Tour a Delhi Farmhouse Bursting With Color and Pattern
On a recent night at Lal Kothi, the Delhi farmhouse of textile and fashion designers Peter and Cecile D’Ascoli, candlelight and the full moon glowed together as guests gathered sur l’herbe for dinner. “It’s like dining at an Indian Versailles,” remarked author William Dalrymple over masala aubergines sprinkled with gunpowder Sri Lankan pepper. In this verdant corner, tucked away from the city’s hustle, the couple has realized something quietly remarkable: a creative tour de force in the jostling landscape of a country highly attuned to its cultural heritage.
Peter, an American expat, began his love affair with his adopted homeland four decades ago, during a business trip to the Punjabi city of Amritsar, among other sites. “We stayed in the pilgrims’ quarters at the Golden Temple and ate at long tables in the communal dining hall,” he recalls, crisp in a white kurta. “All of this—and the many donkey carts, camels, horses—seemed like a wonderland to me, having grown up in prosaic Long Island.” (His wife is French.) After a five-year stint working for Diane von Furstenberg in New York City, life would eventually bring him back to India, where he had a formative encounter with the textile doyen and elegant Punjabi royal Martand “Mapu” Singh. “Mapu taught me so much about the impact of Indian crafts on the wider world.”
Peter founded his atelier Talianna Studio in 2006, ensconcing his young family—he and Cecile have two daughters—rather snugly in a South Delhi apartment a decade ago. With the business expanding, the family embarked on a new chapter, looking for someplace “with our own fruit trees and a sense of breathing out.” When they first visited Lal Kothi, they knew nothing of the villa, owned by an erstwhile royal family. “While the gardens were very impressive, the previous tenants had placed a green plastic covering over the central skylight that cast a bilious pall over everything,” he says. Nevertheless, a second visit and the chance to move to a house surrounded by lawns seduced them.
Today, the couple has transformed the property into an extraordinary family home that doubles as a showcase for Peter’s collection of textiles. He has placed that striking array of block-printed fabrics intuitively throughout Lal Kothi, decorating each room based on sight lines and the movement of light throughout the day. “I am not an interior designer by training,” he admits. “I am, in the classic sense, an amateur. I want my family and friends to enjoy the space.”
To establish symmetry in the salon and dining room, he tented each space in a shamiana, or cloth canopy, which, he notes “helps settle a room with calm.” The hall, meanwhile, features large-scale panels in a tree-of-life motif modeled after historic textile documents. Sleights of hand continue back in the salon, where framed antique tiles from his travels across the Mediterranean and China hang on turquoise-blue walls, complemented by old kalamkari panels and seating from the D’Ascoli brand’s furniture collection. The room’s eclectic mix is his nod to Umberto Pasti and Stephan Janson’s Milan home, a cabinet of curiosities that left him spellbound during a stay. Peter also cites, as notable influences, encounters with Renzo Mongiardino and Madeleine Castaing, whose “ineffable styles” inspired his bedroom at Lal Kothi.
“Above all, the house tells the story of who we are as a family,” Peter smiles. “We are boisterous personalities and have a love of life, manifested in food, entertaining, and flamboyant decoration.” East of Eden Lal Kothi may be. But it is a small piece of paradise, indeed.
This Delhi farmhouse appears in AD’s November issue. Never miss an issue when you subscribe to AD.
1/7At Lal Kothi, in Delhi, Peter D’Ascoli outfitted the salon with fabrics of his own design and family collections of tiles and photographs.
2/7In the dining room, the ceiling, wall panels, and tablecloth are all D’Ascoli fabrics.
3/7The designer in his studio with textiles from his namesake line.
4/7A staircase displays artifacts found all over the world.
5/7The primary bedroom is dressed in more D’Ascoli fabrics, from the walls to the sheets.
6/7An antique fountain enlivens the grounds.
7/7The front garden of Lal Kothi.
