Lifestyle
Many celebs like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan have opted for ‘gold leafing’ their homes.
Updated : Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
The rich and the famous in the city like Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji and others from the swish set share a common feature and that is of gold leafing — a trend in interior designing that uses 24-karat gold to do up a certain area of the house whether a wall, ceiling, furniture or even accessories.
Imran Khan’s company specialises in gold leafing and he is the man who has done the gold leafing in all these star houses.
He says, “Gold leafing or gilding is an art of decoration that requires gold to be beaten into sheets, turned into thin foil and applied to surfaces. We use 24-karat gold and pure silver for the process. Now many people even opt for bronze, like Bipasha Basu has for one of the walls of her house.”
The price of the gold or silver leafing starts at Rs 10,000 per square inch and goes upwards depending on the area. Gauri Khan (SRK’s wife) has got gold leafing done in her living room as well in the bedroom of their Bandra home, Mannat. “Gauri (Khan) opted for gold leafing in all the walls of her room and also the ceiling,” confirms Imran.
“Shah Rukh Khan had seen our gold leafing work at business tycoon Venugopal Dhoot’s residence in Aurangabad. SRK was present for the house warming party and decided to get gold leafing done in his house as well.”
Years ago, Dimple Kapadia had gold leafing done on her candles. Twinkle Kapadia picked it up from here and did gold leafing in her house as well. “Twinkle Khanna has done many of these star homes and so has Sussanne Roshan (Hrithik Roshan’s wife) and hence you now see gold leafing in many star homes including that of Amitabh Bachchan.”
The most recent project Imran has done is of Mukesh Ambani’s home Antilla on Altamount Road. “He too is getting a few sections of his house done with gold leafing. They are very particular about the decor of their home and have given us strict instructions that at any point of time there shouldn’t be more than four people working on the project at any given point of time.”
According to Vastu Shastra one must have some kind of pure metal in their homes, especially a gold dome right at the entrance of the house. “This is also supposed to have healing qualities,” explains Imran.
Call it the golden pill!