A tranquil escape in Bangalore for Third Wave Coffee founder

Beautiful Homes (BH): Tell us about the project and the brief you received from the homeowners. What were the specific requirements of the family?

Edwin Stanley (ED): We usually don’t take design inputs from our clients or let them bombard us with too many references. This allows us to come up with fresh design ideas to suit their requirements and personalities. But Anirudh and Ranu first saw our work on Instagram and they were quite impressed by a Scandic-inspired apartment we designed called the “Whitefield Haven”. They wanted the same sort of openness and simple, subtle colours for their first home. 

Anirudh said he has always dreamed of living in a hotel but the truth is—you can’t live in a hotel room forever. It’s too cold and impersonal, so we’ve infused certain elements of a luxury hotel into a very warm, comfortable and cosy home. As a professional chef, he also had very detailed brief for the kitchen that needed to be very stylish and different from the commercial ones at work.

Another requirement from the young couple, who are expecting their second child, was a spacious, slightly more traditional room for their parents who visit often and for long periods of time.

BH: Have you stuck to one style throughout or have you experimented with different design and decor ideas from one room to the next?

ES: For a sense of cohesiveness and continuity, we’ve chosen a common black, white and brown colour scheme for the apartment. We design every room based on the personalities of the people who will occupy them the most. The living, dining and kitchen areas are modern and minimalistic for the young couple who love hosting their friends. The master bedroom is transitional with a mix of minimalistic, streamlined furniture and French-themed accents like the fluted glass shutters of the wardrobe and a pastel wallpaper. The guest bedroom has a more traditional style with rattan-clad wardrobes, a solid wood bed from Fabindia and a grey wall with gold lotus shape stamps.

To break the monotony, I also like to give every room in the house an accent wall—through panelling, mouldings or even wallpaper. For this apartment, since the ceilings are low, we have used vertical lines in each of the highlight walls to create an illusion of height. For instance, in the living room, the wall panel has long arches and the dining room has a geometric pattern with both vertical and horizontal mouldings.