A classic from the 1950s

Studio Marés builds The White House for a retiree

18 Dec 2025

Before intercoms learned to speak and doorbells grew eyes, a knock was enough. Knuckle met wood and sound travelled through corridors. It carried suspense and stirred curiosity. In Vasai, that forgotten thrill still lives on in a 2,400 sq ft home whose wooden door reverberates slower times.

Built in 1953 and left dormant for two decades, the residence has been reimagined by Shawn Almeida and Griffith Nunes, Principal Architects of Studio Marés, as a delicate palimpsest of time. To enter this home, the ritual begins with the slide of a kundi. A gesture that marks the return of a homeowner from abroad, choosing to retire at the three-bedroom home she once left behind.

"This home embodies a modern vernacular revival"

- Shawn Almeida and Griffith Nunes

A living room's old-world charm. Reused furniture, earthenware and heirloom accents echoes the soul of an ancestral home; Photography by Studio Marés

Scattered memories

Remember trudging back home from school and sinking into a familiar chair? At the threshold of this home, a hundred-year old blue chair mirrors that restful surrender.

Around the home, old furnishing touches linger and live again. Handmade pottery and cane structures recur with artisanal quietude while checkered floors recall impromptu hopscotch. Together, these elements compose a subtle continuum of time, paying homage to a modern vernacular revival.

The story moves forward to the foyer where a classic cabinet stands adorned with a lush fern resting in ceramic jugs, while a wall hook awaits hats and habits, an almost forgotten gesture in the age of concealed and intelligent storage. Completing the space is a carved wooden dresser with a mirror far too evocative for hurried touch-ups.

A classic cabinet with a lush fern vase and wall hooks holding hats come together in rustic ease; Photography by Studio Marés

Bed and side tables by Studio Mares, paired with IKEA lamps for a modern glow; Photography by Studio Marés

Rustic patina

If there is one space that quietly distils the designers’ sensibility, it is the entrance. As Shawn Almeida and Griffith Nunes note, the entryway is “paired with a rustic wooden console beneath a wall-mounted art installation expressing distinct emotions,” making the moment feel deeply intuitive. This corner wears many emotions, like the Claymen installation. A clean-lined shelf gathers artefacts while planters sourced from Hampi ground the space in tactility. Layered with indoor greens and warm ambient lighting, the space feels instinctively lived-in. Beyond it, the living room features reused vintage chairs and warm woods quietly echoing the cadence of the ancestral home.

Bassein heritage

As the earthy colour palette unfurls through the corridor, bedrooms and an open kitchen crowned by an arched window, the homeowners’ Vasaikar, (a native of Vasai) legacy shows up everywhere, rooted in the historic Bassein, the former Portuguese name for present-day Vasai. A proof that you can take people out of a place, but you can’t take the place out of them. Black and white frames of the Vasai Fort watch over the bedroom walls, grounding the space in memory. Aptly christened the White House, this home carries history in its bones — subtle, enduring and every bit as symbolic as the original.