Editorial Note: There are many instances where a home is a true reflection of yourself, but it being a mirror to one’s spontaneous personality? Not so often. Shreya Patel Designs has experimented, incorporated, and amalgamated ideas that are admirably intuitive. The black arch is a bold move, while the bedrooms exchange quaint pleasantries, there might just be an indie song playing in the background. ~ Nishal Sevak(Co-Editor)

I call it the miracle home. This 3BHK renovation project under 3 months was really nothing less than a miracle. The house was transformed from a dark and dingey house that was falling apart, to a home that is modern but at the same time feels timeless with so much character to it. The entrance to the house is a room that was originally a formal living room, which acted as a dumping/storage for the family of 3 that this house was designed for.

A Home that is Modern but at the Same Time Feels Timeless With so Much Character to it | Shreya Patel Designs

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The clients wanted to keep it simple and open and not add too much to the room, hence the entrance is designed as a foyer you first walk into. It is simple, light and airy making the entrance to the connecting living be much more impactful. One enters the living room through a black archway.

Painting it black was definitely a bold decision that the clients were very skeptical about. Safe to say everyone was happy with how it finally turned out and how well it tied up to the whole space.

The living room is the heart of the house. The clients spent the most amount of their time in this space and every member had a specific requirement for this room. The father wanted a comfortable sofa where he can sit and laze around on a sunday afternoon watching television (no surprises here!).

The mother, like any quintessential Gujarati woman, loved a swing and really wanted one in the living room, while their teenage son wanted a bench he can sleep and lounge on. All the elements came together in this room and how!

They say never to use darker tones in a small room, but I decided to use wood/veneer and bank on the small space of the room because it added so much warmth and coziness to the entire room. The living room also needed to have a lot of storage, hence the TV unit was designed in a way that it would not just be good to look at but also very functional with its approach.

The living room is adjacent to the kitchen, which originally was a small, cramped, dark space with no utilisation of the natural light and just one small door going into the kitchen which made the space very dark. We made the choice of making civil changes by breaking half a wall and adding a breakfast counter.

We also took down the wall that goes into the store room, and made it an open storage plan to really make the kitchen feel like one large space. The dado tiles and the shutter finishes were kept a light shade to make the kitchen feel more open than it really was.

Both the archways lead you to the dining area. It was a tight space hence we shifted the table into a corner instead of keeping it in the middle to give proper circulation space. The space originally had a crockery cabinet, which we decided to refurbish.

We kept the internal shell the same and changed the shutter design and finish to make it look like a completely different unit, while still saving on costs and reusing old materials the best we could.

One wall also had a storage unit that the clients used just to dump old books, we decided to use the same shell but redesign it smartly to look like its a completely new bar cabinet by changing its shape, finish and also adding 4 posts which it stands on. This cabinet is also the first thing you see through the two black archways and hence I decided to keep the cabinet black too and make it one whole language.

The house has two bedrooms, we will start with the master bedroom. The room had a lot of natural light, and the clients really wanted to use colours in the bedrooms. While using colours, specially in bedrooms, one really has to play it smart because it can get jarring really fast.

I used a beautiful shade of Green, almost sage because it gives you a sense of calm and warmth the second you walk into the bedroom. The design was kept simple, timeless but also keeping it modern even with some traditional elements.

The teen sons bedroom needed to have a modern and young vibe to it. He really liked colours and we used his favourite colour which was blue.

We used a lot of the original old furniture shell in this room to really save on costs and material, but you could never guess that, the transformation really turned out amazing. The old room did not have a study desk, so we added one and gave it a pop of colour to make it fun and young.

Fact File

Designed by: Shreya Patel Designs

Project Type: Residential Interior Design

Project Name: Walnut Furniture

Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Year Built: 2023

Duration of the project: 3 months

Project Size: 1300 Sq.ft

Principal Architect: Shreya Patel

Photograph Courtesy: The Space Tracing Company

Interior Styling: Saniya Tadha

Furniture: Walnut Furniture

Firm’s Instagram Link: Shreya Patel Designs

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