This South Mumbai apartment shows how colour can reconfigure spaces

It could be put down to an act of serendipity, written in the stars, or just one of those things that were meant to be. However when one looks at it though, for interior designer and architectKaran Desai, landing work for one of his recent projects had an auspicious beginning, in the truest sense of the word, considering this particular client was a fellow devotee and follower of Desai's spiritual guru, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakesh Bhai. “We would often meet at [my guru's] ashram in Dharampur for spiritual retreats and discourses in Mumbai,” explains Desai. Familiarity and admiration for his contemporary aesthetic and tasteful design sensibility led the homeowners to hand over the design reigns to the Mumbai-based designer, for their sixth floor house in a Mumbai sky-soarer.

The Long and the Short of it

Desai had 1,500-square-feet of space to work with, which was great. The flipside was the living room—longer than it was wider, and a bit “like a train bogie”. The big question then was how to “compartmentalise the functions without creating walls/ barriers and yet aesthetically have them separated so that each space has its own identity”. Along with that were the largely RCC walls of the space, which meant room for resizing areas was radically reduced. The solution lay in some clever manoeuvring within given constraints and client requirements (for three master bedrooms, living, dining and den areas and a pride of place for the family mandir). And that involved smartly dividing spaces—and the unusual choice of blue.

Making an Entrance

Desai's innovations though started well before he reached the living room—from the front door itself, in fact. The double front doors weren't just a personal preference, but a canny choice. “I have always believed they [double doors] give a sense of volume and grandeur.” Adding another layer to the grandeur is a foyer, with a Glasitali-inspired blood-red stained-glass console. It acts like a reception and functions as an elegant screen, hiding the two bedroom doors from sight. A screen between the foyer and the dining area further adds to the privacy, creating graceful seamless zones.

And beyond this foyer is the aforementioned boldly conceived living room, in stand-out blue. Given the long living room—“it was approximately 40' in length”—it was important to demarcate the area without making it look like a compartment. “We couldn't do physical partitions, so we played with colours to achieve that [demarcation] visually,” explains Desai. The end result is a living room with a strong identity and unique character that suits the eclectic furniture, including a bench and chair inspired by Ceccotti (“one of my favourite brands”), minimal lighting, and dark flooring—a perfect stage for some shadow dance courtesy of the natural light pouring into the space. While the living area is formal, the den at one corner (converted from what was a small balcony), is great for some downtime—easy, casual and comfortable.

Getting Into the Spirit of Things

A mandir in the house was non-negotiable for the family, and readily achieved with a marble-clad space, enough for two, carved out from one of the bedrooms. The hunt for just the right kind of marble, incidentally, offered Desai an opportunity to find the right material for the planned dining areas as well.

Food for Thought

“While I was in Silvassa at Classic Marble Company (CMC) on the lookout for marble that we chose for the mandir and the master bathroom, I stumbled upon a 70mm-thick marble slab; it was perfect as our dining tabletop, and just right to fit six people,” says Desai of the lucky find. The dining area forms part of a larger open kitchen, with a breakfast counter and a state-of-the-art kitchen, “meticulously detailed with Akruti Kitchen and the client”. Given that the kitchen was going to be an open space, Desai chose a combination of veneer and open-grain matte PU (polyurethane) on the shutters and frosted glass to jive with the rest of the space.

Private Spaces

Another element that fed the design planning was the careful transition of shades, from blue to nude in these private areas, seamlessly done with the use of copper to fill in the groove. “This formed a circuit. And it worked best to differentiate the wood and plaster of Paris (POP) as well.” So the three master bedrooms, all quietly elegant and well-furnished with comfort the overarching theme wear muted shades. The couple's children though get the fun end of the shade card—green for him and pink for her in their bedroom, and their study too is decidedly kid-friendly, with the Chalk series tiles by Marca Corona on the walls and floor, making it open season for scribbling on surfaces.

轮流大胆而低调,安宁,萨非ticated, this south Mumbai home performs an effortless balancing act between good looks and clever function.

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