Inside Sussanne Khan’s The Charcoal Project: A new luxury interior destination in Hyderabad

Sussanne Khan unveils her flagship inside retailer The Charcoal Mission in Hyderabad, in collaboration with Gauri Khan.
| Photograph Credit score: Siddhant Thakur

A day earlier than the formal launch of The Charcoal Mission (TCP) in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Sussanne Khan and her crew are including the ultimate touches to the house. Unfold over six flooring, it marks Sussanne’s foray into Hyderabad’s inside design scene, 14 years after founding TCP in Mumbai. One flooring options idea areas and product traces by Gauri Khan Designs.

Sussanne’s pleasure, tinged with a touch of nervousness, is clear as she settles in for an interview on the fifth flooring, aptly named Barnhouse. Every stage tells a definite design story — however extra on that later.

Her entry into Hyderabad has been two years within the making. “My companions — Karan Bajaj, Nafees Ahmed and Rishabh Jain — approached me with the thought. They’ve high-end product traces within the audio-visual house, specialising in dwelling theatres, automation techniques, and kitchens (Audio & Past, Hacker, and Simple Kitchens). TCP integrates interiors with lighting, audio-visual, and technology-driven options,” she explains.

Reminiscences of Hyderabad

Design runs in her DNA. Sussanne Khan based The Charcoal Mission in Mumbai in 2011, armed with an affiliate artwork diploma in inside design from Brooks Faculty, Lengthy Seashore, California, and invaluable hands-on expertise working alongside her mom, Zarine Khan. “My mom was an inside designer for almost 35 years,” Sussanne remembers. As a baby, she typically accompanied her mom on web site visits to Hyderabad. “I will need to have been 5 – 6 on the time. She designed a couple of properties right here, and I used to be mesmerised by the colors.”

The six-floor retailer has thematic show of inside ideas and product traces
| Photograph Credit score:
Siddhant Thakur

Nonetheless, after establishing her personal inside design enterprise, Sussanne hardly ever visited Hyderabad — till two years in the past, when she was approached with this mission. Frequent journeys to the town adopted, the place she studied company, residential, and business areas, together with the native design panorama. “Hyderabad is a progressive metropolis, and I used to be pleasantly stunned by the heat of the individuals. There’s a definite aptitude for luxurious right here. I felt it was the proper marketplace for my design aesthetic — quiet luxurious with a enjoyable vibe.”

Sussanne reveals that every one the curated furnishings and equipment at TCP Hyderabad have been designed in India. “Among the embroidery and prints within the furnishings are impressed by birds, animals, and fruits from the Konkan coast, with motifs influenced by different areas as effectively. We’ve additionally designed a furnishings assortment impressed by tree branches, utilizing steel and electroplated fibre to make it appropriate for tropical climates. I believe this line will resonate with Hyderabad’s spacious houses and luxurious gardens,” she says, describing her choice for fluid, natural shapes over sharp edges.

Ample pure gentle floods the interiors, a design selection Sussanne credit to architect Rajiv Palshikhar and head designer Osama Patel. “We have now an unbelievable design crew, touchwood,” she says, attributing their artistic edge to a eager eye on international tendencies and travel-inspired influences. She additionally shares a private connection along with her crew, whom she fondly calls her ‘charcoal gladiators’. “Among the carpenters and painters who labored with my mom now work with me — the subsequent era carrying ahead the legacy.”

Thematic shows

One flooring showcases merchandise and ideas by Gauri Khan Designs
| Photograph Credit score:
Siddhant Thakur

Whereas the Mumbai retailer, initially unfold over two flooring, downsized throughout the pandemic by leasing one flooring to a retailer, the six-floor Hyderabad retailer supplied a contemporary canvas. Sussanne and her crew designed every stage with a definite ethos — one devoted to equipment, one other showcasing kitchen and dwelling space ideas, a 3rd focussed on bedrooms and kids’s play areas, and one other integrating audio-visual and lighting techniques. Among the artworks are sourced from India, whereas others hail from Palm Springs, California.

Talking about her collaboration with long-time buddy Gauri Khan, Sussanne says, “I love her sensibility and design aesthetic. We complement one another, and her designs provide clients a various vary. She’s equally enthusiastic about coming into this new territory.”

On a parting word, when requested in regards to the inspiration behind The Charcoal Mission, she laughs and explains, “Each web site I go to is gray and darkish, like charcoal. Once I ignite it with my vitality and artistic concepts, it lights up. That’s how the identify got here to be.”