“When you become a mother, you really see firsthand how vulnerable and innocent children are, and it’s impossible not to see the gravity of the fact that so many children around the world have no support system. I think about how much my children need me and need a community of love and strength and guidance to have a shot at life. So many children in developing countries don’t even have a sliver of that. So I started Project Lion.
In its first three years, Project Lion and UNICEF India will serve 200,000 Indian orphans to ensure they have legal paperwork, adequate nutrition, basic healthcare and access to education. It will also work to get children out of institutionalized care and into longterm family care, and will create alternative models for nontraditional family care with a child-centered approach. I consider myself so fortunate to be in a position to make a real difference in the future of India’s most vulnerable children and to empower them to rewrite their futures.”
“I was born in NYC and moved to the Lexington area when I was 5. My parents loved the big city but wanted to raise children in a place that felt more like home, and they couldn’t have chosen a better place than Lexington. No matter where I’ve gone and what I’ve done in life, those small town values that Lexington helped instill in me have always given me a perspective that I would never otherwise have. Going to Lexington HS and playing tennis for a team that I was so proud to be a part of has played a huge role in shaping the person that I have grown up to be. I am so grateful to that community for showing me the importance of community, kindness, inclusivity and the true power of cheering for one another.”
JUST A GLIMPSE INTO HER STORY
“I left Lexington in 1996 to go to college at the University of Michigan and then moved to NYC in 2000 where I still currently live. After 8 years in the corporate design industry, I went back to school to get my Masters in Interior Design and opened my design firm in 2009. I married my college sweetheart (in Ohio, of course!) in 2005. I now split my time between Interior Design, Project Lion (a UNICEF initiative I founded), sitting on multiple non profit boards, being a mother to my 11 year old son and 7 year old daughter and fueling my passion for travel. Thank you Big Lex for giving me a foundation that has always served me so well!”
Purvi Padia has lived life by following her inspiration and intuition. Purvi’s most profound inspirations have always come from her parents – their strength, their perseverance, their humanitarianism and their connection to India.
Purvi Padia is a first generation Indian American, whose parents were both physicians who studied in India and later immigrated to the United States. They came to the U.S. with the dream of offering unlimited opportunities to their future children.
Designed by interior designer Purvi Padia in partnership with UNICEF USA, Project Lion is a multi-year effort that’s committed to providing displaced children in with food, health care, education, and access to long-term family care. This critical program will ensure that thousands of children left without family care can be given a second chance to grow in loving, stable, nurturing and protective environments.
“Children’s rooms should have a sense of magic to them,” says interior decorator Purvi Padia, who imparted miles of enchantment when designing a room for her now 2½-year-old son Rehan. When Padia and her husband, Harsh, first moved into their four-bedroom Tribeca apartment, they had to work a bit of real estate alchemy as well.
“Rehan’s room wasn’t a bedroom,” explains Padia, who recently launched her own residential design practice (purvipadia.com). “It was supposed to be a study off the master. We wanted his room to be connected to ours, so we put in doors and converted it.”
“While Rehan’s nursery is a child’s room through and through, his play space, set in a corner of the living room, is designed to harmonize with the home’s warm yet clean-lined aesthetic.”
“We’re obsessed with folding and sliding door systems that allow a space to be multifunctional yet interesting and chic.” -Purvi Padia of Purvi Padia Design
“Not even a designer’s own home is safe from client-imposed compromises, but for her Tribeca living room, Purvi Padia came up with elegant solutions to her family’s unruly demands. In plain sight she concealed the toys of both her 2-year-old son (vibrant playthings) and her husband (a massive flat-screen TV). Her David Blaine- worthy ticks? The toys are tucked in uniform flax bins, while the fireplace wall (home to the TV) is sheathed in bronze panels nearly the same color as the screen – the chicest camouflage ever. Still, there’s space for Purvi, with pops of orange that “bring a little happiness to the room, ” says the woman who, in the end, didn’t relinquish one iota of style.”
Living in a loft and designing it to be your sweet getaway is one-of-a-kind experience. Loft decorating ideas encompass unexpectedly tall and dramatic windowing, open floors, and a beautiful light flow to keep the place fresh during the day and to throw a look on the amazing nightlights of your city.
This being said, loft design ideas make for the most modern and industrial ones, and it is not rare to meet ductwork, concrete, and exposed pipes in any of these homes.
