Calm and collected

Punctuating a tranquil space with deeply personal touches, two beauty entrepreneurs turned their home into a haven after a family tragedy. By Fiona Mccarthy. Photographs by Alexander James

A tranquil family haven full of personal touches

WHEN ANITA KAUSHAL and her husband Bittu turned to the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda a few years ago, it was for its healing benefits. They hoped that the ‘science of life’ – its translation from Sanskrit – would help to mend their broken hearts after the loss of their 11-year-old daughter Milli, who died of cancer in 2012. In the years since, Ayurveda has not only helped them to cope with their pain, but has also inspired their beauty business, Mauli, and a sense of balance in their north-west London home.

Following the devastating loss of Milli, the couple and their young son Manav needed to find a way to move on. ‘This house had a lot of good memories for us, but we didn’t want to turn it into a shrine to our daughter,’ says Kaushal. ‘It was time to start over, and appreciate those things of most value to us.’

Changing the configuration of rooms on every floor proved the key to creating a space where they could be both together and apart, when they needed to be. ‘We have a big family and lots of friends, and when they all come over there can be more than 20 people in the room, so we realised our kitchen-cumliving area was too small,’ Kaushal says. ‘Everybody gravitates to the kitchen, so we wanted to make that much bigger.’

They took space away from the front living room and halved the large hallway to create a pantry on one side and a bathroom on the other. The kitchen is now in the middle of the house, and opens on to another living room at the rear, which leads out to a pretty garden. ‘These old Victorian houses tend to be quite long and narrow, so we found reconfiguring it this way made it feel

more square and open,’ she explains.

On the first floor, there is Manav’s bathroom and a small room with a folding bed, which Bittu uses as his meditation space. On the next level are Manav’s bedroom and the master suite, complete with walk-in wardrobe, and on the top floor are a home office, the spare room and a bathroom.

Kaushal has punctuated the house’s light, bright mood with pops of richness, from the shimmer of gold wallpaper in the downstairs toilet to the patterned kitchen floor. ‘It really gave me eye-ache when it was first laid, but now I love it, especially as it hides the dirt so I don’t have to mop it every day,’ she says with a laugh. There are softer shades of pink, blue and grey too, in upholstery, glassware and artworks layered throughout; and playful touches,

‘I love the patterned kitchen floor, especially as it hides the dirt so I don’t have to mop it every day’

The house exudes calm. ‘That’s how I want to feel when I come home. I don’t want to feel energised’

for example the hanging bamboo chair, which was previously a swing. ‘Everyone loved it as a swing, but people did tend to fall off it,’ Kaushal says.

There are many pieces she’s had for years, such as the armchairs, which she had re-covered, while others are market finds: the Ercol chairs cost £10 each, and the 1970s lamps, which reminded her of ‘something my mum and dad might have had at some point’, were bought at Sunbury Antiques Market.

What was once a side cabinet designed for Earth Tones, the homewares company Kaushal launched in 1999 (and closed when Milli grew ill), has been cut into two and turned into coffee tables.

Some items have deep emotional resonance – from the large framed photographs of Kaushal and the children to an intricate hand-painted wall hanging from Rajasthan, inherited from her father. ‘He passed away exactly two weeks before Milli, and I realised that neither of them was really “in” a lot of the things of theirs that I had,’ she says. ‘Keeping their old clothes or books might have brought comfort or a sense of history, but to pack it all away in boxes seemed futile. I wanted either to enjoy them now, or give them to someone else to love.’

This spirit of living in the present also lies at the heart of Mauli, the natural skin-, hair- and bodycare range the couple launched in 2014, inspired by Bittu’s father, an Ayurvedic doctor. ‘He is 86 and so sprightly, up at five every morning doing yoga and meditation, and walking every day,’ says Kaushal. ‘We wanted for ourselves and others to have more of that.’

Their home is filled with a sense of positivity. ‘It feels like a happy space for people to connect, and we are all better for being together,’ she says. Mostly, it exudes calm. ‘That’s how I want to feel when I come home. I don’t want to feel energised; I want to feel like I can be somewhere I can finally exhale.’ maulirituals.com

Candlesticks from an artisan market in south London, purchased 25 years ago, sit on a table from Sunbury Antiques Market Photographs from Kaushal’s book Familylifestyle Home hang on the wall The Indian ‘pitchwai’ fabric painting in the living room that opens off the kitchen was inherited from Kaushal’s father The coffee table is by Jacqueline Morabito (jacqueline morabito.com) Existing armchairs were reupholstered locally

The bamboo hanging chair used to be a swing. For similar, try the Hanging Egg Chair by Broste Copenhagen from Greige (greige.co.uk) Kaushal with the family dog, Star

Gubi Multi Lite pendants (see heals.com) hang in the kitchen The green tiles for the splashback are from Milagros (milagros.co.uk) Kaushal had vintage cabinet doors, originally from a bar in Paris, made into a new cabinet Vintage 1920s wall sconces are antique-shop finds The upcycled marble countertops were made from a previous island in the kitchen Sorrento Nizza porcelain floor tiles from Fired Earth (firedearth.com) Right ‘We previously had a massive kitchen island, so we asked the builders to cut the marble and we’ve used it all over the house, from the entrance by the door to our bathroom vanity unit tops and utility room. It was a good piece of marble, why would we not reuse it?’ says Kaushal. Far right Anita and Bittu Kaushal’s wedding picture and photographs of their fathers, displayed in a vintage cabinet

An impactful antique chandelier Chikankari embroidered cotton forms the bathroom curtain The etched photograph is by Rolf Lorenz The Tay cast-iron bathtub is from Drummonds (drummonds-uk.com)

The photograph on the wall above the bed is by Martyn Thompson, taken from his book with Nikki Tibbles, Wild at Heart An Ochre lamp’s VV Rouleaux shade was made for Kaushal’s former company Earth Tones The drawing is by Bittu For bedside cabinets similar to these French antiques, try Vinterior (vinterior.co)

Right An antique chandelier, picked up in a market, hangs in the hallway. Far right The powder room features gold taps from Lusso Stone (lussostone.com) and a sink from Clickbasin (clickbasin. co.uk). The Hawksmoor wallpaper is by Zoffany (stylelibrary.com), and the mirror was bought on holiday in Mexico (for similar, try trouva.com)