If there is one factor that has quietly leapt from Instagram reels into actual life, it is the artwork of the tabletop. What was once a mere backdrop for sweets, diyas and dinnerware has turn out to be the centrepiece — lush, layered, and deeply private.
Eeshaan Kashyap for Sarita Handa from 2024
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Traditionally, an Indian Deepavali desk meant brass diyas, glass vases, urlis with floating flowers, and mirrored trays. Those classics nonetheless endure, and rightly so — they’re steeped in heritage and heat. But more and more, hosts are experimenting with texture, scale, and storytelling. Think outsized floral installations spilling over the desk’s edge, tiered trays of mithai rising above candle clusters, sculptural ceramics, or modern metalwork that echo motifs from the house. The aim is not “nice”; it is theatrical.
Eeshaan Kashyap for Sarita Handa from 2024
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And if proof had been wanted that tablescaping has entered the cultural mainstream, look no additional than designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s grazing tables — now a fixture at his soirées, every one laden with vintage vases, porcelain, silverware and foliage below dramatic gentle.
Eeshaan Kashyap for Nilaya Anthology
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“It’s definitely rooted in tradition,” says Eeshaan Kashyap, a Delhi-based multi-disciplinary culinary artist who divides his time between Delhi and Hyderabad. “But the idea of tables today is more about doing something contemporary, deconstructed, and unusual. Rather than going back to what we’ve always done, we’re seeing a lot more experimentation — small plates, mithai boxes used in inventive ways, metal and mitti (mud) coming together — food almost becoming the ingredient of design.”
Eeshaan Kashyap for Nilaya Anthology
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At one in all his current tasks, Eeshaan created a Deepavali-inspired setup the place your complete eating expertise unfolded like an set up — a reimagining of thalis via sculptural plating and bursts of color. “It still celebrated the essence of Deepavali,” he provides, “but in a way that felt fresh, curious and very design-forward.”
The desk as canvas
In a showcase titled The Art of Hosting, at present on view until the tip of October at Nilaya Anthology in Mumbai, Indian design voices Sona Reddy, Eeshaan Kashyap, and Aneeth Arora of Péro got here collectively to discover how the desk can function a canvas for tradition, intuition, and generosity. Across these immersive settings, the showcase posed a quiet however resonant query: how can design honour the self inside a context that is inherently shared?
Aneeth Arora for Nilaya Anthology
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For Deepavali, Eeshaan’s reinterpretation of the standard vessel presents inspiration. Pair traditional brass thalis with velvet runners, shell-inspired plates, or metallic accents that catch the sunshine. Add sculptural candle stands or uncooked stones as centrepieces to herald distinction and depth. It is much less about formality and extra about creativeness — discovering new methods to make the atypical really feel extraordinary.
Aneeth Arora for Nilaya Anthology
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For Aneeth Arora, the Delhi-based designer behind Péro, tablescaping is about embracing whimsy — the sort that refuses to take itself too significantly. “Our table is set for a gathering of our kookie schmookie, wonderfully whacky, and outrageously eccentric friends,” she laughs. “It’s where nothing is what it seems, and everything is what it isn’t.”
At The Art of Hosting, her desk embodied that spirit — a superbly chaotic scene the place dessert appeared earlier than drinks and mains after entrées. “Why not?” she grins. “Celebrations should be a little mad — a little unexpected.”
The setting was a riot of handwoven textiles: Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, mashru from Gujarat, taffeta silks from the South, Benaras stripes, and gauzy jamdani from Bengal — every layered to shock and delight. “It was a mad party of chitter-chatter and chaos,” Aneeth smiles, “a world filled with a little mischief and a lot of love.”
Aneeth Arora for Nilaya Anthology
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Her take is excellent for Deepavali — a reminder that the festive desk doesn’t must be excellent, simply private. Mix patterns, pile on color, and let your quirks take centrestage.
For Sona Reddy, the Hyderabad-based architect, a desk is not only a setting — it is a social catalyst. “The first thing I always look for is a large table,” she says. “I love when everyone can sit together — it keeps the energy in one place. You don’t lose the joy of shared conversation.”
Sona Reddy for Nilaya Anthology
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That intuition formed her set up Ode to Nilgiris, a tribute to the rolling mountains, misty eucalyptus groves, and wealthy wildlife of the Nilgiris, the place she studied over three many years in the past. “Somehow, the Nilgiris just came to me,” she remembers. “I wanted to honour that landscape — its calm, its depth, its sense of memory.”
