Adding colour into my home!

I like colour! In the right amount and shade it makes a room come alive. An entrance, a foyer,  a dark corner - all of these can be made bright, welcoming and striking using colour. Accessories help in adding that splash of colour too.
We have been incorporating our own dashes of colour into the decor at home. Holi being just around the corner helps in motivating, I guess!
Here are a few glimpses of where we are as of now :)

Turquoise is the husband's favourite. So much so that he wants a full wall in that colour. I don't quite agree with that bit but yes I love turquoise too. So we have been adding that to the living room. The mirror is from The Purple Turtles. The glass bottle is from @Home.
We both love green and so we bought the white planter and the green ferns (I DO NOT have a green thumb) from Oma during their annual sale recently. They don't have the details updated on their website - their Bangalore store is in UB city on Vittal Mallya road.

The sofa and chaise were custom made by Cane Boutique. The grey and purple goes well with our curtains.
Slowly, steadily, introduce one thing at a time is what I am doing with the home and it is working well.

What colour are you going to add into your homes and hearts today? Think of the world as a canvas and yourself as an artist, go splash and fill life with colours!!
Happy Holi!!

New Year! New Beginnings!

Hola people!! How is the New Year treating you?? Fun? Happening? Not so much? Here are a few updates from my end on what's been happening in the New Year!

* I saw this picture on Facebook here and decided to have my jar of "good thing notes"!

So here is my jar with notes about what I am thankful or grateful for or happy about. The jar itself is a happy reminder of a wonderful New Year's eve and day spent with friends and family :) I will keep adding a note to the jar whenever something makes me feel good. 
                        May all of you have plenty of moments to be thankful for, may you have moments that bring you closer to you and your family this year :) 

* I have started writing for another website called Women's Web! With that now I am freelancing for 3 websites - The Portico Fashion@Home blog, the Dottedi blog and Women's Web. 
My latest post on Fashion@home is on "How to make the best of the sale season!" so go on read that and head out for some shopping therapy :) 
The one on Women's Web this month is how to organize your home smartly and decor items related to that. Need a quick refresher for the house? Check this article. 
I am looking for more writing opportunities, not necessarily in the same areas. If you know of someone or something that can help me, do let me know. 

* I have also decided to shake that blanket of laziness and get this blog active and up! So look forward to more homes in the "Real Homes" series, more store features, posts, updates on setting and decorating the new house. #Rubbingmyhands, #Excitedme. 

Have a lovely day and happy week ahead!!

Alien feelings

The feelings are very alien, very weird and mixed! End of day 1 in my "own" house and I can't feel a thing that supports that fact.

I will not pretend that all the feelings are in the neighbourhood of happiness.

There is surprise that a structure of walls, columns, beams and bricks - a blank canvas can convert into something beautiful and a work of art.

There is worry about the sheer amount of work involved to keep a house clean. True for any size, shape, style of a home.

There is disappointment about the way some of us humans behave, the greed we display for money, for more, for anything extra or free. The kharcha-paani that every delivery or installation person wants even though the sales receipt and customer service says delivery and installation are free of cost ma'm!

The shock when a lady who comes to help do a one-time, one-day only, clean up of the place, which has already been properly cleaned once, asks for Rs 600/- to do a round of sweeping and mopping and no other actual cleaning and refuses to budge till that amount is given.

The feeling of being let down by the shoddy work done by some groups of workmen, with the taps leaking at places, the doors coming off at hinges, the paint peeling off (already???). What happened to good work ethics, quality of work and doing one's job properly?

The feeling of slight regret at the thought that maybe I should have gone with a big interior contractor/firm to do get all the work done. Maybe the final quality and look of the work could have been better. The could-have-beens and if-onlys just add to it.

The hope that all these niggles and hiccups will be gone eventually and things will work smoothly.

The pleasure of lovely views, night time city lights, cool breeze, warm hearts and sun drying clothes.

The joy when things like newspaper delivery, laundry collection, milk delivery and car wash are all taken care with one phone call.

The belief that all things that are meant for you shall come to you - in one way or another! So do what you want to and life will gently tread you towards the path meant for you, towards people you are supposed to meet, towards places you are supposed to go to!

Real Homes I - Poorni, KG and Adi's house

This post has been pending for the longest time ever! I know! Without further delay presenting to you *Drumroll please* - the first home in the Real Homes series, which belongs to Poorni, KG and their son Adi.
Lets start with a tour of the house and then I will tell you about the owners :)

For me, these first two pictures sum up their home, they are the essence, the soul of their home.  These pictures are a preview of what the owners love!

Poorni is learning to play a guitar. Music, books, collectibles, eclectic stuff, mixed furniture, it all finds a place in their home and makes it warm and inviting. 

Both Poorni and KG are book lovers and yes they pick up books even if they have lots in the to-be-read list. I do that too, do you?

One of the many things I love about their home is the lived-in, casual feeling one gets as you walk in.

Those are tiny paper lights strung around the bigger hanging lamp and they look oh so pretty when lit up!

The Dhalls are a travel loving family and their trips all over the world have resulted in a lovely collection of artifacts displayed all over the house.

Ladies and Gentlemen presenting to you the Starbucks coffee mug collection :) 

This lamp was picked up from Delhi on a trip to source lights for their current house when the interiors were being done. 

Wall art picked from Purple Turtles, Indiranagar. The art is by Aarti Karwayun Chawda of ispaceart. 

Very soothing and long lasting natural fiber blinds from BlindLove, Indiranagar.

Their house has soothing colours, mostly neutrals or earthy colours like this brick wall here. 

Art and various art forms can be seen throughout the house, like the aboriginal art from Australia above. 

The blend of the traditional with the modern, you think?? Love the antique finish mirror, again from Purple Turtles. The fridge magnets are souvenirs picked from everywhere they have been. 

The love for music has passed on to Adi, who is learning to play the drums. 

Poorni is an ex IT professional. She loves to travel, read, try new things and explore the world, one bit at a time! She is also a photographer and does assignments professionally. Check her photography page here. She is the owner/creator of Beantree, which uses natural and locally sourced ingredients to produce food free from preservatives and additives. Their lovely, finger licking hummus is available in multiple stores. My personal favourite is the lemon coriander hummus. 

KG apart from his corporate world/IT career which takes him around the world more than often, loves to read and run. He is now preparing for his first 50K run. 

Let me know if you would like to know anything about the things featured in the post - what, from where, et all. I shall ask the owners and let you know. 

Happy Friday and hope you all have a lovely weekend!!

Paintings from the artist in our Real Homes series

A lot of you readers had asked about the artist or source for this Radha Krishna painting, which was featured in our Real Homes series, on our Facebook page.

The artist who does these paintings is Shivram and he is based out of Chennai. 

To buy his paintings in Bangalore, you can reach Nutan at 99163 29280. Some of the paintings available (check current status with Nutan) are shown below. They are all 3ft x 4ft in size and the cost is Rs 4000 per sq ft. They are not framed. 

Kambala

KolaAata

RadhaKrishna

Yakshagana

Happy mid week! Enjoy the long weekend :)