Apartment
Grandmother's Teak
Sixty-year-old Burma teak the family would not part with, and were right not to.
- Where
- Matunga, Mumbai
- Carpet area
- 900 sq ft
- On site
- 18 weeks
- Finish level
- Signature
The brief
Modernise a 2 BHK without turning it into every other 2 BHK, and keep six pieces of inherited teak in daily use.
The hard part
The teak is beautiful and enormous. Two pieces would not have fitted back through the door had we ever removed them.
What changed
The old pieces read as deliberate rather than left over, and the family kept the dining table they grew up at.
The decisions
Three moves did
most of the work
01
Matched the new joinery to the old, then stopped
Two new pieces in the same teak. Everything else in a paler wood, so the inheritance stays the loudest thing in the room.
02
Restored in place
Sanded and re-oiled inside the flat under sheeting. Cheaper than moving it, and the only option that fitted the doors.
03
Lightened everything else
Pale floor, bone walls, no upper cabinets in the living room. The teak needed air more than it needed company.
Before and after
The same room,
eight months apart
The rooms
Photographed a year
after handover
Specified
Every finish, named
The written specification runs to eleven pages. This is the part of it you can see from the door.
- Burma teakInherited, restored in place#7A4E28
- Pale ashAll new joinery#C8B398
- BoneWalls throughout#EFEAE1
- OxideOne wall in the second bedroom#9C4A2F
Something like this,
in your flat?
Send us the floor plan and the two things that annoy you most about the space. We will tell you honestly what it would take.