Question 1

How does a commission begin?

Accepted Answer

It begins with a conversation, not a contract. We ask about the building, how you intend to live in it, and what has drawn you to the studio. If the fit is right on both sides, we prepare a written proposal setting out scope, programme and fees. Nothing is signed until you have had time to read it properly.

Question 2

Do you take on projects outside the India?

Accepted Answer

Frequently. Roughly half of our current work sits in India, with completed commissions across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Goa and other parts of India. We maintain a presence across major Indian cities, and we appoint a local project architect wherever regional regulations or site conditions make that the sensible course.

Question 3

Is there a minimum project size?

Accepted Answer

We do not enforce a hard threshold, but our process is unhurried and thorough, which makes it poorly suited to small or fast work. In practice, most residential commissions begin around ₹1 crore of construction and furnishing value. A single exceptional room has occasionally persuaded us otherwise.

Question 4

How many projects do you run at once?

Accepted Answer

Six to eight. This is a deliberate ceiling rather than a consequence of demand. A principal is personally present on every commission, and that is only honest if the number stays small.

Question 5

How are your fees structured?

Accepted Answer

Most commissions are charged as a percentage of the total project value, typically between twelve and eighteen percent, staged across the ten phases of our process. Smaller or advisory pieces of work are charged at a fixed fee. Procurement is handled transparently: you see supplier invoices, and our margin is agreed in advance rather than hidden inside them.

Question 6

How long does a project take?

Accepted Answer

A full residential commission usually runs between 12 months and 24 months from the first conversation to completion. Heritage restoration takes longer, sometimes considerably. We would rather quote you a truthful programme at the outset than an optimistic one that fails halfway through the project.

Question 7

What happens if the budget shifts mid-project?

Accepted Answer

We rebalance rather than dilute. Every scheme is built with a clear hierarchy of what matters most, so if the number moves we protect the elements carrying the design and adjust elsewhere. You are told immediately, in writing, with options attached. Silence about money is the fastest way to lose a client, and we do not practise it.

Question 8

Do you have a recognisable house style?

Accepted Answer

We hope not, at least not visually. What recurs is a method rather than a look: an insistence on natural light as the organising element, on materials that improve with handling, and on proportion carrying the room before decoration arrives. A house in Kerala and an apartment in Paris should not resemble each other.

Question 9

Can we keep furniture and objects we already own?

Accepted Answer

Please do. Rooms assembled entirely from new purchases tend to read as showrooms. Inherited pieces, imperfect ones, things with a story attached — these are usually the most valuable elements in the brief. We will tell you honestly if something genuinely will not work, but the instinct is always to keep.

Question 10

Do you design furniture specifically for a project?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and often. Roughly a third of what sits in a finished Nesva interior was drawn for that room and made by a workshop we have known for years. Several pieces have since entered our collections after the client generously agreed to release them.

Question 11

Will the studio manage construction?

Accepted Answer

We do not act as main contractor, but we run the design through to completion and attend site regularly — weekly during the critical phases. Detail drawings, finishes schedules, supplier coordination and snagging all remain with us. You are never left to translate our intentions to a builder alone.

Question 12

Will our home be photographed or published?

Accepted Answer

Only with your written consent, given after completion rather than buried in the original agreement. A significant portion of our work has never been published and never will be. Where clients do agree, we can shoot without identifying features and withhold the location entirely.

Question 13

Do you sign confidentiality agreements?

Accepted Answer

Routinely, and we are comfortable with strict terms. Discretion is a working condition in this practice, not an accommodation. Our team is contractually bound to it and our photographers and suppliers sign parallel undertakings.

The questionsclients actually ask.

Working together

Fees and programme

The work itself

Privacy and publication

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