Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/666022
new brand ambassador for Ellen DeGeneres's QVC décor line, where she makes scented candles and fl eece-lined sweater blankets feel like irresistible must-haves (did we mention her smile?). Nayak has the travel schedule of a superstar—she's on the road about 85 percent of the time—but her dreams are soothingly simple: to help people marry their living envi- ronments with feeling good. Guests enter her studio through a nonde- script industrial door. Inside: design heaven. The expansive single-room space has a fl ow that works on all levels: charm, mood, utility, originality. Exposed timber beams stripe the ceiling above the computer workstations by the windows. Giant wrought-iron light fi xtures hang like cages glowing with steampunk-style bulbs. Bookshelves fi lled with design volumes and textile samples are a buffer zone, segue- ing to a cozy sitting area and test kitchen. Yet amid all the eye-candy and ambience, the focal point in the loft is as basic as child's play: a giant chalkboard fi lled with quotes that are totally Taniya, and serve as mantras in her everyday life. mantra no. 1: "GRATITUDE. NAMASTE." Nayak doesn't have any tattoos. She can't imagine getting one, can't envision anything she'd want to see on her body year after year, decade after decade. Except maybe this word: Gratitude, possibly in Hindi. Though her mother would have to tell her what that word would be. She moved with her family from Nagpur, India, to Weymouth as an infant, following her father's career as an architect. Through- out childhood, she'd travel back to India with her parents and sister every few years, and be dazzled by the "insanely vibrant" culture and beauty. "I remember once we were on a long-distance train ride, looking out the win- dow at the women taking laundry to wash in the river," she says. "The baskets were on their heads and saris blowing in the wind—bright or- ange, cobalt blue, emerald green—so bright in the midst of the dirt all around them." A deep appreciation remains for the early richness of that color dynamic—neutrals with a pop of col- or—that is now her trademark. "It was before cellphone cameras and all that, but I've never forgotten it. It's an image burned in my brain." In high school she loved architecture and décor, but her parents wanted to see her settled more securely in a traditional fi eld like business 86 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM