DESIGN DIARY

By Kunal Rohatgi, Director, Fos Lighting For a long time, lighting occupied a secondary role in interior design. It was expected to perform a function, illuminate a room, disappear into the background. Today, that hierarchy has changed. Across modern homes, boutique hotels, and luxury hospitality spaces, lighting has moved to the forefront, shaping how spaces feel, function, and are remembered. Lighting is no longer just about visibility. It has become one of the most express

The Great Eastern Home, India’s iconic destination for fine furniture and luxury interiors, unveils its distinguished Sofa Collection, a thoughtfully curated range that celebrates global design legacies while elevating everyday living. Rooted in artistry and heritage, the collection reflects the brand’s enduring commitment to craftsmanship, superior materials, and timeless appeal transforming the sofa from a functional necessity into a lasting statement of style and comfort.

The Great Eastern Home has introduced its Signature Sofa Collection, adding to its long-standing catalogue of period-style and classic furniture. Known for its focus on traditional craftsmanship and historical design references, the South Mumbai–based retailer continues to position sofas as long-term furniture pieces rather than trend-driven products. The collection brings together multiple design influences, including Italian-inspired forms, European classical styles, coloni

The Hafele Matrixbox Premium+ Drawer System is designed for modern kitchens, wardrobes, and storage units where performance, durability, and ease of installation are key requirements. As interior design continues to prioritise clean aesthetics and functional detailing, drawer systems need to support both visual consistency and long-term everyday use. Developed by Häfele, the Matrixbox Premium+ features a refined design with clean lines that integrate seamlessly into contempo

Suspended forty-one floors above Mumbai’s restless skyline, A Still Summit unfolds as a composed counterpoint to the city below. Designed by Studio Tattva, led by Aditi Savani, this expansive duplex spanning close to 8,000 square feet is conceived as a home that balances clarity, comfort, and quiet luxury. It belongs to an entrepreneurial couple and their two children, and brings together neoclassical structure, subtle Art Deco references, advanced technology, and a strong e

In contemporary kitchens, the conversation around appliances is no longer limited to performance alone. How food is cooked, how much intervention it needs, and how seamlessly an appliance fits into daily life now matter just as much. Hafele’s Midora Full Steam Oven enters this space quietly, positioning steam not as a specialised function but as a natural extension of everyday cooking. At its core, the Midora Full Steam Oven combines full steam capability with conventional ov

Set beside the Kolara Gate of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, Jungle Homes Tadoba unfolds as a hospitality project shaped by cultural memory as much as by ecological sensitivity. Designed by Nashine Architects , the resort offers a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Maharashtrian wada, translating its spatial intelligence into a setting deeply attuned to forest, climate, and place. The project emerged from a personal narrative. The clients, Mahara

Set within the serene grounds of The Oberoi Gurgaon , Ziya unfolds as a contemporary dining space where modern Indian cuisine is matched by a deeply considered architectural narrative. Designed by Architecture Discipline , the restaurant balances old-world refinement with a confident, contemporary sensibility, creating an environment that feels both composed and quietly immersive. Overlooking the hotel’s reflective water body, Ziya draws the architectural language of the Obe

Colonel Saab doesn’t feel like a restaurant that was “designed” in the conventional sense. It feels more like a place that came together slowly, piece by piece, memory by memory, until it began to resemble a home. Not an ordinary home, but one shaped by travel, inheritance, and a very specific idea of Indian grandeur. Set near Trafalgar Square, it occupies a rare position in London’s dining landscape, not because it is Indian, but because it is unapologetically personal. The

In a city like Mumbai, where reinvention is constant yet memory lingers stubbornly beneath every layer of change, adaptive reuse has become more than a design strategy; it has become a cultural responsibility. Nowhere is this more evident than in Lower Parel, once the industrial backbone of the city’s textile economy, where mills that powered livelihoods and movements have slowly been reabsorbed into Mumbai’s contemporary social life. It is within this charged context that La

