A 3BHK in Bengaluru is embellished with art, colour and contemporary Indian touches

BH: How did you proceed with the design for the spaces?

SS: All our design discussions involved the entire family—the couple and their daughter because we wanted to understand what each of the room’s inhabitants wanted. The idea was to create interesting elements that wouldn’t need to be changed frequently. We went deep into every element; in fact, a couple of days before the handover, we even bought artefacts for the house.

BH: Did your personal design preferences align with that of the client’s?

SS: I like spaces to have a touch of Indian to them. The clients had a more contemporary outlook. So we met in the middle with an aesthetic that can be called India modern in a sense. This is seen in the way the colours and patterns have come together. The shoe rack, for instance, has a mirror panelling inspired by Mughal jalis. We’ve used hints of gold as well, as seen in the customised TV wall panel threaded with gold string. We got in Indian elements through colours and patterns but the overall usage is very contemporary.

BH: How did you introduce colour into the spaces?

SS: The wall colours in the living room are neutral. Colour comes through other elements, like the fixed furniture—the TV wall panel being a case in point. The kitchen is neutral as well. But, we added blue in the open units and the central wall tiles to create interest. And it does immediately draw the eye.

We opted to go with warmer colours in the master bedroom, to convey a youthful, energetic look. So we used pink for the walls, and extended this colour on the walls of the large workspace in the room. We didn’t want the ‘serious’ home-office area to dial down the colourful. Design-wise, we didn’t want to complicate the design; it’s very simple and contemporary. A counterpoint to this is the guest room, frequently used by the client’s mother with bright colours and a light aesthetic. Blue and white dominate the clean, clutter-free space.

BH: What was the most challenging part of the design?

SS: The custom-designed TV unit. The clients had a pretty big collection of old records, DVDs and such. We leaned into the entire ‘collector’ theme here too, with the idea of highlighting this collection instead of stowing it out of the way in a corner cabinet. We created an interesting wall panel, a sleek bottom shelf and a transparent tall cabinet next to it to display their movie and music collection.

BH: And how did the artwork fit into the overall design?

SS: That was the primary focus. We took measurements of all the paintings and spent an entire day on-site just holding the paintings up against the walls. We wanted to see which one would work best in which part of the house.

BH: Did you hand over the house to happy clients?

SS: Yes, the feedback has been very satisfying! In fact, the client told us, and these are his words: ‘You’ve used colours in a way that isn’t monotonous. Every time I walk into his home, some corner or the other draws my attention. It makes it interesting. I’m never bored of the house’.