It's one thing to say you want your home to echo your personal history; it's another to bring that vision to life. Much of what's readily available in the realm of home decor, vintage or otherwise, leans towards Western designs and aesthetics. For those of us with more diverse heritages and cultures, finding items that resonate with our personal stories can be challenging. A recent search for “Indian decor” on platforms like Chairsh, 1stdibs, and Etsy often yielded uninspiring results: an abundance of kilm rugs, vaguely “Asian-inspired” items, or pieces portraying a westernized "exotic India", rather than celebrating India's intricate and broad craftsmanship.
Enter Behnaia. Behnaia is a lifestyle brand based out of Los Angeles that is focused on curating collectible and vintage decor from countries like India and Africa that have a rich culture of design. “A lot of the narrative around vintage goods were centered around objects and movements coming out of Europe, like postmodern or Art Deco. The reality is there are also beautiful pieces that exist from other parts of the world that are equally as valuable”, shared Payal Patel, co-founder of Behnaia, in a recent interview.
Payal's academic journey took her from sustainable design at Parsons to a Design MBA at California College of Arts. Throughout her education and tenure as a designer and creative director for a boutique hospitality firm, Western design principles predominantly shaped her learning, often sidelining age-old design cultures from other regions.
It was during a three month trip through Asia with her sister, Hasina, that the seeds of Behnaia were sown where they found artisan families with treasure troves of vintage and handmade goods. “The creative energy, the talent, the beautiful pieces in those large warehouses… it felt like glimpsing into a whole world. It was stacks and stacks of beautiful artifacts that we were so inspired by”. Years later during the pandemic, both sisters were at a pivotal point in their careers and decided it was time to build a company of their own.
Behnaia, a portmanteau for two hindi words, sister (“behna”) and made (“banaya”), launched in March 2023, six years after that fateful first trip featuring some of the very pieces they had first seen in warehouses. They drop new collections twice a month focusing on various regions of India, like Kanha, a tropical oasis and home of the Bengal Tiger to the Thar dessert known for its Blue city (Jodhpur) and Pink city (Jaipur). Each drop has a variety of home decor and lifestyle pieces from furniture to accent pieces to prints. The sisters are also looking to expand their collection beyond vintage to collaborations with artist collectives in India and South Africa to promote emerging talent from there.
Though Behnaia is in its infancy, its ethos resonates powerfully: championing stories and histories through art and design. Behnaia is much more than a platform - it is an call to reframe the narrative of where good design comes from and who it serves.