A Pune home recalls desert memory

Mind Manifestation Design makes material the message inside an apartment

30 Mar 2026

When Chetan Lahoti and Anand Deshmukh of Mind Manifestation first spoke with the homeowners about what they wanted from this Pune apartment, the answer kept circling back to one place: Rajasthan. Not as a visual reference but as a sensibility. The quietness of it. The weight. So Chetan and Anand did what perceptive designers do when one hands them something intangible: they went to the stone.

Kota stone runs underfoot across the common areas of this 2,200 sq ft apartment at Lodha Belmondo, hand-finished using the tacha technique — each slab worked by hand to a low, matte depth that catches light differently at different hours. Jaisalmer stone returns in the living room as terrazzo by Stonecasa, pressed into the floor in an amber-grey geometric panel. Both stones are native to Rajasthan. Both, in this Pune home, feel entirely at ease. The rest of the apartment: four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a powder room, a kitchen and utility, with the living and dining areas at its core are built around a muted palette that does little more than clear the field. The materials, once given that kind of quiet, say plenty.

Looking from the living towards the bedroom corridor: verde green marble bookshelf and slatted screen panels frame the passage; a Designbee teak armchair sits in the foreground; Kota stone flooring with hand-etched tacha detailing by Grava Stones runs throughout; the coffered ceiling continues the full length; Photography by Hemant Patil

DRAWN FROM THE DESERT

The family’s ties to Rajasthan are the quiet engine of the entire design. “The vision was to design a sanctuary in the midst of an urban environment, offering a retreat from the chaos of city life,” say Chetan and Anand. “The design had to be built around proportion, tactility and light, fundamental elements that would shape the experience of the space.” The palette answers this directly: muted tones of sage, beige and white form a still backdrop against which the materials like Kota stone in the flooring, Jaisalmer stone worked into terrazzo, and solid wood throughout do the visual work.

Linen-upholstered sofas and mid-century teak chairs from Designbee frame the space with warmth, while the custom bookshelf unit behind – faced in verde green marble with woven cabinet fronts – sets up an interesting friction between mineral cool and craft warmth. Above the sofa, an embroidered floral textile work by Studio Smitamoksh brings botanical softness to the composition.

IN CRAFT WE TRUST

The most telling detail in the home is not a furniture piece or a finish – it is the entry column. Crafted by Grava Stones from Kota stone and solid wood, it is simultaneously structural and sculptural, its hand-carved surface and geometric stone base asserting themselves as an architectural moment worth pausing at.

Each bedroom claims its own identity. The guest-cum-entertainment room takes its colour cue from the outdoors: muted green wraps ceiling, walls and full-height wardrobes, while a burgundy leather armchair from Designbee introduces a sharp, lively counterpoint. In the master bedroom, an oak-frame bed from Spaceace Design Co carries a zigzag headboard that echoes, playfully, the wave-motif artworks arranged in a row above it; a wall sconce by Harshita Jhamtani Designs adds a sculptural note to the bedside. The child’s room takes a different approach entirely – birch plywood cabinetry, perforated maroon upper units and a concrete study desk that manages to feel both considered and inviting.”It was clear from the outset that the design had to evoke calmness through spatial restraint and material authenticity,” says the team at Mind Manifestation.

The guest-cum-entertainment room's reading corner: a burgundy leather armchair from Designbee on grey herringbone floor tiles; muted sage green wraps walls and ceiling; full-height wood-veneer wardrobes run along the right; Photography by Hemant Patil

A checked sofa by Woodage Furniture faces a verde marble media unit topped with a Vitra Eames bird; the Designbee leather armchair and ottoman sit opposite; sage green holds ceiling, walls and cabinetry in a single, enveloping tone; Photography by Hemant Patil

A QUIET FINISH

Across every room, Crafted Calm, as they call it, makes the case that luxury is not about abundance, it is about knowing precisely what to leave out. Mind Manifestation has conceived a home where every surface earns its place and every material carries a memory: the Rajasthani stone that grounds the floors, the hand-finished tacha that marks the common areas, the woven textures that soften the stone.