Who likes stepping into a dingy, stinking bathroom every morning? The most private space in a home needs as much care as the rest of the house. I remember dreading to use the toilet as kid in my grandparents’ home because it was dark and infested with cockroaches. Thank God, the bathrooms of today have come a  long way  from those dungeons and serve as a relaxing corner than a mere functional space.

If there’s one grouse I have in my current apartment it is with the bathroom(s). The layout and tile color makes it hard to maintain. If you’ve already formed a gory image of my bathroom, then let me assure you they don’t stink We were young, short on time and design illiterate when we bought the apartment, that we currently live in, eight years ago.

Let’s just say, I have got wiser over the years and have better ideas now for a good layout. Maybe a remodel project is on the cards, who knows! If you are a new apartment buyer, here are a few ideas that will make your mornings bright and cheerful (oh! isn’t that where you step in first every morning?) .

How about some real indulgence!

1. Natural lighting: Let the sunlight flow in. Do you need to flip the light switch on before entering the bathroom during the day? It’s sad that the only opening in most apartment bathrooms is a 1*1 feet aperture for the exhaust fan, which limits the amount of light streaking in. One of the things I would love to have is a 2*3 ft skylight opening with a glass top above the sink fixture.

Isn't the skylight soothing?

Natural lighting in a small bathroom

2. Dry = clean: Dry bathrooms always require little maintenance. The more the water on the floor, the higher the tendency for the tiles to absorb dirt. So, how do you keep it moisture-free in an area that is meant to have water? Well, what I meant is limit the usage of water to the shower area. Wipe it clean or let it dry naturally after everyone has had a bath. It also helps in keeping fungus at bay during monsoons.

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In the summer of 2009, I created a category called “Home Decor” to segregate the growing list of design blogs. Within weeks, this section outnumbered the blogs under business, career, momma bloggers, and writing sections.

According to me, Apartment Therapy should come with a disclaimer: If you don’t have a job, then by all means take the risk of stopping by our site.  Because once you do, it’s not so easy to get away. I’ve heard of addiction to the Prison Break series when you’ve watched one episode and the urge to stay up all night to finish the entire season, but this one surpasses that. There have been days when I’ve lost track of hours spent indulging myself in AT land.

Who wouldn’t know Holly Becker of decor8 in the world of interiors blogging? I admire the lady’s resolve to      dig ceramicists, photographers, potters, Scandinavian stores and stylists we would otherwise remain oblivious to.  When you follow  bunch of home decor blogs, it’s easy to see, how many bloggers copy Holly’s finds  and feature them on theirs a few weeks later. Her casual writing style exudes warmth and friendliness that’s hard to come by.

How about orange: Authored by Jessica Jones, How about orange is a treasure house of DIY projects . I love the color orange, and that drew me to this blog. I have tried many of Jess’ easy DIY projects  including the newspaper basket and a holder for magazines from a cornflakes box. Jess also frequently posts links of other great DIY sites. But, I have a confession to make. If there is something called “reader fatigue”, I experienced that with this one; maybe because of the number of sewing projects lately.  If you’ve never stopped by How about orange, I insist you do You’ll love it and get glued to it.

It’s Pretty Good: The name says it all. Written by Mary, a self-taught photographer, “it’s pretty good” had me hooked the first time I landed on the site. Quite different from a regular blog, Mary has adopted a distinctive style of captioning images with thoughtful words. The visual inspiration  site consists primarily of closely shot images of flowers, table settings, delicious savories, freshly picked fruits, and home accessories. Mary’s eye for beautiful details of life will ensure this site finds a permanent fixture in your reading list.

Die Frau I’m Haus: You may think I’m crazy, but wait till you see the stunning images. I recently discovered Die Frau I’m Haus and I despise the fact that I can’t understand a word of what’s written on the blog. It’s probably not a bad idea to learn German so I can follow  “the woman in the house” and not depend on Google’s translation abilities. The Hydrangeas and the snowball tree flowers often pictured here are lovely.

What’s on your reader? What’s that one blog that you never get tired of reading?

Edited to add: I think it’s only fair to list the other blogs on my list after Sharon pointed out The Inspired Room.  Elements of Style by Erin Gates, PadStyle for funky designer products, My Notting Hill, Melissa’s The Inspired Room, and few by Indian authors including The Key Bunch, An Indian Summer, Art n Light, and Art By Aarohi complete the  list.

Do you subscribe to any of the home interiors and decorating magazines, or pick a random bunch off the shelf every month?

Home Decorating magazines

Do you lean towards Elle Decor with its emphasis on stylish living and following the seasonal trends closely? Or do you prefer Good Homes for its easily adaptable decorating and gardening ideas?Or you inspired by the exquisite homes showcased in Society Interiors?

