Dressing up the decor
Minnie Bhatt remembers weekend trips from her childhood, when her father would take the family to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba, South Mumbai. She recollects being overwhelmed by the “great vintage charm and appeal” of the hotel, with the filigree stone panels, pure white marble fountain and pastel green walls of its Sea Lounge. That early impression of languid grace and old world culture would influence Minnie’s ideas of what a space should be like.
Today, Minnie channels that same combination of “charm and culture” into the projects her eponymous interior design firm takes up. That aesthetic is certainly very much in evidence in three of her most recent and well-received projects, in the hospitality sector , the Silver Beach Café in Juhu, and the two suburban branches of the pan-Asian restaurant Nom Nom.
Minnie says she was excited by the space for the Silver Beach Café , a onetime provision store that her clients wanted to convert into “the neighbourhood café”. A standalone structure with a sloping roof, Minnie soon transformed it into a cosy and inviting space by cladding the roof in strips of pinewood, creating a double-height wine and retail rack, a mezzanine level that increased seating space for guests and booths in faux leather. “I handpicked the accessories retro cushion prints, milk can-shaped tea light holders and a Parisian-style lamppost for the signage,” Minnie says.
With Nom Nom, however, it was more what she didn’t want to do that informed her design direction. Minnie explains, “I wanted to steer clear of obvious elements like dragons and Buddha busts; instead, I chose Origami, bonsai and jute ropes. The Versova outlet of Nom Nom has a ceiling installation in jute ropes while the outlet in Bandra has Origami birds, made with copper sheets. I’ve designed the spaces with stone and teak wood, commonly used in Southeast Asia.”
Minnie calls the journey from conceptualising a space to making it reality “an extremely fulfilling experience”. “I enjoy the hard work that goes into visualising spaces, and then making them real. It’s always exciting to have a dream translate into reality,” she says.
In her journey to enhance the unique identity of each space, Minnie is guided by several factors , her clients’ sensibilities are paramount, whether the project is a residential or a commercial one. The function of the space, the lifestyle of the client are all very important in determining how she shapes a space. In hospitality projects, however, there is an opportunity to do a little more, “the challenge there is to intrigue the guest,” Minnie points out.
For this devotee of design legends like Charles Correa, Frank Gehry and Antonio Gaudi, helping create spaces that have a distinct style, flavour and visual appeal is always the overarching objective. And with her upcoming work, “a Burmese restaurant and some exciting residential projects”, Minnie hopes to continue to achieve just that.