On Course

Aided by views of the expansive DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram, interior designer Varrun Motihar created an apartment where a sense of wonder and delight are par for the course.

- Ravina Rawal

If you can’t have a home by the sea or up in the mountains, one that overlooks the expanse and gentle curvature of a golf course is a mighty fine ‘plan B’. The calming effect of the greens stretched out in full view, a generous breeze teasing the curtains, sunlight swooping in at whim—interior designer and MOVA1 founder and director Varrun Motihar already had a highly accommodating backdrop. He just had to pull that meditative ease into the rest of the Gurugram apartment, which was to house a couple and their two grown-up daughters. Having rented out the ninth-floor apartment for a few years, the owners were finally moving in themselves. The brief was to please the ladies; after all, they are in the majority in this particular house.

Luckily for Motihar, he already had one of them on his side. One of the daughters had sought him out after falling in love with a friend’s house in New Delhi that MOVA1 had designed and decorated. A quick introductory conversation with her mother sealed the deal. “A large part of being an interior designer is getting along with the people you’re going to be working with, and being able to communicate freely,” explains Motihar. “It is, after all, a six-month-long relationship, and there’s a lot of money involved; if your ideas and perspectives are not in sync from the get-go, things are likely to get messy down the line.”

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