The apartment is located in a prestigious old South Bombay building on Malabar Hill, so we were not allowed to change the walls, window elevations etc, thus restraining the walling layout. Since they are only two people living in a 2000 sf, 3 BHK home, we retained the large living area as one open space, but visually divided the space into a formal dining area, formal seating area and a casual balcony vibe area which doubles up as a bar/ coffee area. They enjoy entertaining guests and wanted a large open area for this purpose.       

As you enter the foyer passage area, on the right is the master bedroom and bathroom. The foyer passage opens into a spacious room, which encompasses the dining, living and bar areas. The kitchen and staff quarters open into the dining area on the left side. After this large living area, is another passage that leads to the other two rooms (guest bedroom & exercise room) on a split level, up a short flight of stairs. The end of this long passage was divided by us to create a walk in wardrobe for the lady of the house.      

The main design theme is eclectic. For the living room area especially, we focused on the diagonal pattern, which is seen mainly in the flooring and then reiterated subtly in various elements throughout the same space. You can see this in the embroidery pattern in dining area blinds, the patchwork wallcover, the faceted marble basin near the dining table, the hanging light near the sofa, the customised artwork above the sofa and the wallcover pattern behind the tv. 

We experimented with various materials for the flooring, from marble, tile to solid hardwood flooring. It was possible to use different materials for each space as the rooms were large with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. 

Our design philosophy encompasses the play of different colours and textures which are seen in the various rooms. Each room has its own individual design and character, rather than having one homogenous look/ flooring/ palette in all the spaces.  For example, the brightly coloured and textured wallcover in the dining area reinforces the diamond flooring design. For the dining chairs, we used a highly textured embroidered fabric from The Pure Concept Home for the backs and a solid fabric for the seat to continue the concept of dual tones in the floor. Likewise, the round dining table was customised with two veneers for the table top as well. 

The artwork above the sofa is custom made by our in house artist, Madhavi Mehta. She continued the colours and geometric harlequin designs of the wallcover onto the left side of the artwork. This then slowly metamorphoses into a monochromatic building scape.   

 

Our favourite space is definitely the ‘balcony’ area of the living room. The wooden carved panel & the collection of brass and copper pots comes with a rich personal history for the clients! We scoured their family home in Alibaug and selected some different shaped antique metal pots that originally belonged to their dharamashala (the community kitchen for free food). 

The carved wooden panels were from their ancestral haveli in Gujarat but currently lying unattended in a warehouse in Bhiwandi! Our excitement going through these exquisite carved panels culminated in creating a customised wall panel in the living room balcony, which is the favourite selfie backdrop for all their guests! 

The two way customised swing slides effortlessly from facing the main living area seating to the balcony area with the view. This is the client’s favourite furniture piece as it gives them flexibility in using the space while entertaining large and small groups or even to curl up with a coffee and watch the sunset over Priyadarshini Park!        

We recycled a lot of the existing wooden mouldings into a more contemporary design (like adding it behind the master bed and painting it the same as the wall colour, creating mirror frames etc). We also upcycled the chest of drawers in the master bedroom and giving it a distressed blue polish finish to complement the colours in the rest of the bedroom.  

The guest bedroom had an inbuilt chest of drawers with open hanging space. We added shutters to close that space, painted the drawers in a mix of pastel colours and bordered the wardrobe with a thick fin detail around it (which continued till the end of the wall also housing the sliding door channel).