A letter to the homes of past

This Pune apartment by Koriv Design Studio reimagines the setting of Indian households from the 1980s

23 Jul 2026

What if the moment you step inside a home, the walls teleport you to the familiar architecture of the 1980s? The rooms, nooks and objects inside this 35-year-old apartment in Pune do something similar. Designed by Koriv Design Studio, the two-bedroom space relied on refurbishment, sketching nostalgia as the main protagonist, for a musician-actor across a measured area of 850 sq ft. “The brief was to move away from overly finished, artificial interiors and instead create a home that feels rooted, calm and familiar,” says Tejas Shintre, lead designer at Koriv Design Studio, who worked with a team of Parvathi Raj and Pranita Gaidhani.

To reminisce, a home from this era spills beyond mosaic floors, a wooden almirah and a CRT television; it instead emerges as a memory of daily rituals, relationships and moments that recur in a place of belonging. Think neighbours wandering into the kitchen to chat, the dining table becoming a place for life discussions and homework, or the evening television time of the favourite family show! This home’s layout, in bits and as a whole, reimagines this setting and adapts to the changing rhythms of its residents.

“Instead of replicating the past, the idea was to reinterpret it through honest materials, functional detailing, and a more open, flowing layout,”

Tejas Shintre

Koriv Design Studio — Lepan’s blue lime-washed walls form the perfect backdrop for Design Bee Furniture's cane-back sofa along with brass decor and copper pipe accents by Studio Coppre; Styling by Pranita Gaidhani, Photography by Syam Sreesylam

The home we remember

A weathered, dusty-blue door welcomes one into the living room, where muted tones of blue and grey blend with teakwood furniture to set the tone of the apartment that flows throughout the house. The blue-stained wooden windows in the kitchen remind one of the home many Indians grew up in, letting snippets of conversations and everyday moments drift effortlessly between the kitchen and the living spaces. The home doesn’t simply duplicate the past; it reinterprets materials, detailing and an open layout. “Instead of replicating the past, the idea was to reinterpret it through honest materials, functional detailing, and a more open, flowing layout,” adds Tejas.

The balcony sit-out emerges as the landing pad, where restrained design clues create a mood of intentionality and a sense of grounding. As the home settles into a single tone, the palette ensures that no space jars against another, allowing it to appear like a singular entity.

Familiar materials, reimagined

The lime-washed blue walls form a continuous envelope across the house. Exposed copper conduits and vintage-style switchboards are celebrated rather than concealed, lending the home an old-world character.

The brass details and filament bulbs maintain an expression of raw materiality. Built-in stone seating, storage and niches weave the architecture, crafting spaces that aren’t simply furnished. Teak wood furniture and cabinetry revive the tactile warmth of the era’s wooden almirahs, reinterpreting familiar materials and forms with a contemporary take.

The Kota stone flooring extends throughout the house, establishing a common visual language, while rough-basalt inlay paired with Kota distinguishes the living room and the balcony as the home’s communal spaces. Engraved in stone, the rangoli translates traditional ornamentation into a crafted architectural detail.

A home slowly shapes habit, familiarity and presence — living as a vivid memory today. Nostalgia is not recreated through imitation but through experiences, where familiar textures and relationships find solace. The space becomes less a reminder of the past with the materials and more a setting for new memories to unfurl.