Art meets Function

By Savitha Hira

Photography: Courtesy The Orange Lane

.

“A contemporary cloth with an eclectic weave going through its every thread” is interior designer Shabnam Gupta’s apt analogy of her winning residential design at the International Property Awards 2014 - Asia...

The beauty of a residential design lies in the sum total of several distinct nuances that satisfy the residents; simultaneously creatively charge the designer to accomplish his/her deliverables.

.

For this penthouse apartment in an upmarket Mumbai suburb, Shabnam was faced with a client brief that necessitated formal inviting interiors for the business-minded man of the house; and vivacious, artistic intonations that would inspire the artist lady of the house. The common ground they met at was that the home should have rich undertones of culture and a warm ‘lived-in’ feel.

.

Directing the energies of the home towards an ‘old meets new’ design to arrive at a harmonious fusion, making the home universally ‘design-sound’, Shabnam and her team picked up symbols, traditional techniques and Indian ethnic overtures and juxtaposed them against world influences to create this haven.

.

.

.

So we have a beautifully hand-crafted entrance door;  a feature wall anointed with family pictures; the mythological importance of the lotus flower recreated in tantric art style as the dining table top using seven different precious stones; Kettuvallams on a matt gold textured wallpaper layered wall; another feature element of ceramic wall art; a splash of Spanish blue in a printed kitchen basin; a tropical-feel terrace top gazebo-styled sit out with pebble-clad chairs; and a flourish-of-a-brush-stroke kind of spiral staircase that singularly arrests one’s attention as it connects the 2 levels of the penthouse.

.

With ample natural light filtering into the home and seamlessness between interiors and exteriors, especially on the terrace floor, the designer has optimized on the opportunity to experiment with colour, texture and material; thereby giving the young, well-travelled couple with a love for discovering new places, cultures and hunger for creatively-inclined spaces, a home to come home to!

.

This project has won Shabnam the International Property Awards 2014 – Asia award in the category of Interior Design - Apartment.