Barbara Barry doesn't just sit among furniture - she communes with it. She brings the outdoors indoors, making nature at home among the interiors she designs, and benefiting from its company.

The in-demand American, who's just opened a shop at Siam Paragon in Bangkok, literally takes a leaf from nature's book, pocketing a fallen petal or a piece of wood for future inspiration.

"I search for that still point that allows us to get away from the crazy world we live in," Barry says.

"I work with a unique palette of colours taken from nature - from wet sand, the bark of a tree. Green is my favourite colour, my neutral, my beige. It brings energy."

The shape of a woman - "the creator of home", as Barry puts it - is evoked in the graceful curves of the designer's cabinets and chairs.

"The feminine form has always been an inspiration. I love a curve, the clarity of form and line. That's simplicity."

Barry is kept busy bouncing between Los Angeles and New York and travelling abroad, but always manages to stay in touch with the earth. En route to Thailand, she was mesmerised by the fluffy clouds.

The American Society of Interior Designers' Designer of Distinction in 2005, Elle Decor International's Designer of the Year at the same time, and one of the world's 100 best, according to Architectural Digest magazine, Barry is famed for mixing contemporary with natural looks.

Her talent is on display at New York's Savoy Hotel and the Berkeley in London, among many other swank spots.

Those neutral colours she likes, teamed with minimalist forms, reflect her disdain for anything too visually stimulating. There should be no deviation, she says, from the central focus of a home - relaxation.

"Design requires discipline - success depends on what you don't do rather than what you do."

That's not to say there's no room for fun. Her "poodle" table has a delightful pair of ovals. The chairs chummily appeal to be sat upon.

Then there are the historical turns, like her chair that evokes 18th-century grandeur.

"Other designers might design around a room, but all of my furniture is individual pieces with personalities of their own," Barry says.

Her pieces also have hefty price tags of their own, but Barry is adamant that you don't have to go bankrupt to have great furniture.

Ideal décor, she says, can be "a mattress, beautiful colours on the four walls, the floor washed in teak". One meaningful item can make a room look beautiful.

"It's about quality. A piece that means something, that will always make sense."

Her favourite room in the house is the bedroom. "The bedroom originates our day, how we think when we get up."

Beyond home décor, she wants to design suitcases for women, and shoe bags with mirrors inside and "places to put all those little things". "So I'm speaking to a luggage company."

Her parents were painters, and now Barry wants to design her own wall paint from colours not usually offered. She's interested in hand-cut crystals. She makes tea with orange and vanilla scents.

But Barry wouldn't be caught dead being a businesswoman. Her insistence on originality and handling all the designs herself prohibits corporate teamwork.

"I like to be doing what I'm doing, connecting to people, synthesising culture. I want to make a clear decision and then get smaller and smaller to where it's just me. When you get away from you, it becomes something else."

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

The Nation