The initial material study brings together dark walnut, rosewood, travertine, a tobacco-toned rug and marble accents.
What makes the project particularly interesting is being able to see the progression.
Sketch → references → materials → composition → interior
The original drawing establishes proportion and furniture placement.
The materials establish atmosphere.
MattoBoard then becomes the point where those separate ideas begin to behave like a room.
Dominika develops two MattoBoard compositions for the Prague scheme.
Both work from the same underlying material story, but balance the elements differently. Dark timber is tested against stone, wool, pale upholstery and smaller decorative accents until the final direction feels resolved.
This is where creating variations becomes particularly valuable.
A mood board does not need to prove the first idea was right.
It can reveal that something should move, disappear, become quieter or become more dominant.
Once resolved, those decisions appear again in the final visualisations. Deep timber panelling gives architectural weight to the room while the sculptural white sofa, pale flooring and soft upholstery prevent the scheme from becoming visually heavy. The styling detail brings the palette down to a much smaller scale, showing the same balance of soft neutrals, glass, metal and dark wood.
Cannes is warm, layered and Mediterranean.
Dubai is softer, polished and sculptural.
Prague is quiet, grounded and contemporary.
What connects them is not a signature color or repeated furniture style. It is the way Dominika develops each project through materials.
Across all three, MattoBoard sits between the first idea and the resolved interior.
The project presentation describes that workflow through four key uses: building and rearranging mood boards online, rendering compositions before samples or decisions are fixed, working from a built-in library of materials and keeping concepts, materials and visuals together as the project develops.
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