Shefali Shah is known for playing intense, layered women in shows and films like Delhi Crime, Darlings and Jalsa. Away from the camera, her Mumbai home is a much softer place. She has not given the public a full tour, so details like its size, exact location or designer are not known. But her interviews and Instagram posts show what matters to her inside her four walls: warmth, craft and art.
A Home That Tells A Story
In a reel for the home decor brand Flourish, Shah said her home reflects her choices, her growth and the life she has built. She spoke about comfort in little things, like a cosy throw, a handmade cushion or the cup that holds her morning coffee. The reel showed her journaling in a corner, setting out coasters and lighting a tea light in a handcrafted bowl. Flourish sells handcrafted and sustainable home decor made by artisans. Shah said she once thought sustainability was complicated, until upcycled plastic coasters showed her it comes down to simple, mindful steps. Textiles and tableware, she said, add warmth and a touch of heritage to her space.
Art is another big part of her life. Shah paints in acrylic and ink on canvas, and her work has been represented by Samsara Arts. She showed a series called Perspective at an art exhibition for Concern India Foundation, saying the viewer’s own way of seeing is what completes a piece. About 20 of her paintings were once used to decorate a house on the sets of her series Human. She went looking for one particular painting and found the production had taken them all.
She also likes making spaces with her own hands. When she opened her restaurant Jalsa in Ahmedabad, she designed the interiors herself, hand-painting some of the walls and planning the look down to the cheese boards.
From A Tiny Room To A Home Of Her Own
Her love for simple comforts has roots in her childhood. Shah grew up in Mumbai’s Santa Cruz area, where her family lived in RBI quarters. She has said her family was lower middle class and that for a time they had no permanent address, moving between relatives’ homes until her father got a job at the Reserve Bank of India. She also recalled living in a small room, called a kholi, with four people in a fishermen’s colony. She described it as about four times the size of a car.
Today, she shares her home with her husband, filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah, and their two sons. She has said that even on a solo trip to Manali, she wished to share every experience with her loved ones. Her space may not be a showpiece, but it feels lived in and thoughtful. As she put it in her Instagram post, “Home is where we find comfort in the little things.”
For Shah, a house becomes a home through personal touches: a handmade bowl, a quiet corner for writing, a canvas she painted herself. That seems to be the whole idea.
