Grandchildren of Mysore's Maharaja Restore 120-Year-Old Bungalow

A 120-year-old staircase still anchors Raj Vilas, a bungalow in Mysore, India, restored by the grandchildren of the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore. Work began in 2019. The original plan was a four-bedroom boutique accommodation. Midway through, the family changed course and kept the house for themselves as a weekend retreat.

Aditya Guru Dev and Samyukta Lakshmi bought a bungalow with good bones and a slowly failing roof. They handed conservation to architect Sanjog Shetty and interiors to Shruti Jaipuria of MAIA Design Studio.

"When you go to cities like this, you want to experience them for what they are; you don't necessarily want to stay in a cookie-cutter hotel that could be anywhere in the world," Jaipuria said. "We wanted people to experience Mysore in an authentic and rooted way, through the architecture, interiors, and crafts of the region."

What did the conservation actually involve?

The building was structurally sound but failing everywhere else. Shetty found rotted rafters under the tiled roof, tired window frames, and lime cornices crumbling at the edges. His response was systematic. He stripped later finishes and re-plastered the walls in lime mortar. His team dismantled the roof systems where needed, replaced timber beyond saving, treated and reused the rest, and rebuilt the pitched roof with the same Mangalore tiles it had always carried. Early-20th-century Basel Mission terra-cotta tiles were retained in select areas throughout the house.

"Every aspect was important to maintain the character of the building," Shetty said. "Without the authenticity of the construction technique, the restoration would have lacked the soul of what we were preserving."

Shetty was an old friend of Guru Dev's and a predetermined choice. "Aditya had told me that whenever he would decide to renovate his property in Mysore, he would like me to be a part of the collaboration," he said.

How were the interiors handled?

Jaipuria's brief was simple: restore wherever possible, replicate otherwise. "The client was very clear that we had to use as many original elements as possible," she said. "Even new interventions were replicated to resemble the originals, such as the doors and windows, and the POP moldings replicated the originals in all of the rooms."

Only the landing railings on the retained staircase were built new, to match.

The bedrooms draw color from the region's birds. The homeowners are inveterate birdwatchers, and Mysore hosts one of the region's best-known bird sanctuaries. One bedroom is painted the soft ochre of a yellow-throated bulbul. Another takes the many blues of an Indian roller. A third carries the white and pink of a painted stork.

Furniture came from antique dealers in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Kerala. Pieces from Saanchi, Gulmohar Lane, Mahendra Doshi, and Accurate Antiques now sit under a stairwell skylight or anchor a sitting room, each with a distinct provenance.

Where did the art come from?

Digging through old family books, Jaipuria found the Sri Tattva Nidhi, a compilation of art, music, and literary passages assembled by Krishna Raja Wodeyar III, one of the Mysore maharajas. Framed reproduction prints from it now hang throughout the house.

A trip to a doll museum in Koppal turned up Kinnala dolls, and the team bought enough to bedeck Raj Vilas. "These are wooden dolls made in the Koppal district of Karnataka, which is a 500-year-old craft cluster," Jaipuria said. "We wanted each element in the project to tell a story and be relevant beyond aesthetics."

The bathrooms and kitchen borrow from colonial design. Modern fixtures were made to look vintage, set against Basel tile floors and brass fittings that could pass as early-1900s originals. For Jaipuria and the clients alike, comfort was not sacrificed at the altar of traditional design.

What does this change for heritage homes?

The family could have demolished the decaying bungalow and built something simpler. Instead they spent years chasing salvageable rafters, matching old joinery to the millimeter, and vetting every intervention against the original construction. The result argues that the hard route pays off.

"We don't have to demolish old buildings," Shetty said. "They can be given a new lease of life and made functional."

Styling: Samir Wadekar.