Rustic Bliss

Much like the products they retail, the design of Bangalore-based lifestyle store Magari — created by co-founder and architect Amitha Madan of Treelight Designs — is a hotbed of creativity and innovation.

- Deepa Nair

Old-world brick walls, a staggered metal door in pale green with a mini wood-framed glass window and a nondescript logo — the facade of this intriguing space on a busy Indiranagar road in Bangalore presents a perfect visiting card to onlookers. For over a month now, this red brick structure has been host to a new home lifestyle brand, Magari, which in Italian means ‘to desire’ or ‘to want’. The brainchild of businessmen Vishal Wadhwa and Karun Mathew; and architect Amitha Madan, it was established to bring all the home solutions under one roof and to give a client — be it a designer or home-maker — the option to customize them with the aid of an in-house design team. Furthermore, the objective is to also provide a platform to showcase locally found design talent, and from different parts of the world too.

“The idea was to curate a collection of niche, customized designer furniture that wasn’t seen in other places and at affordable prices. We wanted to re-create all dying forms of art, carpentry and design that includes, cane, metal and single solid wood pieces,” say the founders. “The current high-end players in the furniture market rarely customize and if they do, their prices are unaffordable to most. As much as we would like to sell what we have in stock, we lay emphasis on selling things that fit into homes in the right sizes and right finishes. Again, our manufacturing facility gives us the flexibility to control costs, which most of our competition does not have,” informs Amitha.