Majestic and larger-than-life, the Beri-Chadha farmhouse affords a glimpse into their fairytale, designer lives.
It’s a pleasant winter afternoon but we land up spending most of it on the road, on our way to fashion designer Ritu Beri’s farmhouse in Chattarpur, Delhi’s outskirts. Clogged-up traffic means that we end up reaching Summerleas, the house, just a few minutes before sundown. A long-winding driveway leads to a majestic building. And there’s a stairway that immediately draws our attention, dotted with bright red potted plants.
But before we step in, we decide to survey the luscious green lawn that surrounds the house. Beginning from the left of the driveway, it winds all the way to the back and beyond. European-style sculpted bulb holders are positioned all along. The dimming natural light has our photographer in a frenzy and she gets busy, furiously snap-snapping away.
In the garden, a charming wooden seating area greets us next to a fountain. Willowy chinars, uncommon in this region, lend a Hamsted-heathish look to this area, opening up to what would have been a rather inviting swimming pool, had it been summer. A little ahead, what we mistake for an outhouse is, in fact, a gorgeous changing room — full of plants and rich interiors. This part of the house also hosts a fully-equipped gym.
The living room, at the back of the house, looks out into the lawn and has a view of the pool too. In fact, almost every room has a “green view”, a highlight of this house. “My mother-in-law, who comes from a family that has been in horticulture, took care of the garden. We have about 120 magnolia plants here,” says Beri proudly, as we make ourselves comfortable in the sitting room.
The whiteness here is hard to ignore, with every piece of furniture in the room the colour of snow. Beri says she chose white leather to complement the greens outside. “I love this room with its large glass windows because it gets the garden right in,” she says.
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It’s been a while since Beri has been in the news — but she says “I am happy to have kept a low profile.” For now, motherhood is great,” she smiles for the benefit of her 14-month-old daughter Gia. If you’ve guessed it, you’re right: Beri is, but naturally, working on a baby line next. And thus we find our thoughts turning to the baby room. The proud mother shows us around. “As we live surrounded by nature, we have done it up with paintings of farms and cartoons hanging from the walls,” she says.
Mirrors are an important part of this house. Every room has unique, intricately- designed frames fitted for grand reflections. A huge Venetian mirror takes up the wall across the windows in the sitting room. “This house is about six years old. We designed it over the years, filling it with pieces collected from all our travels,” says Beri. “We haven’t had a single interior decorator for this house. I don’t believe in perfection,” she reiterates.
She shows off her dining room proudly, done with a touch of the Orient. Wooden flooring (Beri has used junkers, which are much longer panels) gives the house a cosy feel, which otherwise is quite obviously opulent. There’s a beautiful gong from Bali that flanks the dining room door on the left — and it is soon put to work as her little daughter strikes it, one, two three...
“The gong is to announce dinner time,” jokes Beri, as she points out the life-sized Buddha models from Bhutan. Dim lighting and candlestands on the dining table give it an 18th-century feel with warm hues of red, green and bronze memorablia.
Moving on to the living room, there is a sense of seamlessness here — ceiling-high doors and windows make everything appear larger than life. The colour scheme of beige and white keep the ambience neutral as compared to the dining area. The fireplace is interesting; large red candles replace logs. A heavy, European air surrounds the house but there are Asian bits too strewn all around. “I’m not a fan of the plainly European look. I like to mix it up with Asian,” says Beri.
Wooden stairways outside the living room lead us to the family den, dotted with African masks on the walls — the subject of the only clash between Beri and her husband. “I made sure they were only along the stairway,” she laughs. The den is truly the heart of the house. “If we’re not socialising outdoors, we are here. Being in basements, dens tend to become stuffy so we decided to have courtyards on either side of the house to add space,” she explains.
The den is a lot to take in at once: Towards the left, a billiards table is lit up by huge, flower-shaped leather lamps with cane and metal stems. There are bookshelves arranged with leather-bound classics that take up a large part of one of the walls. A jointless, teakwood table affords low seating on beige and cream leather couches. Towards the right is a “chimpanzee special” seating area, the result of a chimpanzee series of paintings on this wall.
There are also canvases mounted on chairs and two beautifully-crafted, red leather chairs — Beri’s work — that complement this part of the den. And the essentials for colder evenings are all in place too! There is a well-stocked bar in this room. Looking up, we notice ceiling spotlights carefully fitted to highlight every unique part of the room. That’s one tip that, in fact, you may even like to incorporate in your own home if you are going to be doing up the interiors any time soon.
The courtyards that flank the den on either side are charming. The one next to the bar has a lovely lily pond with a wooden bench and a metal warrior for company. The other courtyard is a perfect dining space — complete with a wrought iron dining table and chairs with huge metal-glass lanterns to light up the spot which looks up at the open sky. Ah, for the great outdoors ...
