<p>Several contemporary designers are exploring how furniture and decor are becoming mediums to narrate artistic traditions across eras.</p>.<p>Anurag Kanoria, Director of The Great Eastern Home, a firm specialising in handcrafted furniture, shares the stories behind two of his favourite pieces and his approach to blending classic design with contemporary ideas. Kanoria’s Antique Pedestal captures the essence of French Baroque. Crafted from wood, it has a petal-shaped base and its surface is decorated with carvings of vines, leaves, and flowers — the kind of details Baroque art once used to symbolise growth and abundance.</p>.<p>His French Contemporary table uses the style of the early 2000s, blending modern French minimalism with classic touches. A sleek bronze base holds up a round faux-leather top, offering a contrast. Although contemporary, it hints at the balanced, graceful lines of traditional European furniture. Kanoria says most of their work draws from major European design eras — Baroque, Rococo, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Queen Anne, and Art Deco. For antique pieces, Kanoria usually sticks closely to the originals, carefully studying the materials and colours. His contemporary works, on the other hand, give those old styles a modern twist. But even when updating classic designs, the basics stay the same. “When something is well-proportioned, it just feels right — you may not know why, but you sense it,” says Kanoria. He sticks to those ‘golden ratios’, even in modern work. Trends fade because they often ignore those principles. “Classics last because they connect with something deeper in us,” he adds. And as old crafts and skills slowly disappear, Kanoria feels it’s important to keep those traditions alive, a pursuit that continues to shape his work.</p>.<p>Decorative but functional</p>.<p>This conversation between the past and the present continues through other designers, too. At Avian, a firm specialising in handcrafted heritage furniture, Managing Director Pradeep Singh Puri shares the stories behind two pieces that similarly reimagine classical influences for a modern setting — a vintage-style telephone and a monumental mirror. Fashioned with the elegance of 20th-century European telephony in mind — a time when art was as important as function — Puri’s vintage-style telephone is crafted in solid wood with ornate brass detailing. It recalls the opulence of antique parlour phones once found in stately homes and royal offices. Modern push-button technology and a digital display are cleverly sculpted within a rotary-inspired dial, while the handset rests on a classic cradle hook. Decorative yet fully functional, it was envisioned as a conversation piece for contemporary homes — a nostalgic artefact with practical use. People connect to it because it reminds them of an object they grew up seeing, while the younger lot loves the drama of the form, he shares.</p>.<p>Puri’s monumental mirror is no less dramatic. Made from solid teak, its frame holds a detailed panel showing three figures under a tree — a nod to 19th-century Roman-British pastoral scenes. A woman clutches a cornucopia, one figure gestures as if in conversation, and another reclines, completely at ease. This tableau is crowned with deeply detailed carving and flanked by full-height, rope-fluted columns — motifs drawn directly from Baroque design language. A distinctive wood-burning technique was applied to parts of the frame, giving it a subtle, smoked finish through controlled fire exposure. The balance of proportion, ornament and story is what gives it its character.</p>.<p><strong>Visual storytelling</strong></p>.<p>While Puri’s creations look to early European motifs, other designers are finding inspiration closer to home. Veeram Shah of the multidisciplinary studio Design ni Dukaan and curator Sona Reddy offer a uniquely Indian lens on this dialogue with history — a set of Victorian-inspired cabinets fashioned from Bombay Blackwood, a prized and now-restricted material historically used in colonial-era Indian furniture.</p>.<p>Its defining feature is a mosaic panel titled Swing in a Sari, inspired by artist Namrata Kumar’s prints celebrating the strength, grace, and resilience of Indian women. Her works often depict women in joyful, unguarded moments, which Sona reimagined through the medium of china mosaic — paying homage to the elaborate design language of the colonial era while adding a contemporary voice through mosaic and visual storytelling. In Sona’s reinterpretation, the panels depict women in moments of freedom and confidence. One woman is caught mid-swing, her orange and pink sari with yellow detailing billowing around her. Another leans casually to the left in a deep green sari patterned with florals, a blue scarf tied at her head. The third strikes a mid-swing pose as well, her hands flung to the other side, dressed in a green and black checked sari, a red blouse, and gold earrings.</p>.<p>Together, these works feel like portals through time, not just framed period art, but also objects we can touch and experience. They reveal how people once understood beauty and proportion. Times change, styles shift, but pieces like these quietly carry the essence of their age.</p>
