Design of the week....Purple and Yellow Bedroom

This is the second addition to my new series on designs. The inspiration for this bedroom design is from this board. This is a collage from here , here and here. This post is based on a request from one of my friend for a purple bedroom.

Colours: Hues of Purple and Sunshine Yellow The first look....

Walls: Rails running horizontally through the room @ 2ft below the ceiling and @ 2 ft above the flooring. These are painted in yellow. Choose a subtle wallpaper with a floral pattern to infuse the feeling of nature. As purple is a dramatic colour, I have chosen yellow which mellows the dramatic effect and adds an element of nature to the ambience.

A huge standing mirror in yellow frame acts as a focal point. The picture frames above the top rail, a beautifully carved polster bed with matching side tables in white........all add to the classic look of the bedroom.

Flooring - carpeted in a drak brown

Celing - can be painted in a dark brown or white...or use ply wood panels in dark colours to add a western look.

ENJOY!!!!! send in your inspirations....and lets see what turns out!!!!!!

Furniture Exhibition - PART 2

Here's PART-2 of the Furniture Exhibition.....For all those who are looking for PART-1 of the same....please click here.

Kamal's Telescopic Ladder Unit - Kamal has used an old telescopic ladder.........which is normally used as a ladder...but in small apartments with space constraints.... this can be folded and used as a seat with a storage underneath ideally for small things like stationery or magazines. The speciality of this is that even when the ladder is opened for use....things inside the storage remain intact.

Vaishnavi's Compact box can be used as a dresser, a study table or a work table. all in one..... yet compact. Notice the mirror on the left which is concealed when used as a table. The small box underneath is the stool and also a storage. BIG VALUE FOR SMALL MONEY..... Vindhya's ALL-in-ONE table is a single piece of furniture......resembles a cube with 2 faces cut off. It has various utilities on all it other faces. As you see here, it can be used as a kid's study table or probably like a kid's dining table...on the other side a center table with a magazine and newspaper pit.

Vijayalakshmi's Aquarium center table looks delicate with a glass case separating the legs and the aquarium. She calls it a coffee center. The legs of the table stores the crockery, cutlery. The special case provided under the aquarium can be used to store sugar cubes, cookies etc., needed for a coffee or a tea meeting. Ideal for people having home offices. It not only reduces the time to move in and out of your kitchens but also looks elegant in any corner /center.

Swetha Evelyn's Foyer unit is an all-in-one unit which gives equal importance to deco aspect as well as the utility aspect. This is a tall unit with pot holders at the top, an aquarium below, storage for jackets, helmets, shoes etc., It also has 2 stools which fit into it and can be easily removed when one needs it. On second thoughts...i feel..it could double as a partition between the foyer space and the living space....especially in apartments where we dont see an exclusive foyer...... Sweta Daga's Topsy Turvy Cradle - I remember the many attempts that we did to get the drawing of this furniture right. Most of the cradles that we have seen are only for short use....like a year...this is a concept where for 1 year the furniture can be used as a cradle which swings. After the baby has outgrown the cradle...all one needs to do is to turn the furniture upside down and voila.... it becomes a bed that can be used by the child for upto 6 years......

Swati's Single seater can be opened up to a double seater and a table.

Susanna Rai's Study unit is a wall mount designed specifically for a kid's room. This special feature of this unit is that when not in use....it can be put on the wall for display as a deco unit in a child's room. It has small stools for children which are shaped in the form of alphabets.

Divya Chikkanna's Furniture is a very practical utility furniture for storage of very obvious items like garden equipments, laundry clothes, vacuum cleaners, detergents etc. This can be made using recyclable materials. The concept is very simple...but very useful. This can be placed in the balcony or terrace of any apartment. It looks neat and does not occupy too much space. It comes with wheels for easy movement. It also has an iron board on top. The openings that you see are for cane baskets to segregate the "to-be" washed clothes. It has hooks to hang the pressed clothes while still using the board.

Shamaan's concept of this furniture is that it can be used as a display on top. When opened it multiplies its utility to be chairs with storage underneath and a table. Spacesaver indeed!!!!!

Write to me if you need any help on making these furniture pieces....

More to come in PART-3.......

Exhibition of the MULTI-UTILITY FURNITURE....PART-1

This is a very special post and is dedicatded to all my lovely students. This is an exhibition that I organised for my students to display their talent in designing a MULTI-UTILITY FURNITURE. I am always fascinated with the idea of using a furniture for more than one activity. Ofcourse, this is not new ....and I also know that there are many available in the market. Here the challenge for the students was to use the same piece of furniture for a minimum of 3 activities without having to spend too much time and effort on the convertible.

The thought of a multi-utility furniture came to me after considering the following facts:

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  Most of us are living in apartments where we have very less or no storage space at all. (remember the concealed attics of our grandmothers' or the storage rooms in our parents' backyards..)


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  With one fact being proper storage...the second one is easy accessibility to the storage space...which is more often not considered....


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  Living in style with the most modern amenities irrespective of the space.

Considering the above points, the challenge given to my students was to design a furniture which is not only aesthetically appealing....but also a multi-utility furniture. Various themes were chosen by each of the students. Since there are many to showcase...this post will be divided into parts.All the furniture that you see here are not life-size...they are scaled down models of the same.

1. Sindu's HEXTRA - It can be used as a Kid's day-bed, sofa. When the cover is lifted off, it can be used as a table with storage in each of its a stool. Zainab's MOBILE BEDROOM SET - This is the opened version. When folded....it simply becomes a rectangular box. Very ideal for people moving from one location to another.

