A contemporary Australian home shaped by Indian culture, family and gathering
There is an immediate feeling when you walk into Ekta and Rahul’s home. A sense of calm, warmth and welcome.
Ekta and her son Aayaansh hosted us for the morning, generously sharing the stories and rituals that have shaped their home, Aangan.
The name Aangan itself comes from the traditional Indian courtyard around which family life unfolds. It is a place where children play, conversations happen, prayers are offered and generations come together.
“It’s gathering,” Ekta says. “It’s bringing people together. It’s a place where everyone comes together and shares love and stories and nostalgia.”
Working closely with their architect and builder, Ekta and Rahul designed the home around the principles of Vastu, considering the relationship between the home, its orientation and natural elements including fire, earth, air and space.
“Every corner of the home has a relevance,” Ekta explains. “And that’s why you will feel a sense of peace as soon as you walk in.”
That connection to India begins at the front door, where brass handles were sourced to match those on Ekta’s parents’ home in Mumbai. Inside, family history continues through her father’s paintings, silk curtains originally made in Mumbai and Ekta’s own growing creative practice.
Ekta began sculpting two years ago after feeling she needed to “start playing again”. That led to painting and her exploration of Mithila art, including a triptych based around the sun, moon and earth.
“Our ancestors knew something that we are only just discovering now, mindfulness,” she says.
Her creativity also extends into the architecture itself.
In the main living space, a bespoke linen wallpaper anchors the room. Ekta reshaped the original composition with banana and mango trees, cows, birds and references to Indian culture before working with a local artisan in Manly, Queensland, to bring it to life.
The birds move through the landscape as if leaving their nests in the morning and returning again in the evening, bringing a sense of movement and storytelling into the room.
Nearby, the dedicated prayer room keeps another part of family life embedded in the home. At its centre is the child form of Lord Krishna, with food offered before meals and clothes and jewellery selected each morning.
“This is specific to what we choose to do as a family,” Ekta says.
TH Brown entered the story before Aangan itself existed.
Ekta first discovered the Trend Module after TH Brown contacted her business, Great Creates.
“I love the lounges that you have,” she remembers saying. “At some point in my life, I know I will be upgrading my lounges.”
Later, when she and Rahul bought their block of land, Aangan was still what Ekta describes as “a big patch of dirt”.
“I’m ready to buy,” she said.
Ekta and Rahul became the first Australian family to purchase the TH Brown Trend Module as a complete lounge configuration. The Trend and Rondo were among the first furniture decisions made for the home, with TH Brown fabric swatches travelling with them as other materials, colours and furniture were selected.
“They went with us everywhere,” Ekta says.
It was a genuine pleasure to spend the morning with Ekta and Aayaansh and to be welcomed into a home carrying so much of the family’s culture, creativity and story.
As Ekta says:
“If you do it with love, people can sense that energy.”
In Aangan, they can.
Explore more from our In Residence series.
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Photographer - Louise Roche - The Design Villa
