Design Crush: Inside the Colonial-Cool Calcutta Cricket Club

Calgary’s pretty-in-pink Calcutta Cricket Club is full of design surprises.

Palm fronds, Tiffany lamps and at least three varieties of Moroccan tile: looks like Calcutta Cricket Club has brought some colonial-era cool to Calgary…or maybe a little bit of 1980s Miami. “It’s like if an Indian gentlemen’s club were to meet the Golden Girls,” laughs designer Maya Gohill.But though the mix is unexpected, it’s anything but chaotic thanks to a bold-but-consistent colour palette. Pinks, soft greens, golden tones and black accents—pulled from the landscape-print wallpaper adorning one wall—form the foundation for a look that fuses playfulness with retro elegance. Rattan arches separate the bar from the dining area, where custom tables (some topped with wood and others with Calacatta marble) are paired with plush seating (Structube designs that Gohill reupholstered in baby pink). Over at the tile-covered bar, a wooden leopard rescued from a vintage carousel provides a striking focal point.That leopard is just one example of Gohill’s crafty sourcing. “I love vintage things; they have more character than you would find in a big-box store,” the designer says. The patio seats are school chairs she found at Salvation Army; indoors, the high-backed seats in the dining room were a Kijiji find; vintage photos of cricket players from the early 1900s were snapped up from eBay and hung on a bubble-gum-pink wall. “My design advice is always, don’t hesitate to look in the most unlikely of places. Be fearless.”