House Tour: Archana’s Eastern Sun

>>

Today we make our way back across the globe for our second house tour from Bangalore, India, this time visiting the spacious and traditionally decorted home of Archana, Srinivas & Mallika. Their sun soaked home is one optimized for the family’s outdoor living lifestyle, with a terrace influenced by traditional South Indian porches and an interior warmly decorated with custom made furnishings which evoke memories of ancestral homes of India’s past. It’s a magnificent home whose richness is tempered with a studied eye for moderation, where colour, form and negative space all play a part in creating a home that is livable and aesthetically engaging all at once…

>>

AT Survey:

My/Our style: Traditional South Indian.

Inspiration: Our love for the rich heritage of art, crafts and tradition of India.

Favorite Element: The Eastern sun. Since the largest part of the house faces east, the first rays of the rising sun streaming into our home every morning, brightens every corner of our home and our spirits too.

Biggest Challenge: Incorporating a traditional bungalow-like style into a penthouse in a high-rise apartment building.

What Friends Say: “Reminds us of our ancestral house”. Guests from other parts of the country refer to a visit to our home more as an “Appreciation of South Indian culture”

Biggest Embarrassment: The master bedroom closet. It’s almost like being in a manufacturing assembly line and needs a layout change which is our next remodeling project.

Proudest DIY: Block-print motif hand painted on ceramic wall cladding in the master bedroom.

Biggest Indulgence: We are an outdoors family and so it had to be our terrace where we intended spending most of our time. The feel and touch is that of a traditional South India porch with carved stone pillars, a tile roof with carved wooden beams and a canopy shaped like lotus petals. The coloured glass windows and doors were also carefully selected from antique hubs of South India.

The terracotta bulls seated on the parapet and the wall friezes were specially made for this place and even the Athangudi floor tiles were customized and handmade by traditional artisans from South India.

Best advice: Go with your heart, make it a labour of love but also be grounded in realism especially while working the execution piece with your contractor.

Dream source: The Antique hubs of South India for the doors, windows, pillars and furniture.

>>

Resources:

Appliances: Hob & Chimney:Faber
Refrigerator: LG
T.V: Samsung LCD

Furniture: Most of the wooden furniture & chests in our home are restored antiques. The crockery cabinet was custom made by Wood Décor, Bangalore. Rest of the furniture has been custom-made in traditional style.

Hardware: Locally manufactured, acquired with the help of our carpenter.

Accessories: Accessories in our home have either been picked up during our travels or have been dug out from old trunks from our parent’s ancestral home. Furnishings are from Yamini, Bangalore.

Lighting: Wall mounted lighting from BVK Iyengar Road. Table lamps are from Fabindia & Roots in Bangalore.

Rugs and Carpets: Fabindia and Zeba, Bangalore

Tiles and Stone: Mangalore terracotta tiles for the terrace roof and black granite for the kitchen and bar counters.

Window Treatments: Windows facing the terrace have traditional coloured embossed glass.
The woven blinds are from Nicora, Bangalore

Beds: Custom made

Artwork: Tanjore paintings acquired from traditional artists during our travels, Folk art paintings and illustrations from various craft fairs and art festivals, acrylic on canvas paintings by upcoming artists.

Paint: Asian Paints Royale Emulsion

Flooring: Vitrified Tiles from Kajaria and Somany and handmade Athagudi Tiles.

Other:

(Thanks, Archana, Srinivas & Mallika!)

>>