Interior design · India

Interior design in India. We make built environments better.

An interior either resolves the building it sits inside or it decorates around the problem. We have spent 30 years on the first approach, which is why our interiors are still working long after the finishes have dated.

You are commissioning an interior because a space is not doing its job: a home that no longer fits how your family lives, a workplace built for a way of working that has moved on, an asset whose value is held back by its plan. Those are architectural questions wearing an interiors label. We bring the same rigour to the inside of a building that we bring to its structure, so the decisions that matter get made at plan stage where they are still cheap. What you get is an interior that holds up to daily use, to the climate, and to time.

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What we do

Interior design services we deliver in India

India does not have one interiors market. A workplace in a Grade A tower, a home in a warm-humid coastal city and a retail unit in a mall are three different technical problems, and the humidity, the monsoon and the way households actually use space cut across all of them. We start from the plan in every case.

Residential interiors.

We craft homes with cultural intelligence and for lasting livability, planned around how your household moves through a day rather than around a reference image.

The result is a home that feels correct before anyone notices the finishes.

Workplace and office interiors.

We design working environments that people are willing to travel for, planned for concentration, collaboration and the hours between.

Occupant wellbeing is set at brief stage, where it costs nothing, rather than certified at the end.

Hospitality interiors.

We deliver hotel, resort and dining environments that guests choose to return to.

They are tuned to experience and to the operator's economics in equal measure.

Retail and commercial interiors.

We create environments that move people the way the business needs.

Retail interiors in India →

Vastu-compliant planning.

Where your brief calls for it, we resolve vastu principles against orientation, daylight and services from concept stage.

Compliance is designed in rather than negotiated late.

Our work

Our interior design work

Our interior design portfolio spans hospitality, commercial and residential typologies. Our first Indian commission was in Mumbai and a further commission in Hyderabad is on the boards and remains confidential, so the work below is from the Gulf and is named with its real location.

Interior design in Kolkata →

Saudi Arabia Retail Precinct, Saudi Arabia

A retail development in the Kingdom where we developed the interior design strategy across a multi-unit retail environment.

Retail planning and customer journey design for a high-footfall Saudi context
Material specification suited to extreme heat, solar gain, and dust conditions
Interior programme coordinated as part of a single integrated commission

NJD's Heart Tower Retail Interiors, Riyadh

A large-scale commercial tower in Riyadh where we developed the retail interior environments within the wider mixed-use programme.

Riyadh city centre location, with the brief complexity that entails
Retail interiors resolved within an integrated architecture and interiors commission
Multi-disciplinary design services from Concept through to Construction Documentation

Arad Hotel, Bahrain

A hotel commission where we developed the interior design programme across the full guest experience envelope.

Hospitality interior scope from arrival through to guest room and F&B environments
Material specification and FF&E coordination for a Gulf hospitality brief

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Place

Designing for India

Indian interiors work is shaped by a small number of forces, and they run through almost every brief we take.

Interiors designed by people qualified to change the building.	Our India studio is directed by Ratnadeep Roy Choudhury, registered with the Council of Architecture under CA/2004/34692. On a national brief that means the same qualification standard applies whether your project is in Kolkata, Mumbai or anywhere else we are appointed.
One team for the interior and the building.	Most interiors briefs in India are split between an architect and a separate interiors supplier, and the joint between them is where cost and quality leak. We hold both, so the plan, the services and the finishes are resolved by the same people against the same drawing set.
Thirty years of interiors at scale.	Our interiors work runs from tower floorplates and hotel lobbies to retail precincts. That range matters on an Indian brief, where an interior often has to resolve a base build that was designed by someone else and is already under way.
Cultural fluency	From vastu requirements to joint-family planning and how a household receives guests, resolved at plan stage rather than negotiated late

Because we are architects first, we read these demands structurally. Our interior design in Kolkata page covers the studio's Indian base and local delivery, and our residential architecture in India page shows how a building and its interiors are designed as one commission.

