Juhi, Jayant and Aksh’s Beautiful Bangalore

published Mar 26, 2010
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Name: Juhi, Jayant and Aksh Prabhu
Location: Bangalore, India
Size: 1,400 square feet
Years Lived In: 5 months

When Juhi sent us photos of her family’s recently renovated home in Bangalore, asking us if we wanted to feature it as a house tour, we jumped on it! We’ve found the homes we’ve featured from India to be especially beautiful in their use of vivid colour and this one is no exception. Pinks, bright blues and acid yellows dance across pillows and curtains, grounded by neutral furnishings and clean lines. Traditional elements from all over India mingle with modern pieces to create a home that looks to the future without forgetting its culture or its past.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
1 / 31
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Although Juhi described their home as having “no particular style,” we’d have to respectfully disagree. With its wonderful balance of new and old, modern and traditional, Western and Eastern, we’d christen this style Modern Exotic. Recent renovations to the space — shifing the door to the master bedroom to accomdate an additional shower area; converting a powder room to a toilet for Aksh — punctuate the easy flow of space in this home and underline the feeling of serenity.

One room winds in the next, tied together by a common colour scheme, similar wood tones and the “Jaali” fretwork, inspired by the stone screens of Rajasthan archtecture and reinterpreted in wood, which pops up in the cabinetry in the dining room, the detail in the center of its table, the headboard in the guest room and the pooja on the balcony. Accessories, like the Sri Lankan masks that march across a credenza, the Indian silk pillows that, with their parrots, foliage and marigolds, are reminiscent of Mughal miniature paintings, and the embroidered panels, also from Rajasthan and made from bridal finery, speak to the family’s travels.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

AT Survey:

My/Our Style: No particular style.

Inspiration: ‘Jaali’ (perforated stone screens) in Rajasthani architecture, which has a lot of Persian influence.

Favorite element: The living room wall clad in handmade clay tiles. We agonized over whether we wanted color or wallpaper or stone there. And then one day, I found these tiles (along with some lovely handmade tiles for our kitchen) at a local tile store and knew this was it.

Biggest Challenge: Getting a larger toilet for our room. The layout that we finally settled on gave me some bonus wardrobe space too. Getting that extra plumbing and drainage done for the additional shower area, without of course impacting the apartment below ours, called for a lot of planning and persuading the builder.

What Friends Say: Those familiar with my work say the house is ‘totally Juhi’. Our neighbors (with almost identical house layouts) think our house appears much more spacious. Children love Aksh’s room.

Biggest Embarrassment: A storage cabinet intended for next to the fridge wouldn’t fit in kitchen, and we actually moved it to our living room! You can see it placed next to the balcony door in the living and we use it to stock our snacks.

Proudest DIY: None. We got a contractor to execute the interiors.

Biggest Indulgence: Our toilets. We stripped down all the tiling, dumped the sanitary fittings provided by the builder and rebuilt all the toilets from scratch. 


(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)



Resources:
   
Entrance: Mirror frame from a crafts bazaar in Delhi; Buddha from a trip to Dubai; Ganesha, the Indian God of new, auspicious beginnings, is carved out of a coconut shell.

Dining Room: Chairs from a furniture store in Dubai; Table made to specification by my carpenter; Fabric paneling from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.


Living Room: Couch and leather chair – Dubai; TV console, book case and cutlery unit – made by my carpenter; Silk cushions and curtains with prints inspired from Mughal miniature paintings


Bedrooms: Our bed from Dubai, the bed in guest room locally made; Night stands, study, book shelves, wardrobes made by my carpenters.

Lights: Adithya lamps, Bangalore; Lights in Aksh’s room from Ikea. The lamp on the desk in the guest room was designed by Juhi’s sister, Swati, who’s just launched a line of home accessories.

(Thanks Juhi, Jayant and Aksh!)

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
Photos by Juhi Prabnu
And check our archives of ATLA’s past house tours HERE
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

We’ve had amazing response to our Apartment Therapy House Tour Submission Form. While we will work with homeowners of our favorite homes to feature full tours, we will also share the best as House Calls — short, quick tours of readers’ homes. Submit your home here.