The Home of Stories: A Wabi-Sabi Apartment in Versova
A sea-facing apartment in Versova reimagined through the lens of wabi-sabi, where open-plan living meets a collection of travel-inspired treasures.
This animation shows our strategic approach to spatial transformation. By demolishing specific walls, we converted a fragmented layout into a bright, open-plan home that invites the sea view into every living area.
To maximize the stunning ocean view, we designed a raised wooden platform for seating. This solution creates an uninterrupted connection to the outdoors and serves as a cozy deck for lounging and enjoying the natural light.
The living room features a floating U-shaped seating arrangement that extends from the raised deck. The continuous use of teak wood on vertical surfaces helps dissolve boundaries and makes the entire space feel more expansive.
The living room was planned around our clients' vibrant collection of art and furniture. The custom-built media unit, crafted from teak, provides dedicated spaces for their speakers, books, and cherished artifacts.
Sunlight streams into the living area, highlighting the warm textures and personal touches. This view shows how the custom furniture and art collection come together to create a space that is truly a home of stories.
A structural column became a design opportunity for this cantilevered dining table. The monolithic form anchors the open-plan space, connecting the kitchen and dining areas while appearing to float effortlessly.
Here you can see how the open kitchen, dining, and living areas flow into one another. The cantilevered table, built around the central column, becomes the heart of the home where the family gathers.
About this collection
Structural constraints can actually unlock the best layouts. In this project, a lone central column felt awkward after we knocked down the walls, so we turned it into a cantilevered dining table. Before pouring the final slab, we built a full-scale plywood mock-up on-site to test the weight distribution. If you are planning an open-plan home, always ask your architect to prototype complex furniture pieces like this—it saves a massive amount of guesswork during execution.
For the owners of this Versova home, the goal was simple: turn a compartmentalized apartment into a breathing, sea-facing sanctuary that held their collection of travel artifacts. Our wabi-sabi approach meant we did not aim for clinical perfection. Instead, we focused on raw, tactile materials that age beautifully.
The Open-Plan Shift
The most significant change was the demolition of non-load-bearing walls to merge the kitchen, dining, and living areas. This allowed the sea view to travel across the entire social space. By using uniform flooring—natural Kota stone—we created a seamless transition that makes the footprint feel significantly larger.
Materiality and Storytelling
We chose a palette rooted in honesty. Walls are finished in lime-wash paint, providing a soft, matte backdrop that interacts differently with sunlight throughout the day. Custom joinery, crafted from teak, houses the clients' artifacts. The heart of the home, however, is the kitchen-dining connection. We integrated the existing column into a cantilevered dining table that flows into a compact kitchen island, creating a sculptural, monolithic centerpiece.
The 'Open Book' Process
We believe in showing the messy middle. The final photos show a polished space, but the journey included site-fabricated plywood mock-ups to ensure the cantilevered table was structurally sound before we committed to permanent materials. This transparency is standard in our work. We provide detailed Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and technical drawings for every project, so you know exactly what is going into your home and why.
STaND
We are Sid and Nik, the duo behind STaND. We do not just design rooms; we build diaries of the people who live in them. For this Versova project, we leaned into our love for tactile materials and honest, raw design to create a space that feels lived-in, breathable, and truly yours.
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