The Fretwork Ceiling

Most flats treat the ceiling as the surface you stop thinking about. This one does the opposite.

A band of CNC-cut timber fretwork runs across the living room and out into the hall, backlit from behind so the cut pattern throws light rather than blocking it. Over the main seating it is swept into a shallow arch, which does two things at once: it gives a rectangular room a centre, and it drops the apparent ceiling height at the edges without losing it in the middle. The pattern is irregular — angular, closer to shattered glass than to a repeating jaali — so it never reads as a stencil.

Because the ceiling is doing that much work, the walls are kept comparatively quiet. The feature walls use flat planes of stone-look laminate cut into large triangles, separated by thin timber and white reveals. It is a graphic treatment rather than a textured one, and it holds its own against the fretwork without competing for the same attention.

The media wall is the one place where timber goes full height: a horizontal-grained panel with a backlit recess and a floating console beneath it, lit from below so the unit appears to hover off the marble.

The dining is built around a single granite slab on a timber base, with bench seating along the window and a long low sideboard opposite. Storage above is glazed in pale frosted glass — the cabinets read as light boxes rather than as bulk, which matters in a room this narrow.

Bedrooms take a different route. Each headboard wall is upholstered in soft padded panels, laid in a staggered square grid with small timber display niches let into it, against full-height wardrobes in a warm timber laminate. The ceilings step once and hold a concealed cove.

The kitchen and service rooms are handled plainly and well: granite counters against a dark splashback, and a utility with grey laminate storage built around the washing machine.

Photography by Sahil Makhani Photography.