Art is no longer a highbrow indulgence reserved for influential collectors or something that is tucked away in stark galleries. Today’s design enthusiasts are rewriting that narrative, embracing art as an expressive part of their homes and often doing it themselves. Curating art at home is a nuanced exercise, capitalising on ideal heights, strong framing, and the quiet power of composition. We ask popular designers, collectors, and stylists to craft a definitive guide, turning bare walls into vignettes that reflect your story and sensibility.

Jaiveer Johal, art collector and entrepreneur in Chennai

Jaiveer Johal
| Photo Credit:
Talib Chitalwala

A celebrated name in the Indian art fraternity, Jaiveer Johal’s personal collection is guided by the Navarasa — the nine essential emotions that underpin Indian classical art. Through the Avtar Foundation for the Arts (AFTA), Johal brings modern and contemporary art to Chennai, and Chennai to the world. Recent artists who have captured his attention include Lakshmi Madhavan, Baaraan Ijlal, and G. Gurunathan.

“My aesthetic has always leaned towards art that defies genre — it must tug at my heartstrings. Be prepared to live with the work you hang. Art at home should be meditative,” says the entrepreneur. His trusted advice on composition? Blend 2D and 3D works to create depth, where modern and traditional elements coexist.

Jaiveer Johal’s monolithic dining area.
| Photo Credit:
Talib Chitalwala

An easy mistake Johal cautions first-timers against? Treating homes like hotels. “Art isn’t acquired overnight. Display must be intentional, and a home should evolve around its art,” he avers. The art collector encourages collecting art through a personal lens — pieces found on travels, in flea markets, or tied to memory. “Look for works that bring your walls to life and tell a story. It does not have to be expensive to be worthwhile,” he shares. In Chennai, Johal swears by professional framing and art treatment. “Museum glass helps preserve the art’s demeanour. Acid-free mounting is critical even in the backing selected. Bring out pieces every six to eight months and inspect their backs for fungal growth,” he advises. Another rule of thumb? “Art displayed in homes is not meant to emulate a gallery. Something that always works for me is bottom lighting for subtle impact and including table lamps for an immersive ambience.”

Pro tip

Invest in museum glass and bottom lighting: “Museum glass helps preserve the art’s demeanour. Acid-free mounting is critical even in the backing selected,” says Johal.

Fymin Naif and Nimitha Harith, interior stylists in Chennai

Fymin Naif and Nimitha Harith
| Photo Credit:
Phosart Studio

Living by the adage of ‘better halves,’ interior stylists Fymin Naif and Nimitha Harith are the creative forces behind immaculately styled residences in the country. Their approach towards curating art is heartfelt. “Art should evoke something personal — a sense of belonging, memory, or roots. It helps to remember that no choice is burdened by permanence,” shares Harith.

The duo ensures art is installed at typically 50 to 60 inches from the floor. “Art hung too high feels disconnected from the space,” notes Naif. “When placed in context with furniture, ensure a clearing of six to 10 inches between the bottom of the art and the top of the furniture. An easy way to gauge size is to let art span two-thirds the furniture’s width,” she illustrates.

A living space by VM Design Works. 
| Photo Credit:
Phosart Studio

The team sees the gallery wall as a ‘personality puzzle’. They start with a bigger piece at the centre of the wall and work outwards. Their pro tip: create and edit your layout on the floor, freeze the composition, then execute. Strategically placed spotlights or floor lamps can elevate the presence of displayed art. The works of artists Sachin Samson, Nida Jahain, and Anjali Ponni Rajkumar have intrigued the two recently.

“We love peppering wall-scapes with photographs, pressed flowers, and heirloom objects. Allow two to three inches of gap between frames,” Naif adds. Framing, Harith notes, is an unsung hero, especially in coastal cities. “UV-protective glass, acid-free mounting, and sealed backing are our go-to checks. They prevent yellowing, warping, and fading.” More miniature artworks shine in styled clusters, especially when arranged in odd numbers. Pair them with vases, candles, books, or curios.

Pro trip

Mind the inches. Ensure art is installed at typically 50 inches to 60 inches from the floor, says Naif.

Vinithra Amarnathan, principal designer at Weespaces in Bengaluru

Vinithra Amarnathan
| Photo Credit:
Kuber Shah

The signature of a Weespaces project has always embodied the balance between modern nuances and personalised details. “Art has always been an integral part of my design process, almost subconsciously,” says designer Vinithra Amarnathan. “Over the past eight years, this instinct has shaped every home’s story and become central to our team’s ethos.” For the novice, she recommends a trusted approach: A common thread in art, as a form of storytelling, always works. “The style, colour palette, or framing choices can be made consistent,” she highlights, and recommends a size between half and two-thirds of the furniture’s width for oversized art paired with furniture. In moody spaces, single or grouped miniature prints can create a striking focal point with an interplay of scale. In Bengaluru’s drier conditions, the designer uses anti-glare glass for artwork exposed to sunlight. She recommends pre-treatment for textured installations (mixed media, plaster, fabric) to ensure durability and to control potential moisture buildup.

 A Laxman Aelay piece at The Eclectic Mix and Match Home.
| Photo Credit:
Nayan Soni

“Typically, the artwork’s centre, about five feet from the floor, is ideal. Frame choice, mount colour, and thickness are crucial to realising the vision. When working with multiple pieces, I create an imaginary perimeter to compose each piece within,” she explains. Some of Amarnathan’s recent curatorial projects feature works of artists Harisha Chennangod, Richa Kashelkar, and Deborah Velasquez. She loves introducing art in unconventional spaces. “Dining consoles, kitchen shelves, powder baths — the idea is to unexpectedly layer everyday spaces with art to instantly elevate them,” she explains. She often highlights pieces with picture lights in intimate nooks and adjustable track lights in communal areas.

