Decorating

A Chennai home where tropical decor meets modern elegance

Interior designer Sunita Yogesh takes a mindful approach to crafting her new abode that’s an elegant marriage of clean lines and natural textures
Sunita Yogesh Chennai home

Interior designer Sunita Yogesh’s most challenging project yet is also one that’s closest to her heart. The home in question is her own, a 1,650-square-foot Chennai apartment with a sense of spaciousness that belies its compact dimensions. Yogesh and her husband took a practical approach to crafting themselves an abode that would be “comfortable, light, airy, and bright”. “The layout of the home was the chief deciding factor for us. It allows for many private spaces instead of an open plan like most new apartments today,” explains Yogesh. Metal partitions allow for a sense of permeability while ensuring each area is well-distinguished. In the home office, these partitions ensure privacy during work hours without closing off the room entirely, a mindful intervention considering the space also functions as a guest room and lounge.

The home opens into the living room, with a console table and mirror forming a makeshift foyer on one side. Mid-century-style armchairs in a light beige and a sage sectional occupy the living room. The floor lamp is from The White Teak Company.

Wicker and oakwood have been used across the home. Much of the furniture was custom-made.

A need for balance drove the couple’s approach to the decor. For the interiors, they chose to work with clean lines and a natural material palette that juxtaposes cool metal and marble with the earthiness of wicker, jute, ceramic and handwoven fabrics. Much of the furniture was custom-made in oakwood, which lends both lightness and warmth, the perfect antithesis to the city’s muggy heat. “Thankfully we have very similar tastes in interior spaces, which made the process very smooth. There was a lot of discussion concerning the functionality of each space and what really worked for us. This helped us bring this home to life in a very organic way as everything just fell in place,” Yogesh says.

“One of the best decisions we made was to open up the home office wall with a large custom French window in metal,” says Yogesh. This allows for privacy in the space which also doubles as a guest room and lounge. The jute chair that accompanies the built-in white oak finish desk is by Josmo Studio. The desk is flanked by open and closed storage in a grey PU finish.

Forest green wainscotting in the main bedroom reflects the home's tree-lined surroundings. Oak finish nightstands with wicker details are complemented by modern, globe-shaped wall sconces. 

“With the neutral colour palette, we were able to add whispers of colour through various organic fabrics and decor to elevate the space,” the designer tells us as we move through the home. A sage sectional sofa in the living room (featured image) and deep forest green wall panelling in the main bedroom are subtle reminders of the apartment’s leafy surroundings. Grey stone finish vitrified tiles run across the living, dining, and kitchen, and oak finish wooden flooring occupies the bedrooms and home office. The result is a serene home that immediately puts you at ease.

The dining room lies in the centre of the home. 

The heart of Yogesh’s Chennai abode is the chic dining room that lies right in the centre of the layout. It's where the couple frequently entertain friends and family. The simplicity of wicker and jute accents, seen in the living room, office and bedroom, gives way to sleek statuario marble and darker tones here. “We wanted the bar to be the feature element in this room. We went with a deep charcoal blue for the cabinets, and the statuario marble countertop with the waterfall edge shelf adds the right touch of opulence that we were looking for,” she points out.

The six-seater dining table in an oak finish is paired with dining chairs in a darker tone and leather details for subtle contrast. A curved pendant lamp from Voylite illuminates the space.

In the kitchen, white oak finish veneer has been used for the lower cabinetry and a light warm grey for the upper cabinets. The countertop is engineered quartz in a concrete finish with a backsplash of white Zellige-style subway tiles. The breakfast table is topped with statuario marble.

The bar is the focal point of the dining room, where the couple often hosts friends and family.

But one of the most pervasive yet subtle decor details remains the lighting, which Yogesh says was a “crucial part of the design process”. During the day, the home is blessed with plenty of natural light—“We were thrilled about the large windows dressed up across east and west, which allows the Chennai sun to ingeniously channel into the home!” After hours, accent lighting sets the mood. “We layered [the lighting scheme] with many table lamps, floor lamps, pendant lights, and wall sconces based on our requirements. My favourite ones are the living room floor lamp (from the White Teak company) and the modern, sleek pendant light above the dining table (from Voylite),” she elaborates.

"The guest bedroom is one of my favourite rooms in the home," says Yogesh. The designer fitted the room with a king-sized bed with a leatherette headboard, wooden nightstands stained in black, a large chest of drawers, and a custom-made mirror.

Oak veneered wardrobe shutters add texture to the guest bedroom. "The modern singular metal wall sconce next to the bedside is a personal favourite," says Yogesh.

As we soak in the details of the deceptively simple decor, Yogesh explains that though the process was laborious, the couple “found more reasons to fall in love with the space” as time passed. “I'm drawn to simple, understated materials and textures, and this home is just an amalgamation of that,” she concludes.