Alibag假日住宅丨FADD Studio

This Alibag holiday home is a Wunderkammer of eclectic objects

In this Spanish Revival-inspired holiday home by FADD Studio, each room has more surprises than the last.

Trust Farah Ahmed Mathias and Dhaval Shellugar to pull a rabbit out of the hat when attempting something new. Or multiple at once, if their latest masterstroke, a 21,000-square-foot Alibag holiday home, is anything to go by. Unencumbered by a specific style or aesthetic, it isn’t, as Mathias puts it, “confined by a concept.” And, as one quick sweep of the casa proves, it isn’t bedevilled by it either. When it came to designing the larger-than-life estate for a joint family of restaurateurs, Mathias and Shellugar, the co-founders and principals of Bengaluru-based multidisciplinary collective FADD Studio, were mindful of optimising the striving envelope, executed by Vandana and Ranjit Sinh of

Ranjit Sinh Associates, both by scale and signature. They resorted to using a layered approach, mining objects from across the length and breadth of the country, and some from far beyond. So much so, that the pair agrees that the resultant aesthetic lexicon “needs to be experienced to be felt,” and, in what some may dismiss as hyperbole, but the pair clarifies is patently not, that “the volume needs to be heard, the air tasted, the colours touched, and the space seen, for it all to make sense.”

A gazebo with kaleidoscopic seating provides a welcome spot for drinks before dinner.

Indeed, there's nothing here that doesn't. Make sense, that is. From the hacienda-style porch bursting with pink bougainvillaea, to the vestibule within, home to tribal Naga panels and antique totems, to even as far inside as the living room, where arches parlay into columns and rafters ascend to a pitched roof, the home is a canvas of tantalising

colour and tropical forms

that seem like they could have walked off the landscape and taken up residence indoors. And yet, everything feels like it belongs, including the floor, emblazoned in Shahabad stone squares and diamonds that variously shapeshift, blurring the line between nature and nest. Mathias and Shellugar, whose team also included designers Pranav Dakoria and Manoj Gowda, and stylist Manisha Mittal, exercised a particular kind of sorcery with the decor, creating a potpourri of objects that pack a punch independently, yes, but also serve as an eye-popping, and somewhat unallied, overture to one another.

The living room brims with brilliant details, including an ivory-toned sofa by Kavita Singh, a Naga table by Bari, a Jaipur Rugs carpet, a canoe planter by The Purple Turtles, and custom chandeliers and sconces. The green daybed to the left is from ZJM Exports.

The parlour by the living room doubles as a sunroom. It is home to a Pinakin Studio cane sofa and a table by Cane Boutique emblazoned with vintage tile. Emerald green floor lamps by Harshita Jhamtani flank the setting.

The living room, for instance, is a Wunderkammer of such curiosities as a sofa by Kavita Singh, a Naga table by Bari, a Jaipur Rugs carpet, a canoe planter by The Purple Turtles, a green daybed from ZJM Exports, and custom chandeliers and sconces. So too is the left bay, which plays host to a parlour with seating, and is similarly considered, with a cavalcade of objects of diverse origin. For example, a Pinakin Studio cane sofa and a table by Cane Boutique, crowned with vintage tile, command attention all on their own, but somehow still cede the spotlight to the emerald green floor lamps by Harshita Jhamtani and the smorgasbord of tchotchkes in the corner—some squirrelled from antique dealers and others mined from the clients' private collection.

A gigantic black stone table and Chandigarh chairs from ZJM Exports take centre stage in the dining room. Celestial angels sit perched on pedestal tables by the windows, presumably guarding the realm from the evil eye. The tapestry is a Senaka Senanayake opus.

The breakfast area is an eye-popping collage of China mosaic flooring, light wooden furniture and a colourfully tiled ceiling that resembles an inverted stepwell.

The grand staircase is a vision in beige. Flagstone walls and chevron flooring serve as a backdrop for the bone inlay table from House of Things and sparkling Balinese chandeliers from Tahir Sultan.

As Mathias and Shellugar tell it, everything here is inspired by a seminal moment: a thought or conversation, a holiday, or even just a serendipitous purchase never truly written in the stars. No exception is the swimming pool, for which the pair, at the outset, received an important caveat: that it must be wholly visible from the main entrance. And so it is. But the views don’t end there. They extend all the way around to the dining room, where a gigantic black stone table, surrounded by Chandigarh chairs from ZJM Exports, acts as the pièce de résistance, a mountainous antithesis to the garden beyond, developed by Hemali Landscape Studio. Here, there, and everywhere, but especially so in the dining room, the drama is in the details, none of which the designers deemed too small. One case in point is the door handle to the pantry, a delicate print on fine rice Indonesian paper from min studio, which holds a mirror to the Senaka Senanayake tapestry opposite. By the same token, for anything traditionally Indian, such as the celestial angel sculptures by the window, there is something, or

somethings,

from beyond the seas, that match it equally in spirit. In this case, that would be the country-style antler chandelier, the Georgian-esque doors, and the generally Spanish Revival air that permeates the space in the way of an arch here or a series of stone walls there.

The family room is a woody cocoon that plays host to a tropical-print sofa by Kavita Singh and pots and tables by Tahir Sultan and Sharma Farms respectively.

One bedroom revels in wood and white. A pitched ceiling with rafters slopes down to meet alabaster walls that divert attention to the other side of the threshold. The furniture is from ZJM Exports.

A cave-like aura presides over the powder room, courtesy of rough black stone that dominates the walls.

It’s hard not to keep your head on your shoulders in the breakfast area. Literally. The floor, embellished in a simple China mosaic is elaborate enough, but it’s the ceiling that’s the real crown jewel. With vibrant embossed tile spectacularly clad across a sequence of inverted ‘stepwells’, it’s an upside down phenomenon that suspends the laws of gravity. Speaking of high-powered gems, the grand staircase lobby delivers another object lesson in colossal volumes. Characterised by flagstone walls and chevron flooring, plus a central bone inlay table and sparkling chandeliers from Bali, it’s a rising star in more ways than one. Not everything, of course, is poised upward. Take the family room opposite, which Mathias describes as “a room full of wonderful finds,” thanks to the wood-panelled ceiling that conjures a cocoon-like vibe and sets the stage for the tropical-print sofa by Kavita Singh, and pots and tables by Tahir Sultan and Sharma Farms respectively. As you make your way around, it’s curious to see how this Alibag holiday home changes personalities by the hour, or sometimes by the blink, thanks to the light that sunsets onto something new each time. “Simply saying it’s a holiday home wouldn’t do it justice. It is heaven for those who inhabit it,” Shellugar signs off.

Styling by Jasmine Jhaveri