There was a time when travel existed for this Meerut-based family only in films. Growing up in a small town, seeing the world felt impossibly distant, something reserved for other people and other lives. Years later, after building a successful business empire spanning automobile dealerships across the city, travel slowly became part of their own story. Business conferences turned into extended holidays. Hotel stays became immersive encounters with architecture, culture, nature, and design. They wandered through streets in Spain, Mexico, Japan, London and Bali, collecting, along with souvenirs, a new understanding of how spaces could feel. So, when the family decided to renovate their 5,400-square-foot home in Meerut, they wanted that feeling to follow them home.
.jpeg)
TakenIn Studios
Also read: This mountain home in Kullu is a sun-soaked, slow-living haven built for family
For Srishti Mehta, the project arrived at an equally transformative moment in her own life. Trained as a computer science engineer, Mehta had built what many would consider an enviable career: first in consulting in Mumbai, then in corporate banking in Canada after completing an MBA at Queen’s University. “Life looked successful from the outside, but internally, I felt disconnected from the kind of life I truly wanted to build,” she describes. While designing her own home in Toronto, Mehta found herself increasingly drawn to interiors, craftsmanship, and the emotional power of spaces. This project, commissioned by relatives who had visited a vacation home she had previously designed in Canada, would eventually become the foundation of her practice, Rhythm and Light Design Studio
.jpeg)
A customised chair from Magari, a terracotta vessel, and petal-border detailing drawn from Rajasthani architectural motifs complete the space.
TakenIn Studios.jpeg)
A wall art piece made from a vintage wooden frame inlaid with brass faces from The Purple Turtles hangs over the ground-floor living room.
TakenIn Studios