As every homeowner knows, or soon finds out, building a new home is generally easier than purchasing and remodelling an existing home. Especially when you have very specific ideas about what your dream home should look like and strong beliefs in traditions like vaastu.
So when P V Giri, Chairman, Windflower Spa and Resorts, his wife Rukmini, and two children had to move into a home they purchased in a leafy, upmarket locality in Mysore, they realised it was quite a challenge. And they faced it, working on the house with patience and persistence for over a year, and in the process pooling all their ideas and plans. The result is a spacious and elegant home with minimalism in both structural and décor elements. It is an aesthetic blend of the old and new, the residents all have the greatest respect for tradition and at the same time, being widely travelled around the world, have a sense of modern trends and contemporary style.
Vaastu compliance
When they began, the Giris were very clear about two things. The entire home, or at least as far as possible, would have to be vaastu-compliant. Secondly, the two independent units wouldn’t work––they wanted a single, spacious, interconnected home. Besides that, they had many, smaller items on their wish list for their dream home. They set about working on this To-Do list systematically with certain changes based on ideas that came on the spur of the moment.
 First, they repositioned rooms and sub-areas of rooms in accordance with vaastu. The puja, dining room and kitchen were accordingly created/modified. For making the home a single, seamless unit, other structural changes were made especially with regard to entrance and staircases.
 The windows of the house, previously owned by a traditional Muslim family, were understandably very small. The Giris wanted larger ones so that there would be lots of natural light and breeze in the house and also, this is a vastu-compliant feature.  So, the windows were redone into the current floor-to-ceiling ones you see in the two halls and dining room, while the bedrooms and kitchen windows too were expanded considerably. The net result of opening up the house to the elements was not only an unhindered flow of sunlight and breeze through the house making it bright and airy, but an impression of expansiveness––the house began looking larger than it was.
 For the same reason, the confining walls of the hall both upstairs and downstairs, were knocked off creating a large hall each. The lower level hall is what the entrance leads into and is a drawing room where guest are received. The expansive room above this, with wooden flooring is more of a family living room. It also reflects the Giris’ inclination to  minimalism. The room has very little furniture and the seating is compromised of a floor-level foam bed in a corner and a few large cushions thrown in the centre. The main décor elements are a side table with antique/old objects like gramophone, globe, telescope and old typewriter, besides a few accessories sourced from the family members’ travels around the world. There is an interesting painting at the landing here––one created by their daughter Mahalakshmi  and set within an unusual window-like frame, an idea that was her mother Rukmini’s brainchild. 
Regal corner
There is a little ‘regal corner’ in the drawing room––an ornate sofa and antique wooden chest. The back of this throne-like seat is actually the headboard of a cot. To this was attached matching front legs carefully chosen from a furniture store. The handrests were commissioned from a carpenter such that, in appearance and materials, these fitted in perfectly with the rest of the sofa. Uphostery and a few cushions in raw silk and the Tanjore paintings and antique chest placed around it completed the look. 
 Like most Indians, the Giris are a devout family who believe in the power of prayer and rituals. Scattered around the home are many little corners dedicated to God. Adjoining the dining room is a small and simple puja room. In the spacious and immaculately maintained backyard, the customary tulsi plant gets an unusual setting––it is contained within a granite pot designed to resemble a large, fully bloomed lotus.
 And Ganesha gets his own exclusive corner in one side of the garden. A terracotta Ganesha is embedded in a wall with terracotta cladding. A festoon of mango leaves is strung overhead and a few more Ganesha idols including an interesting reclining one, gaze down at you from either side.
Actually, the Giris had wanted a painting there but the CAVA student on project work whom they commissioned to do this area of the garden advised that a terracotta statue in a matching wall was the best option.
 Of course, not every feature of the old home was incompatible with their plans––for example, the five bedrooms of the old home were retained. Neither was everything easy to accomplish and certain compromises had to be made. Rukmini always wanted a home with a central wooden courtyard for a Thotte Mane look, and had collected old wooden pillars from a friend. This was to be created in the hall but the very solid and strong walls of the house couldn’t be opened up and, besides, it would affect the upper floor. So in order to create something similar, a pergola was constructed fronting the dining room and a charming brass urli - sourced from the same place - was placed beside it.  The wooden pillars were used to create the open-air bar behind the house - a brainchild of son Tharun and daughter-in-law Shruti. This cosy corner has become not only a place for parties but also occasional family get-togethers.