Marrying the disciplines of minimalism and detail orientation, this Bangalore apartment poetically essays what new beginnings look like for its resident family.

They say a home tells the story of those who inhabit its embrace. However, this maxim experiences a paradigm shift when a family moves across oceans to lands unknown. What was once their identity gets interwoven with newfound experiences, moulding a home representing the fated collision of worlds and stories.

The residence, aptly dubbed ‘Sky Villa’, celebrates the atlas of memories garnered by a close-knit nuclear family during their years abroad, set against vibrant Bengaluru, their hometown.

Fact File:

Project Name, Location – Sky Villa, Bangalore

Typology and Square Footage – 4-BHK Apartment, 5,000 Square Feet

Text Credit – Lavanya Chopra

Photography Credit – Phosart Studio   

Design Execution Partners – Tattva Lifespaces

Design Team – Nain Belliappa, Shifa Parveen and Vidhika Narain

Month and Year of Completion – October 2023

With the Nagavara Lake stretching languidly as far as the eye can see and its emerald, ensconcing landscape, the views from the 29th floor of Sky Villa are enrapturing! This sacred vantage and the desire to untether from the din of the city lend this home a persona of soulful minimalism — a concoction of intentional design masterly balanced against a powerful feeling of restraint. 

The inception of this home stemmed from the client’s desire to return to India. After being away for almost a decade, this dwelling bookmarked a new chapter for the family! Our conceptual thread was embedded in their associations with the concept of a home, in its feeling and functions. There is an apparent straddling of traditional and modern influences, coming together to create a warm and adeptly detailed space to address the minutest details they envisioned.

Incessant conversations and exchanges with the clients enabled Belliappa to perceive that ‘function’ would, without doubt, transcend ‘form’ in this abode. The couple’s routines and lifestyle over the past ten years had honed their sense of home-related pragmatism, allowing them to convey their needs with immense clarity.

Boundless views, abundant daylight, and an inimitable vastness of space are qualities that the apartment inherited, making it an idyllic canvas. The family are of South Indian descent. This aspect certainly tinged the home’s design identity, albeit in a refreshing light! The feeling we wanted to imbue into the experience of the residence was that of openness and positivity, qualities that were emblematic of the people who called this space their own. The home’s energy translated through colour, materials, and details needed to be infectious.

Reminiscent of classic mudrooms, the foyer at Sky Villa is designed in devotion to functionality that makes umpteen room for storage. Crisp and pure-lined, the cabinetry scales the volume bathed in warm, oak-toned veneer sourced from Twiggr Studio. A hollowed niche houses a granite-top bench, making it an accessible spot to perch.

The journey through the foyer welcomes a dweller into the open-plan living and dining space. This fraction of the blueprint is eternally washed in daylight owing to the openings that mark the apartment’s eastern and western fronts. One of the elements the couple was keen on was the use of London putty. They loved its textured and almost raw appearance. The extensive living and dining area span felt like the perfect opportunity to make this inclusion.

A sage green London putty finish poses as a visual ribbon earmarking the spaces, integrating the communal zones with its perceptive debut. Golden hour in the living room makes for a cherished time, allowing the lingering aureate light to converse with the resident hues. Oak tones carry through, tying in with the overarching vocabulary, accented by wine-hued armchairs and the grey sofa the clients formerly owned. The addition of the ottoman-harbouring coffee table and a minimal wood swing (an archetypal element associated with many South Indian homes) complete the layout, making the living room a space relished by the family and their loved ones.

Held within the thresholds of teak and glass pocket doors, the pooja room is a generously sized space for the family’s rituals. White marble forms the backdrop of this sanctum of prayer, lending the area an additional layer of depth. The carved ‘Om’ symbol crafted in marble is filled with resin and illuminates with an ethereal radiance. The veneer-clad storage is embellished with brass hardware and topped with a white pearl Corian surface, nodding to the room’s pristine demeanour. 

Depicting a marriage of tactile materiality and an earthy allure, the dining area sits gazing into views of the city that unfolds below. The leather-finished granite of the tabletop intersects a sleek wood structure, giving the space its muse. The green-black, PU-finished chairs have been provided with a dash of hue with tangerine upholstery, warming up the palette! A lofty hutch flanks the wall, punctuated by a lengthy console furnished with bric-a-brac and art. The bold choice of black as an accent is ubiquitously observed, manifesting in the cabinetry finishes and the clustered pendant overhead.  