Pro tip

Amarnathan recommends a size between half and two-thirds of the furniture’s width for oversized art paired with furniture

The writer is an architect and design specialist.

Published – June 20, 2025 06:30 pm IST

Cities primarily have people who consume finite natural resources such as land, water, coal-generated power, sand, stone, soil, and timber.
| Photo Credit: file photo

Most of us have heard the story of Aladdin’s lamp, the tale of a poor boy from ancient China who is picked up by a sorcerer from the Maghreb to retrieve a magic lamp that grants every desire. Aladdin overpowers the sorcerer and lives happily with the lamp.

Metaphorically, we treat our cities like Aladdin’s lamp. They seem to provide everything we wish for, but unlike the lamp, which grants only what is asked, cities also give us what we don’t ask for. We get success and stress, fame and failure, power and pressure, love and loneliness, income and isolation, comfort and congestion, solutions and confusion, goods and garbage — the list goes on.

We view cities as oceans of opportunity, ladders to success, and engines of growth. But what if this relentless growth is leading us towards self-destruction? Aladdin’s lamp remains unchanged in the story but can ever-expanding cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad sustain their vitality, or will they one day lose their sheen and decline? Can our decision-makers plan for the future?

Unlike rural economies, which draw from direct resources such as agriculture, animal husbandry, mining, and fisheries, cities thrive on secondary sources like services, sales, marketing, management, and governance. Urban centres are primarily consumers, especially of finite natural resources such as land, water, coal-generated power, sand, stone, soil, and timber.

Can ever-expanding cities like Bengaluru sustain their vitality?
| Photo Credit:
file photo

The per capita consumption of these resources in cities far exceeds that in rural areas — not just through direct usage but also through indirect means: purchasing manufactured goods, residing in constructed buildings, travelling in fuel-powered vehicles, relying on air conditioning, dining out, and engaging in countless other activities.

Is limiting urbanisation essential for a sustainable future? This is a debatable question. Even if it is theoretically possible, will we do it? Current trends do not suggest any slowing down. By 2050, India’s urban population is projected to reach 68%. If we continue with our existing economic models, lifestyle choices, governance structures, pursuit of wealth, and relentless chase for comfort, urban expansion will only accelerate.

The least we can do — for the sake of future generations — is to adopt simpler, more sustainable lifestyles.

Take Bengaluru, for instance. Most policies, proposals, and administrative efforts focus on solving urban problems — be it traffic, garbage management, or water supply. While these initiatives are necessary, they inadvertently contribute to further urban expansion. More projects lead to more jobs, attracting more people, which, in turn, creates new challenges that demand further solutions. This cycle results in endless meetings, seminars, reports, and conferences by the government.

This is not to deny the possible benefits of more seminars, but to suggest to implement the available ideas first, think differently and try a paradigm shift. We need to sustain our cities as livable cities first, to sustain them climatically.

(The writer is an urban designer, heritage conservationist and ecological architect in Bengaluru)

A wall art on the roadside wall of a house in Thiruvananthapuram featuring pink bougainvillea and a headshot portrait
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A smiling girl flaunts her hairdo resplendent with pink bougainvillea. The girl, painted on the roadside facing wall of a house at Thirupuram on the NH Bypass 66 in Thiruvananthapuram district, has been turning heads for a while now.

The house, Santhosh Bhavan, belongs to Santhosh Kumar, an entrepreneur, and the eye-catching art work has been done by freelance artist, Manoj Kumar S, who is Santhosh’s childhood friend and neighbour. The portrait of the girl has been done in such a way that it appears as if her windswept hair is adorned with flowers and foliage. Her smile and twinkling eyes add to the beauty of the work set against rows of eugenia plants.

Santhosh had planted the bougainvillea in his garden, close to the roadside wall, six years ago. “My wife Rekha found a twig of bougainvillea in a garbage dump near the District Collectorate. It eventually grew into a sturdy plant with the pink bracts and blooms, spreading across the wall on to the road. We put up an iron frame for support and pruned the plant in such a way as to form a canopy. That’s when I got this idea of drawing a face on the wall, the inspiration being a picture I saw on Pinterest,” says Santhosh, who runs a cafe, Sara Susans, adjacent to his house.

A wall art on the roadside wall of a house in Thiruvananthapuram featuring pink bougainvillea and a headshot portrait
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The present portrait, done with acrylic paint, was made a few months ago. “The first portrait was done some three years ago. That face was different from the present one. But it faded and so he wanted me to redo it. We decided upon a different shape for the face since the entire plant had tilted a bit, so too the foliage and canopy. The new work had to complement the shape of the whole structure,” Manoj says.

Manoj Kumar S with the art work
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

He took two days to complete the work. “I have been doing art work in pre-primary schools where I usually draw cartoon characters and faces that appeal to tiny tots. So it was quite natural for me to select a happy face for this art work,” says Manoj, a self-taught artist who has been primarily doing graffiti for political parties and various organisations, under the name of Drisya.

Written close to the painting is Prakrithiyum manushyanum othuchernnappol (When Nature and man came together), emphasising how life and art are connected to Nature.

This was the first headshot portrait done on the roadside wall 
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Santhosh says the first painting did not get as much attention as the present one. The latter went viral on social media handles. “Vloggers and photographers keep posting about this work. Several people still turn up for photoshoots, especially pre-wedding shoots,” Santhosh says.

Santhosh Kumar and wife Rekha Santhosh near the wall art on the wall of their house in Thirupuram in Thiruvananthapuram district
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

He has also arranged bougainvilleas in different shapes in his garden.