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Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar is an internationally published architecture, design and art journalist.

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Vaishnavi works out of a sunny studio called Mangomonk where she writes for publications big and small.

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Latest Articles

Architectural Digest •

This Chennai home honours its elderly residents with thoughtful design

If there were such a thing as a guiding light, it was the pursuit of peace—a calm so tangible it could be felt in the textures, the tones, and the quiet restraint of every room. Yogesh puts a finer point on it: “The home was envisioned as a tranquil retreat that would be both practical and emotionally grounding, designed to support slower, more mindful living.” Anything that inspired serenity found its place, taking shape in mid-century modern furniture and Art Deco forms. In came a cavalcade of...
Architectural Digest •

A Chennai bungalow steeped in heritage becomes a designer’s restorative family retreat

Farah Agarwal appreciates opinions, but if she’s learned anything over her two-decade-long career as an interior designer, it’s that voicing hers goes a long way. “With clients, it’s often a two-way street. I give my opinion, they give theirs, and then we reach a middle ground,” says the founder and principal of the Chennai-based interior design studio Chestnut Storeys. But with family, Agarwal’s middle ground isn’t always in the middle.When it came to redesigning a 50-year-old Chennai bungalow...
The Wall Street Journal •

A $450,000 Kitchen Renovation Marked a New Beginning for Chicago Empty-Nesters

Ask any empty-nester how it felt to watch their children fly the coop, and chances are they’ll call it a bittersweet experience. But for one 50-something Chicago couple—a businessman and an artist—the bitter quickly gave way to the sweet. “It was our chance to break free and embrace a daring new era,” says the wife. For them, it was an opportunity to rediscover their chic side, seek new adventures, and, best of all, trade their suburban home for a sky-high contemporary penthouse, which they did in 2022 for $2.85 million.
Domino •

Behind the Design of an L.A. Bungalow Where the Outdoor Shower Rivals the Indoor One

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Interior designer Jessica Nicastro likes to make things happen. While that usually means crafting beautiful spaces, sometimes she sets other things in motion. “Like labor,” quips the Los Angeles-based creative and founder of Jessica Nicastro Design—referring, of course, to the kind that involves babies, not buildings. When she first met clients Katie and Rob to discuss their midcentury bungalow in...
Architectural Digest India •

Inside a 100-year-old Goa bungalow where heritage meets high function

If there’s one thing restoration architect Rochelle Santimano has down to a fine art, it’s designing homes over a fish thali—or two. “It became our thing,” she says of herself and her client, Gautam Birudavolu, whose home, a 100-year-old Goa bungalow in the village of Parra—which he shares with his wife, Shivani, and their two teenage daughters—owes its transformation less to CAD drawings and more to chonak-fuelled epiphanies. The brief, as she recalls, was simple enough: to restore the home and...
The Local Project •

Panorama House by Sally Caroline

Situated on a corner block in the bayside Victoria suburb of Middle Park, Panorama House pays homage to the nearby bay, with multiple vantage points that keep the water views front and centre. Redesigned by Melbourne-based interior atelier Sally Caroline, the residence embodies a playfulness inspired by its owners – a young family of four – while also exuding a stillness reflective of its waterside location. As Sally Knibbs, founder and director of Sally Caroline, explains, the first order of business was to optimise the potential of the property. “The clients wanted the home to better embrace the surrounding views and sought a layered interior that would soften the architectural angularity,” says the designer, who was familiar with the homeowners, having worked with them on several previous projects.
Vogue •

Sobhita Dhulipala and Naga Chaitanya Akkineni’s priorities have changed since they got married

Before Sobhita Dhulipala and Naga Chaitanya Akkineni exchanged vows in December last year, they hadn’t discussed how they would achieve work-life balance. After all, they were embarking on a new chapter together, one that they both hoped would be filled with love, adventure, travel and joy. The rest was all confetti. Turns out, that conversation wasn’t necessary. Balancing their schedules has never been a problem for the couple, as Dhulipala explains when we speak over Zoom—he’s at home in Hyder...
Architectural Digest •

