ISHRAT SAHGAL, OF RUGMAKER MISHCAT CO, WELCOMES US INTO HER LONDON HOME, A DELIGHTFUL PLAY OF TEXTURE, MEMORY AND OBJECTS OF AFFECTION.

The first thing you notice in Ishrat Sahgal’s London home isn’t a chandelier or a statement-making art piece, but harmony and continuity.

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A walnut-toned fil rouge ties every room together, from the TV cabinet in the living room to the cane coffee table at its centre. The palette is gentle, but the stories layered—in texture, memory and meaning.

“For me, the house is about pause. But it also holds the space for conversation and for a crowd,” says Sahgal, cofounder of her eponymous Delhiand London-based design studio with her partner Kanu Agrawal, and founder of handmade rugs company Mishcat Co. The home is a meeting point for friends, kids, aunts, in-laws, creatives. Everyone is welcome. And although the revolving door of hosting has come to a stop since baby Leela—Sahgal’s infant daughter—came into the world, things are likely to resume very soon.

A little over 1,700 square feet, nestled in Marylebone, a neighbourhood she chose for its “village-in-the-city feel”, Sahgal’s greatest project thus far was designing her own space—a task she admits to be unexpectedly difficult when you're an interior designer by vocation. “You want it to be perfect, but perfection doesn’t make fora comforting home,” she tells me as we sit down in her sun-filled living room. To design her own home, Sahgal leaned into feeling. Elements around the house that carry function but also emotion. The result is a home that’s deeply personal but never precious, thoughtful but never overdesigned.