KOLKATA
The best object in a room can be terribly inconvenient. It makes you stop halfway across the floor. Walk around it. Look back. Wonder whether it is furniture, sculpture, or something suspended between the two.
Aartdeco likes that moment of uncertainty. Its pieces occupy the curious territory where an object can be useful without looking purely functional, and artistic without becoming untouchable. A curve might recall something shaped by water rather than a drawing tool. A textured surface asks to be touched. A substantial form can make the empty space around it suddenly seem intentional. Nothing is conceived simply to fill a corner or complete a setting.
This way of seeing comes from the brand’s founder, whose years as an interior designer preceded his work with objects. Long observation of natural formations, surfaces and proportions gave him one set of references; designing interiors supplied another. Geometry, circulation, scale and material relationships became part of the same vocabulary. Apratim Kejriwal and Sheel Bhatia approach the same object from different directions. Apratim considers how its character is communicated and understood; Sheel concentrates on translating intention into the finished piece, ensuring execution matches the original idea.
Nature, consequently, is rarely copied literally at Aartdeco. It is studied for its logic. The irregularity of a surface, the tension of a curve, the balance between mass and delicacy or the repetition found in organic structures might provide the starting point. From there, the idea is pared back until it can live comfortably within a contemporary room.
The making is equally deliberated. Designers work closely with craftspeople and artisans, some carrying knowledge passed through generations. Traditional techniques meet precise contemporary forms, allowing evidence of the hand to remain without turning craft into nostalgia. Materials are responsibly sourced, production is measured rather than hurried, and longevity is treated as a practical design requirement.
Sustainability follows the same pragmatic thinking. For Aartdeco, responsibility lies not only in sourcing but in making objects worth keeping, while creating sustained, dignified work for skilled makers. The brand describes its work as “art you can experience, unmissable in its space”.
Perhaps that explains Aartdeco best. It does not make objects simply to occupy a room. It makes the sort of objects that make you notice the room differently.
