Modern bathroom wall lights
The vintage king of Goa
Kitchen door design ideas to add elegance
Create your own beautiful home
Leave your information and we will call you to book your preferred consultation slot
When Asian Paints’ Where the Heart Is visited the homes of father-son duo Anil and Harshvarrdhan Kapoor, they were treated to a pair of homes at opposite ends of the style spectrum
Well-loved, well-lived homes have a certain inexplicable warmth, an aura of comfort. It could be a new home or a space inhabited for years, but it fits its inhabitants like a glove, coalescing around them like a familiar embrace. It could be the building-that-turned-into-a-bungalow for established movie star Anil Kapoor, or the youthful contemporary pad in a beachfront apartment building for his son, actor Harshvarrdhan. The differences between the two homes are apparent—one follows the classic style guide and the other, a minimalist contemporary one with flashes of colour.
“This home has got a lot of history. I bought the apartment on the first floor here first, then the one on the second, followed by the third, and finally the ground. Generally, people convert their bungalows into buildings but for me it was different. It was a building and I made it a bungalow,” says Anil Kapoor about his beautifully extravagant home that sets the tone right from the entrance. When the star opened his house to the team at Asian Paints Where the Heart Is, he was allowing for a peek into a house full to bursting with grandeur—and an overwhelming sense of family. Ornate details, brass accessories and bold, dramatic artworks that add that classic traditional touch to grandeur are juxtaposed by large windows, a smattering of flowers and plants and the dark elegance of richly textured wood. Wonderfully chosen pieces dot the home, from a church bench in Kapoor’s den-like space, where he ponders, introspects and listens to scripts to the covered deck with floor-to-ceiling windows and a décor brimming over with plants. “I love coming here, the air, the breeze, the plants. Sunita and her mum loved greenery and flowers. It is because of them that everything has come into my life.”
The love for the outdoors within a home is evident in Harshvarrdhan Kapoor’s minimalist apartment too, albeit on a scale that’s relatable to a single-person home. “It was like a dream for me, to have something like this in the heart of the city. What I liked about this is that you’re on the beach but cocooned by trees, ensuring a kind of privacy,” he says. His house takes an entirely non-traditional route, right from a living room that’s more attuned to a cinematic experience with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, a second bedroom converted into a space for shoes and a comfortable yet spare bedroom with interesting accents. “Every nook and corner feels lived in. It feels like home.”
The spaces for both father and son, as different as they are, have been crafted with a deep love and awareness of what it is to make a home. Harshvarrdhan Kapoor’s sanctuary in the city is an amalgamation of style overlaid with comfort. Anil Kapoor’s palatial-proportioned bungalow, painstakingly put together by him and his wife evokes a deep sense of devotion to family. Both spaces, however, are all heart. “I have one life. I’d rather be happy and make people happy around me,” says Anil Kapoor. And who would dispute that take on personal style?
They occupy opposing ends of the spectrum—one of regal grandeur accessorised by well-curated pieces that are unique to the space, and the other of subtle style and play on minimal accoutrements. The inspiration for your own home, depending on your tastes, therefore, is yours for the taking, with the Beautiful Homes Service Style Guide map to help make the navigation easy.
Glints of gold, the texture of wood, the drama of boldly beautiful accessories and a throwback to tradition with intricate artworks— Anil Kapoor’s home is rich with inspiration if you want to create a lavish look in your space.
An intricate wrought-iron doorway, over an impressively decorated threshold, is a great introduction to the fineness of your home. A cluster of traditional-esque objets d’art around your entryway and, if your tastes run in that direction and space allows, a neutral-toned rug to welcome guests will certainly be conversation starters. For a wooden floor, the Tungsten Rug in classic grey or the beige Remington hand-tufted rug will work wonders.
The potential benefit to a home design by building connections with the outdoors and layering on the greenery simply cannot be overstated. Anil Kapoor’s home, courtesy of his wife Sunita and her mother, has plants and flowers all over. And it reaches a crescendo in the deck area with comfortable seating further supplementing the indoor-outdoor connection. If you are blessed with a spacious outdoor veranda or deck, then make the most of it with plants and the right kind of furniture. A pair of Foresta 1-seaters and a Foresta 3-seater sofa, with their elegant wooden details, is a good outdoor fit to get the look.
If you have a den or even a living room that you’d like to transform into an ornate lavish space, à la the Kapoor casa, then you’ll be well on your way to achieving that with furniture such as the Agusto 3 seater sofa, the pair of Seychelles Wingback Armchairs in a muted shade to complement it and the Amer sideboard making an elegant backdrop. Add in some traditional artwork, plants and a table lamp like White Teak’s Arrived table lamp for your dark wood side table and you’ve got yourself a majestic, sophisticated arrangement.
An elegant dining area is a must in a lavish home and the one in the Kapoor bungalow certainly looks the part. If you want to go opulent for meals, then go for something like the Harmya dining chairs around either the dark-shaded Alwar or Carlisle 6-seater dining tables. As an option for seating, the Osaka dining chairs are an interesting alternative with the lower broad-framed base for legs. Suspend the Good To Be King chandelier by White Teak and the rich-looking setting will shine through.
Harshvarrdhan Kapoor’s beachfront escape dials down the scale and colours and ramps up a contemporary aesthetic with a restrained hand.
The contemporary look of neutral colours and simple furniture that this living room has can be found with the right combination of pieces, like using the Lyon 2 seater sofa in white in combination with a comfortable diwan and adding a wash of colour with the Bequest rug in white liquorice. Such spaces typically make clever use of accents like artworks. Here, the cinema-watching vibe is the highlight with a high-tech surround sound home theatre system. You can pick your accents and complete the look with the Ruthless marble floor lamp.
If it’s more about adding a decorative element, then Hashvarrdhan’s idea to find something different and “non-generic” can be your starting point, instead of scouring the internet for a light that looks like that. His idea to use a sculptural lighting fixture though, can be expressed in a more clean-lined aesthetic too, with this Slate Bait floor lamp next to the Damien or Tuscany king-size beds. The other alternative is this Moonlight Reflections floor lamp.
The walk-in closet, converted from a second bedroom, is a seriously significant source of inspiration. Get some ideas for your walk-in closet: use darker open shelving to let the clothes—or shoes—take centre stage, add a splash of earthy colour with a rug like the Roohe hand-tufted rug in shades of cloud white and clay and light it up with the Ruthless marble floor lamp.