Home Tour: Ankita and Sitanshu’s Awesome DIY Decorated Lucknow Home

Ever seen home decor inspiration on decor sites or pages and wondered how to replicate it in your own home? Not all of us are blessed with a natural flair for decorating. Here is a home owner who has a natural flair, but she has also cracked the code for those who don’t, and shared it with us here! More on this at the end of the post.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Tips on decorating a picture at perfect space

Location: Lucknow
Home: 2700 sq ft plot with 1900 sq ft (ground floor) and 1200 sq ft (first floor). Its a 30 year old house
Residents: A family of 5. Mr and Mrs. C.B.Rai, son Sitanshu, daughter in law Ankita and grandchild Miransh

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the orange lilies flower in the garden

A 30 year old home on a quiet, tree-lined street of Lucknow, greets me with an abundance of greenery, and I instantly relax. We love homes that have living decor, in fact that’s the theme on our Facebook decor group as well this year! The garden has plants aplenty and the orange lillies nod a pretty welcome, all together. A tall madumalai wine smiles down benevolently.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Green plants at the door entrance

I enter the gate, and this what I see. A friendly labrador contentedly sitting at the verandah while Epipremnum aureum vines trail down from hanging baskets, setting the scene for what’s inside quite nicely!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - A contented labrador sitting at the verandah

Ankita’s love for DIYs is visible right from the entryway. These old milk shake bottles have been upcycled and are suspended from silver hooks nailed on to teal planks! How unique!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the entryway decorated with bottles hanged on piece of wood

The stairway with its gallery wall also catches my eye, but we head over to the living space first.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The stairway decorated with green plants and gallery wall

The living room is a cheerful place, with the orange accent wall setting the stage for a cozy space filled with books, collections of brass and beautiful lamps in the corner.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The living room corner is filled with brass, kettle planter and vintage

Charming little wall shelves adorned with plants and artifacts adorn the accent wall.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the orange accent wall shelves adorned with plants and artifacts

We head up the stairs, and the gallery wall makes me want to stop and look closer at every little piece hung atop it. Sitanshu and Ankita say that it holds pieces from various ports they visited during a long haul sail. The two boards with quotes were bought on Amazon.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The stairway decorated the gallery wall with picture frames

Look who’s hard at work tending to the plants on the stairs! ?❤

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - green plants on the pathway

On the first floor, I try to follow Ankita into what looks like a gorgeous bedroom, but I am stopped in my tracks, unable to proceed as I stare at a cerulean wall open mouthed.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - cerulean wall with brass collection and wall gallery

Ankita tells me, “I love this blue color and I wanted to use it somewhere in the house. I love my bedroom and wanted to make the entrance an iconic one so I decided on this wall. We struggled for the perfect shade I was looking for, for almost 2 hours at a hardware store. We finally zeroed in on a colour by Berger Paints. The staff added pigments and helped me get the exact shade. Back home, we waited with baited breath for the paint to dry; it was perfect! I immediately knew that this blue would look lovely with bronze and browns. Now whenever someone comes upstairs to see my newly renovated bedroom they get wooed by this wall first.”

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - renovated bedroom

The bedroom can only be described as a dream. With an immaculately attired four poster bed, it is the show stopper here! As an aside, I wonder why we Indians, with such easy access to block printed bedsheets, don’t use them often enough? And paired with dark wood, they look so gorgeous! This picture is proof!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The bedroom filled with dark wood, green plants, blue frame, candlebra and assorted jugs

A sideboard adds continuity to the drama on the bed, with a blue frame giving company to a vintage-looking candelabra, an old time piece and assorted jugs, with beautiful DIYed wall plates continuing the play of vintage-modern.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The bedroom are decorated with blue frame, candlebra, assorted jugs and wall plates

On the way out, we pass the delightful blue wall again and I marvel at how perfectly it is adorned and accessorized.

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - cerulean wall with brass collection and wall gallery

Onward to baby M’s room, a contemporary grey-white striped accent wall and a sweet crib, lots of DIY decor and a comfy accent chair with a matching footstool, minimal shelving cubes and yellow touches make this such a darling space!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Baby M's room
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Baby M's nursery room
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Cute little vignettes in yellow and blue
Cute little vignettes in yellow and blue

And here’s Baby Miraansh himself showing us around!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Baby Miraansh on nursery room

Downstairs, I stop to peek into the room occupied by the seniors in the family. Ankita has DIYd the wall plates in this room too. Do remind me to ask her for an exclusive tutorial for The Keybunch readers 🙂

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The bedroom decorated with wall plates and chest of drawers

On the way out, I linger on, enjoying the green outdoor space with my gracious hosts!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the green outdoor space with vintage goods

Here’s a pic of an evening brought alive with colours and lighting at the Rai residence that Ankita shared with me later!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - A green balcony garden

Click on the video to see this space come alive!

