Colour Stories : Foyer

Posting an after picture of the foyer. Refer to a previously uploaded image here. Have a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi guys, may the elephant headed one shower his many blessings on you and your family.

Have a blissful and sunny, golden yellow Ganesh festival.. :)

It happens to be the darkest corner in the house..the yellow brightens it up, reflecting whatever little sunlight it gets in the late afternoon, to light up the space with a sweet spot of cheerfulness.

Lit up with candles in early evening

Colour Stories : Green....

While on the subject of colour, one looks at art for inspiration. And on the subject of art, I just have to mention Rothko! Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz was an American painter born in Russia. Among the greats of abstract expressionist, his work is a sublime example of stunning beauty that is achievable with pigment.

His famous rectangle paintings, are simple, yet deeply moving works. Blocks of colours, coexist on his canvases in a harmony of four sided shapes, rich in texture and luminosity. A lot of what I did in the house is inspired by the master.

This is a post about my green wall. The guest bedroom wall. I chose a dual toned wall, an almost chutney green textured with a very dark teal green.

Posting pictures of the different Rothko inspired permutations and combinations of wall and room colours.. Have mostly restricted pattern to minimum while playing in on texture in the space.

In terms of connotations and symbolism, green is an intriguing colour, denoting both the positive and negative, holy and unholy at the same time. Often times related with growth and fertility, it is also said to denote immaturity jealousy. Where in some religions like Islam it is the colour of purity and sacredness in others it is symbolic of the devil. For the materialistic, green is the colour of cash and abundance. Luckily the most popular association of the colour links it with nature.

..The idea appeals to me a lot. Green has long been my favourite colour.

Translating the colour into the space, restricted the colour pallet of the room to a select few colours complementary to the green family, which it self is a non subtractive colour- created by a mixture of yellow and blue.

Where the base of the soft-furnishings, I then use in the room are green or a more neutral beige, the accent colours vary from those in the same family or from the complementary spectrum...

Have to mumble a complaint here about paint companies and how misleading their catalogues are. We went through cycles of painting and repainting this one until I got something I was happy with. None of the variants resembled the sample colour provided on the Asian Paints catalogue at all however!.

Unfortunately none of the painters I worked with, or the paint companies knew how to do it. If anybody has an idea about how to achieve the look, do drop in a line. Will be much appreciated :) !

Colour Stories : Red post

Starting with a colour that dominates most of the living and entertaining areas in the house. We chose Red. It comes in all shades -right from the more somber, earthy maroon and terracotta to the most vivacious deep red. Is cheerful. Goes well with the dark, natural wood surfaces and textiles I was going to pair the walls with. Is very Indian- Think Wedding saree, think tilak, rangoli, sindoor, mauli- Above all because, most reds contrast wonderfully with Black -the other wall colour on my pallet for the area- so a no brainer really.

Here is the color pallet for the living dining and entertainment areas...

The red, in shades of terracotta and deep red are paired with charcoal black and soft white for the walls, and taupe on wooden surfaces like doors and windows.

Posting the final look below.

(above): view of the Living room from the foyer. The wall sports a terracotta red.

In the family room, which is used for watching television or casual entertaining, the colours are a brighter red and black..This is the area I chose to paint myself... three coats of absolute fun and zen, which is befitting, because the area itself has a very calming feel to it , inspite of the loud  red on the walls...  

The dining area offset against a terracotta wall, has a more formal- earthy look.

A red lacquer shoe cabinet contrasts  with a charcoal black wall at the entrance.

ODD

Organize De-clutter Display

Taking a break from the colour stories to write about little things. A forgotten corner of the bed room. A tiny spot of space by the window. Have used to organize stuff that would not fit into the closet.. most of it is too pretty to sit inside a closet any way!

The corner is utilised to store and display a collection of junk jewellery, old bags, the few books that I am reading right now, scarves, bags and shoes, family photographs and a whole lot of other things, that left alone would be a complete mess.

The few things that can be done to de-clutter and store things well, is to sort the objects and unify the look of a space using interesting things to store them..

Bags and Baskets: Antique Rattan basket from Green Lantern, HK. Tribal applique dowry bag from Matsya Here.

Baskets of different sizes, shapes and types can be used to serve as catch-alls for jewelery, old textiles, remote controls, books, keys, CDs and random odds and ends.

Pegs and hooks:Pegs from British India- Singapore, Silk and potli Key chains, turquoise necklace from Stanley Market HK and Polka Dot woolen Scarf from Kashmir Handicrafts- Mumbai.

