Interiors for simple residential apartments is a section that often carries the risk of either being too routine, even if high end, or too uncomfortably experimental for it to be homely. Shahen Mistry Architects’ residential décor unfailingly displays a charming and comfortable blend of visual excitement and a rich plush feel, rendered by their innate talent for design. This interior designed for a three-bedroom sample flat commissioned by the developer of the 3-tower residential complex at Borivali, Mumbai showcases the firm’s excelling capabilities.

Having been handed a carpet area of 1234 sq ft by the builder to create an elegant and saleable home interior gave the design team the freedom to experiment with elements like colours, materials and style but they had to adhere to a certain standard of luxury and spaciousness. In the absence of the guiding framework of a specific client’s choices and requirements, the skill with which they have picked the palatte of colours, materials, styles, finishes, accessories and lights that individualises each room and finally ties them up into the picture perfect warm and resplendent home that is ready to move into, finely finished and efficiently executed, displays consummate proficiency.

The generic L-shaped dining and living area that one enters through an elegantly crafted main door has a strikingly simple yet warm vibe to it, bathed in muted beiges and whites and lit up amply as it is. A minimal clean-lined tone is set by the plain border-drop ceiling which houses indirect as well as spot lights, and also the cassette type AC units, which frees up the external wall with the window to be completely draped in ceiling to floor shear and solid curtains. A blissful Buddha in the wall-mounted painting casts a calm aura, while the Italian marble floor covered with a large silken shaggy rug enhances the feel of luxury.

Seating includes a single soft white clean-lined sofa, perked up with cushions and flanked by rose-gold finished side tables bearing elegant lamps. A matching cosy arm-chair pairs up with the sofa to complete it. A dominant dark grey square-ish centre table with a multi-levelled landscape and a rich black yet minimal TV unit that embolden the rest of the picture, plus a specially crafted MDF console finished in white and rose gold placed near the entrance that is prettily reflected in the dining wall mirror complete the ensemble.

The use of mirrors has also been made at several spots to enhance the feeling of spaciousness, as in the narrow entrance lobby and in a more grandiose gesture in the diagonally etched full wall mirror with a rose gold bevelled border that backs the customised dining table set. The kitchen, neatly functional and uncluttered and amply lit up, is rendered charming by the use a rare shade of wine on the storage below the monolithic counter and dado. Likewise, the washrooms too have a clean lined layout with large mirrors enhancing the space and exquisite Italian marble floors and walls and carefully selected fixtures enriching their luxury quotient.

The décor of the bedrooms truly shows off the designer’s enviable range of languages used to express space, comfort and luxury. A children’s bedroom, with the age/s and sex of the occupants not known, presents a challenge that SMA has risen to with panache. A white wall paper with charcoal black floral sketch covers the back and ceiling panel of the bed, flanked by simple white ceiling panels, while the curtains, soft carpet, bed linen and lights bring in warmth and a rosy hue that continues into the marble of the attached bathroom. The master bedroom, in contrast, is a dark affair with deep grey for the walls and deeper, darker shades covering the bed, side tables TV console and even the floor mounted pedestal lamp. The unbroken white plane of the white ceiling meets the monolithic floor to ceiling swathe of the beige curtained wall with the window, which in turn meets the soft white expanse of the carpeted floor – all three monolithic surfaces lending an extra sense of space.

Rich dark theming continues in the black tinted mirrors that shutter the wardrobe, in the black and gold motif wall paper and black glass dresser console that is grandiosely topped by a gold leaf framed circular mirror. The guest bedroom, though, has the show-stealing décor with masterstrokes in both factors of warmth and variety. The warmth is almost overstated in the all brown scheme of beige curtains and wallpaper, walnut veneer on furniture, brown tinted mirrors for the wardrobe shutters, a spot of antiquity in a chair and even accessories like the laser cut wooden wall clock. But, the masterstroke is played in the printed canvas covering the split headboard - like a diptych portraying an amber autumn scene – that pairs magically with the leafy wallpaper design to transform the room!

The puja room also merits a specials mention, where an aura of serenity and calm is wrought out of a simple minimal apparatus. The entrance is framed by a laser cut metal screen finished in antique brass paint, its delicate floral-geometric perforation pattern being mimicked in the 3D embossed self-design of the of the pure white MDF panel backing the idol and continuing monolithically to form the idol’s base. The austere arrangement is softly lit up from behind the back panel to heighten the divine ambience assisted by a glass bowl filled with flowers placed in the front.

The overall feel of the home is a joyous blend of paradoxes - serene and vibrant, understated and tangy, reflective and dynamic. Certainly a home that can lend itself to varied personalities, varied agegroups and varied moods!