Alaya F loves to call this apartment her “hustle home”. “I am a true Mumbaikar at heart,” says the 27 year-old actor, standing in her cream-coloured living room one December morning. “I don’t think I could live anywhere else—except perhaps in New York. They are similar in terms of the hustle culture they have. That’s the energy of this home—to keep moving. This is the home that I’m in to work hard, so I can build towards my dream home.”
As any one of her 2M Instagram followers might be able to attest, Alaya F is all about the #grindset. In the four years since she made her Bollywood acting debut with Jawaani Jaaneman, she’s been tirelessly unlocking new dimensions in her creative pursuits as a fitness and beauty content creator. Naturally, a multi-hyphenate creator whose work and life are intertwined needs a space that mirrors her ambitions.
That’s what she found in this cozy three-bedroom apartment located on the 9th floor of a newly constructed building in Mumbai’s northern suburbs when she first began to consider moving out of her family home three years ago. She loved the place without stepping foot in it (on account of a shoot in Chandigarh); sold on its location between Andheri and Juhu, proximity to the highway and her old home, the large windows and views of green parcels of land. In it, she saw the potential to build out her idea of a home: “a place of peace, love, comfort and good vibes”.
It is this home that has frequently appeared as the setting from which Alaya F broadcasts her life on social media: yoga reels, pre-party glam shots, sweet selfies in solitude. Perhaps it was that overexposure that triggered her desire for a design refresh. Earlier this year, she reached out to interior designer Zara Eisa to art direct her home so it better aligned with her idea of the big roles that even small spaces can play—in this case, an apartment that is home, office and filming location rolled into one.
“I needed every room to serve multiple purposes,” says Alaya F. “My aesthetic is pretty neutral, white and bright, but we still needed to make sure that I could shoot content in every corner of the house.” “She wanted a functional, versatile home,” adds Eisa, “So the challenge was to keep it fresh in each corner of the home while also making it cosy and homely at the same time.”
They achieved this by designating two of the three bedrooms as a yoga room and a glam room respectively. The former, a room where “all the hectic fun bendy flexible stuff happens”, is bare but for a wall of mirrors and a corner shelf for mats and kettlebells. The latter, where she shoots her beauty vlogs, gives off a boho chic vibe, empanelled with closets on two sides for ample storage, and nothing but a large dressing table set up so as to take advantage of the natural light filtering in from the floor-to-ceiling wall-sized window. But the details stand out: A rod mounted on the wall in the yoga room serves as a dance accessory and a railing for clothes try-outs. The wallpaper and cane panelling inside the wardrobe doors in the glam room offer nice backdrops for her Instagram photoshoots.
When she isn’t working, Alaya F “loves to entertain” (no rager parties, she clarifies). It’s why she insisted on a U-shape couch in the living room, knowing full well that it is unusual for a room this size. The couch that could sleep a family and a wooden dining table set against another mirror-panelled wall were sourced from her father’s brand. To balance the neutral colour palette, Eisa played with texture—Brooklyn fabric, woven rugs, ceramic accessories, touches of wicker. For pops of colour and life, she added plants in the balcony and wallpaper in every room. To amp up the space’s warm vibe, Eisa focused on lighting: A large cane chandelier from Orange Tree in the glam room, an assemblage of pendant lamps from White Teak to centre the living room.
And then there are the personal touches—a wall of all her trophies, a couple of frames with Alaya F’s intricate pen drawings, hardcover memoirs of her grandparents and a projector screen in addition to a TV for those movie nights in her bedroom, candles everywhere you look—that reveal little secrets about this homeowner. And there’s a tiny staircase next to the bed and a bowl of water by the kitchen door that betrays a hint of the real king of this castle: Alaya F’s furry friend MJ who might even be the reason for the choice of colour palette.
“Because we’ve worked together before, Alaya’s aesthetic is pretty easy to grasp,” says Eisa, on how she managed to deliver the project within 1.5 months. “When we were doing this the first time, she’d come for the selection of fabrics and then she came for the reveal of it. This time she was a little more hands-on. To bring it to life is easier with that sort of communication. It’s why we covered a lot. Maybe we could have done a little more accessorising with more time, but she loves to do that herself so she goes out a lot and fills little gaps.”
“When I first moved out, I wanted to move into a small home,” adds Alaya F. “There’s less to clean and maintain, and I’m very particular about how my space looks and smells. But the obvious disadvantage is that there’s no space! I do feel that we’ve extracted maximum purpose out of it. I used to think this would be the perfect size for a starter home. But now, it’s just home.”