This serene village home in Goa is stitched together by gardens

On their first visit to the Goan village of Corjuem, architects Teja Amonkar and Yatin Fulari of Goa-based Field Atelier felt a deep connection to the landscape. “It was special,” says Amonkar of the rural stretch. A narrow, winding road flanked by coconut trees led up to the site, and at the centre stood two towering trees, resplendent against the otherwise barren rear side, as if marking the land’s quiet, dignified heart. “I remember thinking those were the perfect anchors,” says Fulari of the...
The Local Project •

Newport Home by Samantha Eisen Interiors

On a lush avenue overlooking Sydney’s Newport Beach sits a home by Samantha Eisen Interiors that echoes its bright and breezy locale. Newport Home is inspired by its coastal surroundings and reflects the boathouses, sailing boats and tranquil waterways that enliven the shoreline.
In a bid to give the original architecture a coastal aesthetic, founder and principal Samantha Eisen drew inspiration from the beachside, using micro-cement and stone to lend tone and texture to the once pared-back inte...
The Local Project •

Maison Noire by Nickolas Gurtler Office and Robeson Architects

Maison Noire – French for ‘the black house’ – lives up to its name. Located in West Leederville, a verdant Perth suburb, the home has been reimagined by Nickolas Gurtler Office and Robeson Architects. It subverts traditional architectural notions by embracing both light and darkness in equal measure. Through the deliberate use of texture and shadow, the home’s design is revealed in unfolding layers.
As Nickolas Gurtler, founder and principal of his eponymous Melbourne-based studio, says, “darkne...
Architectural Digest India •

Inside the Houston home of Pooja Jesrani, NASA’s first female Asian Flight Director

Anyone who knows her will tell you that Alexandra Killion has a knack for communicating with just about any space. But it was only when the Houston-based interior designer took on a project last year for Pooja Jesrani—the 15th woman ever to hold the role of Flight Director at NASA, and the first of South Asian descent—and her technology lawyer husband, Purav, that her client showed her what it took to communicate with a different kind of space.
Architectural Digest •

This Kochi bungalow is a 5,500-square-foot perfect picture of Eden

Being an interior designer is being a jack of all trades, but being the master of one—above all else—is what architects Dhiya Anna Charley and Thomas Joseph deem their trump card. “The art of balance!” declare the Kochi-based co-founders of studio Design Narrative—referring to the Herculean task of ensuring that each client feels equally valued and appreciated, even when said clients are husband and wife.“They had very different perspectives when it came to design. Nikin loved the charm and char...
Design Anthology •

A New Era of International Design Begins at Mumbai’s Nilaya Anthology — Design Anthology

A few years ago, the idea of a 10,000-square-metre design experience centre in a megalopolis like Mumbai might have seemed overly ambitious, but Mumbai-based architect Rooshad Shroff and client Asian Paints saw it as an opportunity to challenge the city’s spatial norms and reimagine how design could be experienced, shared and celebrated at scale. In designing Nilaya Anthology, India’s first-of-its-kind global luxury design showroom, Shroff has transformed a former mill into a whimsical retail wo...
Architectural Digest •

Tour a Massachusetts Home With a Tropical Modern Flair

Some days, driving home from work, Sashya Thind still has to pinch herself at the sight of the little house on the hill. “I love seeing it up there, glowing in the evening light,” says the Massachusetts-based interior designer, who admits the Weston home almost wasn’t meant to be. “We had put in an offer on another recently renovated house, but something about it just didn’t feel like us. We walked away from that, and luckily, this gem came on the market a few weeks later. We all fell in love wi...
Architectural Digest •

This home in Mumbai is a study in universal energy, happily balancing calm and colour

The tour de force, indubitably, is the bar unit, which cosplays as a coffee station by day. “It’s supposed to, anyway,” chuckles Vakharia. “But during testing, we discovered that someone—not naming names—had already stocked it with wine…at 10 AM. Efficiency at its finest!” Moonshine aside, both designers agree that it’s the art that brings the maximum pizzazz. “The artscape is an ode to their wedding at Jim Corbett National Park. There are prints of white Bengal tigers, silhouetted abstractions...
The Local Project •

