The Zoco Home showroom and design centre on the Mijas Road is a 15,00m2 haven of balance and visual delight on two floors that plays on the senses as you enter, for this is sleek Ibiza cool with all the tones, textures and forms that a natural palette provides. The fabrics here are like the wood, drawn from nature and beautifully worked with the skill and passion of an artisan, yet the look is both earthy and modern, indeed sleek. It is cool Mediterranean style personified and for this reason conjures up images of beautiful seaside homes in Ibiza, the Aegean, Tarifa, Mallorca, and yes, Marbella.

We’ve come full circle from the cold, somewhat sterile minimalism of a few years ago and now seem to be yearning to connect with nature again while remaining true to crisp clean contemporary interiors. It’s a marriage of two desires that comes off beautifully if you get it right, and Zoco Homes has it spot on, providing a wonderfully balanced collection of furniture and decorative items that blend into one another just as they complement other styles to form a pleasant eclectic ensemble. Zoco Home has created a leading ethnic Scandinavian style with Mediterranean influences that is clean and welcoming, not cold and stark, and for this reason it’s perfect for these shores.

From Item To Interior

Johanna Weckström, together with her family, traded Helsinki for the Costa del Sol when the cold Finnish weather and way of life finally got the better of her. “We wanted to make the move before our children grew too much and it would no longer be so easy to leave,” says Johanna, who drew upon childhood roots when she founded Zoco Home ten years ago as an online furniture brand. “When I was growing up, my father had a business importing furniture from Mexico, but whereas I appear to have followed in his footsteps, the styles of furniture differ and ours is not quite as brightly coloured as his was.”

The venture proved a success, as buyers from across the Costa del Sol and indeed far beyond took a liking to the combination of carefully chosen furnishings that Johanna sources from places like Morocco, India and Indonesia.

“I am very selective and take care to create a collection that draws upon natural materials and traditional craftsmanship yet comes together as clean contemporary decoration.” To this she also adds a distinctly Scandinavian touch through a light-toned colour palette, fine fabrics such as linen, and Zoco Home’s own line of designs made-to-measure in local factories and workshops.

“Zoco Home is about an easy Boho chic, an effortless refinement that suits the homes and lifestyles as well as the climate and light of the area we live in, in fact the entire Mediterranean,” says Johanna, “and it shows in increasing demand from as far away as France, Portugal, Greece and even Scandinavia, where we provide furniture and complete interior design and renovation projects for private homes as well as commercial venues such as restaurants, spas, and boutique hotels.

We’re currently working on such a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, and recently completed the renovation and decorating of Casa Padre, a wonderful historic building in the centre of Tarifa, whose apartments are rented out as a boutique Airbnb.

Projects such as these and the likes of Scorpios Mykonos and Nikki Beach Miami, as well as private homes on the Costa del Sol, provide us with an opportunity to use the very varied collection of furnishings within Zoco Home to create modern Mediterranean ambiences inspired by the properties and settings themselves.”

A Design Centre

The Zoco Home shop, opened within the Centro Idea on the Mijas Road some seven years ago, has therefore become a popular reference for home decoration, complemented by an interior design team that works with builders and architects to transform homes and commercial venues or give newly built properties heart and soul. “Ours is a look that is sleek while also being warm and homely,” says Johanna.

“In addition to our existing collection, we also design and make furniture to measure, from sofas and tables, to cupboards, loungers and beds, including indoor, outdoor as well as kitchens and bathrooms.”

Zoco Home also supplies other interior designers locally and abroad, providing among others such specialised services as micro-cement floor and wall treatments. “There are not a lot of artisans who know how to create such finishes, so it’s a service that is in great demand.” As the company celebrates its tenth anniversary and looks back at a decade of growth and development, the main ambition is to continue to love this work. “We have lots of plans and are bubbling over with creativity, and that comes not from an overriding desire to expand but from the enjoyment of our work. Like all jobs it has its pressures, but as any designer will tell you, creating beautiful spaces is a very fulfilling and regenerating process.”