The two-hundred-year-old Haveli was renovated by an Italian designer, Maria Grazia Baldan in Rajasthan.

Maria Grazia Baldan and I had met in Rajasthan recently, the first time I have been away from home since the beginning of the pandemic. We went through the Thar Wilderness, stopping and seeing the famous Shekhawati havelis, Rajasthan’s heritage zone, before arriving in Deeppura Garh, a fortified mansion 200 years old, which has been restored by Baldan, with the help of Belgian architect Philippe de Villegas.

When we approached the front yard, a guide introduced us to Maria Grazia, an elegant Italian jeweller that created a business for antique coins with which she created the one-of-a-kind pieces which decorated her shops in Milano and Sardinia by scouring the vintage market from Istanbul to Peshawar and Shanghei. Baldan emerged from a standing structure beside the front wall to which she led us and claimed to be an old camel stable that had been converted.

With that little room, I was immediately taken and renovated to emphasise the monumentality of the masonry, the sumptuous ceilings and large wood beams.

This gem of a Boutique Hotel which it has built has ten rooms, each with the same clean lines, with an unshakeable eye for quality and Baldan’s cosmopolitan sophistication. We entered the main building salon from the front garden, a cream-colored room with 5-arch screen and a tall double-height ceiling. Only the big dhurries on the floor, the touches of black in the sprinkling of antiques of choice and the paint above and below the neutral skiing were the sources of colour in this peaceful region.

Beyond the living room, there is the kitchen that has been carefully renovated to resemble the show kitchen of the TV chef. Guests are told to come and eat or learn how to cook here frequently. Our hostess then led us through a labyrinth of tunnels and rooms, reminiscent of an old fort in the original kitchen that was transformed into a library and dominated by a massive fireplace. Each bedroom is decorated to the estheses of the rest of the property in a splendid and honest way.

Written By Mahak Jain | Subscribe To Our Telegram Channel To Get Latest Updates And Don’t Forget To Follow Our Social Media Handles Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter. To Get the Latest Updates From Arco Unico