Her desk is a mix of artwork, craft, and design — embroidered particulars and sculptural components in black, white, and gold, layered with moss, ceramics, and texture. Forty-five handcrafted ceramic goats stood amid the greenery, a nod to the home and the wild, the actual and the remembered. “When you have a strong concept and you vocalise it to your guests before dinner,” she says, “it immediately becomes a conversation starter. Especially when people don’t know each other — it gives them something to connect over, to reflect on.”
Sona Reddy for Nilaya Anthology
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For Sona, the tactile nature of the desk — the coolness of ceramics, the softness of moss, the rawness of pure textures — is deeply tied to reminiscence. “Design becomes meaningful when it engages the senses,” she provides. “It’s not just about how it looks, but what it evokes.”
Sona Reddy for Nilaya Anthology
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Though not conceived for Deepavali, her method carries classes that match the season completely. The pageant, in any case, is as a lot about togetherness as spectacle — about magnificence balanced by belonging.
A southern lens
The festive desk is a quiet dialogue between the standard and the worldwide, believes Arun Gowda, architect and inside designer at Humming Tree in Kozhikode. Garlands of malli poo (jasmine) or tulsi (holy basil) leaves may drape loosely throughout the desk, their perfume mingling with the glow of brass diyas. Mismatched ceramics carry on a regular basis appeal, whereas ikat napkins and matte cutlery add modernity. It is a setting that feels each rooted and refreshed — earthy but elegant. For Deepavali, Arun’s philosophy interprets superbly: begin with what is native, layer what is private, and let contrasts do the remainder.
Sreejith Jeevan, the Kochi-based designer and inventive head of Rouka, is of the opinion that the thought of a tablescape is nonetheless considerably international to South India. “Traditionally, in the South, decoration and eating have always been two separate acts,” he explains. “If you look at an Onam meal, for instance, it’s just a long table with banana leaves — no flowers, no candles, no embellishments. The person serving comes from the front, and the focus is entirely on the food.”
Sreejith’s tablescape
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Sreejith Jeevan
That simplicity, nonetheless, tells a narrative of its personal — one in all ritual, group, and rhythm. Yet, as Sreejith notes, the thought of adorning a desk started to trickle in via colonial affect. “My mother used to talk about how, in my grandfather’s time, they’d host tea parties with lace tablecloths and porcelain — very British in aesthetic,” he says. “So for me, table settings were always associated more with Christmas than Onam. Deepavali wasn’t really celebrated in Kerala until quite recently.”
Sreejith’s tablescape
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Sreejith Jeevan
Instead of florid ornamentation, Sreejith’s tables are rooted in bounty from the land — a philosophy of fabric honesty. He collects objects from his travels: a stone sculpture picked up off a roadside stall, a chunk of terracotta purchased from a freeway artisan, crushed kasavu cloth repurposed as a runner. “I like finding new meanings for everyday things,” he says. “Sometimes I just walk through a flower market or a pooja shop, pick up something unusual, and figure out how to use it later. The shopkeepers are often puzzled — they’ll say, ‘This is for rituals!’ and I’ll say, ‘Perfect.’”
Sreejith’s tablescape
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Sreejith Jeevan
For Sreejith, tablescaping is not about mimicry or luxurious, it is about reclaiming what already exists round you. “I like to decolonise design,” he says. “We don’t need imported objects to make something beautiful. We have terracotta, wood, fibre, metal — things with soul.”
And whereas his apply is not tied to Deepavali, his method speaks on to its essence — abundance, heat, and improvisation. A modern festive desk, he suggests, doesn’t must be extravagant to really feel particular. A couple of regionally made objects, contemporary flowers, and textures from house can inform a narrative of generosity that feels each grounded and deeply private.
New temper
Shivan & Narresh’s tablescape is the place vogue meets decor
And if the following era of hosts has something to say about it, the festive desk will solely get bolder. Take Delhi-based Shivan & Narresh’s new tableware assortment — a playful, print-led tackle luxurious that is unapologetically modern. For youthful hosts, it is much less about heirloom silver and extra about assertion styling — a celebration of private aesthetics like daring patterns, sculptural candle stands, vibrant glassware, and colour-blocked linens. It is Deepavali carried out in another way — nonetheless full of heat and togetherness, however with a definite design edge.
