THIS SALON IS BARRIER-FREE IN LENGTH, BREADTH AND HEIGHT
As with any other all-services salon, the requirements for the Spotlight salon in Ahmedabad were manifold – it needed separate hair, nail and make-up sections, a display area for cosmetic products, a small private section, and scope for immediate turnaround for complete bridal cosmetic services. The requests weren’t unusual, but the mere 700 sqft + 200 sqft of mezzanine space with intervening beams could have posed a challenge. Instead, the designer of the project, Rajesh Sheth of Designer’s Circle focused on all the advantages before him, like the double-height, the lavish depth and the fact that the salon was a bare shell when he started working on it, which gave him his very own blank canvas to fill.
In his approach, Sheth worked from the outside in, i.e., the floor, ceiling and walls became his design anchor. “We wanted to satisfy our own design urge as well as the client’s! We went with grey printed tile flooring, textured lime wash walls, and a warm wooden ceiling with indirect lighting. The flooring by itself is quite dramatic, while the arched beams on the ceiling outline and enhance the double height,” says Sheth, who then proceeded to fill up the space with rattan seating, metal mirrors and floor standing lights for areas where natural light was unable to penetrate into the depth. Overall, the colour palette centres on grey, with a warm yellow tinge.
The salon is divided as per function, and the mezzanine has been alloted primarily for bridal requirements. Considering the multi-purpose use of the space, barriers had to be brought in somehow, but they didn’t have to be permanent. Low height display counters and movable shelving units came to Sheth’s rescue, allowing him to keep the length continuous, and fulfill the client’s requirements at the same time. The use of light colours, warm textures and a common flooring and ceiling in the entire space magnifies the sense of continuity further into the depths of the salon.