In a 1400 square foot apartment in Mumbai, designer Aashni Kumar set out to build something that could not be rushed into existing. “I wanted the house to feel as though it had always belonged to the family who lived there,” she says. “Not in the sense that it felt old, but that it felt deeply familiar.” The entry makes the point at once, a recessed arched niche in warm lime wash plaster, framed by a white Statuario marble shelf. “The entrance unfolds rather than revealing everything at once,” Kumar explains. “The homes that stay with us are not defined by a single moment. They reveal themselves as you continue to uncover them.”
That slow reveal continues down a long oak lined passage, lit by vintage flush mount fixtures Kumar sourced herself. “It served as a constant reminder to build the home around the idea of an old and wise soul,” she says of the find. Nearby, a light from Hatsu sits beside a quilt artwork by Kambli, one of several handmade pieces threaded through the apartment.
The design language, Kumar says, owes as much to Florence as it does to Mumbai. “It was the rhythm of Florence that stayed with me,” she recalls, citing the proportions of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the patina of the Boboli Gardens. “Ornate façades open into remarkably tasteful interiors. Beautiful materials are allowed to age with dignity rather than being preserved to perfection.” Even the home’s imagined scent traces back to that city. “It would smell of velvety, woody notes of polished oak, coupled with Italian bergamot and lemon, with an accent of geranium,” she says, naming a perfume by the Naples house Gutteridge as her reference.
The dining room gathers an oval table by Sunday Design under a brass chandelier by White Teak, a console and bar unit from Josmo Studio, and artwork by Arjunvir Gujral Design Studio. The living room pairs a Josmo Studio armchair with a Tianu Furniture sofa on a Jaipur Rugs rug, alongside art by Studio Komal Jain, a Fan Studio fan and a Pottery Barn center table. In the master bedroom, the room Kumar calls closest to her own philosophy, a curved headboard by Arjunvir Gujral Design Studio meets Altrove bedding, an Olie wall light and Arte wallpaper. The den holds a Chor Bazaar desk and an Objectry pack table, while mirrors by Kohler and Love Hello December, and a Muun Home side table, finish the quieter corners.
Kumar hopes the wear will show. “Chairs softened by years of conversation around the dining table. Oak that carries the gentle marks of everyday life,” she says. When she finally left the finished apartment alone, she noticed something she had not designed at all. “It no longer felt like a collection of carefully designed rooms,” she says. “It felt like someone’s future memories waiting to happen.”
