Where stars dwell...

How has your experience been with the second season?

It’s been a very joyous experience, getting the conceptualisation stories for celebrity houses. Each of the celebrities we have on the show is unique and impactful, and the show is all about getting to know these people, using design as a tool. The show is impromptu and every episode has a unique content.

What were your observations while reviewing the celebrities’ homes?

While reviewing the celebrities’ homes, I realised that it’s an amplified version of the life an average person has, spending a regular day inside his house. One has to look at the details of the design and at each and every article to analyse what does it take to make a particular celebrity happy. Also these things tell us something about their personalities which one wouldn’t know otherwise, for example Diana Penty’s house has light colours all around, Dia Mirza’s house’s seating is very intimate, where people can sit closer to each other to have warmer conversations and Karan Johar’s home office has a particular kind of furniture that allows one to work very comfortably.

Tell us some easy to implement tricks of designing that can make the house of a common man look like that of a celebrity.

There are simple things that can be done both in terms of function and treatment. Looking at the functional aspect first, everyone has limited space these days, so the question is about maximising the limit. In one of the episodes where we’re doing a makeover for Karan Johar, we talk about a home office where we don’t have space for one. So the question about managing space or looking for another way out is answered in that episode. Moving on to the treatment aspect, most people think that designing is a budget oriented task, but I always tell them that they can inexpensively express themselves by visiting thrift stores and picking up articles that give them most impact, for things like paint and wallpaper or for stuff required to do landscaping and lighting.

A common man tends to agree to most of the things recommended by the designer, even if he doesn’t like it himself. Do the celebrities too have a similar approach?

The celebrities work on a larger scale or a bigger platform, but they too have the similar hopes and aspirations as of a common man. Most of the celebrities are opinionated and put in what they like or dislike, and are quite expressive. The dialogue between a designer and a celebrity often gets heated up because both of them have strong opinions. But the good part here is that these types of discussions eventually lead to great results.

People living in residential apartments aren’t able to enjoy the sight of beautiful trees and plants around them. Suggest some ways so that one could be close to nature.

This question is answered when we do a makeover for Dia Mirza’s house. Being an eco-warrior, she has a unique take on the green aspect. So we have taken it as a theme for her house and tried to make the planter in the balcony and the window near it, related to each other and most attractive. She has placed a particular kind of plants in her balcony that attract birds, bees and butterflies, which has made the scene outside the window very colourful. We have made a greenery breach between the inside and the outside of her house to make the green aspect more elaborative.

(Design HQ Season 2 airs every Friday, 8 pm on Fox Life)