Orbit / Rutam Intarch

This Mumbai Malabar hill apartment was planned with a maximalist-mantra and an unabashed love of colour.

Project Name : Orbit
Project Location : Mumbai, India
Architect/Interior Designer : Rutam Intarch
Principal Architect/Designer : Sheffalie Jhaveri

Photographer: Pulkit Seghal

Set against the verdant backdrop of Malabar Hill and overlooking the Hanging Gardens, this residence forms the lower half of a duplex. Conceived as a self-contained apartment for a young family of five, this floor houses four bedrooms, a small sit-out, a utility area, and staff quarters. It was planned with precision to balance utility, storage, and an unabashed love of colour.

The client, a couple with three children, had a clear brief: each family member was to have a bedroom of their own, distinctly colour-coded to reflect their personality. Their design approach leaned toward the maximalist, both in palette and in storage needs. Every wall and corner needed to work hard, with “storage” as the underlying mantra. For the design team, the challenge lay in creating spaces that appeared expansive and light despite the abundance of cabinetry, and in refining the client’s vivid colour preferences into balanced, livable interiors.

The design process became a collaborative negotiation, between the client’s fearless embrace of colour and the designer’s instinct for restraint. Instead of relying on accent walls, colour was diffused across rooms through furniture, wardrobes, textiles, and subtle finishes, ensuring visual balance. What could have been overwhelming became, instead, harmonised compositions: a child’s request for “orange and blue” translated into softened shades spread across millwork, flooring, and upholstery, creating a room that feels as relevant for a teenager as it will for a young adult.

The master bedroom presents the boldest challenge, centred on a deep blue-green tone that skirts between teal and aquamarine. While the client was determined to anchor the space with this saturated hue, the design team tempered it through careful layering of textures and lighter accents, resulting in a room that feels both dramatic and calming. Elsewhere, fluted detailing, being their favourite, was incorporated into wardrobes and joinery, though executed with restraint to maintain clean lines and contemporary proportions.

Spatially, the planning was tight. The original apartment included a maid’s room, small bath, and utility areas, all of which had to be reconfigured to carve out the four bedrooms and a sit-out. The result is an “inch-to-inch” plan where every element, from door sizes to storage walls, was reconsidered to extract maximum usability. At the entry, concealed wardrobes integrate storage seamlessly, disguising utilities behind a flush wall surface. The sit-out, though compact, became a vibrant nook clad in the children’s chosen palette of lemon yellow, green, and navy, anchored by custom in-house furniture and a playful mirror that bounces light through the space.

Materiality reinforces the balance between luxury and modern utility. A lot of grey marble was sourced, running continuously through common areas to unify the spaces. Hardware and lighting in matte black provide a cohesive thread across the residence. Bathrooms were treated as experiments in colour, eschewing marble in favour of contemporary Indian tiles in vivid yet refined hues, making each bathroom feel unique while maintaining the overall sensibility.

Despite the family’s love for layering detail, the design language resists excessive ornamentation. Walls are kept largely plain, with richness introduced through veneers, PU finishes, and carefully curated furnishings. The clients sourced select Italian pieces for the living room, but most furniture was custom-built in India, tailored to the precise requirements of each space.

This project reflects a deliberate balancing act: between maximalist impulses and modern restraint, between storage-heavy demands and airy openness, between children’s vibrant imaginations and a timeless aesthetic that will age gracefully with them. In the end, the home is not simply a collage of colour-coded rooms, but a thoughtful, cohesive environment that captures the family’s energy while framing it in enduring contemporary design.