If your home has a layout that never quite made sense, a recently profiled Mumbai apartment offers a hopeful lesson: the odd shape can become the best thing about the place. You won't need 4,000 square feet to use the ideas below.
The Home That Started With a Curve
Per Architectural Digest, Studio PKA reworked a roughly 4,000-square-foot apartment in Mumbai that is shaped like a horseshoe. It began as a pandemic purchase, and the home came together by joining two apartments into one. It's now a calm, honey-toned space for a couple and their daughter, who regularly flies in from the US.
An awkward plan could easily have been fought with walls and workarounds. According to the report, the architects embraced the curve instead. Here's what that approach teaches.
Lean Into the Shape Instead of Fighting It
The first move was a change of attitude. Rather than trying to disguise the horseshoe, the design treated it as the organizing idea of the home.
You can try a small version of this:
- Name the quirk. Is it a long narrow hallway, a corner nook, a sloped ceiling? Write it down plainly.
- Ask what it does well. A curve or bend can create natural zones. A long run can become a gallery wall or reading path.
- Design around it, not against it. Place furniture and lighting to highlight the feature rather than hide it.
The horseshoe is also a traditional symbol of good luck, which gives this home a nice bit of meaning. Giving your own quirk a story, even a playful one, can change how you feel about it.
Plan Privacy When Generations Share a Home
The apartment had to work for two generations, including a daughter who comes and goes. Per the profile, privacy was planned into the layout from the start.
If you host family or share space, borrow the thinking:
- Give visitors a real retreat. A guest area that feels like theirs, not an afterthought, makes long stays easier for everyone.
- Think in zones. Separate the social spaces from the quiet ones, even if you only have a door, a curtain or a bookcase to do it.
- Plan for the comings and goings. A home that hosts regular visitors needs a layout that still feels calm when it's empty.
Choose One Design Language
Joining two apartments could have left a home that felt like two different places. A single, consistent design language is what holds a large or oddly shaped space together. Here, that shows up in the warm, honey-toned palette and a calm overall mood.
At home, you can create the same cohesion on a budget:
- Pick a small palette. Three or four related tones, like warm wood, cream and soft brass, repeated in every room.
- Repeat materials. The same wood finish or fabric texture in different spots quietly ties rooms together.
- Keep transitions gentle. When you move from one room to the next, let at least one color or material carry over.
Curate Everything on Purpose
According to the report, the team curated every object, artwork and finish from scratch, treating the interiors as part of the architecture rather than a final coat of decoration.
Most of us aren't furnishing from a blank slate, but the principle scales down well:
- Edit before you add. Remove what doesn't fit your palette or mood before shopping for anything new.
- Buy slowly. One considered piece that suits the space beats five quick fillers.
- Treat art as part of the room. Choose it for how it relates to the shape and colors around it, not as an afterthought to fill a wall.
A Quick Weekend Exercise
Try this in the room that bugs you most:
- Stand in the doorway and note the one feature you usually wish away.
- Rearrange furniture for 30 minutes so that feature becomes the focal point.
- Pull out any item that clashes with your chosen palette and see how the room feels.
You may find that the thing you wanted to hide is the thing that gives the room its character.
Your Next Step
Pick the one quirk in your home that frustrates you and give it a purpose this week. Light it, frame it or build a corner around it. A horseshoe-shaped apartment became a home that feels lucky; your odd corner can become the part of the room people remember.