PARADISE ROAD

Paradise Road is a beautiful home ware store in a white bungalow located in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The two-story bungalow is filled with amazing products such as contemporary home ware, local handicrafts, antiques, clothing, gift and crockery. Originally all the products were designed by Udayshanth Fernando, the founder of Paradise Road, and were locally manufactured in Sri Lanka. Today the product range also includes personally selected items imported from all around the world.

Paradise Road was established by Udayshanth Fernando, a Sri Lankan design entrepreneur, in 1987. It started as a small boutique in Cinnamon Gardens and later Fernando and his wife, Angelica, expanded their business and opened The Gallery Cafe and two boutique hotels in Colombo and Bentota. Today the brand includes art galleries, hotels, restaurants and gift shops. Most recently the Paradise Road Group of Companies was joined by PR, a fashion concept store directed by Fernando’s daughter, Annika. I have written a post about the stylish PR on my blog here. For more details on Paradise Road brand and the founder, Udayshanth Fernando, please visit their About page.

How I learned about Paradise Road was through a few of my friends. When I started telling my friends that I was going to Sri Lanka, a few mentioned Paradise Road, but I had forgotten about it by the time the trip approached. Two days before we left on vacation, I saw a friend, Anood, and she said to me that she and her mom went crazy shopping at Paradise Road in Colombo. This friend has a great eye for design, so I took a mental note and told myself that I needed to go to Paradise Road. When I told my husband about it, though, he gave me a quick no. I had to figure out a way for me to go there. You will read how I did it shortly.

After I had visited PR in Colombo with my oldest and youngest children in the morning, I went back to our hotel where my husband and our middle child were resting. (Our middle one picked up a stomach virus back in India and the symptoms started showing on the first day in Colombo.) We all got in our rental car and went to Paradise Road for lunch. Since my husband would not let me shop if he and our children have to hang out and wait for me to look around (fair enough), Paradise Road Cafe was perfect place for our lunch.

While we waited for our food to be ready, I used the little time I had for shopping as well as taking photos. Since I was given permission to take photos at PR in the same morning and PR and Paradise Road are in the same group, I went ahead and took photos. I probably should have asked especially because I was told not to take photos of the main room by the cashier. At the same time, the store was busy and I did not want to bother the staff to go ask their manager for a permit, either. Later I contacted Annika, one of the Directors of Paradise Road Group of Companies, and asked for permission to use the photos I took to write my blog post. Anyways, as I did the photo shoot in such a hasty matter that I could not cover the whole store. I apologize in advance for some of the low quality photos.

PARADISE ROAD CAFE

We arrived early for lunch, so I was able to take a photo of the empty cafe, but it started to fill up while we were waiting.

TEA AT PARADISE ROAD CAFE

I took my two kid back to Paradise Road for ice cream and dessert to reward them for touring with me in the Fort area in the afternoon. It was lovely!

I could have spent my entire day shopping at Paradise Road. I need a long time to think in order for me to choose what to buy especially home decor goods so that I can buy things to match what we have at home. I do not wish to buy something on a whim. I also felt badly making my husband sit with the kids for a long time while I shopped. Thus, I had to be very quick and I could not shop well under such time pressure. I regret that I did not buy more than I did. After we had returned home in Mumbai, I told my husband that I want to go back to Colombo so that I can shop at Paradise Road again. Yes, I would love to go back.