Sustainability

Sustainability certifications

We align with international sustainability standards on every project, whether or not formal certification is required by the client brief.

GRIHA · India's national green building rating, developed with TERI and endorsed by the Government of India, applicable to fit-out as well as base build.

IGBC · Indian Green Building Council ratings, the certification most widely specified by Indian developers and occupiers. We are members of the Council.

WELL · building standard focused on occupant health through air quality, lighting, acoustics, and materials.

Proof

Why clients trust us

30 years of GCC and international experience
A suite of projects delivered across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, India, and beyond
MIPIM Future Projects Award, Office category
RIBA-chartered practice

Process

How we work

We follow a clear, collaborative process from the first conversation right up to ribbon cutting. No stage is delegated; the same team members stay on your project throughout.

Discovery. We start by listening carefully. A meeting or series of meetings to understand your brief, your constraints, and what success looks like for you and the people your project will serve.

Concept and design. We develop design concepts in close collaboration with you, working through agreed stages from Concept Design through to Detailed Design and Construction Documentation. You sign off at the conclusion of each stage.

Delivery. We act as lead consultant, coordinating engineering inputs and specialist consultants on your behalf, managing procurement, and guiding the tender process and contractor selection.

Construction and handover. We stay on your project throughout the build, monitoring quality and design integrity, managing commissioning and handover, and supporting you through the Defects Liability Period.

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Why nicholas.design

Why nicholas.design for your project

Global standards, delivered from Kolkata.

RIBA-chartered design excellence from a studio in New Town that works to your calendar, your approvals, and your site conditions, not to a brief interpreted from another time zone.

The principal you meet is the principal on your project.

No hand-off after the pitch. Nicholas Bonaventure and the senior team stay involved from the first brief to the final handover.

Architecture that belongs to its place.

We design for the monsoon, for humidity, and for the way Indian households actually live, embedded from concept stage rather than corrected later.

nicholas.design studio at the Bahrain World Trade Center, Manama

Home market

A studio in Kolkata

Our India studio is in Mani Casadona, New Town, in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. New Town is itself a planned township and a Smart Cities Mission development under NKDA, which means the questions our neighbours are working through, density, drainage, public realm, climate resilience, are the same questions we bring to your project.

Working from here changes what we can offer. We read the site ourselves, we sit in the approvals meetings, and we are on your calendar rather than three time zones away. Design leads every commission we take on, and that principle does not soften because a project is far from where the studio was founded.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do you work on interiors across India, or only near your studio?

Across India.

Our studio is in Kolkata and our first Indian commission was in Mumbai. Distance changes how a project is run, not whether we take it, and we are explicit at the outset about how site visits and approvals attendance will work on your project.

What is the difference between an interior designer and an architecture-led interiors service?

Scope of what can be changed.

An architecture-led service can alter the thing causing the problem: the plan, the structure, the services. That matters when the brief involves reworking a layout rather than refreshing it, changing the use of a space, reconciling vastu requirements against daylight and services, or any work that needs statutory approval. Where a brief is genuinely a surface refresh, a decorator is the right appointment and we will say so.

Do you design to GRIHA or IGBC standards?

Yes, both.

We work to whichever your project requires, and we apply the same thinking whether or not you are pursuing formal certification. On interiors, the decisions that carry a rating are mostly about daylight, ventilation, materials and air quality, and those are set in the plan.

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Can you work on an interior when the building is already under construction?

Yes, and often that is when we are appointed.

We read the committed structure and services first, identify what can still be changed and at what cost, and are direct about what has already been fixed by earlier decisions. Late appointment narrows the options; it rarely removes them.

Office architecture in India →

Do you handle vastu requirements?

Yes, where your brief calls for it.

We treat vastu as a design requirement to be resolved properly, alongside orientation, structure, daylight and services. Brought in at concept stage it costs nothing. Retrofitted after the plan is fixed is where compromise starts.

What sectors do you cover?

Residential, workplace, retail and hospitality. The method is consistent across all four, and on larger schemes we handle the interior and base-build briefs together.

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