I have a monthly subscription for  BBC Good Homes, but read the others such as Society Interiors, Ideal Home and Gardens, Better Interiors and Elle Decor on a regular basis from the library or buying recent issues at cheaper prices.

I’m slightly biased towards Good Homes because it has a glossy feel to it and has the right mix of advertorials and features. Except the home tours which are quite lengthy, the other features are a quick read. I absolutely love their multi-part design series spread over many issues. Good Home is currently running a Decor Lifecycle series.

Society Interiors reads like a architecture book and puts me to sleep.

What I don’t like in the home decor magazines?

Know your audience. Home decorating on a budget sells like hot chips. Seriously. If one has the capacity to blow, let’s say, Rs.10 L on soft furnishings, then one also has the ability hire a really expensive interiors consultant. So why present only accessories and products from high-end stores such as FCML, Atmosphere, which are eye-candy but out of reach for a normal household. For someone looking for doing up their home with limited resources, there are far and few ideas.

Sample this, for instance. A sofa chair by Pinakin Patel from Pinakin for Rs. 52,000 (Elle Decor, August 2009). The Mtouche range of porcelain tiles from FCML Home at Rs.1,300 a sq.ft (Ideal Home and Gardens, September 2009).  That way I think Good Homes strikes a good balance of expensive and affordable products such as Snapshot Coasters  at Rs.995 a piece from Apartment 9, and Glass Funk Coasters at Rs.600 for four from Silk Road and Beyond or Star Coasters at Rs.1,200 for six from Good Earth.

The home tours are again a drab. They make you drool, no doubt about that. But with the amount of styling that goes in for a shoot to present the image of a picture perfect home, we all know it wouldn’t work in a practical setting.

What works for you and what’s on your reading list every month?

I just realized that it’s been  while since I posted a DIY project here.  The store tours had kind of shifted my focus away from everything else. So, here’s a easy project you can try over the weekend.

One of the easiest ways to spruce up your kid’s room is to decorate it around their favorite cartoon characters. My three-year-old is very fond of the Disney character, Winne the Pooh and his buddies Tigger, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, Eeyore, Lumpy, Kanga, Roo and Piglet. But he is at such a age where his liking for the fantasy characters is short-lived. A while ago, he doted on Noddy, and around the second birthday, he was quite crazy about Barbie (if only, for a brief while like two hours during which he felt she wasn’t quite her kind of fun),  and now, it’s Winnie and Spiderman.  Winnie has being going steady for nearly a year going by the Pooh accessories we have at home now - wall stickers, piles of books, soft toy, a deck of fun cards, and a towel. Anyways, while I wanted to do up a wall of his room around Winnie, I didn’t want to put up a permanent theme on the walls by painting which would make it difficult to change.

So, I got started on a acrylic on canvas portrait of Winnie The Pooh.  It took me about three hours t finish the project from start to finish, including shopping for materials.

Winnie The Pooh

What you’ll need:

1. Canvas

2. Acrylic paints

3. Tracing paper

4. 4-5 sheets Carbon paper

5. Paint brushes and palette

6. Self-sticking tape

7. Hooks

8. Varnish

Total Cost of the Project:

Under Rs.300

How to paint:

1. If you’re good at freehand, then draw the character directly on canvas. But if you’re like me who needs help with drawing, you’ll first have to find a picture large enough of the cartoon character. Look around for posters or stickers in stationery shops. Or if there’s a real nice picture of a smaller dimension, enlarge it on your computer and print it out.

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Hope you all had a good long weekend. “dress your home” turned 1 on July 1st; so we’re officially a year-old now, and I’m taking small baby steps in growing this blog. I’ve decided to continue with the store tours as it gives me immense satisfaction to sift through dozens of home decor stores, decide which one fits in with my philosophy of serving a purpose, finally followed by the actual visit.

Last Saturday, I went to Namma Angadi which means “Our shop” in Kannada. Located in LB Shastri Nagar off Vimanapura, it’s a non-assuming, stone-walled building in a neighborhood most of us never would have a reason to go to. Anjula and Girish were quite helpful in helping me navigate down the narrow, winding roads from Old airport road to Namma Angadi. Namma Angadi is a marketing platform for traditional arts and crafts made by young workers in Kundapura, who were formerly child workers. It is promoted by a NGO called “The Concerned for Working Children.”

Above-18 workers are trained in various trades such as tailoring, embroidery, pottery, painting and weaving at the “Namma Bhoomi” vocational training center in Kundapura every year. The products made here are then marketed and sold through exhibitions held across Karnataka all around the year.

