In a leafy 1950s neighbourhood of garden bungalows set in symmetrical squares adjoining the Delhi zoo, Priti Pratap Singh's home retains its original whitewashed form. But inside its creaky iron gate is a realm of fantasy, a visionary creation of the unfamiliar inside the familiar. When she first inherited the house as a young mother in the 1970S, she deemed the conventional front lawn "too boring" and set about ripping it apart to transform it into an artful magic wilderness.
A benign granite Nandi sits centre stage, between red sandstone paving and parterres of luxuriant foliage, bisected by a narrow channel with water bubbling from stone spheres. The veranda is shaded by a vine-laden bamboo scaffolding, dense with grape clusters. With the sound and sight of the city thus blotted, one could be anywhere - a corner of Tuscany perhaps or a secluded zenana garden?-except in the heart of a teeming metropolis.
The interiors with their soaring 16-foot-high ceilings effortlessly intensify the theme and panoply of royal Rajasthan, most notably in a dazzling display of antique textiles-an embroidered covering for an elephant's howdah on one wall, a fine block-printed kalamkari on another, and a painted Nathdwara pichhwai above the fireplace. Amid the gleaming brass and silver are elaborate embellishments of Priti's own handiwork: A corner of the living room is converted into a tented baithak (lounge area) in saffron silk framed in carved architraves from haveli doors and, in her bedroom, plain cupboards are covered in crewel-embroidered aqua silk.
This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of AD Architectural Digest India.
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This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of AD Architectural Digest India.
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