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Watch this Bengaluru villa carry Indian heritage with a cool, contemporary ease
- Style Essentials Edit Team
- 19 hours ago
- 3 min read
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 vocabulary of the north in her mind: carved wood, celebratory colours, ethnic prints, ornamental details that feel inherited rather than imitated. The husband brought with him the serene sturdiness of Karnataka homes, anchored by wooden columns and gentle transitions.
It was within these layered inheritances that Defining Space Studio found the architecture of feeling. “They wanted something rooted, something they could grow old in,” recalls lead designer Joshna Merin Thomas. With collaborators CV Jayesh Reddy and Abhay D Shet, she shaped a home that does not chase trends or theatrics but instead settles into a rare balance — where permanence is allowed to be warm, and tradition is allowed to breathe.
Teakwood becomes the first language spoken in the home. It appears in strong, confident strokes: carved cornices, solid furniture, ceiling accents with cork inlays, and the quiet glimmer of brass details that catch light without seeking attention. The spatial plan tilts delicately toward the rituals that define the family’s daily life. Meals are communal here, so the dining area sits at the heart of the ground floor, expanded by tightening the living footprint. A wall-mounted bench along the window turns into the family’s favourite everyday perch, while the living area stays open and agile for the two dogs who rule the circulation. A once-forgotten niche becomes a soft corner lined with House of Shaakh wallpaper, lending a private gesture of visual warmth.
A pair of Chettinad-inspired columns marks the shift between living and dining — not replicas of historical references, but sculpted interpretations that act more like punctuation marks in a continuous sentence. This sensitivity runs through the adjoining kitchen too, where the homeowner’s penchant for baking shaped a space that is practical, calming, and quick to clean: sage green PU shutters, a seamless quartz counter, and brass pendants over a breakfast ledge quietly patterned in tile.
Upstairs, the family lounge steps into a different register — more contemplative, more whimsical. A pseudo-wall forms a composition of arched niches, each one articulated differently: a spindle here, a cane weave there, a hint of crafted nostalgia playing against the clean geometry. Even the furniture echoes regional silhouettes, its curves and legs subtly quoting vernacular forms without recreating them.
The bedrooms flow from this same rhythm of balance. In the master suite, a spindled poster bed stands against a layered backdrop of wood and textile, with louvered wardrobes adding a soft architectural cadence. The daughter’s room takes a gentler route — soothing blues, a desk that folds effortlessly into a window bench, wardrobe shutters dressed in playful wallpaper. The guest room adopts an even lighter tone, with floating cane-laminated storage lending warmth to its ivory and blush palette.
The villa’s uppermost level feels almost like a breath after a long sentence. Sunlight shifts more freely here; humour and nostalgia enter the room with framed pop-culture memorabilia. A bar unit hides in full view, its glass shutters turning into an element of reveal and conceal. Brick cladding and wooden rafters steady the mood, bringing warmth and familiarity to a space meant for unwinding.
What ties every floor and every room together is a shared, unspoken understanding between the family and the designers — that Indian maximalism, when done right, is not noise but nuance. It is the curve of a carving, the depth of a wooden beam, the shadow falling across a woven texture at a certain hour of the day. It is abundance measured with intention. “It’s about finding the line between richness and restraint,” Joshna reflects. And in this villa, that line becomes a quiet, confident thread weaving memory, craft, and contemporary ease into one coherent home.
Fact file
Project Name: Villa 60Location: Bengaluru
Area: 2,400 sq ft
Type: Residential Interiors
Design Firm: Defining Space Studio
Lead Designers: Joshna Merin Thomas, C. V. Jayeesh Reddy, Abhay D. Shet
Photography: Vedant Sharma
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