An interior designer who doesn’t like colour and a design studio with a new bed and breakfast — it may sound incongruous, but then you haven’t met Mumbai-based Ravi Vazirani. With blacks, whites and greys as his palette — and the occasional splash of mustard or seaweed green — he creates spaces that are serene and often dramatic. And anyone who rents Studio BnB for a night can see this firsthand, without knocking on the doors of any of his clients, which includes director-producer-TV host Karan Johar and owner of Bharat Floorings and Tiles, Firdaus Variava.
Vazirani believes in reinventing himself with each project. “I tend to keep revisiting ideas. I don’t enjoy being someone who designs a space in two months, ‘cuts copy pastes’ it, and is done,” explains the self-taught designer, who honed his skills first as an associate style editor with UK-based interiors magazine, Living Etc .
Grey sets the mood
Currently designing the new Bharat Tiles store in Mumbai, Vazirani says the idea of the luxury home is changing. People are starting to enjoy spaces that are minimalistic and pay attention to detail. “Luxury is in how you interact with things and the materials you choose. And this approach is spreading now,” says the 34-year-old. An example in point: a white-tiled bathroom with copper accents he created, which is classic, understated and uber luxe. “I imported the tiles from Spain and spent the equivalent of fancy Italian marble for that space,” he laughs.
Though he feels the industrial look may be on its way out, the minimalist in him is drawn to concrete, a still on-trend raw material. He recalls a transit stop four years ago at the Bangkok airport, which is beautifully finished in concrete, and getting obsessed with it. “I prefer spaces that appear larger even if they are small, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to not have any joinery in the floor. And concrete is a material that allows me to go seamless,” he shares, explaining that he is experimenting with it at his studio, too, where he makes décor pieces (like concrete diamonds that grace his coffee table at home), lamps, table tops and door knobs. “We also do concrete marbling — where you mix different colours to create a marbled effect. We did fun ice popsicles with this for a recent Nicobar travel pop-up,” he says.
A night at the studio
Launched a month ago, Studio BnB is in the heart of Bandra. “I travel quite frequently and use a lot of Airbnb. On a recent trip to Paris, I lived in a house and went to the coffee shop every morning for a croissant. It makes you feel like a local. And I can imagine people wanting to do the same in Bombay,” says Vazirani. The design of the 500 sq ft bed and breakfast is an extension of his home, with random things (like a retro blue typewriter and large pickling jars) coming together in rooms painted white, with diaphanous curtains and art on the walls. But what catches our interest is that you can buy much of what you see there. “Often, when people come home, they ask where they can buy certain things. So I thought it would be an interesting experiment,” says the 34-year-old, who currently has framed photographs by Neville Sukhia and Shahid Datawala, besides art pieces from Project88 and Sulaiman Merchant’s series on dogs. All the furniture (made at the studio) can be recreated or customised on request, too. We suggest you give the cement marbled side tables in the living room a second look.
Book the bed-and-breakfast at ₹5,427, on airbnb.co.in.
