Spread across 8000 square feet Temple Town’s brand-new store in Kochi, is akin to a museum of modern Indian home furnishings. Inspired by the rich heritage and traditions of South India, Meera Pyarelal’s store is a blend of curated objects and custom-made furnishings. Temple Town offers a wide range of bespoke services, including one-off furniture to complete designing and execution for an entire home or apartment. From tropical tiger prints to bright-coloured and patterned tile selections, they have it all. Visitors are pleasantly surprised because entering this store feels like a visit to your favourite relative’s home, the one who has spent decades collecting the finest crafts, textiles, and memorabilia and turned their home into a delightful cabinet of curiosities.

This store in Temple Town is Pyarelal’s second imprint in Kerala with the first being her home studio in Thrissur. The first floor of this home studio is a small but mighty collection of porcelain plates, wooden candlesticks, stone tableware, wooden knick-knacks, and a four-poster bed. Each item in this story is filled with a story of how her team sourced the object, restored it, and found a place in the store for it. With a master’s in Literature, Pyarelal seeks out poetry in spaces around her. The craftsmanship of wooden furniture, the delicate lines of artisanal sculpture, and the curves and rounded edges of a traditional easy chair are the languages she speaks fluently. After spending a decade styling homes, she decided to create a space to house all her creativity. While she still offers her interior services, patrons are now able to access the magic of her curations through her new store in Kochi. 

 

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At the inauguration of their store in Kochi, Pyarelal family and friends were present in large numbers— reflecting the spirit of community that exists with the Temple Town brand. Their event was orchestrated to mimic a grand wedding, the coming together of two unique journeys– Meera Pyralel the literature aficionado turned interior stylist, and her love for all things wonderful. The event was peppered with flowers, storytelling, and performance acts native to Kerala like Kathakali, Mayuriattam, Kalarippayattu and so many others— all an indication of the richness of Indian culture.  “The objective of the store is to preserve and promote traditional Indian designs and craftsmanship, which is slowly getting lost in the sands of time,” explains Pyarelal.

On the lower floor is a stunning entryway cabinet with oriental designs of dragons in rich shades of greens and reds– a wonderful example of Temple Town’s eye for traditional aesthetics. In a sea of European luxury brands, Temple Town holds its own by presenting a line of luxury furnishings that are homegrown. While many of Pyarelal’s objects and selections are sourced globally, the underlying modern Indian theme is predominant. Both her studio and the grand store in Kochi have a selection of wooden cabinets with delicate inlay work. These cabinets are a stunning mix of wood and weaves— reflecting a coastal aesthetic. This isn’t to imply that Pyarelal’s furniture pieces are typically of Indian origin, they are a blend of both Western and Eastern design histories. “Colonial furniture is the best creative collaboration between the East and the West and hence the only way to enjoy the best of both worlds,” she explains, “It is all about creating an heirloom which you can pass on to the next generations.” 

 

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Many of the seating options for instance had grandiose of the Art-Deco era and the tonality of the global south— primary colours, bold hues of reds, greens, and blue. Nestled amidst the gems in Temple Town Kochi is a framed set of leather hand puppets from the state of Andhra Pradesh on the top floor. The studio and store are chockful of pieces that can become heirlooms because in many ways they already have acquired a story and life of their own that adds to the charm of owning a piece of furniture from Temple Town.