Nitin's Studio apartment furniture is a kitchenette on one side and a bedroom on the otherside with a movable partition box. Rashmi Jadhav's ALKOOL is a mobile bar counter. When closed...looks like a cool deco unit, when opened up becomes a bar with storage for all types of bottles and glass holders. It doubles up as a barbeque unit on top.....surprisingly..it also houses 2 stools inside it. Ideal for backyard parties.

Akshay's floor lamp is definitely a lamp but....can also be used as a dresser on the one side and an iron board or a narrow desk on the other side. The base unit that you see is for storing a sleek contemporary chair that can be used for either purposes.

Rakshita's FOLDABLE DINING TABLE is from a japanese inspiration of low-lying furniture. This is the opened version. When closed, it just looks like a Chest of Drawers. All the cushions and the legs go in.

Goutham's multi-utility bar counter.

Priti Choudary's KIDS PLAY SET is a wonderful creation which has a minimum of 4 board games with seating and storage .........all packed compactly in a single box...

Nidhi's PARTITION CUM SEATING is a beautiful addition to your homes and plays handy when you have a lot of guests. It is otherwise a partition either in your living rooms, bedrooms or bathrooms.

Likitha's PARTITION BOX (DRESSER and STUDY TABLE) would be a great idea to separate a kids bedroom. Imagine you have 2 of these. Place both next to each other ...but in opposite directions. This means that on each side you will have a dresser and a study table....

Hope you all enjoyed this....PART 2 in Progress.......

Design of the week....All for FREE!!!! ....a new series.

Here's a treat to all my dedicated readers. With mails pouring in from various parts of the world requesting decor ideas, I decided to come up with something unique on my blog. This is a sincere attempt to share my creativity. All suggestions and ideas are most welcome.

This series aims at sharing some of my designs with my readers. This will be mostly residential....unless.... ofcourse....i get a special request from somebody for a commercial design. The idea behind this series is that...I would post one design for a room in a residence every often based on a particular inspiration or a theme........ofcourse, my lovely readers are always welcome to give in their ideas and suggestions. The motive is to enable everyone to have a designer home without having to visit a designer.

So, if you are rethinking of doing your house or possibly buying a new house.... irrespective of the size.....the general questions are.... what colours should we go in for? what furniture to buy? how big or small should the accessories be? and how many should I buy? blah...blah...blah...

Now, you have a ready made solution to your problem. You could also use this as a reference picture to tell your architect or your interior designer how you want your room to be. This makes things a lot easier. So, without too much talking........here's the design for the weekend !!!!!!

DESIGN INSPIRATION - The warm colours Maroon and Golden Yellow of the Marigold Flower.

With due credit to http://www.photographersdirect.com/ for the above photo, let me begin with describing the design for this week. This is inspired by the warm colours of this beautiful flower. which has a fantastic balance of maroon and golden yellow. Inspired by these colours, I have created this living room on my software.

I personally feel that a living room is a place where every member of the family meets to bond over after a tiring day. With warm colours, the place is automatically filled with conversations and induces a feeling of oneness. Here are a few views of the same room. I would like to explain some finishes as well.

WALLS: Base rail or skirting of about 4" in wood-painted white, upto 3ft wainscot panelling in yellow, a chair rail of 1.5", and then a wallpaper in a maroon subtle texture upto the ceiling with a crown rail on the top(match it with the base rail)

FLOORING: a dark coloured flooring of preferably wood or alternatively tiles with a colourful carpet.CEILING: Keep it in golden yellow. You could add some decorative plaster of paris mouldings.

FURNITURE: Prefarably all white in subtle textures.

ACCESSORIES: Minimal but obvious . for eg., a huge abstract paintingWINDOW TREATMENTS: Since there are too many details on the wall, my suggestion is to go for simple roman blinds in white.

You are free to ask me any questions on this. I will be more than happy to answer them.

I hope you all enjoy this series.

Classroom Makeover in WARLI ART FORM

After the stress involved in relocating, one definitely needs a reward. I chose to watch a movie. Coincidently... it happened to be Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I definitely knew about this book....,but was not aware that this was about blogging. As I sat watching the movie, tears rolled down my eyes and I began to realise...how much I missed blogging. That is when I decided to write and update my blog continuously. This post is dedicated to Julie Powell and Julia Child.

This post is about how we transformed an interior design classroom into a fascinating world of warli art. I thank all my students wholeheartedly for extending their support and showing interest in this project of mine.

As you can see, its a normal white boring classroom. Unfortunately, in an excitement to re-do the room, I forgot to take any before images of the room. This is the only one that I have and you can see a student working here.

Many blogs have already spoken about warli art. So, I think I will not venture deep into it. But a small note for the novice. Warli art form is a kind of painting found on the mud houses of some tribal groups in Maharashtra. The paint forms depict their daily life scenes in an attempt to showcase their culture. I found a lovely blog titled http://warlipaintingsart.blogspot.com/. Please check this for an extensive research on warli paintings.

So, after the makeover......

the beams that run through the room..........

While the beams and one wall were painted with warli, we chose to keep the other walls in a light green colour and adorned the walls with some colour boards.

I promise all my readers and followers who have been patiently mailing me everyday to update my blog that I will regularly update this blog with more and more interesting and useful articles. I also encourage every reader of mine to send me a message on what you would like to know from me with respect to interior design and decoration.

Linking this post to the July Carnival at The Key Bunch....