To design a residence that reflects the cold European weather with dark Greys and White scheme along with a fireplace (Faux) to feel the warmth was the design brief for this Mumbai home.
Eras from Europe
As one enters the house, one is welcomed by a very dark grey fluted panel and a door of vintage mouldings with Gold knob and gold letter plate that sets a vintage charm. It is quite unusual to have a dark grey door for the entrance, but it sets the overall tone for the house straightaway. On entering, one would notice an eccentric console with 2 men holding table top finished in black lacquer that screams the European style of Minimal Art Deco scheme of the house. TV Wall stands out as the highlight and the rest is kept subtle with Biyanco Romania grey marble, white walls and bottle green colour for the sofa and fabric.
The entire TV wall stretch happens to be the statement of the entire house which houses the designer cracked lit marble & the dark grey MDF Fluting. The process where the Black Marquino Marble is dropped from a height and joined using resin and lit from back. The faux fireplace, Swaroski display & the Cupid from Jaipur is probably the most striking feature of the house. The marble swivel dining table retracts when the kids want to play around.
Wooden deck for the flooring, wooden PVC exterior grade for the ceiling, and fresh greens on the vertical wall jazz up the European easy breezy Art Décor Vibe of the house. A wooden bench was ideal for that extra space when the owners’ friends drop by.
Keeping it simple for the modular kitchen, the designers picked a different pallet of browns finished in two shades of acrylic laminate. The breakfast table finished in black marble serves as an additional seating for the kids with 2 spotlights above it. A crockery unit displays the wine glasses and decorative crockery collection of the family.
Marble-ous surfaces
The design story for the bedroom began unfolding as early as the marble hunting days. This gorgeous black marble resonated with the designers instantly for the bed back of the master. This not only became the highlight of the room, but also blended in quite well with the rest of the house. For the TV Wall, it was kept simple with white painted MDF tagged along with a dark grey Décor display wall and the walk in wardrobe door. A Credenza finished in wooden & black veneer serves as a functional storage for suitcases and also for décor display. The semi mother of pearl mirror, the vase and the clock all were sourced from Spacio.
The mirror wall was intended to first have a wallpaper but due to budget constraints we restricted ourselves to zinc, paint washed with a spotlight above it which in turn gave a great outcome. A green leather chair from Bent Chair effortlessly blends in with the overall tone in the room. The master bed has grey suede fabric around its corners and the headboard has a capsule shaped back that makes it comfortable & visually appealing.
Soaked in warm tones of browns & blacks, the master washroom walls are finished with mosaic and sanitary fitting from the Vive designer series of Kohler. A large mirror with a cove around it makes the washroom look a lot bigger. A vault cove lighting for the ceiling also covers the beams of the washroom. A chandelier from Bent Chair adds an Art Déco Vibe into the washroom.
The project also features trading out the excess spaces for more nifty ones. Of the four washrooms in the house, we niched out a walk-in wardrobe space from one. Profile shutters for the wardrobe finished in French gold and & a full height mirror fits in functionally and aesthetically well for the master room.
Lightening up the mood
Soaked in cosy tones of creams, the parents’ room vibes a vintage Aura. Frills design above the bed made in a double layer of POP hosts a cove lighting and washes the wallpaper below. This also continues all across the ceiling. The bed back peonies wallpaper from Elementto Lifestyle & the arched headboard contributes seamlessly to the vintage charm of the room. A herringbone wooden tile was added at the floor. The Wardrobe is finished in arcylic laminate. The shear curtain softens the feel of the space.
As you make your way from the living room, you discover the common washroom, finished in a blend of emperador marble & golden portoro marble. The strip on the floor mimics the living room flooring strip thus also breaking the geometry of the walls. An onyx lit basin stands out well and elevates the design of the entire house, making it even more premium. The washroom is completed with an inverted curved POP ceiling cove that frames the 3 upside down arches, one of them being a lit mirror.
The two little kids are comic lovers, especially Wonder Woman and Batman. So, the design for the room revolved around these characters. The parents had given two décor items that they bought during their travels to be used in here.
A bed, a study table, and also a wardrobe were to be accommodated for two. But that’s quite a task, especially when the room is really small. A murphy bed was used such that would be closed when not needed and would give enough space for the kids to play around. For the wardrobe and bathroom door, we designed a Wonder Woman and Batman print. The kids’ name were designed on vinyl too and stuck on the Murphy bed drop as ‘Vaz’s Superheroes’. The thought behind the kids’ room was to not only make it look fresh and youthful but also mature at the same time so that it did not lose relevance even after growing up. A wooden tiled flooring helped bring in the ‘mature’ aspect of this otherwise funky room.
Keeping in sync with the Wonder Woman & Batman colours, he designers zeroed in on a simple colourful cost effective highlighter tile that had the same colours print behind the basin and the rest as concrete looking tile. A mirror with cove light highlights it.
To have a Minimal Art Deco scheme which reflects the Cold European vibe was the central focus of the design process.
Fact file:
Project Name: European Greys
Location: Ic Colony , Borivali West, Mumbai
Type: Residential interior design
Area: 985 sq ft
Designed by: 5 Feet 4 Design Studio
Architects: Ar. Benny Sam Mathew & Ar. Ganpat Vishwakarma
Photo Courtesy: @inclined_studio