I know we’ve all read how everyday things like newspaper, wood and coconut can be reused to make interesting products. But doing is another ball game altogether? Seeing these colorful bags made from remaining pieces of cloth used for making kurtas rekindled the DIY blood in me. I was like, “Wow. This is nice, especially the door mat.” It’s so easy to discard things we don’t use, and here someone thought about making a nice, environment-friendly bag and selling it for under Rs.100. If only we refused those plastic stinkers at More/Reliance Fresh and used these cloth and jute bags for grocery shopping, they would have a future and the world would be a better place to live in.

Door mats

Are you also fond of Jute bags like me? I fall for the color, the texture, the ease of use and the style. After all, there’s very little one can go wrong with here, right Namma Angadi stocks a huge variety of these bags in different shapes and sizes. These would make for great gift items.

Jute bags

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No matter how stylish and elegant modern homes get, I’ll always be fascinated by the traditional Indian architecture. At the risk of repeating myself, I continue with this post

Most houses in the olden times were built on rectangular plots and, in certain places, adjacent homes shared a wall. Vast open spaces inside punctuated by thinnais and mithams, skylight, courtyards, red tiled flooring, huge cylindrical pillars along the mitthams or courtyards, a small hole on either side of the main door to light lamps, and high ceiling supported by wooden beams were some of the common characteristics of these eco-friendly homes. With such years of wisdom going into building of houses, can they ever be wrong? Little wonder there was no dearth of light and air while we feel suffocated, stifled and leave the lights on evening at 9:00 a.m. in a 2,000 sq.ft apartment. What a shame!

Another typical design feature of the old houses in Tamil Nadu was the linear corridor - one could stand at the main door and see the other end of the house. Everything else flowed seamlessly in between with no obstruction as the rooms and courtyards fell on either side of the corridor. Usually, a tulsi plant was what met one’s gaze from the open wooden-carved main door.I regret I don’t have any pictures of our ancestral homes. Maybe this time around, when I visit my grandparents’ I will do a photo shoot before the 100-year-old houses get renovated.

Homes in Chettinad, Kerala and north-western parts of Karnataka such as as Coorg and Mangalore share a common  element of design - courtyard. It is known by different names though in different parts such as thotti mane, nadu mittham and mittham.

While scouting for homes that adopted elements of our architecture, I discovered GoodEarth Homes’ Orchard project on Mysore Road.

Courtyard used as an indoor garden

I fell in love with the project (but for the price) as soon as I saw this picture. Isn’t it beautiful - a small green space inside the house that receives sunlight? Imagine waking up to the first streak of sunlight in the morning.

A modern verandah or porch

Long open corridor - where are the pillars?

Vineeta Nair of artnlight featured a traditional home in Palakkad a while ago.

I agree such vast spaces are beyond one’s affordability in metros. But there’s nothing stopping us from incorporating some eco-friendly concepts in apartments/penthouses such as skylights for better illumination. Although it’s tough to implement in normal apartments, penthouses can do this by placing glass on the roof for natural lighting. This can be extended to certain sections of the bathroom as well. I’m sure you agree that no fancy light can compete with natural light.

Chitra Vishwanath is a Bangalore-based eco-friendly architect. Some of her projects use these concepts of natural top lighting, stone arches and no fans. The project she has designed for the Rays uses the courtyard concept.

Have a story to tell about your ancestral home? Write to me with pictures and I’ll be happy to feature it here.

Images:

Kolavara heritage

Vembanad Lake Villa

For all you stained glass art lovers, I would like to share another discovery. Glasshopper, a stained glass art studio in Defence Colony, Indira Nagar, is close to the Glasscrafter’s studio I featured last week. I’ve not visited Glasshopper in person, so  it’s tough to talk about their products with the same conviction. Glasshopper’s portfolio is not as extensive as that of Glasscrafter’s since it’s only a year old. Though the studio claims to specialize in Tiffany-styled glass lampshades, it’s portfolio is diverse. Here are a couple that I found impressive, but I’m not sure if it’s stained glass or painting on glass as the textures are not clearly visible:

Chinese Calligraphy

Peacock Panel

We’ve been apartment hunting for the past two months. The apartment where we live currently has more pluses than minuses: practical utilization of space within the apartment, ample lighting and cross-ventilation, large rooms, functional amenities within the property, great location for public transport, highly convenient for groceries, reputed schools within a 3 Km radius, hospitals, well-maintained public parks, and is safe. The only reason we’re looking to move is because I would like to have a small space for indulging my green thumb and more open area for our son to play. Having looked at 27 odd old and new apartments/row houses/villas over 8 weeks, we’re on the verge of taking a break now. This would be our second apartment, so the expectations are high. And, it’s a little strange but true that we will need to spend double the price of our current apartment to get a new one, and still not get one which is satisfactory.

