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A two-bedroom apartment in Pune’s Amanora Park brings home a touch of nostalgia wrapped in opulence
You would be hard-pressed to find homeowners in the city who are partial to a maximalist aesthetic. They are a rare breed in space-starved metros that encourage white, light, neutral homes. These particular homeowners, however, were exactly unlike others. “Most of our clients tend towards more minimalism. I’d say these clients fell in the more urban opulent bracket,” says Tanmaya Varshney. That the house didn’t look like anything else the Beautiful Homes Service designer has done is unsurprising. Varshney follows a strictly customer-centric approach to design, ensuring “all my interior design projects look extremely different from one another”. And this house in Pune’s upscale Amanora Park stood out with its hints of gold, warm palette, bold colours and luxurious touches.
Tanmaya Varshney (TV): This two-bedroom on the 17th floor in Amanora Park is about 950 square feet. The clients were actually looking for a 3BHK, but they liked the society so much that they went with this apartment. When we first met, their initial plan was to buy the adjacent 1BHK as well but that didn’t pan out. At the time, they were considering this 2BHK as a shorter-term home, after which they would move into a larger space.
TV: Since the homeowners were in a dilemma about how long they would be living here, our initial proposal was to go with modular design elements.
This would make moving easy and a portion of the décor could be reused. A big challenge for us was to work with the clients while they decided how long they planned to stay here. Once that was decided, they bought a 1BHK below this apartment to use as the home office.
TV: They didn’t want a very modern, white subtle space—and no pastels either. Both the husband and wife hail from Gwalior and still have family there, so they wanted an Indian touch to their home. This is one of the reasons we used veneers in the house, to add accents in a golden hue to complement the marble.
TV: We’ve stayed away from a minimalist aesthetic and neutral shades; even the furniture and soft furnishings are meant to create a sense of lavishness. Apart from that, we added customised PVC wallpapers heavy on motifs and patterns in the rooms. The one in the apartment’s entrance area was quite a challenge. The client [the wife] was initially set on having an image of one of the Gwalior forts there, to the extent that she even bought a high-resolution print of one such fort from the internet. However, it didn’t work because this was a perspective shot and looked slightly artificial. So we came up with abstract horse motifs that make for a very impactful entryway. She was a bit sceptical at first but was very happy with the result.
With this wallpaper working in tandem with the jali, veneers and cane shutters, the entrance has quite the regal vibe.
TV: We broke down the wall of the kitchen and that really transformed the space. The original closed kitchen was quite dull because the light was coming in from the direction of the living room. We converted it into an open-plan layout, which brought a lot of brightness and openness to the space.
TV: No it shot up. When we’d booked the project, the client had been looking at this 2BHK as a shorter-duration house, maybe about five years or so. At that time, the budget was Rs 11 lakh. But when they decided that this was going in a good direction, they were okay with the increase in the budget. After the upgrade to premium décor elements, veneers and polishes, the budget topped off at Rs 16 lakh.
TV: I’m glad that they were happy with my handling of the project. The wife, in fact, mentioned that I didn’t say yes to everything they wanted but they liked everything I recommended.
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DEC 2023
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17 Oct 23, 03.00PM - 04.00PM