Visual Poetry
A peek inside fashion designer Anupama Dayal’s colour-infused and culturally rich domain.
Ahome is always a distillation of the interests of the people who live there and a reflection of who they really are. Most of the times it is about striking the right balance between an inspired and relaxed, but not studied interiors which make your heart pound. Fashion designer Anupama Dayal’s bungalow speaks eloquently about the intimate connection between interior design and fashion design and is a place where there are memories, harmony and a Zen-like energy. Located in Vasant Vihar in Delhi, the 3,000 sq ft two-level house has been Dayal’s companion for past 11 years ever since she moved to Delhi.
Spread over the basement and ground floor, the address which she shares with her two children, has evolved and changed over the years and bears a testimony to her own progression and moods. The less public face of her otherwise glamorous world, it is inside the four walls of the abode that she finds inspiration and nourishes her creativity. “It is a sanctuary to replenish myself, and overflows with a stimulus to make me more than what I was and keeps me connected with nature and my roots,” says Dayal.
Just like her label Anupamaa which is synonymous to fusion—mixing together contemporary with old and bold
with sober—her domain is an amalgamation of varied influences and has lots of personality, colour and spunk like the designer herself. A storehouse of artefacts collected from her travels within India and abroad, the residence has an earthy appeal and is an open, seamless realm with no formal demarcations. “There are no boundaries between outdoors and indoors, and the décor has been thoughtfully kept simple and organic, and one can witness lots of colour and floral hints in every nook and cranny,” says Dayal. That she is driven by hues and can’t imagine her life without them is evident from bright splashes on the walls, furniture and furnishings. A die-hard fan of all things vivid, tones of blue and green are omnipresent throughout the house which give it a happy glow.
The moment one steps into the entrance hall, a feeling of homecoming engulfs you as past and present make beautiful bedfellows here. Filled with natural light filtering in from doors and windows which open out into a garden, a crimson red Ikea cabinet stacked with coffee table books and fiction reads stands next to a mahogany crockery cabinet in the living hall. To break the monotony, a twoseater sofa upholstered in parrot green floral fabric—from her label—sits next to an antique trunk polished in bluishgreen tinge and gives character to the cosy corner window seat which is dressed with nature-inspired cushions and drapes, manufactured in her workshop. Her favourite corner, where she loves to read, unwind and sketch, two yellow handmade paper lamps hung right above the seating and a wall full of photographs of the designer and her children on their vacations stand guard here. A clean-lined six-seater dining table, cluster of small floral canvases and a brass kitchen set consisting of tong,
karchi and spatula—picked up from Gujarat—keep the association between the old and new intact.
Her bedroom is adjoining the living area and diagonally opposite is her daughter’s room. A green painted wall leads one into Dayal’s bedroom which is again a study in green and blue. A 100-year-old colonial four-poster canopy bed bought from Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar gives the room a regal look. To complete the picture, an off-white wall behind the bed is painted in green and blue floral motifs by Dayal.
Once one comes out of her bedroom, a flight of stairs offset by a yellow-painted wall with a canvas—