Striking Abode

With opulence in every detail, this luxurious Mumbai apartment by SHROFFLEoN uses its design as its only ornamentation.

- Tina Thakrar

SHROFFLEoN’s latest residential project plays with textures and materials, blending the stark with the neutral to create perfectly-balanced design. It sidesteps the strict adherence to a colour palette, focusing instead on sophistication and simple contrasts.

Situated in Mumbai, the four-bedroom apartment spreads across 3,500 sqft and is now home to a family of four. The clients, who preferred a home to match their calm personalities, gave Kayzad Shroff and Maria Leon the freedom to design the house as per their expertise.

“We’d like the design to be read as opulent, but still rather understated. Although this is a luxury project, it isn’t overtly garish or loud. With high-end interiors, there is a tendency to tilt towards a gaudy palette that is currently in vogue. But in the long-term, livability and functionality are more important, so we prefer more classic designs,” explains Shroff.

Retaining only a section of the original marble flooring, the design team changed the layout of the house completely, beginning with a blank slate. The number of bedrooms was brought down from five to four, by combining two to create one master bedroom suite. In the one year that it took to complete the project, the home was transformed from a bare shell into a luxurious interplay of colours, patterns and textures.

From the main door, a short walk down the entry corridor reveals a large, open space with the living and dining rooms. The entryway looks into the den through a black granite opening in the wall, punctuated by a glass chandelier. A little further down the corridor are the four bedrooms, with the last along the length being the grand master bedroom.