The Paranjpe family’s 2BHK apartment at Dadar combines tradition with a warm and welcoming ambience

Ethnic décor scheme in a functional setting

The Paranjpe family’s 2BHK apartment at Dadar combines tradition with a warm and welcoming ambience

Prabhadevi at Dadar is a well known location due to the its prominent landmark, the Siddhivinayak temple. A 2BHK, 1000 sq ft apartment in this area is where the Paranjpe family - Karan, Vinita and their three-year old son Mihir – resides. A calm and welcoming atmosphere is what visitors experience on stepping in their house. What makes the interior design quite appealing is the stylish combination of ethnic décor and functionality, which end up nicely complementing each other. Since the family shifted from Delhi to Mumbai just two years ago, moving to a different city entailed a lot of changes. Karan says, “Initially, it took us sometime to adjust to the flat as we were used to bigger houses in Delhi. What we liked about this apartment is that it is centrally located and has ample natural light and ventilation. The challenge we faced once we moved was to accommodate our furniture into this flat. However, within a short while, we managed to arrange the furniture in such a manner that the house looked spacious and we were happy with the results.” The whole house has been planned by the couple themselves without any professional help. The thought was to keep the house functional and make it look good at the same time. Elaborating on the concept and how they went about designing it, Vinita says, “We wanted an ethnic ambience for our L- shaped living room-cum-dining room since most of our furniture is made of wood. Hence, we have used yellow lights to create a ethnic and warm look for it. We have kept the colour of the walls white to give the house a spacious look and used antique brass wall mounted lampshades.” Emphasising the importance of adding an artistic touch to the living room, Vinita says ,”The walls have been utilised to put up our collection of paintings like a Thai Silk Wall piece measuring 6 feet in length and an Australian Abhorgini art painting. There is also one ‘paan’ box with brass jaali work belonging to my great-grandfather, other artefacts and our collection of Lord Ganesha idols.” The living room serves as a place for the family to get together and dine as well as being an entertainment hub. Karan says, “Our living room has a huge window with sliding panels to ensure ample natural light and ventilation. Off white curtains have been used to complement the furniture and décor. It is a special room as it has a warm and welcome feeling to it. We love to entertain people at our place and end up doing so every weekend.” Emphasising on the functionality aspect in every corner of their house, Karan adds, “The LCD has been wall mounted in way that it can be viewed from living as well as the dining area. Apart from that, the passage that leads to the bedroom from the kitchen acts as a dry balcony and also has a storage unit for miscellaneous items. We also have retained the original mosaic flooring of the house as it is easier to maintain.” The couple has also kept the requirements of their son in mind while designing the home interiors and focused on child-friendly elements wherever possible. Karan explains, “The second bedroom is Mihir’s play room and doubles up as a guest room as and when required. Here we spend quality time playing with him and reading to him. This room has two single box beds placed against two opposite walls to allow space in between for Mihir to move around. The room has a chest of drawers for Mihir’s clothes, a cupboard for guests to use and an open cupboard for Mihir allowing easy access to his books and toys. We haven’t used any glass as our son is young and we wanted the house to be child safe too. Hence all artefacts have been hung on walls and away from his reach.” The master bedroom has a huge double box bed which facilitates storage, wardrobe, dressing table and a study table all in wood. “For the kitchen we got a modular storage cabinet to store utensils, grocery and crockery. The granite top acts as a working platform for our microwave and other kitchen equipment,” adds Karan. According to him, “The USP of the house is that we have done it up without any structural or civil changes and still have managed to accommodate all our furniture here. This surely was a challenge as it is easier to design furniture for a new space but difficult to accommodate furniture from one place into another smaller space. Sharing the feedback that they received from the visitors and how it feels to live in the house planned all by themselves, Karan says, “All our relatives and friends who visited our house say that it has a warm, welcoming feel and of course love the location of the house, its a blessing all say. We are very happy with the house and really have not thought of making any changes as of now.”