Dr Aneka Khaira’s building of Vogue Dental

The vision was to create a high-end hotel lobby feel, something where everyone feels comfortable sitting in a private waiting area where you can watch tv on a lavish sofa and enjoy a coffee from our nespresso machine.

The overall plan

From a dream curated into reality, the goal was to create a dental practice that would ‘wow’ patients from the moment they walked through the door to the moment they leave. This is how Vogue Dental was born.

The design

Each wall in the practice has been carefully designed and selected with the patient in mind from the hotel lobby-inspired waiting room infused with designer fragrances to the silk wallpaper manufactured in Holland and Timothy Oulton décor. My idea was to break the monotonous and heavily clinical aesthetic of
the traditional dental setting and create something new and exciting where patients are welcomed into a luxurious environment that still emanates a relaxing ambience. I have always had a flair for interior design and opted against using an interior designer as I felt that only I could bring my design concept to life. And so, I got started.

I went for neutral tones to achieve a calming environment with accents of rose gold, gold, and warm browns to give it a stylish feel. I handpicked every item from the decadent silk wallpaper to the chandeliers. The feature wall in reception was designed exactly as I had envisioned, with a drop-down ceiling, rose gold mirror pillars, subtle mood lighting, and a gold logo which combines as a media wall on the reverse. The showpiece item is an eye-catching and elaborate Timothy Oulton 1930’s art deco mirror standing at 2.5 meters tall which is the perfect fit for Vogue Dental and the perfect mirror for a cheeky selfie.

The build

When choosing the ideal location, it was important for me to find an area and demographic that reflected Vogue Dental’s brand image. This meant that the area needed to be busy, built up and cosmopolitan with a demand for cosmetic dentistry and specialist services. Chislehurst, Kent, was the ideal location. We waited patiently for the perfect building to hit the market but trying to find a vacant property on a sought-after high street was proving to be quite the challenge. The perfect building finally became available at a very special time — when I was heavily pregnant! Thankfully, I had planned for this in advance and knew I would have my maternity leave to finish what I had started. Since then, things moved very fast and before we knew it, I was raising both a new-born baby while nurturing a budding Vogue Dental.

Spanning almost 2,000 square feet, I redesigned the entire building, from the shopfront to the interior walls and ceilings. Planning was key and that’s where Chris Lehr, from Hague Dental, assisted with the overall layout and M&E drawings. I planned to make everything seamless, but also easy to access for maintenance. The electrics, plumbing and air conditioners were hidden as much as possible, the floor had to be lifted and the ceilings suspended. As well as the perfect look, the surgery needed to be compliant with all health and safety requirements.

For example, we discovered that our floor was uneven, so we decided to incorporate a slight gradient towards the back half of the practice, ensuring we were DDA (DisabilityDiscrimination Act) compliant. The first phase of the building went swimmingly well, and at a faster rate than anticipated. However, it was the final phase of the project that took the most time. It was during this phase that the problems we didn’t expect started to become more apparent. Like our beloved plant room that, on paper, was the perfect way to complete the design. However, when the compressor, suction pumps and water tank were installed, we didn’t realise just how tight a fit it would all be.

But so much planning had gone into the building of the plant room that it just had to be included.

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