
Sometimes, an envious zipcode for an apartment in Mumbai comes with what’s a given: lack of natural light, matchbox sized rooms, and lower ceilings. But, as Zenab Lokhandwala of ZED Designs shows there’s nothing a clever renovation can’t redeem. She gave this 1,230 sq.ft apartment in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai a new lease of life.
Home to the Bhatnagars, the family needed more storage space, a larger functional kitchen, a servant quarter, and of course, modern aesthetics.
The apartment went under the hammer, literally, as Zenab ripped down the apartment for renovation to its bare structure. She then adeptly redesigned the layout making room for customized built-in furniture and utilized every nook to accommodate concealed storage. The biggest challenge, of course, was to deliver it in a short span of time given that this was a renovation project.
Project Details
Project Name: Bhatnagar’s Residence
Who lives here: Mr.Vineet Bhatnagar, CEO @ Phillip capital, Mumbai, his wife and daughter
Location: Cuffe Parade, Mumbai
Size: 1230 sq.ft
Type: 3BHK apartment
Principal designer: Zenab Lokhandwala, ZED Designs,
Design Team: Himanshu Mewada
Photograph Courtesy: Prashant Bhat
Zenab says
The brief from the client was straight forward. They needed a complete face lift to their existing space with as much storage incorporated as possible.
After getting a good insight into the family’s lifestyle, I decided to replan the layout more efficiently resulting in a better fully equipped kitchen and servant’s quarter.
Entrance – Living – Dining
The apartment comprises three bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and servant quarter. The biggest constraints were the modest bedroom sizes and average ceiling height. The idea was to not make any heavy furniture noticeable hence large pull out trolleys hidden in walls, thin cabinets for crockery storage behind large veneer panels were added and the finishes of each were blended with the wall.

The living room flaunts an installation art piece in the niche next to dining table designed by Zenab. The space is done in white lustre walls and white polyurethane finishes throughout broken only at the vaulted veneer wrapped door portal which is the entryway to bedrooms.
Colorful furnishings, accent lights, carefully selected and sourced art and textiles add eclectic flavour to the light scheme. The relief is added on the rear wall where the grey console with abstract engraved panels in concrete grey finish wrap upto the ceiling, offsetting it are the veneer panels on either sides creating great contrast.
Each piece of furniture has been customized to size, specifications and details.


Kitchen
The kitchen was upgraded three folds for a better layout from the existing one; it is fitted with all in-built appliances. The modular kitchen from Blum sports a Corian countertop and back splash. Adjoining the kitchen is a better planned servant quarter than in the existing plan. The PU shutters give the kitchen a sleek and stark modern look.

Guest Room
The guest room doubles up as the study room. Decorated in warm tones, it is a cozy and comfy place to read and relax. On one side of the guest room is a space-saving, multi-utility fold down hydraulic bed unit attached to a couch.
The accent arm armchair on the marble patterned floor makes for a perfect reading corner in the room. The large bookshelf is a bespoke design spreading on the entire length of the wall.
The book case also has a hidden storage and pull down study ledge.


Daughter’s Room
The daughter’s room uses brilliant spatial planning. By pushing the platform bed to the window and creating a cozy grey wrapped cocoon, the designer freed up the entire floor space for movement.
The highlight of the room is the accent turquoise slatted oak-wood angular wrap in the center. It brings in a contrast color to the brown. It also added depth to the room by juxtaposing it with large mirrors.
As in other parts of the house, the storage is camouflaged by blending it with paneling. Utilitarian details like handles and lights blend with the color scheme without standing out.


Master Bed Room
Master bedroom exudes rich elegant textures in an ivory – peach color palette along with exotic Savanah blue marble highlights on wall and fine brass metal details. All of the elements seamlessly blend to give the bedroom a holistic modern appeal blended with a few art deco features.


Product Sources:
Flooring
Living-dining and bedrooms – Michelangelo Marble from A-Class marble.
Kitchen – Minta flurry composite stone from CMC
Bathrooms – Laminam surface skins for floor and walls from STONEX INDIA
Gypboard ceilings in all room except daughters layered with acoustic boards.
Daughter room has layers of patterned custom designed stained oakwood ceiling and panelled ceiling finished with Polyurethane texture coating.
Wall treatments
Living room: Royal lustre paint. Epoxy stucco textures, white PU surfaces and walnut veneer cladded doors and panels.
Master Bedroom: Texture PU finish walls along with Savanah Blue highlighter marble for bedside feature wall from CMC.
Daughter room – Lustre painted walls, patterned custom designed stained oakwook wall battens and Polyurethane texture coating.
Daughters bathroom: Amazonite semi-precious stone wall – STONEX INDIA
Guest Room – Lustre painted walls, Ebony Pu polished veneer and Polyurethane texture coating.
Kitchen – Laminam surface skins for walls from STONEX INDIA and Corian
Lighting Design: Vis a Vis India (@Samta Nadeem)
Flooring for living-dining and bedrooms – Michelangelo Marble from A-Class marble.
Furniture & Carpentry Contractor – Kamal Interiors
Electrical – Upper India
Loose Furniture – Zeddesigns & Purple9
Painting and Finishing – Purshottam Goud and Company
Ceiling: Gypboard ceilings in all room except daughters layered with acoustic boards.
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