It’s a story about a lady Soumya Kesavan, she runs a one-or-a-kind furniture and interiors store. Finds out what makes her tick.

I DON’T want it to be Just another furniture store,” declares Soumya Kesavan. “I want to stock things that cannot be found anywhere else in the city!” And indeed Soumya has done precisely that with her unique store Souk, which she feels “is for the discerning buyer.”

We ask about the unusual name and she laughs. “Well, Souk is an abbreviation of my name, but it is also a reminder of the many happy hours I spent pottering about in the bazaars of Marrakech and Fez, in the § souks of Istanbul and Damascus. So the name was an immediate and it natural choice.”

She continues, “While my schooling was in Bangalore, I also spent a few years in Mumbai, where my mother took my sister and me every Saturday, to the Jehangir Art Gallery for every new art show. She was a painter and instilled in us an enduring interest and understanding of contemporary art. She explained the importance of colour, texture and composition of each painting to us. My father was an architect with a passion for designing modern furniture. So we always had an in-house carpenter and grew up watching him innovate with wood and other kinds of materials.”

AN EXPERIENCED HAND

Her exposure was further heightened when she married and moved to Chennai, as her mother-in-law at the time was a collector of art and artifacts. “So it was a combination of experiences that really shaped my interest, which is why I now love the old and new equally, be it with furniture, art or interior design,” she says.

But the store itself happened quite suddenly. “I have been collecting furniture for years,” she explains. “And after finishing a very challenging restoration project in Coonoor, I was planning to put my feet up for a bit. But then my friend Elamma, who was running her furniture store, The Attic, decided to move to Kodaikanal. So I took over the space, and moved in with my own ‘collection’!”

PAST AND PRESENT

Soumya tries to stock pieces of different styles and periods, and whenever possible, gives them an “unexpected treatment”. She says, “For instance, I might upholster a Victorian chair with funky ’60s-style polka dots, or even psychedelic upholstery! I think that with furniture, as in interior design, it is important to have an element of surprise.”

The lady is also involved in interior design, renovation and restoration. “In order to be able to effect a coherent interiors solution, I would ideally like to be involved with the architect and landscape designer at the initial planning stage. In this way the interior design is completely integrated with the landscape and the architecture,” she explains.

“Personally, I like a combination of different styles. While people are spending more on their interiors today, somehow, when it comes to old furniture, at least in Chennai, people always seem to be looking for a bargain! Sadly, that is becoming difficult as originals are hard to come by.