It began with a work of art. Interior designer Iram Sultan had fallen in love with a piece by Julien Segard and was hoping to include it in a client’s home she was working on. “I had recommended it so strongly that I had even placed it in a 3D render that I had created for them for that space,” shares the New Delhi-based designer, who sees art as an integral part of her interior design practice. “But art is so personal, and they just didn’t relate to it.” Sultan was quietly mourning the loss of the work when she was approached by another prospective client, a young couple who’d just bought two apartments in DLF’s The Camellias and converted it into a whopping 9,000-square-foot home. They also happened to have an art collection of their own, and were hoping to design a home where it could shine. Their most recent acquisition? The very same Julien Segard painting that Sultan had wanted to use in the previous project–in fact, they had seen it on her Instagram account. “Fate, serendipity, connection, call it what you may, but this project was meant to be,” Sultan beams.
Today, the Segard holds pride of place in the client’s living room, surrounded by some of the top names in the contemporary art world, plus some iconic pieces of collectible design. Right under the Segard is a DeMuro Das coffee table in pyrite that casts a speckled shadow on the ceiling in the evening light. Across the room, a retro-futuristic Draga & Aurel wall lamp is flanked by two monochromatic works, one a painted shutter by Atul Dodiya and the other a piece from Jitish Kallat’s Wind Study series. When the lamp is on, the red tones make the two works seem monochromatic, and suddenly the arrangement of peppery-cream lounge chairs and sofas, and the crumpled Ingo Maurer paper lamp, tell a whole different story. In this Gurugram apartment, design and art are in constant conversation–sometimes accentuating it, sometimes even adding a new layer to it. In the private lift lobby you’ll find Samnta Batra Mehta’s “Museum of My Mind” series suspended over a sofa that has been upholstered in a custom embroidered fabric, riffing off the silver and grey background in the very same tones. Turn to your left, and you’ll see light playing off the pastel tones of a Rana Begum sculpture, adding an almost neon tinge to a work that’s already an optical illusion in its own right. “Art is the cornerstone of our practice,” shares Sultan, “It imbues any design with soul—and it’s also such a personal expression that varies from client to client, and it helps every project be unique.”
Art is what defines this project–indeed, it is what brought client and designer together in the first place, but Sultan admits that the real root of her design story lies in something a little more ethereal. “When we don’t have the pollution, there are a few magical days that we have the most gorgeous skies that you can see,” she says of Gurugram, “The evening lavender skies, and the morning sky colours with their pink tints, and pale blue grey clouds wafting through… that’s where the colour story for this house began.” A bar unit by Rooshad Shroff best encapsulates this tableau, but we see the tones ripple through the upholstery on the dining table and onto the four Shilpa Gupta photographs that background the dining area. Splurges of colour like this one are well-balanced by a muted backdrop, where Sultan uses texture and pattern to play with structural materiality. Patterns of cross grained veneer panels cut on the diagonal on the living room wall, or a delicate self-mosaic herringbone in dark stone in the central corridor, burnished copper skirtings and walls, allow this Gurugram apartment to feel layered, nuanced, and always interesting.
Lighting, as always, was a “make or break” aspect in Sultan’s design, and she worked closely with Vis a Vis, and their design head, Misha Joshi to create an ambience that both celebrated the artwork and had the warm ambience of home. They worked together to create a dynamic movement of light along the otherwise long static passage that leads to the bedrooms. Bespoke perforated screens slide across a vestibule that shields the room doors from the direct gaze. A light in the vestibule casts ever-changing shadows through the perforated screens, creating movement through the dynamic play of light. “The bedrooms are very quiet serene spaces,” says Sultan, illustrating the contrast between the private spaces and their more dynamic living area counterparts. “those are the spaces where you go to be quiet, you cease to be frenetic. Finally, a sprinkling of antique carpets rounds off the design with a hint of old world nostalgia. Vintage and modern are in continuous conversation throughout the space, in a manner that feels effortlessly current. “Art bridges that gap,” expresses Sultan, “It brings in history while staying relevant.” For the designer, there’s also an indelible bond that’s built between herself and her clients when they’ve bought a work of art together. “Meaningful conversations are had with art, common ground is found and cherished, relationships are forged,” she adds, “It’s not just an object—it’s about why you’re drawn to it, what it means to you. That’s the most human aspect.”
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