Small Homes, Big Storage: Planning a Mumbai Apartment

In Mumbai, every square foot is negotiated. The homes we work on are rarely large, and the difference between a flat that feels generous and one that feels tight almost always comes down to where things are kept.

We begin with an inventory, not a drawing. Before planning a single wardrobe we ask what the household actually owns — suitcases, festival crockery, sports gear, seasonal bedding. Storage designed for a real inventory is always more efficient than storage designed for a generic one.

Full-height joinery is the workhorse. Taking cabinetry to the ceiling adds usable volume without adding footprint, and a continuous shutter line makes a small room read as one calm plane instead of several competing objects.

The last move is to leave something open. A run of shelving, a niche, a window seat — one place where the room breathes. Without it, a well-stored home can start to feel like a warehouse of shutters.