Blending tradition with novelty

Walk into the house and you feel you’ve been transported back to one of Kerala’s beautiful, sprawling mansions. Spread over a huge acreage, you enter Casa roja through a quaint cobbled stone driveway leading to the entrance of the house. The clay tiled roof slopes beautifully over pink Laterite bricks which fit perfectly into each other eliminating the use of cement and thereby keeping the house cool.  Once you enter, you see a beautiful formal dining room that the couple say is rarely used. as you look past the dining room nothing will prepare you for the absolutely gorgeous veranda that overlooks a pond filled with lily pads, fish and hovering dragon flies. Behind that is a lush garden replete with fruit trees. The veranda is fully equipped for entertaining guests with a bar situated on one side and a restroom for visitors on the other. The veranda also has an entrance to the kitchen, making it the perfect party space for the family and their guests. The space is decorated with antique artefacts that Maria and Ranjeet have been collecting over the years. “The rooms are filled with antique cupboards, chests, chairs and lamps that the we love to collect,” tells Maria with a smile as she walks with us into the adjoining kitchen. “The kitchen is large and spacious and is divided into three sections – the first being for light cooking and baking, the second is for daily cooking plus a utility room.”

 

Moving to the upper level of the house, the stairs immediately catch your eye, due to the wonderfully coloured handmade tiles from Mexico, that line them. Upstairs you find the bedrooms and one more entertainment room for the family fully equipped with a foosball table as well as a television. The couple’s twenty two year old son’s room is decorated to his taste of old rock music with posters and a beautiful leather couch. Their nineteen year old daughter has personally painted a wall in her room, and has little trinkets hung tastefully around that which she has collected from various art boutiques. The master bedroom is simple but elegantly decorated with just an edge of spunk provided by the uniquely styled closet, with wooden doors, covered in sections by colourful fabric, adding a vibrant feel to the room. The detailing and attention given to this house is clearly visible in the architecture as well as the decor. after putting their heart and soul into this project and seeing the stylish outcome, ranjeet and Maria have now begun to take on clients looking for interior decorators for their homes. “We only take on one project at a time because of the time, effort and work that goes into getting each home and each room to the expected level of perfection,” tells Ranjeet.