Home Interiors for Ponda's Family Homes and Plantation Houses

Ponda sits in the middle of Goa, inland between the Mandovi and the Zuari, and it feels quite different from the coastal towns. It is the headquarters of Ponda taluka, a busy market and administrative town with schools, colleges and industry around it. The taluka is known across Goa for its temples, including the Mangeshi and Shantadurga temples, set among wooded hills, and for the spice plantations in the countryside around the town. Until 2015 Ponda was part of North Goa district; it now belongs to South Goa.

The homes we visit in and around Ponda are mostly family homes, lived in all year. In the town itself many people live in apartments, from older blocks to newer buildings on the approach roads, and in independent houses built over the last few decades. In the villages around it there are older Goan houses with tiled roofs and verandas, bungalows on hillside plots, and houses set among areca, coconut and spice gardens, some of them in the same family for generations.

Because Ponda is not a beach town, fewer of its homes are holiday lets or second homes than in Bardez. That changes the brief. Curtains, blinds and furniture are used every day, washed often and expected to last for years. At the same time, a growing number of families have opened a few rooms to guests, often in older houses near the temples and plantations, and those rooms need a tougher, simpler specification than the rest of the house. Goa's homestay policy offers incentives for new homestays in a handful of hinterland talukas, Ponda among them.

Being inland has one clear advantage: salt is rarely a problem. Good powder-coated tracks and brackets generally last well here, and fabric does not have to cope with the constant film of salt that affects homes on the coast. We can therefore be a little more relaxed about hardware in Ponda than we are in Candolim or Anjuna, and put more of the effort into fabric, lining and fit. That also allows a wider choice of finishes for poles and tracks. Homes near the rivers, particularly on low ground, still see heavy damp in the monsoon, and we plan for that where it applies.

Damp is another matter. Goa's rain is concentrated in the monsoon, with about 91 per cent of the year's rainfall between June and September, and humidity stays very high through those months across the state. Around Ponda, homes among trees, plantations and hillside gardens stay shaded and damp long after the rain stops, and ground-floor rooms in older houses with thick laterite walls can feel humid for weeks. Curtains that pool on the floor or press against damp walls are the first to mark, so we finish them clear of the floor and choose linings that dry quickly.

Insects are the other feature of inland life. Gardens, trees and standing water bring mosquitoes, especially after the rains, and many families want to leave windows open in the evening without letting them in. Insect screens are therefore one of the most common things we make for Ponda homes. In the dry season, from November to May, west-facing rooms and upper-floor flats can take strong afternoon sun, and lined curtains or solar-screen blinds help keep them comfortable without shutting out the light entirely.

Our workshop is in Benaulim, in Salcete, and we visit Ponda by appointment, often grouping the trip with other homes inland or around Panjim. On the first visit we measure every window, check walls and ceilings for sound fixing points, and bring fabric, lining and blind samples to the house so that you can see them in its own light. In older houses we look for timber lintels or solid plaster, avoid drilling into fragile lime plaster, and keep internal shutters free to close.

Everything is made to measure in our own workshop and fitted by our own team. For a family home we can work room by room, around school terms or a family event, or plan the whole house at once. We protect floors and furniture while we work, clean up afterwards, and show you how each track, blind and screen works before we leave. Where a house is being built or renovated, we coordinate with the contractor so that tracks go in at the right stage, after plastering and painting and before the final clean.

After installation we remain available for adjustments and repairs. Some Ponda homes belong to families who live elsewhere for part of the year, and we are happy to work with whoever holds the keys, agree choices by photographs and calls, and send pictures once the work is done. For homes that will be closed through the rains, we offer monsoon take-downs, cleaning and storing curtains dry and rehanging them after the monsoon withdraws in October. That service is as useful for a house left empty by a family travelling abroad as for any holiday villa.

The most common request is practical: a full set of curtains and blinds for a family home, made to last. Bedrooms usually want blackout, living rooms want privacy from the road or the neighbours without losing the light, and kitchens and bathrooms want blinds that cope with steam. Many families ask for curtains that can be washed at home, and we make them with removable hooks and weights and fabrics that behave well in an ordinary machine. Children's rooms and study corners are frequent requests too, usually with simple roller or Roman blinds.

Insect screens come a close second. We make pleated, sliding and fixed screens to measure for timber, aluminium and uPVC frames, and for older houses we measure each opening individually, because old windows are rarely perfectly square. For verandas and balconies, some families ask for outdoor blinds that give shade and keep off some of the rain without enclosing the space. Guest rooms in homes that take visitors need hard-wearing, washable fabrics and proper blackout, kept simple so that they are easy to maintain.

Upholstery is a large part of our work inland. Many Ponda homes have solid, well-made furniture that has been in the family for years, and it is often worth recovering rather than replacing. We replace foam and webbing, repair frames and recover in fabrics chosen for humidity and daily use, and we make new sofas and rugs to measure. Whatever the job, we will give you straight advice about what is worth doing and what can wait. Often the best start is the rooms you use most, with the rest to follow once you have lived with the first.