Best of the Best: India's 10 Design Destinations that Deserve Your Attention

LIVING GALLERIES

India’s most compelling design stores are blurring the lines between galleries, ateliers and boutiques. Retail is undergoing a revolution, and design is leading the charge. Across India, home and interior stores are transforming from transactional spaces into immersive environments that feel closer to galleries and ateliers. These are places where curation matters as much as commerce, and where the line between art and utility blurs. In a world rushing towards the virtual, each of these spaces invites the customer to feel, touch, smell and experience before they buy. Here’s our edit of the most compelling design destinations across the country.

ANANTAYA BY AKFD – Jaipur

Located in Jaipur's elegant Narain Niwas Palace, Anantaya is the brainchild of AKFD’s Ankur and Geetanjali Kasliwal. The brand pays homage to India’s traditional crafts, including thatera metalwork, birdcage wirework, and miniature painting. This has translated into (several) UNESCO award-winning collections that are ideal for contemporary living. Textiles, tableware, furniture and gifts are carefully displayed museum-style, with placards describing crafts and materials used. 

DESIGNEST – Indore

The First thing you notice when you walk into Design Est's studio is the double-height sine-wave partition, made of free-standing Ashwood strips. Conceptualized and created by PS Design, it adds drama. It also neatly divides the space that holds several high-spec kitchen and wardrobe ideas. Part art installation and part guide, this partition helps customers see—and feel—the mood they want to create within their own homes.

AQUANT – Mumbai

Achingly stylish is how one can describe the sorbet hued sanitaryware experience centre by Aquant. Designed by MuseLabs, the store is all curves and textures; the 12-foot walls and other surfaces are painted in cool mint, which serves as the perfect monochromatic backdrop to view sanitary fittings sourced from India and around the world. The oxblood ceiling and black terrazzo floor are the ideal counterfoil. The store layout allows you to see the entire space from any point, yet invites you to wander through the store, while picturing what the piece would look like in your personal space.

ESSENTIA HOME – Gurugram

Spread across 25,000 square feet, the experience centre offers bespoke home solutions that extend from interior design to decor and furnishings. Clients can walk through curated layouts and interact with products, ranging from hand-made furniture to table linen, art and even specially formulated home fragrances—all to understand what suits their tastes and needs. Most products are developed in-house by the family-run firm and follow a contemporary, minimalist sensibility.

HOUSE OF THINGS -  Udaipur

The online purveyor of ultra-cool décor and design finally opened its first offline store in Udaipur last March. Spread over 25,000 square feet, the store is designed like a gallery, and houses décor and collectables from over 200 of India’s leading home brands. Look out for unique pieces by architect Rooshad Shroff, Ikai Asai, Nama Home, Clayman, Adhyam Handwoven and more.

KALAKAARI HAATH – Hyderabad

When Mumbai-based Kalakaari Haath (KH), which specialises in wall features and home textiles, opened its second flagship store in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, they were looking for ways to showcase their signature blend of contemporary Indian design rooted in craft and narrative. The result is a light and airy space done up in soft pastels, rich textures, and bold motifs. As the light shifts throughout the day, the mood of the store transforms—from bright and energising to warm and intimate—echoing the rhythm of a lived-in space. Keep an eye out for the brand’s embroidered wall art collection, where each piece is hand-stitched in bold colours and Indian motifs.

NILAYA ANTHOLOGY – Mumbai

Best described as a platform for luxury and collectable design, the store is Asian Paints’ ode to all that is beautiful. Spread across 1,00,000 square feet, Nilaya Anthology offers a gorgeous setting—designed by architect Rooshad Shroff— for discovering furniture, bathward, textiles, and antiques from India and across the world. Look for exclusive tableware by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, heirloom objects by Vikram Goel, or ceramics by Jacqueline Leighton Boyce and Christabel McGreevy.

 PEACOCK LIFE – Karjat

The Wildly maximalist Peacock Home store is tucked among the bungalows of Karjat, near Mumbai. It is the newest in designer Shabnam Gupta’s chain of stores that celebrate fine Indian craftsmanship. The converted farmhouse, painted in electric hues, is a treasure trove of vintage chandeliers, hand-carved side tables, metal, stone and wood artefacts and more.

PRISM LIGHTS – Bengaluru

A 3,000 square Feet space wholly dedicated to the art of clever illumination, Prism Lights offers customers an immersive shopping experience. Designed by Studio Ruh, the minimalist space mimics the flow of a museum exhibit, and is wrapped in soothing peach, offering the perfect backdrop to discover statement lighting.

MAGARI  - Kochi

A Fourth outpost for the furniture brand, Magari is housed in a spacious 9,000 square feet two-storey colonial bungalow called Pappali House. The space itself has been restored and set up to allow clients to experience how design is lived with, as well as how it can transform old spaces to fit new purposes. In sync with the brand’s ethos of breathing new life into traditional design, the space showcases several collections, each rooted in South India’s rich design codes. The Aayutha Collection, for example, is inspired by the culture of the 400 BCE Sangam Tamil era; furniture mimics the geometric shape of the Tamil script and the stone-carving art from Mamallapuram.