This New Delhi home is an archive of art, textiles and emotion

It’s easy to get distracted at Amit Malhotra’s home. You might come in meaning to talk about his work—designing book covers for writers like Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, and Gulzar, or building the clothing label Gul Sohrab with his partner Saurabh Kumar, that makes one-of-one garments from upcycled fabrics—and instead find yourself deep in conversation about antique wall plates or the strange charm of a yellow egg cup turned candle stand.

That’s the thing about his apartment in Vikaspuri, West Delhi. It doesn’t demand attention but it quietly invites curiosity. Inherited from his grandmother, it’s a small, modestly laid out flat. But it carries a large, layered story—built not through themes or palettes but through everyday use. It’s a house that looks lived in because it is: by Amit and his two dogs, Jigar and Jugnu, in the steady rhythm of life and work.

This was also almost the house that wasn’t—just before moving in, Amit had nearly left Delhi altogether. After 18 years in publishing, he was ready for a quieter life in the mountains of Uttarakhand and it was only a last-minute decision (and some convincing from his partner) that kept him here. Over the last couple of years, he’s made the space his own—defining rooms with quiet clarity: one for living, one for working, one for dressing. Outside, bamboo fencing and columns make it feel like it isn’t in the city at all. Inside, everything shifts gently with time.

Beautiful Homes: Your background isn’t in interior or product design. But you clearly bring a designer’s eye to your space.

Amit Malhotra: I’m not formally trained in anything really, not fashion or interiors, not even graphic design. But I’ve always worked visually. When I was 18, I wanted to study fashion but we couldn’t afford it. So I took up graphic design instead and that led me to publishing. I worked at HarperCollins for a long time before going independent. And now, with our clothing label Gul Sohrab, I finally feel like I’m doing the kind of fashion work I dreamed of as a teenager.

All of that spills over into how I decorate. I don’t have a fixed system but I do take my time. I photograph things, move them around, sit with them for a bit. It’s intuitive but not careless. I’m always editing.

BH: Would you say your home is a reflection of your work, especially your book cover designs or your fashion label?

AM: Yes, I think they overlap. Designing a book cover is about distilling an emotional tone, sometimes without even reading the full manuscript. There’s an intuitive side to that and it’s the same with my house. I move things around constantly. I don’t like repetition—I want the home to breathe differently over time. It’s also why we use this space to shoot for our label Gul Sohrab. The home offers context, it helps people see how we live with the clothes, the textures, the things around us. It becomes more than a product shot.

BH: You’ve said everything in your home has a story. What are some of the artworks that mean the most to you?

AM: There’s a yellow painting by Gurjeet Singh—he’s a sculptor, not a painter and when I met him during his residency at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai, he didn’t have any work available. But he had this older painting from college and I asked if I could pay for it in instalments. There’s another by Sony Thokchom, a woman in the jungles of Manipur, which I bought during a difficult period. It felt like I needed that painting, emotionally. There’s also a portrait of a sleeping Manipuri girl by Meena Laishram. Many of the artists are queer, women or from the Northeast. Or even friends.

BH: You have a strong connection with the Northeast. What draws you to Manipur and Meghalaya in particular?

AM: Some of my closest friends are from Shillong and Imphal. I’ve spent time visiting their homes, meeting their families. There’s a lightness to the homes there—cane furniture, natural materials, a sense of space. I’ve brought that feeling back with me. It’s not about replicating their homes but about holding on to that atmosphere. It shows up in the textures, the textiles, the way I arrange things.

BH: And what about your collecting habits—how do you know when something belongs in this space?

AM: I’m not an impulsive shopper. I always ask myself will I still love this five or ten years from now? If it feels trendy or fleeting, I don’t buy it. A lot of things in my home are second-hand or picked up while travelling—masks from Vietnam or ceramics from Nepal. There’s a Pinocchio-shaped calendar from Turkey. A ceramic rabbit decanter from Nepal. A crocodile-shaped incense holder. None of them are essential but they feel like part of the story.