<p>Several contemporary designers are exploring how furniture and decor are becoming mediums to narrate artistic traditions across eras.</p>.<p>Anurag Kanoria, Director of The Great Eastern Home, a firm specialising in handcrafted furniture, shares the stories behind two of his favourite pieces and his approach to blending classic design with contemporary ideas. Kanoria’s Antique Pedestal captures the essence of French Baroque. Crafted from wood, it has a petal-shaped base and its surface is decorated with carvings of vines, leaves, and flowers — the kind of details Baroque art once used to symbolise growth and abundance.</p>.<p>His French Contemporary table uses the style of the early 2000s, blending modern French minimalism with classic touches. A sleek bronze base holds up a round faux-leather top, offering a contrast. Although contemporary, it hints at the balanced, graceful lines of traditional European furniture. Kanoria says most of their work draws from major European design eras — Baroque, Rococo, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Queen Anne, and Art Deco. For antique pieces, Kanoria usually sticks closely to the originals, carefully studying the materials and colours. His contemporary works, on the other hand, give those old styles a modern twist. But even when updating classic designs, the basics stay the same. “When something is well-proportioned, it just feels right — you may not know why, but you sense it,” says Kanoria. He sticks to those ‘golden ratios’, even in modern work. Trends fade because they often ignore those principles. “Classics last because they connect with something deeper in us,” he adds. And as old crafts and skills slowly disappear, Kanoria feels it’s important to keep those traditions alive, a pursuit that continues to shape his work.</p>.<p>Decorative but functional</p>.<p>This conversation between the past and the present continues through other designers, too. At Avian, a firm specialising in handcrafted heritage furniture, Managing Director Pradeep Singh Puri shares the stories behind two pieces that similarly reimagine classical influences for a modern setting — a vintage-style telephone and a monumental mirror. Fashioned with the elegance of 20th-century European telephony in mind — a time when art was as important as function — Puri’s vintage-style telephone is crafted in solid wood with ornate brass detailing. It recalls the opulence of antique parlour phones once found in stately homes and royal offices. Modern push-button technology and a digital display are cleverly sculpted within a rotary-inspired dial, while the handset rests on a classic cradle hook. Decorative yet fully functional, it was envisioned as a conversation piece for contemporary homes — a nostalgic artefact with practical use. People connect to it because it reminds them of an object they grew up seeing, while the younger lot loves the drama of the form, he shares.</p>.<p>Puri’s monumental mirror is no less dramatic. Made from solid teak, its frame holds a detailed panel showing three figures under a tree — a nod to 19th-century Roman-British pastoral scenes. A woman clutches a cornucopia, one figure gestures as if in conversation, and another reclines, completely at ease. This tableau is crowned with deeply detailed carving and flanked by full-height, rope-fluted columns — motifs drawn directly from Baroque design language. A distinctive wood-burning technique was applied to parts of the frame, giving it a subtle, smoked finish through controlled fire exposure. The balance of proportion, ornament and story is what gives it its character.</p>.<p><strong>Visual storytelling</strong></p>.<p>While Puri’s creations look to early European motifs, other designers are finding inspiration closer to home. Veeram Shah of the multidisciplinary studio Design ni Dukaan and curator Sona Reddy offer a uniquely Indian lens on this dialogue with history — a set of Victorian-inspired cabinets fashioned from Bombay Blackwood, a prized and now-restricted material historically used in colonial-era Indian furniture.</p>.<p>Its defining feature is a mosaic panel titled Swing in a Sari, inspired by artist Namrata Kumar’s prints celebrating the strength, grace, and resilience of Indian women. Her works often depict women in joyful, unguarded moments, which Sona reimagined through the medium of china mosaic — paying homage to the elaborate design language of the colonial era while adding a contemporary voice through mosaic and visual storytelling. In Sona’s reinterpretation, the panels depict women in moments of freedom and confidence. One woman is caught mid-swing, her orange and pink sari with yellow detailing billowing around her. Another leans casually to the left in a deep green sari patterned with florals, a blue scarf tied at her head. The third strikes a mid-swing pose as well, her hands flung to the other side, dressed in a green and black checked sari, a red blouse, and gold earrings.</p>.<p>Together, these works feel like portals through time, not just framed period art, but also objects we can touch and experience. They reveal how people once understood beauty and proportion. Times change, styles shift, but pieces like these quietly carry the essence of their age.</p>