In Ahmedabad, Dotline Design Studio’s Anand Nilayam is a 4BHK apartment that weaves vastu-led planning, heirloom pieces, and craft into a grounded, modern home.
Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Sarthak Mehta I Notebook Productions
The project
Anand Nilayam is a 2,100 sq ft residence designed to harmonise family heritage with contemporary living. Vastu energies inform colour zoning and material choices, creating a home that feels calm, tactile, and cohesive.
The site
Set within a contemporary apartment complex in Ahmedabad, the home was received as a bare-shell unit with an open, flexible volume—ideal for crafting a measured dialogue between tradition and modernity.
The brief
The clients wanted a home that honours legacy while supporting an open, urban lifestyle, prioritising spiritual harmony, warmth, and personal memorabilia. The space was to feel grounded and timeless, with every element carrying both purpose and poetry.
The design intent
Led by principal designer Vaishakhi Mehta of Dotline Design Studio, the home was envisioned as a soulful, modern residence guided by vastu shastra and the family’s connection to heirlooms and craft. The palette stays light and textural, allowing carved wood, stone, brass details, and hand-painted surfaces to anchor intimacy and memory. “Our aim was to create a home where every detail feels personal yet cohesive, so tradition and modern living flow together naturally,” says Mehta.
The civil intervention
Civil changes were kept minimal to preserve the apartment’s inherent openness. A key addition is a peeping window introduced along the passage beside the pooja and study nook to draw natural light in and soften the corridor experience.
The spatial flow
The living, dining, and kitchen form a bright, continuous social core, with the passage opening visual connections to the pooja and compact study. Private zones—master, parents’, and son’s bedrooms—radiate from this centre, each tailored in mood and motif yet held together by a common language of teak, stone, and soft colour. The overall journey balances openness with moments of quiet pause, from the heirloom-led living to the contemplative pooja corner.
The material palette
The interiors balance heirlooms, craft, and modern restraint through a cohesive palette of stone, wood, and hand-detailed finishes. In the living room, an heirloom sofa sits on a terrazzo plinth with storage niches, framed by vintage carved columns from Idar. White vitrified flooring and handwoven rugs add lightness. The dining area combines a solid wood table with Kesariya green marble and a bespoke console featuring a sculptural Udaipur stone basin. The kitchen uses ivory, maroon, and teak-edged laminates with a quartz counter, its Ambaji white marble coffee station offset by indigo-polished wood and hand-carved accents. A passage mural inspired by Madhubani art enlivens the corridor, complemented by a peeping window that opens to the pooja and study nook. The pooja features a handcrafted altar in wood and brass, while the adjacent study incorporates shutters framed with vintage trims and hand-painted birds and trees. Bedrooms carry individual moods: the master uses a teak bed with carved poles, Kalakaari Haath wallpaper, and Mantara India’s ceramic-and-brass pulls; the son’s room adds whimsy with an elephant-inspired bed, animal motifs, and playful bead railing; while the parents’ bedroom brightens with a yellow fabric headboard, floral wallpaper, and a reading nook with carved lath poles beneath a bookshelf.
The highlights
An everyday-luxe living anchored by heirloom furniture on a terrazzo base; a sculptural Udaipur stone basin at the dining console; the Madhubani passage mural; and the pooja–study ensemble that threads light, serenity, and storytelling through the heart of the home.
The takeaway
For Dotline Design Studio, the project affirms that when vastu-led planning, memory objects, and craft-forward detail are composed with restraint, a contemporary apartment can carry the depth of a family home.
Fact file
Project: Anand Nilayam
Location: Ahmedabad
Area: 2,100 sq ft
Principal designer: Vaishakhi Mehta
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