My Favorite Room: Actress Rati Gupta’s eclectic living room evokes home for her
“The Big Bang Theory” actress Rati Gupta knew she wanted her living room to be colorful and feminine.
Pride of place in Rati Gupta’s West Hollywood home is a giant grapefruit-scented candle with an interesting provenance — it last adorned a dressing room for Beyoncé.
Gupta, currently filming the final season of “The Big Bang Theory,” fires up the 5½-pound candle, from British fragrance brand Jo Malone, on special occasions. It’s one of a handful of prized items surrounding the Indiana-born actress in the 1,400-square-foot apartment she shares with her longtime roommate, an assistant director.
Furniture imbued with memories of Gupta’s family back in the Midwest, newer pieces from West Elm and Room & Board, and artwork that simply spoke to her fill the space, along with a rug holding an unlikely connection to her current TV show, where she plays Anu, fiancee to Kunal Nayyar’s character, Raj.
Why is this your favorite room?
It’s where everything happens. I relax in here, work, eat. My friends come over and this is where we hang out. It’s a living room, and it’s where I live.
And the candle?
It’s the star of the room! I call it the “Beyoncé candle” because it belonged to her. My roommate was a [production assistant] on the movie “Obsessed” that Beyoncé was in. She had this giant candle in her dressing room. When the film wrapped she didn’t want to take it with her so she gave it to my roommate. I said, “Let’s put it front and center on the coffee table so I can point it out to every single person who walks in from now on!” I don’t light it often. Just when I have parties or I’m having a moment and need to channel some Bey.
What else do you love in here?
The artwork on this one wall. It was so much work to put together. I bought the art from Urban Outfitters and got the frames from a shop on Etsy. The whole process of mapping out where to put them and the design of them was an endeavor. I was on the floor with measuring tapes and newspaper cutouts. I put a lot of work into it, but it turned out great.
Besides the technology- and city-themed prints, there’s another painting too.
I found it online. It’s set at a train station, and the colors are vivid, and it had that bold vibe. I love the hustle and bustle of the theme. It felt on-the-go and worldly.
You’ve got some family hand-me-downs as well.
The couches were my brother’s. I took them from him when he moved. And the armchair is from my parents’ living room when they redecorated. My family is in Chicago and Indiana and I’ve moved far away, so this gives it a home-away-from-home feeling. I used to sit in that chair watching “Boy Meets World.”
What’s the story behind the colorful rug?
It’s from Anthropologie. It’s the first thing I bought for this home. At the time, they were making a chair with a similar print. [Years later] I was walking around the “Big Bang” set, and saw the chair in there; it’s in Amy and Sheldon’s apartment. They must have acquired the chair at the same time as I got my rug.
What sort of mood were you going for in the room?
In general, nothing in here matches and that’s kind of by design, just like nothing in life matches. I wasn’t concerned with everything working perfectly together. It’s very go-with-the-flow, and I’m a go-with-the-flow person. I don’t think long-term, I don’t map things out, and that’s how I wanted to go about decorating the room.
Any special memories in here?
I have a writer’s group that meets in here, a circle of artists helping and supporting each other, coming up with ideas. That’s the attitude I like to have in this room. Sometimes I light the candle.
