Like photo albums unearthed from long-forgotten lofts, old homes can conjure up a whirlwind of memories. Feverish dreams of first birthdays. Flashbacks of all-day graduation parties and all-night after-parties. And somewhere in between, if not before or after, hazy memories of frantically leaving the nest. By 2023, that description may, if not entirely, fit Nehal Lodha. But when the creative director and UI-UX designer got married, she rewrote the last part, albeit inadvertently, as she returned to her vacant childhood home in Mumbai with her approving husband in tow.
The idea was great on paper, but in reality, not so much. The Prabhadevi property had, after all, served a different version of herself, a younger version, and the aesthetic “just didn’t scream us now,” says Lodha, by “us” meaning herself and her husband, digital marketing strategist Pushkarraj Mehta. To give it a voice that did, she approached architect and interior designer Rochelle Santimano of Goa-based Studio Praia, whom she had met through a mutual friend—though Santimano admits she was initially hesitant about collaborating, having never stepped outside Goa’s territory professionally. What made her take the plunge—and beyond the state’s borders? Lodha’s mood board. “I just couldn’t say no when I saw it,” recalls the architect, who then rolled up her sleeves with in-house designer Allison Joseph.
Read also: An architect builds a Kerala-style house for his beloved aunt in a Pune apartment