Located within Epicuria, Nehru Place, one of Delhi’s most active food and entertainment destinations, Thanks & Beyond is the latest restaurant venture by restaurateur Priyank Sukhija. Spread across 8,000 square feet, the restaurant is conceived not as a singular dining space, but as a layered environment where architecture, interiors, and hospitality work together to shape the overall experience. Designed by Natelier by Bent Chair, led by Natasha Jain and Neeraj Jain, the pro

Amina Bhatia curates a 1,100 sq ft menswear flagship for Arjan Dugal in Mumbai, blending historic architecture with contemporary elegance. The heritage ceiling, soaring 16 feet high, becomes the centrepiece of the narrative, while the steel beams—one running along the ceiling and another positioned at nine feet—are transformed from structural components into defining elements of the design. With a keen understanding of structure, Amina uses these members to introduce a mezzan

Lagori is a childhood game most Indians remember instinctively rather than intellectually. The game involves stacking seven stones, knocking them down, and then rebuilding them again. Balance, interruption, repetition. For Nikita Bansal, founder of Yaahvi, that rhythm stayed long after childhood, shaped by afternoons spent playing the game in Assam, and it now finds form in a new handcrafted lighting collection that carries the same sense of tension and reconstruction. The La

Chrome has returned to the Cattelan Italia catalogue. Once closely associated with the 1980s, it now appears in a more controlled, contemporary form, aligned with interiors that move easily between memory and modern production. The emphasis is no longer on shine but on precision, on how the surface responds to light and how it defines structure rather than decoration. That approach is clear in Eva. The chair reads as minimal, but only initially. Its proportions are carefully

At The Dhan Mill in New Delhi, the new Gazal Gupta flagship opens like a quiet revelation. The entrance, flanked by two whimsical dog sculptures, sets the tone for a space that doesn’t announce itself loudly but settles around you with the calm assurance of a place shaped by intention. Once inside, the soaring vaults, lime-washed surfaces, and monochrome marble floors establish an atmosphere that feels part palace, part contemporary atelier—rooted in memory yet distinctly mod

There are homes that try to impress you in the first minute, and others that unfold at their own pace, the way a familiar song does when you hear it after years. This 3,200 sq ft apartment in Chennai belongs to the second kind. Designed by Anahita Rattha of A Design Theory, it doesn’t rush to declare its style or its philosophy. Instead, it lets surfaces and contours reveal themselves gradually—sometimes in the quiet of a curved ceiling, sometimes in the slow sweep of a param

Looking out toward a quiet fringe of mangroves and vineyards on Bengaluru’s outskirts, this 2,400 sq ft villa finds its emotional centre not in the landscape it faces but in the memories it chooses to hold close. The family who lives here — a couple, their daughter and two exuberant dogs — wanted a home that felt unmistakably Indian, not as a theme but as a lived memory. Their sense of belonging stretched across regions, textures, traditions. The wife carried the visual vocab

Pompa doesn’t arrive quietly on Linking Road; it meets the eye with an unexpected warmth, the kind that grows out of colour, craft, and a bit of mischief. The restaurant, shaped by Shabnam Gupta across 4,000 sq ft, leans into Mexican aesthetics without falling into caricature. Instead, it moves like a story told in textures — terracotta underfoot, sage green wrapped around walls, jewel tones appearing almost like punctuation marks. The place holds the spirit of a villa, but i

There is a certain quiet thrill in watching a familiar dining brand reinvent itself. NomNom, long known for its indulgent Asian comfort food in Mumbai, does exactly that with its newest outpost in Khar. The restaurant sits on a corner where the neighbourhood’s rhythm softens just enough for design to be noticed, and here, Sumessh Menon Associates shape the space into an experience that feels intimate, layered, and instinctively warm. The 1,400 sq. ft. interior doesn’t rely on

Tucked into the dense urban fabric of Jubilee Hills, Makau Kitchen & Bar unfolds like a hidden retreat—an 18,516 sq. ft. sanctuary that seems to breathe differently from the city around it. Designed by 23 Degrees Design Shift for Adithya Thanoj and Raja Simha Reddy, the space reimagines what an indoor–outdoor restaurant can feel like when landlocked by towering office blocks on two sides and the massive presence of a metro station rising behind it. With its only true entry tu