Southampton Residence by Clive Lonstein and William A. Schulz

In a town characterised by its coastal homes, Lonstein was keen to embrace a different aesthetic lexicon. “Shifting away from a more expected beach-centric aesthetic and instead drawing inspiration from the surrounding greenery meant that every material and design choice had to complement the natural environment rather than compete with it,” he says. The studio used the serenity of the outdoors as a natural point of departure, achieving a warm yet sophisticated atmosphere by layering organic mat...
Architectural Digest •

This beach house in Chennai channels the soul of a Greek island

Someone once said that the ultimate luxury is time, but that someone, insists interior designer Manmeet Arora, had probably never lived by the sea. If there’s one thing the founder and principal of the Goa-based LOC Design House has firmly come to learn since moving from Mumbai to Goa during COVID, it’s that living by the coast can be good for the soul—so good, in fact, that you might consider never leaving, unless it involves travelling to another coastline just as special.In Arora’s case, that...
The Local Project •

Maddison Apartment by Studio Johnston

Nestled within a 1980s complex in Sydney’s Redfern, Maddison Apartment by Studio Johnston sheds its past for a luminous, modern transformation. Designed by the studio’s project director and head of interiors, Stefania Reynolds, for her own family, the ground-floor home reflects a delicate balance between nostalgia and practicality, drawing inspiration from her Greek childhood while catering to the everyday needs of her husband and their two young children.
For Reynolds, an architect and artist,...
Architectural Digest •

This Hyderabad home is a sun-drenched oasis grown from the earth

For Vamshidhar and Mounica, the only true reference point for sustainable building is traditional wisdom, “particularly the vernacular architecture and construction techniques prevalent in South India,” Mounica notes. This informed the use of lime flooring, resourceful employment of local soil and materials, and a Madras terrace roof. “The aim was to blend traditional knowledge with modern ingenuity to create a home that is both environmentally responsible and aesthetically harmonious,” Vamshidh...
Architectural Digest •

This Kochi home is the ultimate cocoon of calm

Architect Dhiya Anna Charley isn't the tardy type, but there was hardly a day last summer when she didn’t arrive at The Lofts, Kochi, to find her client already settled comfortably on the sofa. “Liya would usually arrive a little early and quietly settle into one of the living room setups,” she says of the Kochi furniture store—formerly a residence—which she had designed in 2020 and where, in the following months, she would come to know Liya George. “The store was a renovated home, styled with a...
Architectural Digest •

Inside an Austin Bungalow That’s Part Groovy, Part Grandpa-Chic

Randall Mays, businessman, investor, and philanthropist, knows how to throw a good party—if your idea of a party involves meditating on grass under open skies (the kind you sit on, not smoke). Interior designer Christina Simon of her eponymous Austin studio can attest to Mays’s definition, having had a hand in transforming his circa-1915 bungalow in Travis Heights, Austin, into a space that’s grandpa-chic by day and trippy by night. “It serves as a lively venue for hosting parties during SXSW an...
Architectural Digest •

This Mumbai apartment is an oasis of beige, black, and burnt vermillion

Maybe it’s because they studied in Mumbai and began working in Ahmedabad, but Salia and Shah both believe that arriving at a design language for the Mumbai apartment was challenged by their cross-city beginnings. “Both the cities sit at very different ends of the design spectrum—Mumbai with its fast pace, layered density, and evolving style; Ahmedabad with its slower rhythm, deep-rooted material culture, and quiet modernism. Bridging these contrasting sensibilities meant unlearning and relearnin...
Architectural Digest •

This architecture studio’s 450-square-foot Pune office is a monolithic masterpiece

