TEXTURES AT PLAY

With coral tones, wave-like furniture and unending sea views, this Chennai home by Chestnut Storeys is one with the seafront

- VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR

How do you maximise the views in a sea-facing home? You minimise everything else. At least that's what conventional wisdom will have you believe. But if you know a thing or two about Farah Agarwal, you know the word conventional isn't part of her vocabulary. When the Chennai-based interior designer and founder of multidisciplinary design practice Chestnut Storeys was entrusted to design a three-level penthouse by the sea, the first thing she did was dial up the colour. "Not all the way, mind you-just enough to rival the views and fulfil the clients' caveat of no neutrals," continues the designer, who is widely known for her minimalist signature. "The real question, then, was how much colour was too much colour?"

It was a question she asked and answered herself. By leaning into the light, she brought in a happy spectrum that held a mirror to the seascape, while also holding its own. In came sofas and armchairs in shell pink and moss green. Up went swirling grey walls of marble.

Floors were calmed in gleaming marble, while upward and downward tide-like arches were given pride of place in the double-height living room. It was much, but not too much, and as Farah puts a finer point on the subject, "pleasing to the eye while still being wonderfully colourful."