There’s an endless array of choices when it comes to dressing your walls. The latest one I came across was wall printing from Clipso. The design technique involves printing large life-size images onto the wall that makes a stunning impact. The visuals are very realistic and different unlike what you see in a wallpaper. A few that I particularly liked:

Bathroom interior design

Pebble in the Bedroom

Kitchen

Just as I wondered if there are Indian design firms that specialize in such techniques, I realised Clipso has an office and installer in India.

Image Courtesy:

Clipso

The spotlight of this week is turning out to be pottery. While scouting for brilliant handmade pottery, I came across the ones by Sara Paloma and instantly fell in love with it.

Sara Paloma, a potter based in Southern California, has been creating an exquisite range with fine lines for homes from 1995. Muted colors in tall oblong shapes define her range. She runs an etsy shop called Sara Paloma pottery. Her shop is well stocked. I picked out a few from her etsy shop that are my favorites:

3 small nesting bowls

These stoneware vases in different sizes complete the look of the table, but I think there are too many of them.

Stoneware vases

Maybe something like this would work. Can we have some houseplants too, please ? Just kidding..

Vases

While we are on the topic of etsy exploring this beautiful shop, I’m wondering if we have an equivalent in India? We should, shouldn’t we ? A place for artists to come together and trade their beautiful creations.
Image courtesy:

Etsy shop

If there’s one thing that makes serving lunch/dinner fun when you have guests over, it’s the bright ceramics. I love elegant porcelain in solid colors with minimal detailing/design. Not too fond of the Corelle range - the dinnerware is too bland in its white (Thank God! they have some colors now).

True to my taste, I loved the ceramic collection from Mud Australia. The photography is enticing too appealing to all my sense Take a look and you’ll know what I mean.

Flare Bowls

Pebble bowls

Platters

Cups

Image courtesy:

Mud Australia

My maternal grandparent’s home had a vast collection of  black and white pictures. The framed pictures adorned all the walls in a line, just below the ceiling. Some were group pictures; some cute ones of my 10 uncles and aunts when they were kids; some taken in a studio in the traditional pose with the husband seated in a chair and the wife demurely standing beside him; some wedding pictures of the first born. What totally intrigued me was pictures of totally unknown people stayed up there. There was this picture I remember vividly of a bearded old man, in his late 70s, that no one could tell for sure who it was; it had passed down generations and one theory was he was a distant relative.

Family pictures such as these made for great conversations during our annual vacation; we cousins poked fun at the style of the 50’s and 70’s looking at how our mothers and uncles were dressed in their teens. There is a feeling of warmth, personality and style that family pictures brings to any room based on how well they are grouped and displayed.

The reason I started thinking about this was because I intend to frame a few pictures of my son and our family and decorate the walls of his room. When he was younger, I made a collage out of thermacol and glued some cute pictures in natural poses and funny outfits on it. Many marked a milestone like the first turn, first step, first smile etc. More than me, my son looked at them with amazement.

Here are a few ideas for accessorizing your walls with family photos. Get inspired!

Collage in black and white frames

A colorful collage by bedside

Bringing a hallway to life!

Can never go wrong with pink

A family tree - nice holiday gift?

A few tips to get the look right:

1. Group the pictures with a similar theme, size and color. For instance, keep the black and white framed ones of similar size together.

2. Lay them on the floor to get an idea of how they would look on the wall. Space them equal and mark with a pencil before drilling holes.

3. Ensure the wall is large enough if you are going to hang too many pictures. Too little in a big space can be out of place. Similarly, too much in a small space can be overwhelming.

Image Courtesy:

Martha Stewart

Family Tree Holder

Ladies’ Home Journal

Collage (Flickr)

Flickr Collage

I’ve been coughing incessantly for nights in a row leaving me in an irritated state and a battered throat the morning after. The sore-throat/nasal congestion cycle has been repeating itself once every three weeks.  Sinusitis and tonsillitis have been ruled out; I’m clinically fit and so it had to be something else. So after a rough night, I went to see the ENT yesterday. The diagnosis : allergy. Something that I’ve known all along because this problem surfaces only in Bangalore and no where else with equivalent dust levels.

In short, if I stay indoors in Bangalore, I’m alright; if I step out into the traffic for more than an hour, I’m down in a few days. Slat water gargling or steam inhalation hasn’t helped. Now, I’m on a prescription of anti-allergy tablets. The reason for this post is even interiors of one’s home can lead to such allergies. For instance, it’s high for me on nights when I use a comforter. It’s taken me long to eliminate the causes and narrow them down to one or two. I’ve always been dust weary but now it is at an all-time high. High chances are you’ll spot me with damp cloth or Easy Off at home.

Look out for dust mites if you have symptoms such as coughing, nasal dripping, itching, sneezing etc.  in the absence of an infection.

To keep one’s home free of dust mites need not be a rigorous exercise. It’s impossible to keep any home completely dust-free but you can strive to reduce the deadly mites with this simple routine.

1. Bed Linens : How often do you change the bed sheets? I used to change them once a week, sometimes two.

Do you step onto your bed with dirty and damp feet? Dampness provides a conducive breeding environment for many undesirable micro-organisms. So wash your feet and pat them dry before retiring in for the night.

2. Carpets: Carpets are a safe haven for dust mites. No matter how much you vacuum the carpets, they’d never go away completely. If you are prone to allergies, get rid of carpets right away. You’d be better off without them. I had a beautiful hand woven Kashmiri carpet in the bedroom that I had to put away very sadly. But it has made a huge difference.

3. Curtains: When was the last time you washed the curtains? Last Diwali? Shake the curtains and you’d be surprised to see a thin layer of dust flying away, only to settle on other surfaces such as night stand, table lamps, sides of the cot etc. Wash your curtains regularly instead of vacuuming as it ensures the dust is gone permanently.