In another life, architects Chetan Lahoti and Anand Deshmukh of Pune-based Mind Manifestation Design might just have mastered the runway. “The kind with models, not planes,” Deshmukh says cheekily, pointing to the studio’s new 450-square-foot office extension in Pune. Except, if the sculptural staircase inside is anything to go by, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that’s the real showstopper. “It’s an art piece that really brings the whole space together,” nods Lahoti, adding that it’s also slight...
Architectural Digest •

This bungalow in Ahmedabad effortlessly grows out of the landscape

“From the outset, we wanted a home that was simple, in harmony with nature, and a step towards sustainable living,” says Vibha, a development sector professional. So, by the time she and Naivik, an entrepreneur, reached out to Ahmedabad-based andblack design studio—whom they discovered through mutual friends—their brief was more or less set in stone, albeit the kind of stone that the principals Kanika and Jwalant Mahadevwala had the potential to re-sculpt.As the architects saw it, the home had t...
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AD Visits

Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Diipa Büller-Khosla's canal house in Amsterdam is a postcard from 1614

Even from 6,000 kilometres away, Diipa Büller-Khosla’s energy is palpable through the screen. It’s morning where she is, and she and her husband and business partner, Dutch former diplomat, Oleg Büller-Khosla (the couple legally adopted each other's last names when they married in 2018) are perched in the kitchen of their Amsterdam home, in the company of their pet pooches, Kubii and Bimbo.

By their own admission, it’s a scene that just a few years ago, was a figment of their imagination. “We'd
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Ishaan Khatter’s Mumbai apartment is a sunset sanctuary

When he isn't busy filming or promoting or air-dashing off to exotic locales, Ishaan Khatter likes to appreciate the little things in life. “On Sunday mornings, when time permits, I slip off for a bike ride. In the evenings, I like to watch the sunset with some music and coffee,” says the actor, who was last seen in supernatural comedy Phone Bhoot, alongside Katrina Kaif and Siddhant Chaturvedi. So when he moved in a three-bedroom apartment along the Bandra sea face, naturally, his first priorit
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actor Aahana Kumra’s Mumbai apartment is a pretty-in-pink princess pad

In a building full of identical brown doors, Aahana Kumra's entrance is the only non-brown curiosity. "I absolutely love pink. It's my all-time favourite colour—that's why it's right at the front," she laughs, holding open the candyfloss-coloured opuscule as she ushers me inside. For Kumra, the home is a manifestation twenty years in the making, and one that nods equally to her Lucknowi roots and her life in Mumbai. "There are whiffs of Kashmir, London and Delhi too. It's a collection of all my
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actor Aparshakti Khurana’s Mumbai home displays drama in the details

Even before they had finalised their house, or decided who would design it, actor Aparshakti Khurana and his wife, events entrepreneur Aakriti Ahuja, had a chandelier picked out and stowed away in storage. "I had spotted it some years ago in Delhi and just knew I had to buy it," laughs Aakriti, and Aparshakti chimes in, "We had no idea what our future house would look like. Nothing was set in stone, except this big, blue bhaisahab." The bhaisahab in question now occupies a corner of their living
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Singer Armaan Malik’s Mumbai home is halfway between London and Los Angeles

At 10 AM on a Sunday, the last thing you'd expect is for Armaan Malik to be crisping the edges of a frittata. And yet, that's exactly the sight that greets me as I step into his kitchen, a California-cool bolthole with a London-esque edge. "I love making breakfast and treating myself to a good spread," he says, drizzling butter on bruschettas. Dressed in a casual button-up and chinos, he looks like a laid-back version of his on-screen alter ego, who, as fans of The Voice (on which Armaan appears
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actors Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan’s newlywed nest is a storybook come to life

At the door of actors (and newlyweds) Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan Seal's new Mumbai duplex, the nameplate is conspicuous by its absence. What is not is the cheery (LED) baby seal that takes its place, animating the wall and nodding to its namesake owners. “It's fun to watch people guess," says Anushka. "Those who get it, get it. And it makes for a great conversation-starter." But the unlikely sea creature isn’t the only thing setting the entryway apart—because if the peach-toned front door (a