Beautiful decor stories from this home

The Dining Table

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - The Dining Table

The dinning table was a present at Sitanshu’s parents’ wedding and is very dear to them. It looked a bit outdated but because of the huge sentimental attachment, Sitanshu and Ankita decided to update it rather than throw it away. They added a granite table top, thus successfully managing to repair, update and keep the vintage feel intact!

The forgotten headboard

A bed belonging to Sitanshu’s mother got ruined due to borers but the headboards were intact They saved the headboards but forgot about them as the years passed. During deep cleaning last Diwali Sitanshu found them and told Ankita, “There is something you were interested in and you might want to do something with them. I had no clue what he was talking about until I saw the forgotten headboards! And my mind immediately went on overdrive as I envisioned them in their new avatar.”

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - headboard from old bed on the wall

They happened to have a pair of old jharokhas stashed away too, and they arranged it all together like so. It sure looks lovely! 

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - headboard from old bed on the wall with green plants

key takeaways from this home tour

The SECRET of seeing your home decor project turn out exactly as you visualized it? Ankita shows you how!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Baby room corner
  • Don’t be hasty in sourcing for your theme. Ankita says, “I always visualize everything in my mind. Only then do I order, and I make sure I order exactly as per the planned theme. For example while designing my bedroom I chalked down everything I wanted and started looking for these items. I ordered mostly from online websites, but I ordered when I found everything. I never buy decor items hastily. Only plants are my weakness and I indulge in impulse buys when I go to nurseries.” This is a sure way to get your decorating outcomes just as you visualized it!
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the decor pieces in nursery room
  • Try to Do It Yourself – Ankita prefers to first explore the possibility of making stuff herself, and if she feels she can’t, only then does she order it! “I made all the decor pieces in the nursery myself like the globe, wooden branch wall hanging which is a guava tree branch, the lamps, the alphabet M. The plates in both bedrooms are decoupaged by me.”
  • Lengthen the life of items that have sentimental value – Ankita and Sitanshu were mindful of their parents’ attachment to the dining table, and instead of discarding it, they wanted to give it a new lease of life. The headboard is another example from their home, where it was salvaged from a ruined bed, and used in a beautiful wall vignette! All of us can do this. It may take a bit of time, but when the project is done, it’s so satisfying!
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - brass collection in every corners of the home

And Ankita has taken care to use her mother in law’s brass collection in little corners and table tops all over the home!

  • Of teamwork!
    Decorating is fun when you have and your partner work together. If your partner is willing to co-decorate, nothing like it! Says Ankita, ” Me and my husband work as a team when we do up the house. He loves decorating the house as much as I do and helps to organise it.

All the paintings that you see on my walls have been painted by me during my sails with Sitanshu. And he gets every painting framed and we put them as per our theme or colour combination. My husband is my biggest supporter of my passion to decorate the house. 


Ankita S Rai
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - the gallery wall on stairway
The beautifully-framed set of vintage keys

Where do Ankita and Sitanshu shop for decor?

Sitanshu collects a lot of decor items when he goes on sail (he is a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy). Says Ankita, “Sometimes he does videocalls from the stores overseas and shows me everything around and then picks everything I like. He got the keys that are displayed on our gallery wall from Russia and everyone made fun of it until I framed them on aboard and put it on the wall. “

As a bonus, here are a few more pics of this gorgeous home!

More pictures from this home

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - Baby room corner
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - vintage miniature toy cars with green plants
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - a sitting corner decorated with green plants
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - candelabra made of wood
Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - indoor green plants at bedroom

It was a pleasure featuring Ankita and Sitanshu’s home on this blog. We would love to hear what you think of this tour.

In case you are pinning these images, we have already put them on our Pinterest feed, so head to the Pinterest board here and pin away!

Home decor Tour by Ankita and Sitanshu’s in Lucknow - brass collection and green plants at living room

Dear readers, we hope to bring you more home tours in the coming weeks. Do you want your home or a friend’s home featured here? Please fill this form.

Comments are closed.