Is this India’s answer to Ikea?

Godrej cupboards, scooters and Doordarshan — all this stuff may have been cool in your dad’s college days.

Godrej cupboards, scooters and

HT Image

Doordarshan

— all this stuff may have been cool in your dad’s college days. But designer Krsna Mehta is working on changing that. Collaborating with Godrej’s home décor line, Mehta has introduced a funky yet feasible collection of sofas, kitchen cabinets and yes, those steel cupboards too.

“The new Godrej is trying to serve a new market. They have really cool stuff in their stores; it’s just that we don’t know about it.”

Mehta, known for his outlandish designs, had to tone it down for the mass market. “People might tell me that the designs aren’t popping,” he claims. “But I’ve consciously designed something that will sell. A

popat

green cupboard with fuchsia flowers won’t fly off the shelves.”

Mehta also debunks notions that Indians don’t spend on home décor. “I’m decorating houses to the tune of crores,” he reveals. “Indians are spending money like never before, but they don’t have the sensibility to buy what suits them. They look at a page in a magazine and they want the whole page to be replicated.”