DRAMA IN THE DETAILS

This 4,000-square-foot Chennai apartment by Chestnut Storeys is an exercise in optical illusions

- VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR

Designer Farah Agarwal is no stranger to abstract design briefs. Nor is she particularly ruffled by them. "Not at all the more abstract, the better," muses the founder and principal of Chennai-based interior design studio Chestnut Storeys, who had her philosophy put to the test a few years ago, when she was approached by a young couple, Vilok and Divya Parekh, to design their 4,000-square-foot apartment. “I remember their brief, at least initially, contained just three words: ‘Panels, Patterns and Purpose’,” adds Farah. “And while the first two were straightforward enough to action, the last one was left open to interpretation.”