A lakeside Nagpur farmhouse

Still waters and the land set the brief inside this cove by Ishita Sharma Designs

23 Mar 2026

What does it mean to design for stillness? On the outskirts of Nagpur, Maharashtra, where the city loosens its grip and the land opens out to a lake, Ishita Sharma of Ishita Sharma Designs found herself working with exactly that question. The commission was a 7,000 sq ft lakeside farmhouse, a retreat site, flush against the water and entirely secluded from the main land. The brief was one most designers rarely receive: to let the landscape lead and build something that earns its place beside it. “The most challenging part of this project wasn’t a room or a detail — it was the land itself. Designing within a working farm, set right beside a lake, meant responding to nature in its rawest form,” explains Ishita.

Spread across two floors, the house is organised around a double-height staircase tower; fully glazed, luminous at every hour and theatrical in its restraint. The ground floor holds a single bedroom. Above it, the living machan gathers the lounge, dining and a pantry into one generous, lake-facing room with an attached powder room. Two bedrooms; the master suite and a room shared by the homeowners’ two daughters complete the first floor, connected by a glazed corridor that makes the walk between rooms feel like a slow passage beside the water.

“Designing within a working farm, set right beside a lake, meant responding to nature in its rawest form”

Ishita Sharma

The living machan draws the lounge and dining into one lake-facing room : a setting table from The Inside Story with cane chairs by Forms meeting the Rajesh and Brothers carpet, sheer curtains catching the light at the Veka windows; Photography by Yadnyesh Joshi

THE LAKE AS MUSE

Every material choice in the house traces back to the water outside. “The focus shifted to creating spaces that respond quietly to light, views and the changing moods of the landscape,” Ishita reflects. Soft neutrals, sand, beige and stone grey govern the palette, with accents of rust and forest green reading as extensions of the land rather than departures from it. Micro concreting by Kemtex Paints finishes floors and walls in a continuous, textural warmth. Sheer curtains billow at the Veka windows in the living machan, turning lake light into something diffuse and unhurried.

A tufted cream sofa, a blush loveseat with block-print cushions, a cane-front credenza bearing a small brass bull: each piece chosen for the quality of its presence, not its provenance. Carpets, art and fabrics sourced from Rajesh and Brothers carry the same quiet logic.

A pair of cane-frame armchairs by Forms, upholstered in a rust block-print fabric from Rajesh and Brothers, sit in easy conversation before a full-height window. Tree shadows fall across the Kemtex-finished floor at their feet; Photography by Yadnyesh Joshi

The master bedroom settles into warm neutrals, a locally crafted linen upholstered headboard in a walnut frame anchors the room, geometric-print cushions from Rajesh and Brothers adding a subtle pattern note. A cylindrical walnut bedside table holds a lantern, while a pair of curved lounge chairs by Forms draw their own quiet corner at the Veka window; Photography by Yadnyesh Joshi

IN BETWEEN PASSING AND GATHERING

In the dining area, a solid trestle table from The Inside Story anchors the space alongside cane chairs by Forms. A geometric art panel in a walnut frame from Rajesh and Brothers brings pattern to the wall without noise. The glazed first-floor corridor, floored in octagonal tiles from Mayur Tiles with a dark dot inlay, is one of the home’s quieter pleasures; a passage that is also a vantage point, the wetlands spread below, walnut door frames marking the way into each room.

Warm morning light settles over the ground-floor bedroom ; a cane-panel headboard, quilted sage linen and a brass pendant lamp giving the room its unhurried ease, Mayur Tiles completing the floor in a smooth concrete finish; Photography by Yadnyesh Joshi

Tufted cream sofas and a blush loveseat by Forms anchor the living machan, perched atop a geometric carpet from Rajesh and Brothers. The cane-front credenza by Forms holds a small brass bull, the lake spreading wide through Veka windows beyond; Photography by Yadnyesh Joshi

SANCTUARIES AND SMALL SURPRISES

The master bedroom is an act of quiet authorship. Furniture crafted locally by a carpenter fills the room with handmade warmth, while Ishita’s own oil painting — figurative and vivid — holds the wall with conviction. Concrete-finish Mayur Tiles ground the space in the same material language as the rest of the house.

The daughters’ room takes a different register. Twin beds with mauve velvet headboards are set against a botanical wallpaper that covers the feature wall in confident pattern, Masper linens and Altrove throws drawing in blush softness. Their bathroom commits fully to colour; dusty pink hexagonal tiles from Mayur Tiles wrap floor and wall, while bobbin pendant lights by Nova Lights and an arched fluted mirror add a sculptural note.

The farmhouse did not come easily. Monsoon rains flooded access roads, the adjacent dam overflowed and the soil turned heavy. “The project offered the rare freedom to think beyond trends and instead design for rhythm, stillness, and longevity,” says Ishita. The home that emerged carries this history without wearing it; grounded, considered and deeply aware of where it stands. At The Lake House, the architecture makes no grand gestures. It simply makes room for the lake, and that, in the end, is the most generous thing it can do.