At Home With 'Desi Meets Design' Creator Mitesh Trambadia

In the 1970s, Mitesh Trambadia’s parents immigrated from India to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where they adopted the design style of the ’70s US into their new home. Mitesh, born two years later, cites that as a part of his design influence. But now, living outside Washington, DC, with a family of his own, Mitesh has turned the trend around, styling his family’s home to reflect their Indian heritage.

“My cultural background is a huge inspiration for my home and what I want to share,” Mitesh says. And he shares generously, on Instagram at Desi Meets Design, where he highlights curated designs with traditional folk art and shows his audience how those traditional art styles can be incorporated into a more updated setting. His home in the DC suburbs is filled with color and light, art and tradition, and a sense of community where all are welcome.

In the search for a new home with more space for a growing family, they had explored “quite a few homes” in all shapes and sizes, Mitesh says. “When we walked in here and we saw the amount of the light the home was getting, and it was really from the high ceilings, I think that just sold us.” Their new home had bare white walls with builder-grade paint. “I just needed to bring in color and needed to bring in personality. Being our first home, I already had so many ideas of what I wanted to do.” But design is always a “work in progress,” he believes. “I think over the first few years, it started coming together, room by room.”

Though Mitesh grew up in the US, he is very familiar with his family’s roots. “A large part of my early childhood, I spent summers going back to India to visit grandparents and extended family there and just was drawn into the culture and the arts that I would see around me,” he says. “A lot was folk art, by the people and for the people, and you would see it everywhere. I wanted to showcase it in a different context.” A gallery wall in the dining area displays a collection of art works Mitesh has collected. “A lot of it is folk art from India, along with pieces that I’ve made inspired by that folk art."

The large, light-filled sunroom is a special space in their home, Mitesh says. The focal point is a large, white swing with a carved back and arm rests and layered with cushions. “Swings are a real traditional feature in a lot of Indian homes," Mitesh says, “Something that I grew up with on my trips home, swinging with my grandparents.” He found a vendor in India that made the swings and could ship to the US. “I jumped on that, not knowing how we’d actually get it into the ceiling, but I knew we’d figure it out somehow.”

The chains suspended from the ceiling are as much art as the swing itself: “I definitely wanted to make sure it had the traditional brass chains, which are a little more ornate than your typical chain,” Mitesh says. “It’s been one of our favorite features of the home now. I just love that it connects to my childhood with the grandparents on the swing, and I’m just happy to create that feeling for our kids.”

Mitesh's collection includes quite a few antique milk and food storage containers from his family. “My grandmother had held on to some of these things, so on every trip I would [take] things from them. My grandmother would ask, ‘What are you going to do with this? This is meaningless for us here,’” Mitesh says. “But I knew that it meant so much, and I just love the craftsmanship and the stories it would tell.”

The grasscloth wallpaper in the sunroom serves as background to a special painting, done in the centuries-old Pichwai art style of religious paintings on cloth, celebrating Lord Krishna’s life. “It’s found especially in Rajasthan, but I want it to feel contemporary,” Mitesh says.

Of course, the art that Mitesh creates himself is on display throughout the home, including a piece done in the Lippan Kaam tradition, an art form that uses clay and tiny mirrors to create beautiful and unique designs. The technique involves creating details with the clay, and then painting it and embellishing it with mirror pieces. His version is what he calls, “A modern take on a traditional craft.”

The steps to making Lippan Kaam style art allow for individual creativity. “It could be anything you want,” he explains. “It allows for so much creativity and flexibility.” There are common techniques that are used in the art form, but “there are really no rules when it comes to this type of art,” Mitesh says.

As Mitesh shows in a video for HGTV Handmade, the project steps are straightforward:

First, draw out a design on a wood plaque. Next, roll out air-dry clay into thin strands that will outline the entire sketch, and apply the strips to the design using tacky glue or wood glue. Use a craft knife, pencil or other small tool to add embellishments into the clay, if desired. “Get as creative as you want,” he suggests. Then let the clay dry completely, about two days for air-dry clay.

Once it's dry, paint the entire piece, if desired. “You normally see it in a terra cotta color, or a whitewash, but you can even add your own color, make it as colorful as you want, and it still works.”

