FARAH AHMED MATHIAS

THIS INTERIOR DESIGNER'S BENGALURU HOME IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR - AND NOT MERELY BECAUSE OF THE VERDANT GARDEN THAT ENVELOPES THE PLACE. HELLO! GETS A TOUR OF THE STYLISH APARTMENT, AS SHE REMINISCES ABOUT ALL THE EFFORTS AND ARGUMENTS THAT FINALLY BROUGHT HER THIS LABOUR OF LOVE

- SHRADDHA CHOWDHURY

Elegant and inviting, interior designer Farah Ahmed Mathias' home is the embodiment of a warm hug, swathed in pleasant pastels, awash with light, breeze and positive vibes. Once her husband Torun's ancestral house, it's called the "Tofa' home after their names, an amalgam of all their favourite things. The old and the new, the modern and the colonial.

The 7,000 sqft space was remodelled to accommodate three bedrooms, a family room (“It's everything you want it to be”), a powder room, living room, kitchen-cum-dining area and a foyer — all encased within a lush, wraparound garden, further enhanced by birdsong and the greenery of the quiet neighbourhood in Central Bengaluru, off Church Street, not an unpleasant honk in the air.

"This house called for a bit of everything, even more so because I'm a designer with no particular style," says Ahmed Mathias. "It's fairly modern, but I retained all the lovely older European elements that offer a colonial India charm."

Work on their apartment began in July 2017, and it took the 37-year old the better part of two years to get the house ready in her eyes. Even though they moved in in February 2018, after the contractors added the final touches, she wasn't ready to make big purchases "with hormones flying and a baby crying", having just had her second child.

"We took our time with the house. We had already lived here for two years by the time the last pieces arrived, around end 2019. That being said, a house is never really done, is it?”