Creating a LA LA LAND

creating Ideating, conceptualising, and delivering on client briefs that are adventurous and exciting is what brings out the best in Shimona Bhansali, Founder, Design Hex. Her latest project, the Papa Don't Preach Flagship Store in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, exemplifies the stellar work of the interior designer and space stylist

- Joseph Rozario

Walk into the Papa Don’t Preach Flagship Store nestled nestled at Kala Ghoda in Mumbai, and you feel like you are stepping into a fairy tale world. From outside, it seems like a Hobbiton-inspired world. Views of lavender walls embellished with motifs of Papa Don’t Preach embroideries and round green doors and windows beckon you, and after the welcoming colourful, sparkly lure, the enticement continues with a marshmallow land inside with pink lime plastered walls. The mind behind this exclusive and playful design and conceptualisation of a Hobbit Home is none other than Shimona Bhansali, interior designer, space stylist and Founder of Design Hex.

Interior designers come aplenty, but few are endowed with an innate sense of design that churns ceaselessly within seeking conduits of expression. Bhansali, who has meandered past her management degree and the family business to pursue her passion for design, belongs to this genre. The first stirrings of her passion showed up when she was only 17. Since then, this untrained designer hasn’t looked back and is thriving in the world of interiors. Her artistic journey has taken her through the art of paper sculpting, building a packaging and gifting firm, Smartwork Design Co, designing homes, offices, showrooms and flats, until she realised that she enjoyed the larger canvas of interior spaces much more as an expression of her art. That led to the foundation of her interior design company, Design Hex, at the age of 30.

Designing a fantasy world