More and more people seem to be displaying a decided preference for homes that exude an old world charm, a rustic elegance highlighted by the use of courtyards and ethnic decor. One such home is that of Masuma and Irshad, which gives you the feeling that you are in a Mexican or a Spanish abode, although the owners feel that it’s also quintessentially Sindhi.
Walking through the long driveway, one enters the house through a courtyard, decorated with plants and masks hanging on the walls. The right of the courtyard leads to the formal part of the house — basically comprising the living room, dining room and kitchen — while the left leads to the portion mostly in use.
Entering the formal area, one finds a huge living room adorned with sofas and chairs upholstered in beige, off-white and blue. Blue is in fact the prominent colour in the room, with the ceiling also painted aqua, complete with a border crowning the walls. A long glass and metal table stands before an equally long blue sofa, decorated with a variety of nick-nacks, as are the side tables. Particularly attractive is a corner glass-top table with carved legs in the shape of birds. According to Masuma, all their furniture pieces are locally made — many of them old furniture items that used to belong to her mother-in-law — and their artifacts are either Thai or indigenous crafts made by local artisans and students. In fact, many of the pieces you see in Masuma’s home may remind you of her shop, ‘Bela’, and she readily admits that her “home is an extension” of her outlet, for she buys many of the things that come to be sold there.
Exiting from the living room, one steps into the foyer before entering the formal dining. A huge glass-top table with 10 wooden and wicker chairs faces French windows overlooking the garden beyond. The windows are dressed with unusual fabric — off-white cotton, lined with jute — somehow lending a rich look to the drapes. The sponged walls and marble floors complement the marble top table near the windows, arranged artistically with unique pieces. A sideboard, and an elegant cabinet built on antique lines constituting the remaining major furniture items in the room are a testimony to this preference.
Traversing the courtyard to the informal section of the house, one is told that this portion remains shut when the couple entertains formally. As you walk through the brick lined foyer with its textured walls, a beautiful, spiral wrought iron and wooden staircase catches your eye located right in the centre of the lounge, at a slightly lower level.
Arranged around it are plants and a host of decorative horses, facing the door, as if ready to gallop off. An attractive wooden and wrought iron bench skirts the staircase, serving both as the seating in the area, and space to decorate items. A skylight above adds a warm glow to the room in the day. An attractive framed mirror hung strategically on one wall captures a delightful reflection of the staircase and the cupboard beyond, the front of which has been substituted by an antique window frame. The window has been painted and refurbished by Masuma herself and when the cupboard lies ajar, it reveals exquisite silver pieces and musical instruments adorning the shelves.
A door from the lounge leads to the informal living room decorated with a casual sofa, a diwan in yellow and a dining table. Two cabinets, one adorned with books and mugs, the other holding a TV set as well as books occupy two of the walls in the room in front of the open kitchen.
A wall over a sofa is adorned with a collage of family photographs next to which school certificates are proudly displayed, mounted artistically on fabric matching the upholstery. Another sofa overlooks the back courtyard, decorated with plants and stones.
One can’t help but feel that the coziness exuded in this room is palpable throughout the house, even in the formal area, perhaps because of the feeling of being ensconced in a rustic environment, complete with courtyards and greens. | 
