The Victorian Apartment
Imposing yet innately alluring, a white stucco-clad residential complex rises amid the tree-lined boulevards of Northern Bangalore. A coveted landmark in the city, the apartment peers into dense green canopies, thickets of bougainvillaea vines, and the metropolis’ humdrum seems muffled as it melts into the old-world charm synonymous with this part of town.
Perched on the third floor, a quaint apartment assumes a new lease of life, thus weaving together a layered and grounding milieu for its residents. The home’s existence dates back 20 years and presented the design studio with a gut remodel’s archetypal challenges, requiring the team to introduce substantial plumbing, electrical, and services-centric iterations.
Fact File:
Project Name, Location – The Victorian Apartment, Bangalore
Typology and Square Footage – 3-BHK Residential Apartment, 1,200 Square Feet
Text Credit – Lavanya Chopra
Photography Credit – Nayan Soni
Design Team – Nain Belliappa, Ritushree Belur (Design Lead)
Year of Completion – March 2023
Design, when conceived for family, assumes a newfound sense of responsibility and love! The client is my aunt, Rakhee Cariappa. Embodying strength and resilience in every sphere of life, she has been an emblem of inspiration in the family! Having spent many years in rentals, she decided to pen the next chapter with a family home of her own, an oasis for her daughter, mother, brother, and herself.
What ensued was a savoured design process which the studio relished, unhurried by the limitations of time. She emphasised that we should take our time, conceive every detail passionately and then proceed to present them with our thoughts. This enabled us to holistically marinate in the design influences she was resonating with, an eclectic mix of periods and elements that radiated with character and held strongly on their own and also as a collective.
Inspired by a dated London home, the design scheme’s frontrunner was predominantly Victorian influences that emerged in the early 1800s. The focus was steadfastly rooted in creating a warm and cosy ambience, wherein decorative additions became sentient storytellers. A maximalist home at its core, the space’s canvas is dotted with art, cross stitch, bric-a-brac from travels, ceramics and crafts that make it impossible to restrict the home to a predictable design style. While the home has a defined pulse, we instinctively gave into elements of farmhouse, country, and cottage style which resonated with the apartment’s ethos. This celebrated the home’s context and the rustic charm the family wished to experience and inhabit.
Working tactfully within a compact blueprint was critical for Belliappa and her team, especially with the family’s requirement of maximised storage at the forefront. Keen attention to detail, placement of various pieces, and sizing down to a T were the three criteria we focused on with utmost care! I can’t iterate these factors enough when it comes to small-sized spaces; they are deceivingly tricky to work with; we viewed it as a welcome challenge, nevertheless.
A light grey, panelled door swings open into the apartment, embellished with a delicate ceramic handle which packs the entrance with oodles of character. The classic, deep-stained laminate parquet floors underscore the vintage undertones of the space almost instantly!
One walks into the living area, anchored by a gorgeous, carved teak console which creates a foyer-like landing space with its voluptuous form. Akin to precious jewels, the console has been bejewelled with brass hardware, sporting an artisanal aesthetic. The distressed wood relief panel over the console has been acquired by Rakhee during one of her travels to the country’s capital.
One’s sight is impulsively drawn towards the feature wall, housing a faux fireplace and mantel, flanked on either side by built-in niches housing curios and treasured artefacts that strengthen the homey allure of the residence.
The array of wood rafters lining the ceiling’s underside adds to the perception of the room’s depth while leading the eye to the focal feature. My aunt was keen on incorporating the faux fireplace as her husband is stationed in Coorg as an estate owner. She wished to channel that cosy, old plantation ambience within the new residence. The living spaces are the beating hearts of our homes in the hills, coming alive with crackling fires and conversations as the sun descends each day.
The intricately designed fireplace consists of turned, teak jambs and white brick cladding that claims the niche and floor of the hearth. Maintaining the depth of the built-ins to the optimum measure, two upholstered armchairs have been tucked on either side, thereby accommodating a sizeable gathering (with the addition of a pair of ottomans under the wood console). The shelving system has been bathed in a warm white hue with accents of wood, panelled in the centre for a sense of depth.
