Let’s visit Wonderland and talk about the elephant in the room

Entrance seating area ...All in hues of blue. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

Her beau asked for her hand at luxury store Tiffany so obviously the setting of a life lived happily ever after had to beat the mother of all fairytales.

When Delhi-based designer Sanjyt Syngh met the Dubai-based couple, who cannot be named for reasons of privacy, to discuss the design of their 9,000 square feet New Delhi home, their brief was complex. They wanted fantasy, colour and drama, a bit of quirkiness, fashion, illusion, androgyny and fiction… overlapped by a sense of timelessness. With the Tiffany’s connection factored in.

The woman in question said her happiest moment was when her fiancé (now husband) proposed at Tiffany. It was way beyond every sparkly-eyed romantic’s wildest imagination. The house had to reflect the emotion.

Perfect love affair

Syngh was happy. “The more interesting the brief,  the more interesting the outcome.”

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This house, though, he said, “is a perfect love affair. I love drama, I love androgyny, I love fashion, I love quirky, I love colour, I love dark spaces and this house is all of that and beyond,” he said.

The formal sitting room and Giraffe in Love by Queebo. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

Slowly the idea of Tiffany Blue in Wonderland took root. Syngh, who studied design and textiles at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, and Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of Arts London, wanted a heroine to tell his story. And though the person he imagined wasn’t exactly Alice, there was nothing stopping her from tripping into fantasy land, making new friends, enjoying the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and meeting all sorts of strange creatures and characters in this journey.

The dining space for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

The project was named Epiphany because it was all about creativity and the never-ending process of evolving, said Syngh.

Fantastical subterranean world

From concept development, to space planning and product sourcing – Syngh worked out the details of the design meticulously. The overarching theme was that of Tiffany Blue falling through the rabbit hole in this “fantastical subterranean world” with trees, tree stumps, a giraffe and even an elephant.

The entrance to the house was “overloaded” with colour – Tiffany’s signature Robin Egg Blue – for love and happy memories. Everything here was done in subtle tones of blue, right down to the zany Lego-like chandelier.

The walls too added to the dream-like feel, ribbed somewhere, tiled elsewhere, blue shades here, then black or geometric designs there. Undulating spaces flowed like the narration of a story, with a reader or a viewer waiting, breathless, for the next scene to unfold.

Secret life of a cabinet

Syngh banked on Scarlet Splendour, an interiors product specialist run by brother-sister duo Ashish Bajoria and Suman Kanodia for the art pieces. So the White Rabbit was replaced by the elephant named Elie living the secret life of a cabinet. Porcelain animal masks were put up on the black walls to provide a dramatic backdrop to a couch done up in various hues of blue, flanked by tree stump side tables and completed by a crocodile rug.  Most of the products were from Scarlet Splendour’s Forest Collection, done in collaboration with Italian art and design house Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba.

Porcelain animal masks on black walls provide a dramatic backdrop to a couch done up in various hues of blue. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

Onyx (with streaks of blue) almost radiating a soft light was used for the staircase that led Tiffany Blue to her secret world. The effect again was magical, something that was inspired by the work of artist Oh de Laval, Syngh said.

About his favourite part of the house, he said, “If I have to pick it would be the staircase. We must have contacted a gazillion onyx suppliers in the world to source the perfect robin's egg blue onyx and oh boy the craftsmanship on that staircase is divine.”

The elephant named Elie Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

The Tree, another work of art, was placed at the end of the stairs, also doubling up as a cabinet.

The living room carried forward the fun with fantasy theme with a giraffe created by Italian designer brand Queebo holding a chandelier in its mouth.   A brass pillar with a chrome spiral was symbolic of Alice’s dizzying fall through the rabbit hole.

The staircase with the tree cabinet. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

And then it was time for the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Even though the Red Queen was missing, the dining space had many conversation pieces, especially the grand Forest Dining Table by Scarlet Splendour, the chairs with backrests reminding one of the bows on Alice’s sash.

Mad Hatter's tea party spills over into the bedroom. Pix credit: Sanjyt Syngh Objects+Spaces

The reason why the bedroom was fitting finale of sorts was because of the drama in colour. The tea party spilled over in that space too, with a dramatic pink and magenta print for a backdrop. The rounded curves of the couch clashed deliberately with the straight black lines on the see-through glass wall, bringing to a full stop the crazy, happy, fantastic journey through the house of happiness.