When the paint is dry, embellish the piece with mirrors, using a drop of glue to hold each tiny mirror in place. “You could add it to a shelf, or even on the wall,” he says. “I love the reflection that the mirrors give in different light,” Mitesh says.

Watch the video to learn how Mitesh creates a piece of Lippan Kaam art and how to create your own.

The gallery wall in the dining room featuring artwork collected throughout the years includes one especially meaningful piece: “Embroidery that comes from Gujarat, where my family is from,” he says, pointing out a colorful, framed textile work. “This is actually something that was embroidered by my great-grandmother.”

The formal living space is another opportunity to display art. “One thing I do like is to highlight artists from South Asia and India,” he says. A large painting above the sofa in shades of red is by Mumbai artist Suresh Gulage.

The formal living area features a wall of glass-front shelves displaying books, photographs, art and artifacts. The space also displays more of Mitesh’s own work "inspired by more contemporary art," he explains.

The color scheme of the guest bedroom is a rustic orange, which Mitesh says feels “really earthy and grounded.” It’s a good shade to highlight the room’s focal point, a mural featuring the tree of life. “It’s a common motif in a lot of folk art in India,” he says. “It’s in the Madhubani style of painting, which comes from Northern India," he explains. “The room gets used by our relatives from India, so we really wanted it to feel like home for them.”

The primary bedroom takes its cue from the palaces of Rajasthan, Mitesh says — particularly the Udaipur City Palace, which has a room in a light blue shade that inspires this room’s light blue walls. “I just wanted it to feel very royal,” he says.

A jewel-like gallery of framed images hangs above the bed. “These are inspired by motifs you would see on woven saris," he says, referring to the colorful, draped garments of lightweight cloth worn by women in India. "They actually weave in gold and silver strands,” he explains. “I love putting it as a jewel tone up here.”

The primary bedroom provides another space for relaxation, a corner niche with a comfortable daybed, a small desk and a small blue and white patterned side table that is another of Mitesh’s projects. “I love having this daybed, (it) kind of reminds me of some of the divans that you would see in India,” he says, remembering the long, low, backless couches he encountered on trips to visit his grandparents and extended family.

“One of the things I love in this corner is the table that I DIYed to make it look like bone inlay work. It’s just paint, using stencils,” Mitesh explains. "I take inspiration from the traditional art and try to find ways where anyone can create their own version using materials we can find here."

The primary bathroom is the most recent renovation project. It was a long time coming, Mitesh explains. “We waited years to re-do this space and wanted to do it right.” Part of the renovation was swapping out the builder-grade Jacuzzi tub for a free-standing tub. “It not only gives us more space but it just looks so much better,” he says.

What makes the room special, though, is the wallpaper, which is inspired by Pichwai art form from Rajasthan. “It just brightens our day when we walk into that bathroom now in the mornings. We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out."

The primary bathroom also contains a large, hand-carved mirror from India. “I actually had this a year before we started this space,” Mitesh says. “I just knew it would be perfect for this wall.”

Looking back, Mitesh reflects on his surroundings growing up with his Indian heritage in 1970s US. “I really have two influences that came together, midcentury modern and traditional folk Indian art,” he says. His parents wanted to feel modern and to furnish their home in the style of the era. “They were kind of moving away from their traditional roots.”

But it was not a complete break from India. “At the same time, my mother had brought artifacts and things she had made, so our walls would be plastered with art from India. Furniture and everything were completely of that era.”

Mitesh’s own sense of color arose from that mixture, he says. “I love it, but at the same time I wanted to make sure I did it in a way that wasn’t too overstimulating.” He started with “a clean plate,” he says, bringing in color with artwork, accessories, cushions and some of the furniture. “The colors always make me happy. It’s just something I’m drawn to. It brightens my mood, but also being surrounded by art that I created makes it feel personal.”

Others began to notice Mitesh’s style, too. “Over the years people would come over and they would see the work that was put into the house, and they felt like more people needed to see this. Or I would get asked, ‘Why aren’t you blogging or putting this somewhere?’” So when the opportunity came, Mitesh started posting images of things that are special and important to him in his home.

“The thing that surprised me most was how much it resonated with people online,” he says. “It was just a sense of community of people coming together that appreciated the kind of art I was collecting and curating and creating.”