Awash in prints, textures, and patterns, the living area exudes an eclectic charisma that walks the fine line between laidback and formal. Pinstripes and dainty florals debut as upholstery over the sofas that compose the conversation space, celebrating the eternal camaraderie of white, greys, and blues! The gallery wall over this nook is a collage of the family’s trove of finds over many travels. The German cuckoo clock, in particular, is one of her favourites! Her daughter, Yana, had a friend paint over a side table, covering it in soft pink florals that perfectly tie this spot together.
The lighting scheme in the room was painstakingly devised to be dimmable, laying a greater focus on accent fixtures that could softly yet impactfully illuminate areas — the brass and glass ceiling lantern, antique table lamp, and the sleek wood picture lights over the art being examples of the same.
Ruling over the nucleus of the apartment, the dining area inhabits an essential position at the centre of the blueprint, which further branches into various areas of the home. The family loved that the dining space was a separate area, connected yet secluded in its essence. It allows them to gather as a family and with loved ones, enveloped at the core of the apartment.
The client’s old rosewood dining table and chairs were repurposed with the addition of a white quartz stone top and reupholstered chairs in a fiery vermillion and black pattern. The formerly owned crockery credenza was also freshened up with a coat of paint, paired with a tri-arch mirror and a collection of tambour embroidery frames adorned with floral stitchwork. The candelabra-style chandelier by Sunshine Boulevard crowning the dining room bears a whimsical demeanour, complete with its elegant form and inclined bulbs.
On the other side, a Victorian-style crockery cabinet was positioned because of demolishing a non-load-bearing wall. Looking beyond this zone, one witnesses the bar and pooja nook, blending expression and an ingenious use of tight spaces!
My aunt’s only request for this nook was to have something unique and stunning! We brainstormed a few versions of the construction of this unit and are so pleased with how it now looks and functions.
A carved, teak wood panel sheathes the pooja space, honouring the door’s decadence, finesse, artisanship, and its finely detailed brass handle. Adjunctly placed, the bar corner is backed by an acid-washed mirror with etched details. The sleek metal members scale the length of the niche, creating an open display to house drinkware and souvenirs. The cabinets below have been fashioned to look like fixed panels but can be opened to access concealed storage. Taking inspiration from bars the world over, this nook also hosts a brass foot rail, enunciating the home’s detail-driven narrative, observed ubiquitously.
Connected to the dining space via a sliding door system, the kitchen sits marinated in a neo-vintage disposition. The warm grey doors house infills of fluted glass; the chosen variety of glass imparts the kitchen privacy while allowing daylight to filter into the dining area’s expanse.
The materiality and colour palette pose as the muses of the space. The monochrome harlequin floors earmark the kitchen while Prussian blue bathes the lower cabinets, and a bright white hue takes over the upper cabinets. A deep veneer-finished wall shelf rests between the windows, perfectly perched to display Rakhee’s prized collection of blue and white crockery.
In petite kitchens, every inch is sacred! With a close study of the layout, we’ve been able to accommodate every appliance and storage option the Cariappa’s deemed necessary while straying far from a cramped look and feel.
The windows have been decked with a valance detail, exuding that country-style appeal! Expressing a penchant for clean lines and solid hues, the backsplash tiles were kept crisp with a selection of large-format, square white tiles. The kitchen sink lies tucked on the far end, under the window, perfectly finished with a Victorian pillar faucet.
With a few civil alterations, the studio introduced a powder room into the apartment, a feature formerly absent yet so organically woven into the charming home’s DNA! The difference between what this space was and what it has transformed into is as different as night and day! The initially allotted handwash zone and a part of a bedroom’s bathroom were meshed to create this jewel box of a powder bathroom, now tucked behind a sleek pocket door.
A bespoke floral wallpaper from Design by Metamorph wraps the upper half of the walls, painting an enchanted visual in tints of blue. The icy blue, elongated tiles envelop the lower half of the walls, meeting the wood tiles that make their way in from the dining room. The pedestal-style wood console hosts the basin, complemented by the predominantly rose gold hardware used in the powder bathroom.
