What Interior Brands Get Wrong About Indian Homes

For a country so rich in culture, chaos, and charm, Indian homes are anything but cookie-cutter. So why do most interior brands still treat them like one-size-fits-all boxes?

The Indian home is not just a place to crash. It’s a multitasking, multi-generational, multi-celebration space that needs to work harder than any global Pinterest moodboard ever could.

But instead of designing for real life, many brands are still selling an idea that looks great in a 3D render and falls flat in a real Indian household.

Here’s what they keep getting wrong and what needs to change.

1. Ignoring the Way We Actually Live

Open shelves look beautiful in catalogues. Until the dust sets in. White sofas look chic on Instagram. Until there’s a toddler with orange Kurkure fingers. Kitchen islands are great if you have a kitchen that’s not the size of a closet.

The truth is, Indian homes aren’t built for display. They’re built for living. They house joint families, house help, home-cooked meals, storage for things we never throw away, and festivals that demand full-blown rearrangements.

Design needs to reflect that rhythm. Not pretend it doesn’t exist.

2. Prioritising Aesthetic Over Function

Minimalism is not realistic when you celebrate ten festivals a year and have a wardrobe full of saris, suits, lehengas, and random Diwali lights from 2007.

Indian homes need storage. Smart, invisible, over-the-door, under-the-bed, above-the-loft, everywhere storage.

Yet so many brands continue to push minimal open-plan layouts with nowhere to keep your pressure cooker, extra bedding, or wedding gifts you don’t love but can’t give away.

Form follows function. And Indian function is full of personality. The design should match that.

3. Forgetting That One Room Does Many Jobs

Our living rooms aren’t just for entertaining. They’re also yoga studios, guest bedrooms, Zoom call backdrops, drying racks for laundry, and sometimes, homework headquarters.

Yet interior layouts are rarely flexible. The sofa is fixed. The plug points are random. The coffee table is too bulky to move when guests need to sleep on a floor mattress.

The modern Indian home needs to shapeshift. And the layout should make that possible, not painful.

4. Designing for Silence, Not Celebration

A lot of design feels like it’s made for people who read quietly and sip coffee slowly. Which is great. But Indian homes are loud, social, and full of drama in the best way possible.

Designing for India means designing for music playing in two rooms, food being cooked in five stages, guests arriving unannounced, and celebrations that go from "just dinner" to "let’s move all the furniture."

If a design doesn’t allow for spontaneity, it’s missing the soul of the home.

5. Treating Tradition Like an Afterthought

Puja corners squeezed into a leftover space. Brass accents thrown in as an afterthought. Traditional design reduced to token “ethnic” cushions.

Designing for Indian homes should mean respecting the traditions we live with. Not brushing them aside in favour of global trends.

From rangolis to rituals, from heirloom furniture to daily practices, the best designs are the ones that know how to hold space for what truly matters to the people living in them.

So, what makes MagickHome different?

We don’t start with blueprints. We start with people. Their quirks, their chaos, their calm. We ask how you use your home on a Monday morning and a Saturday night. We design for the pressure cooker and the party platter. The corner where grandma reads, and the one where your dog naps.

MagickHome isn’t here to force-fit a style. We’re here to build a space that fits you - your routines, your relationships, and the rhythm of your life. That’s not just good design. That’s what home should feel like.