I recently discovered Pinakin while browsing through a magazine, and later did what I do usually - look them up online. I was impressed that they have a better online presence than most Indian furniture and home decor stores.
The functional yet great looking furniture speak for themselves. So, I’m going to cut down on the text and let you savor my picks.
Center Tables
I loved this alternate seating arrangement, and the stools, in particular.
Side tables
Image Courtesy:
noneI’ve been freelancing (consulting, writing) for the past three years. It’s easy to imagine I would have a fancy workplace in the corner of a room in my apartment that’s tastefully decorated and stocked with all the essentials: magnetic board, post-its, colorful pen stand, clips, file cabinet, and a book rack. In all, a conducive environment that all how-to pieces on having an ideal/productive home office environment talk about.
I believe you can guess from the tone the reality is far from that. More often than not, my laptop sits on the dining table; when we have more than 3 people dining at the same time, I make room by shifting to the bedroom. The non-stop activity around the house punctuates my work time: clanking of utensils, my toddler driving his toy-car inside home at crazy speeds, market channel (NDTV profit) running in the background among other things.
To be more productive, I’m aching to have a quiet corner where I can retreat to when I like. On top of my wish list now is to find a corner in one of the bedrooms and do it up as a functional workspace with bare essentials : a phone, a table small enough to hold my laptop, a pen stand and a diary, and a comfortable chair. By the side of a window. I love natural light coming in! There will be enough time to decorate it like the ones below.
Aesthetically decorated workspace
A place for everything including flowers - how nice!
Image Courtesy:
3 comQuite an offbeat title for a home decor site, right? Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, and Trade are some of the most commonly found games in any Indian home; the ones we cousins played played on those long afternoons during the summer vacation. I doubt if much has changed now. I stumbled upon the snakes and ladders game in three different settings that were visually stimulating while accentuating the decor.
Aarohi Singh, a Bangalore based artist, creates the age-old game on top of a wooden table. She adds a lot of color to it and what I like about it is its accessibility. One doesn’t need to get the board to start playing; it’s right there on a piece of furniture.
Snakes and Ladders on a wooden table
I love bunk beds. But as a child, my brother and I never got to share one. We had those drab, wooden rectangular ones with same-sized head board and foot board for a bed. Lined up against each wall with three foot walking space in between. You get the picture, don’t you? But those were the early 80’s and, in a small town like ours, bunk beds were unheard of.
I relived my dream when I recently went shopping for a functional bunk bed for my two-year-old son. His space-challenged room cannot accommodate another single bed for a sibling in the future. Safety, design, cost, storage, and size figured on my list of priorities, in the same order. It didn’t take long to realize that design and cost didn’t go well together. Most beds I liked were too big and upwards of Rs. 40,000. Though a Noddy themed or Formula 1 themed bed sounded cool for his age now, I was pretty sure he would find it a bit awkward to sleep in one as a 5 year old or feel really uncool to call his friends over to his room.
I had almost made up my mind to get one made when I came across this at a store nearby for Rs.15,000. The frame is made of rubber wood. In most bunk beds, the lower half does not have a protective barricade as it is assumed kids old enough to keep themselves within the bed sleep down. It was so not to be in my case. I wanted a protective barrier which no store was ready to customize. This one agreed to and I got the piece finally for Rs. 16,000. The bed measures 3 feet in width and 6.25 feet in length.
Rubber wood Bunk Bed
What I liked: Can be assembled using a single Allen key. Completely detachable.
What I didn’t like: No storage. Plain design. I plan to jazz it up a bit by painting Noddy characters on the headboard and foot board. A DIY project is waiting to take off…
This post is a roundup of some nice beds I came across in Bangalore, India. Next week, I intend to feature some great designs from around the world if you intend to have your carpenter make one.
11 comDo you have a set of cane chairs that has lost its sheen and natural color? Wondering if you should give it a new lease of life or just give it away to somebody?
I had a cane furniture set comprising 4 chairs + 1 table + 2 side tables that were over 5 years old. One look at them and you’ll know they had seen better days. During a recent moving exercise from a BIG house to a smaller apartment, I gave away 2 chairs, the center table and the side tables. However, I retained 2 chairs for use as balcony furniture in the new place. One day while scouting the net, I was inspired to give these chairs a new look.
Before Painting : Cane Chair
You have two choices while restoring old cane furniture: giving it a polished look while retaining the natural color or painting it in a different color to complement the surroundings.
8 com