4. Sliding Windows: If you have one of those sliding aluminium windows, take a peek in the gaps. You’d be surprised to see how much dust has accumulated. Remove it after vacuuming with a damp cloth. Do not brush it away; you’d end up ding more harm by brushing it as the tiny particles mixes with the air.

5. Comforters/Duvets : Yet another cosy place for the dust mites to reside. I was surprised how it triggered the cough every time I found comfort in my duvet. It was a newly purchased one so I didn’t see the need to wash it. Undoubtedly, dust mites had found their way on to the comforters causing more harm than everything else put together. You can clean your comforters (if washable) in warm water to make them mite-free.  Avoid mink and woolen blankets for allergies.

5. Soft Toys : How many teddy bears do you have? I have about twenty soft toys in various shapes, sizes, ages, and colors from different colors (Dust mites must be loving it here). Each has a story and name associated with it. Some have come to be related to each other and some are treated as if they were for real - full of conversations and very much a part of our daily lives. But, it’s time to give away some of them and some fond memories too. Because nothing  can be more comforting for these teeny-weeny organisms than snuggling inside the fur? If you wish to keep some of them, then keep it clean by washing often.

Some other areas of the house that may require dusting often are shelves, photo frames, TV stands, night stands, door mats, and sofa upholstery.

In short, dust mites resent clean homes.  What are the steps you take to keep your home dust-free?

Elaine Griffin, a NewYork-based interior designer, recently published her first book Design Rules (now in stores) that draw my attention to her work. Some of the rooms designed by her are incredible. The more I see well-styled rooms, it’s becoming easier to follow a pattern and common elements that distinguish them.

Kids' room

Come to think of it, it’s not hard to design an elegant looking room like this one by following basics:  subtle/bold  colors for walls based on your taste/personality,  and the opposite color scheme for artifacts and furnishings in the room.

Of late, I’ve been imagining doing up our study with white walls, yellow blinds, and red table lamps. The thought of bringing color to a room with various objects is exciting. In that sense, the room pictured above appealed a lot. The white bed sheets kind of offsets too much color in the room. The multi-colored concentric circles on the headboard is a simple idea to  bring in the fun element. Notice the simple table lamps with red border that’s well complemented by the colorful tissue box. The one thing I didn’t like was the flooring - the mustard-yellow carpet, to be precise.

Have you hired an interior designer to do your home or did you do it yourself? Is your home a reflection of who you are and your tastes? Did you give in to current trends or went the evergreen way or adhered to what you’ve always liked and believed in?

Image Courtesy:

Elaine Griffin

Continuing my search for good table lamps, I came across these in a few old magazines and couldn’t resist sharing them with you all.

Cage Mic Table Lamp

Widely known as the cage mic table lamp, this exquisite creation in glass and metal from Diesel is admittedly different from anything I’ve seen so far.

This one's actually a wall lamp

You know what I was reminded of when I saw this one, Dr. Octopus’ tentacle arms in Spiderman.

Another Diesel Lamp

And finally, this one - a natural fit for a room with pristine white walls.

Image Courtesy:

Cage Mic - source unknown - I spotted it in Elle Decor and a similar one in Flickr.

Made in Design

A neighbor said, “You know what? I prefer having one open cupboard with four or five granite or concrete slabs than all these fancy pull-out modular cabinets. About a decade ago, everything I used in the kitchen were contained within these shelves. Little has changed over the years in the kind of food we eat, and yet I find it so hard to organize with these cabinets.”  She had a puzzled expression on her face looking at how the vast expanse of kitchen lacked space for everything.  There were still stuff lying on counter top like mixer/wet grinder, cutting board, knives etc.

I know I keep coming back to the topic of storage in kitchens because it bothers me. A LOT. After spending a lakh on a kitchen, the last thing you want to deal with is lack of storage for rainy-day grocery and tons of appliances. As I started thinking, what my neighbor said made a lot of sense as I went back in time to my mother’s or granny’s kitchens. Open shelves - easy to access, clean, manage, take stock and organize.  Simplicity rules.

Back to off-the-shelf Indian modular kitchens, they are still evolving. It will take a while before they match the standards of German or Italian kitchens.  It was seven years ago when I designed my kitchen and back then, not a lt f thought went into how appliances should be stored.  Here are a few things that bother me in readymade Indian mdular kitchens:

1. Appliances : I have a ton of them, thanks to my mom. She loves buying stuff because they look nice. But when it comes to using, she’s to happy to pass them over to me. And, I don’t mind using them. To begin with, there’s the hand blender, then a food processor, chopper, juicer (non-citrus), mixer, wet grinder, microwave and a 2 foot space to accommodate them.  End results: some of them never get used as much as I would like to because it’s too much work to remove them, fix, use, wash, wipe it clean and cramp it back.

2. An assortment of spices: I’m sure it’s of late a common trend for most Indian kitchens to stock all the spices. Our daily cooking is a combination of North Indian and South Indian cuisine - North Indian for lunch (rotis, chana, rajama, dal subzi, salad, etc) and South Indian for dinner (dosa, idli, adai, rice/sambhar/curry). Noodles, pasta, pizza, chat, sandwiches and salad with dressing are meant for the weekend. So, it becomes quite a nightmare at times to take stock of everything from garam masala to homemade sambhar power, kanji maavu (porridge powder) and dosa mulagai podi, let alone the dearth of space.

If one were ready to spend a little more, well a LOT more, none of these would be a problem.  My dream kitchen is a Hafele one - functional and looks great. But I doubt about the efficient use of space as to fix all those racks would nt be possible in a small kitchen.

As always, some images to drool over:

Where's the kitchen?

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