What to choose for my bedroom wall colour?

How many shades of blue are you aware of? - Light blue, Dark blue, Sky blue, Navy, Turquoise? Are there more, you ask?
                                                     Well yes there are more. Lots more. There is Azure, Catalina blue, Cyan, Indigo, Light blue, Midnight blue, Navy, Periwinkle (lavender blue), Powder blue, Prussian blue, Sky blue, Teal, Turquoise and still more. See this for the colours and names.

The husband and I love blue and some of its variations - Turquoise being our favourite. We wanted a blue master bedroom. Something like the picture below, but when the colour was actually put on the walls, it did not look that nice. The practical version was a very discomforting, unsettling look with no visual impact or rather weird looking visually.

Pic courtesy: Transitional Bedroom by Minneapolis Interior Designers; Decorators Martha O'Hara Interiors 

So we went all white but somehow the room still looks incomplete. The room hasn't been accessorized yet. So that adds to the bare feeling. But I think the colour on the walls needs to be changed. I am clueless about what to use, so I decided to browse and see what people have done and what might look good.

I wanted a green wall, something like this, somewhere in the house. But will it be too overwhelming or dull if done on all the walls in the bedroom? Thinking out loud - "Maybe I should do it on just one focus wall."  Ever since I saw this picture, the colour has been parked in one corner of my brain.

Pic courtesy: An Indian Summer, Thiru S, Elle Decor India

I also like the idea of a gray. My neighbour has done up one room in a very subtle elegant gray and I liked the look of it. Something like this combined with the right bursts of colour - think yellow, gold, turquoise, pink, green will look warm and lovely, yet not loud.

Pic courtesy: Contemporary Bedroom by San Francisco Interior Designers; Decorators Brian Dittmar Design, Inc.

If I don't change the wall colour but instead add colour through paintings and wall accessories, that might look nice too. How about adding some golden touches to the existing white room? Something like this -

Pic courtesy: Traditional Bedroom by Austin Architects; Building Designers Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects

I think we played safe when it came to colours on the walls and now it is pushing me to think more, look around and experiment. I need to go about seeing some real homes with bright splashes of colour. How do you incorporate colour into your house? On the walls? Artifacts? Sofa? Rug? Furniture?

Store Feature - My Artitude

One bright and sunny day I called up Anita Bora who in addition to doing a whole lot of interesting things, markets her sister's pottery through her brand/store My Artitude. A quick chat and a phone call and a day later I was off to meet Anita and see the latest collection at My Artitude. While the store is generally open from Noon to 7 pm, it is recommended to take an appointment before you go to make sure Anita is around in town and not on one of her trips around the world! She is on one right now :)

The store is located in Defence Colony, Indiranagar, behind Max Mueller Bhavan. It is easy to find, just keep the house number in mind. You will need to find street parking which is ok on weekday mornings. You walk up a winding stair case and enter a room. And for all the pottery and ceramic lovers the sight is akin to paradise! And let me just add while you are here, you can also shop for some jewellery from MoodSwings Jewelry by Benaazir. They share the space. Double motivation to shop!!  What else can one ask for??

The pottery is crafted by Ranjita Bora, Anita's sister. Ranjita works out of Pondicherry. The sisters do travel around the country taking part in exhibitions that they like. You can catch up on their Facebook page for the latest info - facebook.com/myartitudeindia. Anita also curates works of other potters to add more variety to the collection. New items are added pretty often. You can keep track of that by following their FB page 

I picked up some lovely ceramic holders. This is how I use one of them - to hold my earrings and my make up accessories. Makes it super easy to hold those long earrings and keep them detangled.

For your kitchen there are onion/garlic storage jars, cups and saucers, mugs, bowls, plates, appetizer servers. They come in different shapes and sizes, beautiful patterns and are multipurpose.

There are some very attractive ceramic door or drawer knobs, these oh-so-cute owl tea lights holders (Know of anyone who loves anything owls? Perfect gift for them!) and jars and holders in lots of shapes and sizes.

There are so many other things. You have to go and see for yourself. She has these tea light and perfumed oil burners in some gorgeous colours. I LOVE that green!

Be warned - since these products are not mass produced, getting exactly same products as in these pictures might not be possible. But I am sure you will get other lovely pieces :)
The prices are reasonable and are in a wide range. The items can be used functionally across the house or for gifting (umm hmm for that next house warming party? Or even to a friend who loves pottery).

Happy Shopping!!

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!