The Open Stair

This scheme is drawn around one move: the stair is left open, and the living, dining and kitchen are allowed to share a single volume across two levels.

The consequence is that nothing in the shared floor can be treated as a separate room. The living seating, the dining table and the kitchen counter all sit within sight of one another, so the scheme holds them together with a restricted palette — large-format cream floor tile laid throughout, warm timber slat panelling used for the vertical accents, and a soft grey texture on the walls that take artwork.

Arrival is handled by a full-height run of timber slats beside a carved jaali screen, with tall windows either side of the entrance doors. The screen does the work of a wall without closing the foyer off from the stair beyond it.

In the living room the ceiling carries slim black track lines rather than a dense grid of downlights, and the artwork is deliberately oversized — a single sculptural piece on the feature wall instead of a group of smaller frames. A vertical garden runs the return wall on the upper level, and a geometric arrangement of dark metal diamonds sits above the sofa on the level below.

The dining area takes the one strong colour in the scheme: teal upholstered chairs around a pale table, under a branching chandelier that reads against the double-height void.

The kitchen is the exception to the restraint. A floral mosaic backsplash runs the full length of the counter behind glass-fronted wall cabinets, with a breakfast bar and stools facing back into the shared space.

The bedrooms each take one idea and stop there — a full-height timber slat headboard wall in the master, a quilted blue headboard in another, a gold textured art panel in a third, a crystal chandelier and window seat in a fourth.

The home theatre is the one fully enclosed room: dark timber walls, a drop-down projection screen, bean bags and low daybeds, and a photograph wall picked out in warm fairy lights.

These are visualisations. The scheme is presented as designed, not as built.