Accessories for the house, what will you choose?

Hi there! You have already seen glimpses of my house before. As a next step I will share ideas on home accessories today. Accessories can really lift the mood of a dull house. It helps to accentuate, highlight the interest of the inhabitants and make the house more pleasant, warm and welcoming.

There are various types of accessories available in the market. One can choose from a wide range of readily available accessory to DIYs. Before going all out it makes sense to do some small trials and understand one’s personal style and liking. Is the bohemian style really your type or simple rooms with just one or two well-placed accessory? You can always move from little to more. But if you invest in a lot and then not like the effect well it’s a big waste of time, energy and monies, beside you will have a large stock of things you long like.

So really what are the accessories we are referring to? Let’s start with the walls.

Wall: Wall dressing is suddenly very big now and can really make for style statement. There are several wall paints and effects available to choose from, besides wall papers. Then there are paintings, murals, photography etc to choose from. My style is traditional, simple, functional and clutter free. I have kept the walls simple and added handmade mural on one wall and a traditional rajasthani Jharokha on one wall. I am very happy with the effect.

Wall accessories [Mural made by me], Jharoka and durries etc from my house

Plants: I love plants and cannot function without them. Variety of house plants are available like the money plants, succulents, palms, peace lily, and cactus etc.. The plants are a very good option to add colour to a dull room. The colour is of course very pleasing to the eyes. The plants can be kept in pretty ceramic, plastic or brass containers. Plants are the cheapest form of accessories available.

Plants around my house

Flowers: Rely on flower power for instant mood lifting. A variety of flowers are available and suit various occasions. There are the lilies, chrysanthemums, carnations, sunflower, dahlia, roses, marigold etc.. I prefer marigold for festivals. The other come in on and off. As the bouquet grows older and stems shorter I change containers and eventually the flowers are kept as floating flowers. This season is blessed with one of my favourite frangipani which are perfect for floatingJ. I also use artificial flowers in nooks and corners to add colour and just beautiful dull corners.

Flower power for various seasons and reasons

Other accessories: In the ‘other’ category I have brass lamps, brass figurines, ceramic figurines, terracotta objects, shells and conch etc.. These can be used to create vignettes on the centre tables, dining tables or any surfaces. There are the door accessories in form of bandhdwar [havediscussed a DIY on a post], variety of wind chimes [discussed in a post before] and other wall hanging available.

Bandhdwar, chimes, brass lamps, figurines and conch etc in the house.

Lights: This is yet another type of accessory that is ever evolving. There are thousands of lights to choose from the market. Traditionally we just had the up lights, down lights, table lamps, and chandeliers to choose from. But now in the range of decorative lights the colour material functions of lights have evolved. Wide range of fixtures, LED lights, and pendant lights etc. to choose from, that can bring about drama in a dull ambience. I prefer simple functional lights and my favourite is the sunlight.

Afternoon sun in the kitchen

Drapes and Upholstery: While this is not my personal style I thought it’s a good ideas to list it since a variety of drapes and upholstery are available in the market. I prefer simple light weight curtains and sofa covers. There are sofa dressings also available which again I do not use. But one could explore options in the market and try it. The sofa dressing I think is a great idea to conceal very old sofas. Instead of redoing the entire upholstery the dressings do the job well at affordable pricing.

So yes, you have a wide variety to choose from. Do try out and let me know what your personal style is. I love to hear from you, do drop a line below.

Glimpses of my house

Ever since I was in college one of my favourite pass times was to read décor magazine namely Inside outside, Ikea, Interior Design, Home design, House garden etc.. I would be in awe of all that I saw, the beautiful interiors, plus décor, huge entryways, luxurious furniture etc..

Seeing all the design always brought many basic questions to my mind which never really got answered. e.g.

• Who cleans such large spaces, especially dusting

• How do they maintain the décor on a day to day basis

• Does the interior not get ruined during the rains

•  Do the furniture or drapes etc not get spoilt? If they do get spoilt will the set not break!

• Who designs such pretty homes, but what if the owner doesn't like the design!

•  Do they not get bored of seeing the same thing

While none of the above got answered I did get a sense of my individual style. Yes there is a learning process even in mere observation. So what is my individual style? Well it is:

• Simple, functional and clean straight lines

• Bright warm lights

• Light weight furniture

• Easy to clean and uncluttered spaces

Easy of maintenance tops the chart. No matter what I Choose for the house be it a piece of furniture, accessory or drapes I pick it on the basis of complexity of its maintenance and its endurance levels of the Mumbai monsoon.

Having said that, nothing is final, after all these years I am still at experimentation stage :) Maximum experiments happen in my house. Below are few glimpses of my house.

Above is a picture of my living room. We experimented with one colour on each wall and it looks nice. There is a bright yellow wall which I absolutely adore. A simple big watch tells the time. I prefer ethnic over contemporary style. I like to pick up things from our various travels. The jharoka is from Udaipur, the terracotta Krishna idol inside it is from Kolkata, the brass lamp from Cochin etc. I also prefer durries over carpets for easy maintenance. I prefer accessories made by myself. The mural, painted food containers, Newspaper weaved basket, Warli painting etc.. are made by yours truly. Don't miss the light weight seaters and sofa. I also like plants in the house. They give so much character and charm to any room.

Above is my pink wall. This is a cozy corner full of soft toys, ideal for ideation, reading or just day dreaming. The terracotta dhol below the plant is from Jaipur and the wooden Jagannath statue from Puri in Orissa. Yes I love natural materials and fibre hence you will see a lot of wood, bamboo, terracotta and brass around my house. Hmn and my favourite flowers, easiest way to lift moods, muah!!

Lovely na I know :) But guess what boredom hits me very easily. I cant see the same things around me all the time. So I like moving things around and it brings about instant visible change. And that's precisely why I have light weight furniture, minimal wall decor and minimal fixed furniture.

Look at the above picture, its from the living room. I filled this space with two individual chairs and have placed a multipurpose table in the centre. The plant always a part of the interior, and have thrown in a terracotta tortoise and a soft toy. What say do you like the effect?

The above picture is a reading corner I created using the bamboo corner table. I collected all my sons favourite books and stacked them here. In the summer vacation I wanted these books easily accessible to him. It has a stool for him to be seated and an easel for him to scribble on. My son helped me assemble it and was super excited with the effect. What do you think? This area though has an eye soar. I will fix it and bring a DIY post soon.

That's all for now. 

Would you like to drop a line or story of your house? Do write in, waiting to hear from you.