stories design studio

Walk into most newly designed homes in Bangalore this year and a pattern starts to emerge. Straight-edged sofas are giving way to rounded ones. Sharp-cornered coffee tables are being replaced by soft, sculptural forms. Rectangular mirrors are sharing space with irregular, organic silhouettes. It's not a single trend so much as a broader shift in…

For much of the last decade, the default definition of a "clean, modern home" in Bangalore was clear: white walls, white cabinetry, glossy surfaces, and as little colour as possible. It photographed well and read as effortlessly contemporary. It's also, increasingly, a look homeowners are walking away from. Revathi Rao Gurram, founder of Stories Design…

For years, luxury in Indian homes was easy to spot. High-gloss finishes, statement chandeliers, gold accents, and rooms designed to be photographed the moment guests walked in. That definition is quietly losing ground. A different sensibility has taken hold among homeowners who can afford anything and are choosing, deliberately, to want less noise. Revathi Rao…

Most homeowners don't wake up one day and decide to hire a designer. It happens gradually — a series of small frustrations that build until the idea stops feeling optional. By the time many homeowners make that first call, they've usually already tried everything else: new furniture, a fresh coat of paint, rearranging what they…

There's a particular moment many homeowners describe when asked why they finally called a designer. It's rarely about the home looking outdated. More often, it's a quieter realisation — that the space they live in no longer works the way they need it to, and Pinterest boards and weekend furniture shopping haven't closed the gap.…

Bangalore homeowners increasingly find themselves choosing between two very different starting points — a well-planned apartment or a spacious villa — and assuming the design process will simply scale up or down to match. It rarely does. The two typologies demand genuinely different thinking, not just a different budget. Revathi Rao Gurram, founder of Stories…