The media wall as drawn: a wall-hung screen on grey, set into timber and oak joinery against sage green, with a lit display shelf above and a marble floor below.

Prem Chander

Drawn in Green

Most interiors of this kind arrive in beige. This one was drawn in green from the first sheet, a soft sage through the living and dining rooms and a clearer teal in the children's, held against warm timber and a white marble floor.

Green is the difficult one to build. It goes grey under a cool lamp and sour under a cheap warm one, and it shifts again once the timber is in the room with it. So the wall colours were settled against the veneer first and the lighting was specified warm and kept low, which is why the sage still reads as a colour rather than as a shade of grey.

The living room as drawn: a pale sectional against sage green walls, timber panelling and a marble floor.
The media wall, with the screen recessed into timber panelling beside a run of open shelving.

The Public Half

Living and dining share one long run with no wall between them. The change from one to the other is made in the ceiling and in the floor rather than with a partition, because a family this size needs the whole length on the few days a year it needs it and would rather not look at a divider for the rest of them.

The television was given its own wall and detailed properly. It is the most looked at object in an Indian living room and designing as though it were not there only produces a worse room with a screen in it.

The dining room as drawn, with upholstered chairs under a linear pendant and full height curtains behind.
Living and dining seen as one run, with the timber doors closed at the far end.

Two Rooms for Children

The children's rooms were drawn to be outgrown. One is dark blue with a printed sky, planets and a rocket over the bed, and shelving set low enough for a small person to reach without help. The other is teal, with cut clouds above the headboard and a desk under the window.

Everything that makes them children's rooms sits on the surface. The wallpaper, the headboard shape and the bedding can all be changed over a weekend. The joinery behind them, the wardrobes and the study tops, is sized for an adult and should not need touching again.

A child's room drawn with a printed night sky, planets and a rocket above the bed, with open shelving alongside.
The second child's room in teal, with cut cloud shapes over the headboard and a desk beneath the window.
The main bedroom as drawn: a padded headboard wall between fluted timber panels, with wardrobes to one side.

As Built

Photographed after handover, with the marigolds still up from the housewarming. The main bedroom arrived with a gold damask on the feature wall and a buttoned headboard against it, which is the one room that changed materially between the drawings and the day the family moved in.

The main bedroom as built, a gold damask feature wall behind a buttoned white headboard, with marigold garlands hung for the housewarming.
A second bedroom as built, timber panelling behind the bed under a lit cove.
A child's room as built, in blue with printed curtains and open shelving.
The dining room as built, a round timber table beside the crockery unit, garlanded for the housewarming.

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