How to Mix Patterns in Small Spaces
Small rooms are not a reason to avoid pattern; they are a reason to mix it well. Writing from his own London apartment, Alpesh shares the working rules he uses as a pattern designer, vary the scale, share a palette, let solids rest the eye, and why texture deserves to be counted as a pattern too.
What Is Fretwork? The History Behind Hand-Carved Wood Screens
Fretwork is the craft of cutting ornamental, openwork patterns into wood, turning a solid screen into a play of light, air, and shadow. From the latticed windows of Jodhpur to the mashrabiya of Morocco, a Romanian castle, and one quiet terraced house in south London, Alpesh traces how the same idea kept appearing wherever makers wanted privacy without walls.
What is Wabi-Sabi Interior Design?
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the quietly incomplete. After travelling through Nara, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka, Alpesh reflects on what the idea really asks of a home, and why the answer is less about buying beige things and more about how you look.
How to Style Your Home with Art Deco
Art Deco works best at home in small, deliberate doses: one confident piece, warm metallics, and calm surroundings. Drawing on the streets Alpesh grew up around, home to one of the world's largest collections of Deco buildings, here is how to style the era without turning your living room into a film set.
The Architecture of Pattern: Iznik, Azulejos, and Jali
From Iznik in Istanbul to the Azulejos of Seville, the carved screens of Jaipur to the temple forms of Japan, Alpesh asks why every culture, independently, arrived at the same instinct.