No colour or pattern is too bold for this Pune home

The houndstooth flooring in the lift lobby, the blue tie and dye sofa in the foyer, the green and grapefruit walls pretty much set the tone for the rest of this MuseLAB designed home in Pune. “Since this is a 7,000 square foot space, it's sort of treated like a villa in the sky,” Huzefa Rangwala tells us about the stunning 12^th floor apartment in a new highrise in the city. He is one half of Mumbai-based design firm MuseLAB and dressed in a polka-dotted shirt and striped pants are very much the mastermind of the brand aesthetic that he has created and refined along with co-founder Jasem Pirani. Known for their expert layering with colour, texture, print, and pattern, such is the way of their reputation preceding them, even I picked my stripiest dress to wear to the interview. And it all feels apt when Jasem and Namrata Tidke (associate architect at the firm) walk in wearing stripes too!

MAKE IT LARGE

The home, which belongs to a Muscat-based entrepreneur and his wife and three kids, works as a base for their visits to India. When he met the designers, the only thing he put forward as his brief were a few functional requirements. “They did not enforce any aesthetic on us. We did make a presentation to them, but they didn’t give us a Pinterest mood board,” says Huzefa. 

Rich colours and patterns define every room, including the usually overlooked kitchen, bathrooms, and transition spaces. “We wanted to give each room its own personality. So, for example, we had planned a base colour pallet of blues and greens for the house but in the rooms, you'll see a burst of lime and orange too. So each room kind of has its own palette as well,” says Jasem. A customised monochromatic pattern created on back painted glass became the backsplash for the kitchen area while the breakfast bar is a soft pastel green. The den with its black marble flooring and chocolate veneers has been given a darker feel to create the experience of a home theatre. They even created specialised graphics for curtains in the bedrooms.

“If you look at a house, it isn’t driven by an “ism” in architecture, maximalism, minimalism… every piece in the house, including the curtains and upholstery, has been customised to create something that the family can call their own,” says Huzefa.