But, I’m very glad we did this exercise for I’ve learned a lesson or two in design by looking at all those tastefully decorated model apartments. Those perfect living spaces got me thinking: what if we spend just a fraction of the amount set aside for buying a new house and transform the interiors of the apartment we live in currently? We may fall in love with this place all over again…who knows? I may find new ways to pursue gardening indoors - with more varieties of houseplants in balcony, indoors and the utility area.

Have you ever fallen for a property with a bad floor plan but great model apartment? There was this apartment which had a kitchen to your left as soon as you entered and another one that opened to a guest bedroom.  So, I prefer seeing the floor plan first before falling for the interiors.

If you are planning to design the interiors of your new apartment or redoing the one where you live in, here are few tips that could be of help:

Crisp mustard yellow curtains to match other furnishings

Curtains:

1. Replace the rods. Or better yet, hide them if you can, like in the picture above.
2.Take the curtains all the way up to the ceiling. High curtains give the illusion of high ceiling. If you have a false ceiling, the top of the curtains can go behind.
3. Try sheer curtains for contemporary/modern furniture and heavy silk curtains for solid wood/teak/antique furniture.

4. Experiment with different fabric/material like a old silk sari or bright cotton sari/dupatta to make a blind or curtain.

Let the light come in - sheer curtains

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After doing a couple store/studio tours, I’m returning to my first love - gardening. Thanks to Natti, I discovered the nursery at Jeeven Bhima Nagar in Bangalore. Managed by physically challenged people, the nursery is well planned, maintained and customer-friendly. In absolutely no hurry to rush back home last Saturday morning, I indulged myself looking at the plants. Over to you all now

Flowering plants:

The nursery stocks only basic flowering plants as of now. According to the manager, they should be getting more of the Gloxinias, Star clusters, Passion flower and Petunias by this weekend.

Frangipani

Hibiscus

Roses

What I liked about the nursery:

If you are a novice gardener like me, these are questions you will relate to. Do I need to water everyday? Will this plant require too much sunlight? Will it grow well in semi-shade? Sometimes, our questions tend to irritate the nursery folks. This nursery solves that formidable selection problem for us. The nursery is segregated into three sections: full sun, semi-shade and full-shade. Every plant in each section, is further labeled with its name and price making it a lot easier to choose. If you still have any doubts, the folks are pretty helpful and knowledgeable.

Price is another talking point of the nursery. For instance, you can get an aloe vera plant for Rs.15 or a lilly for Rs. 50.

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Nestled in the by-lanes of Indira Nagar is a studio named “Glasscrafters“. Glasscrafters was started by Asad Hajeebhoy originally in 1991 in Bombay, followed by a four year stint in Muscat, Oman,and finally at Bangalore in 1996.  A physicist by education, Asad pursued stained glass as a hobby to take it up full-time in 1996.

Glasscrafters, Bangalore

Contrary to most Indian interior decor sites, Glasscrafters is well-designed replete with product pictures, portfolio, and course and service offerings. But, I still prefer to visit any studio/store in person to feel the pulse of the place.

A brief chit-chat on last Wednesday evening with Asad on art of stained glass was an eye-opener for me.  Tucked away from the hustle-bustle of 80 feet road,  Asad’s studio-cum-home is a flurry of activity with clients walking in, a designer working on some new project, materials spewn around, and finally, Asad talking about his passion for stained glass totally unfazed by his surroundings.  He demystifies the common perception that stained glass art is painting done on glass. In reality, there is no painting. Stained glass works are actually different pieces of colored glasses joined together with a copper foil to create a jigsaw-like piece of work.

According to Asad, his business broke even within 3 months of starting. Initially, he got his assignments primarily through references. The fact that there were no suppliers of stained glass materials in India back then made it a challenge. Mainly people who lived abroad placed an order for a specific piece. They brought the glass and materials with them for Asad to create. Word spread and now Glasscrafters has a impressive portfolio of over 2,000 projects. 90% of them are residential including some well-known ones such as Rishi Kapoor’s Mumbai residence.

A wide ranged of glasses are used such as wavy, wispy, opalesecent for the swirls and streaks, cathedral, streaky, textured, baroque, antique, and jewel.

Stained glass lampshade

A decade later, things have changed for the better. Glasscrafters is now a stockist for Spectrum glass.  The amount of  work involved in making every piece is mind-boggling. So, there’s nothing called a bulk order. A single piece or 100 pieces, to create each piece, small pieces of different colored glasses will have to be cut individually and joined together.

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