Australian and South Sudanese model Adut Akech has, momentarily, exchanged haute couture for cuddles. She and her husband, Samuel Elkhier, welcomed their first daughter, Imani, in December. “There’s nothing I can compare the feeling to, but it is just the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I just can’t imagine what life was like before her,” says Akech. The new mom focused on the essentials when designing the space they designated for the baby, embracing a sense of minimalism. “I haven’t really been focusing so much on the material side of things,” she explains. “I’ve found this middle ground where less is more. That’s the world that I’m in now.”
And who wouldn’t trust Akech’s style instincts, given her experience in fashion? Since she debuted at Yves Saint Laurent’s Paris Fashion Week show in 2016, she has walked for iconic houses that include Chanel, Prada, and Versace. She has also been featured on numerous Vogue covers and is a global brand ambassador for Estée Lauder. Throughout this, she has traveled extensively, drawing design inspiration, particularly, from hotels in Paris and Rome.
The muse of Karl Lagerfeld and Pier Paolo Piccioli (until recently, Valentino’s creative director) was indecisive about where to give birth. She first considered Dubai, UAE, then Adelaide, Australia—where Akech’s family moved when she was a child after fleeing their native Sudan and spending years in a refugee camp in Kenya. In October 2024, Akech and Elkhier finally chose to instead nest in Akech’s modern, four-bedroom home in Los Angeles’s Studio City. This meant they had less than two months to finish the baby room before welcoming Imani.
Expeditiously, Akech connected with Babyletto, the Los Angeles–based brand that specializes in furniture for babies and beyond. Babyletto introduced Akech to Studio Keeta’s Kristina Khersonsky. Collectively, they created a baby room that feels feminine but still fresh. The palette consists of pinks—but earthy pinks. “When we started talking about what she was envisioning for her nursery, she didn’t necessarily want the tried-and-true baby girl pink nursery. She wanted something more ethereal and feminine. She definitely did want to do something in the pink hue, but not so on the nose, which is why our tones lean a little bit more clay or maybe slightly terra-cotta,” Khersonsky shares.
From there, Akech and Khersonsky covered the walls in an oversized floral mural wallpaper. “We went with this flower theme, but it’s not an obvious flower in your face. It still has the touches of green and the amazing limewash on the ceiling, which I’m so happy we did,” says Akech. (The ceiling paint is called Portofino.)