Yana’s room was an exercise in exploring the brimming potential held within small spaces! Refreshing and timeless, the bedroom indulges in a breezy palette of whites and greys with accents of wood for warmth. The request for a walk-in wardrobe ranked high on her list, and we made this attainable with a shift in the entrance to the room, reworking the circulation optimally.
The resting area is composed of an upholstered, grey bed placed against a white wall with wainscoting panelling. The minimalist yet snug factor is portrayed through the choice of layered bed linen and a textured rug, adding slivers of patterns to the pared-down room. The marble-topped nightstand, botanical art print, and delicate pendant lights add a sense of restraint to the room’s canvas.
The walk-in wardrobe has been bound to the rest of the bedroom through a light and modern membrane. The partition system has been finished in white PU paint with pockets of glass, framing views of the closet; this design addition also lends the room an inherently more significant semblance of space, emphasising visually light materials.
A study nook by the window has been incorporated on one end of the closet’s rectilinear expanse, with a spot for her to store her reads and miscellaneous items on the other. An ornate, dated mirror from Pepperfry adorns the closet’s wall, creating the perfect vanity corner.
The ensuite master is a vignette that could be tucked away in an English countryside cottage, romancing the notion of slow living, warmth, and restful comfort! The space is the antithesis of the state in which it first existed, really trusting its process of transformation to create a sanctuary for my aunt to inhabit.
The old floors have been bartered away for an oak-toned laminate variety by Twiggr Studio, instantly warming up the room’s volume. The threshold between the bedroom and the balcony is now marked by a more extensive opening dressed in a set of French-detailed UPVC Doors which gaze into views of the neighbourhood and treetops.
At the heart of the bedroom, a black four-poster bed is the protagonist, accompanied by an eclectic and intentionally mismatched set of wood nightstands. The wainscoting in a creamy white meets a crisp wood beading, creating the backdrop to the bed. The glass and brass wall sconces project from this wall, illuminating the bedside dreamily. A trio of fabric pieces sourced by Rakhee’s friend from a London flea market emulate the Victorian era and imbue character into the space, allowing a period-centric nostalgia to take the lead.
A floral chair in grey creates a quiet reading corner, sitting across the wall-mounted vanity cabinet. Off to the other side, the white-washed wardrobes have been veiled with a pleated lace fabric, nodding to the dated aura of the space. The room leads into a bijou corner to give Rakhee additional storage behind louvred shutters and a nook to perch in the form of the cantilevered wood ledge.
A bold jade green and textured, warm white take over the master bathroom’s entirety, leaning strongly into its pattern-led expression. We were clear on this visual from the get-go, and hence bringing this bathroom to life was seamless and fulfilling. The patterned floor tiles travel the depth of the bathroom, melding with the solid-hued jade tiles. The hardware relishes a brushed, antique gold finish, complementing the vibrance of the two-toned bathroom. The vanity sports a pair of hand-carved shutters, topped off with a marble-finished basin and a wall faucet in gold.
Inhabited by Rakhee’s mother and brother, the third bedroom personifies simplicity while keeping in line with the home’s overruling narrative. A duo of single beds balance each side of the room, harbouring a mirrored armoire in the centre. Detail takes centerstage here in the form of floral linen, custom window blinds, and a textured rug in a taupe tone.
An array of white-hued wardrobes enclose the entrance into the bathroom, a space wholly done in tones of terracotta and beige. The adjoining balcony has been tactfully converted into a utility area, outfitted with a washer-dryer, storage cabinet, and a laundry drying space stowed out of sight.
It is one thing to see the promise a space holds and another to mould it slowly and patiently to life! The sincere joy for the team and I lay in seeing the family joyously claim the home! This project’s narrative was fuelled by love, soul, and passion. We wanted the home to honour my aunt’s grit and dreams, making it a space she can wholeheartedly and proudly call her own.
The Victorian Apartment stands at the juncture of a promising design opportunity and a strong familial spirit! The home witnesses a spirited reminiscence of the Cariappa’s journey while unveiling what lies ahead for them as a family.