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Most families who move cities leave something behind. This one brought it with them.
They came to Bengaluru from Kerala and Mangalore — a young couple working in technology, their two boys, then aged four and one, and the boys' grandmother. With them came the family heirlooms they had inherited in Kerala. The brief for their 2,000 sq ft home was to give every one of those pieces a place, and still make a house that worked for a busy young family of three generations.
They deserved a home as warm and welcoming as the respect they have for one another. That was the measure we designed to.
We thought of the house as a series of large canvases, each one holding a slice of the family's life. Heirlooms sit beside new pieces made for them in Temple Town's workshop, so that nothing inherited looks like a relic and nothing new looks like a stranger.
The family wanted the best of both worlds, which gave us the freedom to give each room its own distinct character. We brought in European furniture forms with an indigenous hand, and the client's own excellent eye — and trust — made the experimentation possible.
An old Kerala door, repurposed as the main door, welcomes you in. Beside it hangs a blue-and-white name plate in the Goan tradition, made for the family. Inside, the foyer has a quiet colonial charm: a teak console and mirror and a stone lamp.
The living room mixes the inherited pieces with furniture custom-made to sit beside them. A jewel-toned palette brings brightness, and wooden wicker chairs play against a green contemporary sofa — old and new in easy conversation.
The dining room is a deliberate visual cocktail. A classic six-seater dining table, a collection of old urns along one side, and a custom chandelier overhead. The wall carries a mix of old and new plates, including pieces from Good Earth's Thierry Journo collection. But the room's real anchor is architectural: two old pillars, reminiscent of vintage Kerala homes, standing in the dining and drawing area.
An adjoining balcony doubles as a cosy, classic bar, floored in Athangudi tiles — the handmade tiles of Chettinad, chosen for their artisanal integrity.
The grandmother's room was designed around memory. A colonial bed set with antique tiles, a muted palette of browns and greens, and watercolour paintings of Kochi that recall the home town she left. It is a room meant to make someone feel at home in a new city.
The master bedroom is lighter and calmer: a cane bed beneath a wall of soothing artworks, a collection of custom cushions, and an arched white wardrobe that gives generous storage while keeping the room feeling open and spacious. Cane keeps the bed airy; the white keeps the room restful.
The kitchen is lacquered in a classic green — cheerful, practical, and fitted with every modern amenity, with the appliances an Indian kitchen needs discreetly concealed.
The youngest members of the family were given one of the most engaging spaces in the house. A bunk bed with storage built into its sides makes smart use of the room, while a hand-painted wallpaper from Kalakaari Haath and an otherwise all-white scheme fill it with cheer without overwhelming it.
This home reflects the heart of how we design: spaces with a soul that outlasts fashionable seasons. Inherited Kerala pieces, European forms, Chettinad tiles, Goan tradition and contemporary comfort live together here not as a style exercise but because this family's life genuinely contains all of them.
That is what makes it real luxury. Not how much it cost, but how completely it belongs to the people who live in it — and how easily it will pass to the two boys who are growing up inside it.
Temple Town's clients are, for the most part, C-suite leaders of billion-dollar companies and business owners who have truly made it. What unites them, at every stage of life and career, is discernment: they appreciate the finer things, recognise good design when they see it, and value the culture a home can carry forward.
Three generations, two states, one set of heirlooms and a new city. This house holds all of it, and still feels calm at the end of the day.
This Bengaluru residence was designed and furnished by Temple Town, the interior design studio and furniture maker founded by Meera Pyarelal in Thrissur, Kerala, in 1999, working in the Heirloom Modernism idiom.
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