In Ahmedabad, a simple fuss-free interior design

I first met Aratrik seven years ago when I visited the Ahmedabad-based studio of his high-quality clothing brand, Tilla. He is a Chennai-born NID design graduate who stayed on in Ahmedabad after graduation; today the label encompasses clothing, home linen, wallpapers and Café Tilla.

Five years ago, as his growing business moved to a new building, Aratrik decided to convert the old Tilla studio into his residence. It is a ground floor flat within an inconspicuous roadside building. In an even older avatar, this space was a doctor’s clinic with four rooms. Though it is only 800 sq. ft. in size, the designer reorganized the flat into a home that precisely fits his needs. “I broke the dividing walls of the entire house so there are almost no walls inside,” he says about the beginning of the redesign.

Since Ahmedabad is dry, hot, and sandy for many months of the year the flat is protected by a green cordon of plants, and low windows that keep the insides moody and cool. As you move inward from the entryway, walking through the living/ dining area, the space becomes more intimate—Aratrik describes it as a “cocoon”. An off-white cocoon that is blessed with 10-ft. high walls left quite empty, so the eye isn’t distracted by anything more than shadows of the plants outside.

Reuse, Recycle and Keep it Fuss-free

All the furniture is low-slung and close to the ground—nothing is above 13 inches. But there is colour too, in the form of hand-painted blue-and-white tiles in the kitchen, via rugs, or a soft-red quilted bedspread from Tripura. “And so, 800 sq. ft. feels roomy and light,” he says. All stuff, like stationery, clothes, cutlery and other accoutrements of daily life are secreted behind purdahs of smart shelving. Simple materials such as kota stone, light-coloured laminates with trims of teak wood, easy-to-handle canvas fabrics, and Nakashima-esque knockoffs pad and plump the space without harassing the eyes. 

But the house is also something else: you can see it has beliefs, a philosophy runs through it, uniting the resident, his things and way of life. “Reusing things is at the centre of how this flat has been designed,” he says. “It is frugality, as a value, not just as an aesthetic. In India, we are practical when it comes to design, we’re not fussy, and that’s what makes Indian minimalism, if you can call it that, different from the Western idea of minimalism.”

How do you turn a small space into a spacious home? Aratrik Dev Varman shares his tried-and-proven ideas:

8. Furniture such as a divan instead of a couch can double up as a guest bed and is visually less bulky.

9. Long rectangular tables no more than 30” wide do well as work and dining tables.

10. Use light, mobile pieces of furniture like bamboo moodas as accents that can migrate from room to room.

11. Integrate window seats into the openings if possible.

12. Use two sources of low light- wall and table- rather than one strong source that flattens the space.

13. If located near a busy road, use double glazed windows to cut noise and create a tranquil indoor environment.

In the first part of the story we toured Aratrik Dev Varman’s studio and cafe.. He chose a 1970s-era suburban house as the location of his business, converting the space to reflect the minimalist, frugal, crafts-based elegance of his brand.

All images by Ishita Sitwala