What it does not express in its apparent spatial expanse, the kitchen makes up for in its immersive design identity. A melange of greys, warm oak, and white marble tiles (embedded with a hexagonal pattern) concoct minimal grace, belying the compact blueprint with the tactful use of colour. The uniformity of the charcoal grey cabinets is interwoven with oak-veneered units infilled with fluted glass fronts, creating an interplay between opaque and translucent segments for visual relief.    

Adding a mobile island in the kitchen’s nucleus introduces enhanced efficiency and flexibility to the layout, allowing for the storage of cutlery, equipment, and produce. Every inch of the space has been designed with a driving sense of intent. The appliances and concealed storage have been designated into a framework that optimises tight corners, ensuring the clients get the most out of the blueprint while keeping the home’s pared-down ethos intact.

The room meant to function as the home theatre was intricately bifurcated into two distinct home offices for the couple. With sound-proofing and air-conditioning provisions, each office serves as a snug and dexterously detailed space that absorbs their unique needs and reflects the same in design.

In her study, the panoramic view of the lake takes precedence, savoured by the cosy built-in daybed. The core workspace has been designed as an integrated unit — a composite of an automated desk with a bevy of storage niches to stow away the printer, file drawer, and shredder. The PU, wood, and fluted glass cabinetry overhead packs in more inconspicuous storage. 

Scripted to channel an intense atmosphere manifested using a deep colour palette, his study makes a compelling case for less being more. The room sits enveloped in a matte black hue, creating a dramatic milieu. The automated desk is sequestered in a nook, above which a raw wood shelf rests to display the client’s collectables.

Bridging the segue from the shared spaces to the private bedrooms, the hallway at Sky Villa revels in its deliberate simplicity. A minor structural change enabled the inclusion of some area from one of the bedrooms into the passage’s volume, allowing it to transform into a nifty linen closet. The array of blue glass pendants and the kilim-style runner line the space’s length, guiding the gaze towards the Mid-Century Modern style console and eclectic art print possessed by the family.

Nestled against the western edge of the apartment, the master suite is an ample space that exhibits a heady mix of bold yet minimal design elements. Enwrapped in beige stucco-style London putty, the room echoes a grounded and gritty appeal all at once.

The high, diamond-tufted headboard was acquired from the client’s furniture archive and paired with the existing bed frame and nightstands. The fluted panel in an emerald hue forms a fitting backdrop, lacing its presence across the focal walls of the room. In a bid to effectively utilise the bedroom’s capacious square footage, an additional segment of wardrobes was worked into the primary resting space, prefacing the walk-in closet area. As one saunters into the walk-in closet, a fluted chest of drawers perches below the window while marking a transition into the master bath.

Serenading the young end-user’s love for the colour, the daughter’s bedroom is an ode to all things pink! The principal feature is the detailed window seat, executed down to the inch. We incorporated a comfy daybed for the child, encased within a thick, veneered, U-form profile. This detail extends into a scaling bookshelf and drawers below for linen, toys, etc. Hints of the colour travel across the room into the study area, also composed in a medley of wood, white, and pink, of course. A set of teak and frosted glass doors lead into the ensuite bathroom, also a space that hosts candy pink accents primarily in surface finishes. 

Sprightly and infused with energetic bursts of yellow, the young son’s bedroom is a versatile space that doubles as a playroom for the sibling duo. The massive, cabinetry-lined wall conceals a Murphy bed within its construct. On the other end, a glass-faced book and toy closet neatly display the children’s paraphernalia, leading to an interactive roadway mural on the wall. The study follows a similar trajectory to the daughter’s bedroom, coalescing doses of white, canary yellow, and wood to create a functional spot for the child.

Helming of the guest room’s design persona, timeless sensibilities make the space a calm haven. The bedroom’s neutral shell has been layered with slivers of grey and wood to warm up the palette. The existing upholstered bed has been coupled with wood nightstands; this vignette is further detailed with the statement table lamps and mirrors that enhance the room’s depth.

With Sky Villa, our team has attempted to deliver on its promise of preserving the essence of easeful luxury while making abundant room to embark on a new chapter! A move across oceans is seldom only physical. Setting down roots is an intimate chapter for a family. With this home, we persevered to create an abode that could feel familiar and like a compelling adventure in the same breath.