What Nila House is known for

Founded in 2016 by Carole Bamford and opened to the public in 2019, Nila House occupies a restored 1940s bungalow at C-86 Prithviraj Road, Jaipur, as a nonprofit center reviving natural indigo dyeing, handloom weaving, block printing and embroidery. Part of the Lady Bamford Foundation, it runs a retail shop, open studios, an archive and research library, and residencies for artisans.

Nila House was founded in 2016 by Carole Bamford under the Lady Bamford Foundation, and opened its doors to the public in autumn 2019 in a restored bungalow dating to the 1940s at C-86 Prithviraj Road in Jaipur's C-Scheme district. The roughly 10,600-square-foot building is arranged around a central courtyard and holds open studios, a showroom, an archive and research library, an exhibition gallery and a textiles vault, in addition to its retail space.

The project is structured as an entirely nonprofit initiative, aimed at supporting artisan communities in Rajasthan working in natural dyes and handloom textiles, crafts the foundation describes as endangered by mechanization and fast fashion. Its four core disciplines are natural indigo dyeing (nila is the Hindi/Sanskrit word for the blue the dye produces), handloom weaving, block printing and embroidery, taught and practiced on site by master craftspeople.

Beyond the shop, Nila House runs classes, seminars and exhibitions, and hosts artist-in-residence programs for visiting designers and craftspeople, positioning itself as a hub for craft revival and knowledge exchange rather than a conventional retail outlet.