Interior Design for DLF The Grove, Sector 54 — A House-Sized Life on One Floor

Sunday lunch for fourteen. Her parents in from Jaipur for the winter. Two staff who start before seven.

That's the brief most low-rise homes in Gurgaon actually carry. It rarely makes it onto a mood board.

DLF The Grove sits in Sector 54, DLF Phase 5 — a few minutes off Golf Course Road, the same neighbourhood as Emaar The Palm Springs, where I designed a villa built to host. Low-rise. Low-density. Marketed as large four- and five-bedroom homes.

Families who choose a floor over an apartment are choosing a house-sized life. The furniture has to hold it.

Brief the whole household, not the couple

• Parents who stay half the year — a bedroom that isn't a guest room in disguise.
• Children at two different ages — a study wall for one, a wardrobe that grows for the other.
• Staff who run the house — where the linen, the cleaning kit and the bulk stock live.
• The entertaining pattern — fourteen for lunch, or forty for Diwali?

I have interviewed four-year-olds. They give the best briefs in the house. Everyone who opens a drawer at 7 AM gets a say.

Where a floor needs more storage than an apartment

• Entertaining ware. The dinner service for fourteen, the serving platters, the glassware. A bar and crockery wall drawn around what you own.
• Dressing rooms. At this scale, the master bedroom usually earns a walk-in closet — designed around the morning routine, not the square footage.
• Guest linen and seasonal clothes. Prime real estate at eye level for what you use daily. Dead storage turned into a purpose up high.
• The kitchen. Two cooks working side by side. Counter height measured to the person who cooks most. More in custom kitchens.

Light from more than one side

Low-rise homes usually get light from more directions than a tower apartment. Beautiful for living. Hard on finishes.

Veneer facing a west window shifts colour over the years. A lacquer that looks right at noon can look flat at 5 PM. I choose finishes by the light each wall actually gets — before the shutters are made.

Furniture first, then the environment

Plan the furniture before the lights, the power points and the stone. The bar decides where the under-counter fridge plugs in. The wardrobe wall decides where the switch goes. Get the order wrong and you pay twice.

Every piece is built in my factory in Delhi and installed under my supervision — one designer, drawing to installation.