MY SPACE: Shalini Misra

Designer Shalini Misra’s gorgeous London home is intimate yet spacious in all its Victorian splendour, finds Radhika Sanghani

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I’m not even in Shalini Misra’s house yet, and I’m impressed. Her detached Victorian house in London’s St John’s Wood is guarded by two stone lions, there’s a water fountain featuring the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, and it’s full of lush greenery. I shouldn’t be so surprised; Misra is an internationally celebrated interior designer and award-winning architect, who is known for her bold, luxurious designs, imbued with a sense of playfulness. “No project I do is cut and paste,” she tells me. “I focus on bespoke design, and work on a lot of detail, and arts and crafts. I really love art.”

Her London home of 17 years is a testament to this, with its fusion of bold American artwork (a print in the hallway reads ‘BLAH BLAH BLAH’), Victorian panelling, and Indian art, from the likes of Ram Kumar. She gives me a tour of the family home that she shares with her husband of 28 years, Rajeev Misra, the CEO of SoftBank Vision Fund, her youngest daughter Roshni, 14 and cat Ella. Her older children Reeva, 27, who runs the non-profit Vahani Scholarship Trust, and Rohan, 25, who works in finance don’t live there anymore.“But they’re always coming back,” says Shalini—and it’s really no wonder why.

Radhika Sanghani: Tell me about how you came to buy this house. What attracted you to it?

Shalini Misra: It was 17 years ago. I was looking for a house with a big garden because nature’s really special to me. My real estate broker told me I’d fall in love with the house as soon as I walked in, and he was right. The house had no character, but the garden was everything I wanted.