Instead of stashing interesting bags, scarves key chains and jewellery out of sight, I use clothes pegs and hooks to hang stuff as I please. The display keeps changing to suit mood and convenience...

Antique Burmese embellished bag I inherited from my Grandmother, assorted jewelry from Jade Market HK, and Baskets from all over..

Assorted bangles and more baskets

Woolen scarf from Kashmir Handicrafts and

Potli scarf from the lovely Kanika's Anek Designs Here

The Colour post...

India assaults the senses with colour texture, noise and smells. The surfeit of colour and brash celebration of kitsch is a revelation to those exposed to the country for the first time. I can sense that awe in the reaction of my kids to their new home. They are overwhelmed on a daily basis by the sights and sounds .. My little girls cannot get over their bangles, and shimmering kurtas, overdose of colour in the local markets, the splendorous sarees and clothing, loud colours of festivals -Holi, Diwali, Ganesha- brashly painted faces of the behrupias sometimes seen roaming streets....

For me, moving back to India was rediscovering the familiar. For the kids on the other hand, it has been about the creation of a brand new memory bank.. I see them fill it up with colour and language and experience each day. It is hard not to be taken by their wide eyed innocent excitement for the mundane.

Naturally, the house needed to have more colours as a reflection of the excitement..! Albeit still with a little restraint, for all the red and green and blue we have up on the walls, there is black, beige, taupe and plenty of white neutral space too.. all that marries our existing, Chinese, oriental and contemporary possessions into an Indian space.

Here's is a general colour palette used around the house..

Next up pictures of the finished product by colour... do come back !

1,2,3 : About Inspiration

Three quirky uses of pictures hurriedly taken with my phone camera. A word about inspiration, when one really looks , it is everywhere... Travelling, browsing through books, mags, wonderful blogs and sites online. Thing about ideas is that they strike when one is not even looking for them... quite pensive hectic days, driving through congested roads, shopping at local bazaars, peaceful contemplative moments, fragments of dreams and in recesses of long lost memories.

What inspires you? Where do you seek that initial spark of an idea? When does it strike? How do you keep in touch with an idea and utilise it when the moment arises...

Good thing that with a camera in the mobile phone, one is always ready to pin that flash down.. listing three quirky inspirations and how they got utilised around the house.

Taking a break from reading Charle's Correa's `A place in the shade' one quite afternoon. I noticed the graphic monochromatic pattern on the jacket against a red silk cushion. We had our wall!

Even attempted playing with the texture with the help of my painter bhau before painting it solid black :)

An arrangement on a coffee table inspired by the days adornments placed in a startling red ceramic dish on the bed side table.. ( Pic above: Silver plated platter from Goodearth, Lapis and coral Buddha heads from the Jade market in Kowloon, Hongkong, Burmese lacquer tray from Kinnari, Hong Kong)

Finally, window dressing and a jute lamp shade against a terracotta wall inspired by a familiar sight at local bazaars. (Pic Left: Lamp and shade from Contemporary arts and crafts, Mumbai)

Reblogging!!

Girl about home has moved. Yet again. Countless times in ten years. Pitching tent, folding all parts of a movable household and moving on- comes easily by now. This time, I am back home, to a city I love - Mumbai.

A lot has happened. I have had no time although all the inclination to sit and go over the going-ons of last year. As I try to put it together on the blog, a sense of panic grips me, a familiar fear of the blank page. I have in the process of finding my feet in a new city and a new country with a much large family, neglected this space and there is just too much to share.

Where does one begin? Maybe like Lewis Carol says in his Alice in the wonderland, ``it is best to begin at the beginning,’’

So I shall start with pictures of the skeleton of an apartment that I stepped into exactly the same time -first week of July-last year. It was instant love. The space has transformed into our home over the course of a year.

Setting up home has to be the most enjoyable experience I have had in this exciting and super challenging city this far. Making it mine with colour texture, pattern, material and yeah, love..lots of it..has been a ride. And what a ride! Meeting wonderfully talented people, discovering exciting places to shop at, working with painters, masons and contractors, learning new things and not to miss the problems and lessons learnt for life !

This house was a first in many regards, the first one my babies moved in to, the first one that I supervised from start to finish, the first one with so much colour, and at least one room that I took upon myself to paint myself....

Will keep adding the various elements that have gone into dressing the space in subsequent posts. Also stories from Mumbai, my hugely fascinating new home. There is much I have encountered and learned… More later. Have a great day folks :).

The beautiful Ganpati belongs to the previous occupants of the house.. of course we keep it.

The area that I took upon myself to paint ..!