THE STUDIO
With a name inspired by two of India’s most iconic images – the vibrant mango and the warm, heady mist that envelops the country during its monsoon rains – Chicago-based MangoMist Designs is a full service Interior Design Studio that brings comfort, function, and glamour to everyday spaces. Led by Binita Barai, the Studio creates warm, dramatic, and balanced interiors that are at once elegant and edgy, sage and soulful, indulgent and inviting.
MangoMist Designs believes that any space should speak both to and about the client. The Studio draws vision from history, architecture, couture, and cultural subtleties gleaned from world travels, and incorporates clients’ own stories and sensibilities to create interiors that are as layered and discerning as the people who inhabit them. Marrying a strong creative background and a solid foundation in interior architecture, MangoMist seamlessly integrates practicality into aesthetic, ensuring that spaces are both artful and functional.
Design services offered range from ‘a la carte’ consultation to comprehensive project planning and design for residential projects.
BINITA BARAI
Principal & Founder
Binita Barai’s path to MangoMist Designs is as interesting and eclectic as the interiors she creates. Her varied experience – from Corporate America to Bollywood to Interior Architecture – informs her ability to adeptly express clients’ passions through design, while employing the project management skills and professionalism required to deliver a successful space.
Drawn to dance and creative pursuits from a young age, Binita has long been influenced by color, pattern and world cultures. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied South Asia Studies and Systems Engineering - and further delved into her study and performance of Indian and West African dance - she moved to New York City to manage technical projects as a Logan Scholar with Time, Inc. Corporate life left little time for her artistic passions, so Binita moved to Mumbai to intensify her study of classical Indian dance, simultaneously embarking on a three-year journey of exploring Bollywood as well as gaining a new perspective on her parents’ homeland, consequently finding herself creatively, professionally and personally.
Wanting to merge her creative and technical inclinations, Binita returned to the States to earn her certificate in Interior Architecture at UCLA, and continued on to pursue her master’s in the same. While studying in Los Angeles, she had the honor of training under design greats Martyn Lawrence Bullard (Martyn Lawrence Bullard Design, Live, Love & Decorate, Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators) and Bridgid Coulter (Bridgid Coulter Design, Home Made Simple). As she transitioned back to her hometown of Chicago, Binita felt privileged to serve as an Interior Designer under Alessandra Branca (Branca, Inc., New Classic Interiors), as well as Showroom Director and Project Manager for Julia Buckingham Edelmann (Buckingham Interiors + Design). It has also been Binita’s pleasure to contribute her design expertise to Chartwell Design Group (co-founded by Tom Stringer (Tom Stringer Design Partners, Tom Stringer: A Global View) and Chris Harris) as a design consultant, as needed, while continuing to serve her MangoMist Designs clients full-time.
Armed with a unique knack for generating harmony with contrasts, evoking appeal with combinations that are both classical and cultural, sophisticated yet sassy, Binita firmly believes that every room should have at least one pop of glamour, a whole lot of warmth, and references her passions to create livable luxury and ‘je ne sais quoi’.
Binita resides in Chicago with her husband, their two sons, and their two dogs. She is an avid reader and remains actively committed to dear causes, including social justice, the betterment of children in our foster care system, and animal rights.