Wondering what Jharokhas are? You may have seen it without knowing those intricately carved structures go by the name Jharokhas. Jharokhas are hand-crafted balconies commonly found in Rajashtan havelis (palaces). The modern version uses elements such as wood, steel, and mirror.

Jharokhas in Nalagarh Haveli

Decorating a home with ethnic elements is very much in vogue. When I mean ethnic, it is using accessories such as cushions in bright colors of pink, green, fuchsia, a lot of wooden artifacts, brass vessels, saris as curtains, painted wooden chests, erected pillars, handicraft hangings, traditional Tanjore/Mysore/Madhubani/Warli paintings and such. One thing that’s hard to miss in such themes are the jhoolas or swings. Similarly, if you want to take it a step further and bring a rich look to a room, frame a Jharokha on a wall. You’ll be surprised by the instant transformation.

Framed Jharokhas leading to the dining room

A closer look

On a stairway

Centerpiece of a wall

Alternatively, you could get it engrave in your mail door with a small peep hole. Now, to an important question: where do you get it done in Bangalore since it cannot be done by any carpenter because of the extent of work involved and how much would it cost?

I believe most Rajasthani furniture shops such as Thar or Royal Ambience sell Jharokhas or can at least get one made if you order for anywhere between Rs.4,000 and Rs.6,000. I had featured some Jharokhas from Royal Ambience earlier.

On a closing note, do stop by the White Elephant Haveli for oodles of ethnic home decor inspiration.

Image Courtesy:

White Elephant Haveli

Colors of My dreams

Flickr - A_tool

Who doesn’t love a green, blooming balcony? There are hundreds of blogs that list tips and tricks to bring the picture-perfect image to your balcony. But, we all know it takes a lot more than pictures to sow and harvest herbs on a windowsill.  I’ve just spent hours sifting through scores of urban gardening blogs to find a few that are helpful to novice gardeners.

My motive was to dig out blogs by urban Indian gardeners, but I was successful in finding only two that fit my criteria - frequency of updates, pictures,  and well-documented steps and conducive conditions for growing plants.

Geek Gardener - is replete with information on container gardening and various varieties of vegetables to grow in a particular month in India.  Despite the low frequency of posts, Geek Gardener is an excellent resource for growing vegetables in a tropical climate. Every post has pictures of plants at very stage from sowing to saplings and flowering to finally, harvesting the produce. The pictures are like a step-by-step guide for a novice gardener.

Zucchini

The Urban Gardener: Sunita’s obsession with greens is evident from her blog, The Urban Gardener. The site has a good mix of vegetables and flowering plants. I’m slightly biased towards sites with pictures as this is a hobby that is visually motivating. The Urban Gardener ranks high in the “good pictures” area.

Sunset: An unusual entry for a blog list. But what we do without this site and its encouraging how-tos. If you’ve not heard of Sunset magazine before, then I swear, you’ve missed something in life. Just kidding Stop reading and hop over to the site!

Life on the Balcony: I’ve saved the best for the last. Though Fern Richardson lives in southern California, there is a lot to learn from her blog for urban gardeners in India. A blog with a professional look, good categorization, easy navigability, and above all, frequently updated, makes it a must-have in your Reader.

Veggies to grow this season

If you are keen what the rest of the world grows through the year, here are a few of my favorites:

Japanese Gardener for the enticing look of veggies.

Singapore Plants Lover for the colourful flowers and novel containers

Totally Inept Balcony Gardener for the yellow lemons, blooms and creepers

If you have been reading a gardening blog for a while now and find it useful, please leave a link in the comments section for others to benefit.

Image courtesy:

Zucchini - Geek Gardener

Veggies - Life on the Balcony

How have you all been doing? I had a fabulous, if only a busy, weekend driving to the outer parts of the city. Going away from civilization was rejuvenating in many ways. As we re-entered the Ring road, I could feel the CO2-high air dampening my spirit. On the brighter side, we came back with good memories and dozens of pictures.

The drive down the Varthur village road leading to Sarjapur village is a treat to one’s senses: a whiff of fresh air, greenery as far as the eyes can see, a variety of birds from kingfisher to wood pecker cooing around the trees, and vendors selling freshly picked Jackfruit by the roadside to appease your taste buds. And, it’s just a 15 minute drive from Marathahalli on a busy Saturday afternoon. What more can one ask for so close to a concrete jungle that Marathahalli-Brookefields-Whitefield section has become?

One thing that’s hard to miss on this stretch are the numerous nurseries of all sizes and colors dotting the narrow road leading to Sarjapur village. I stopped by a few to click pictures and picked a few more plants for my balcony.  Some of them are so big that it’s overwhelming to choose just one or two plants (isn’t small beautiful?). I know the limitations I have: in a south-east balcony with very limited sunlight, it’s tough to tend to flowering plants. But, flowering plants are my eye-candy. I just can’t get over them.  Ferns, Cacti, Palm, or Crotons don’t appeal as much as a herb, vegetable or Petunia and Glaxonia.

The picture below is of Madeena nursery. I recommend this place if you intend to buy in bulk. You will grow tired looking at the flowering plants, for it’s never ending. The Hibiscuses, in  particular, are big, bright and beautiful.  The guys are knowledgeable about the sun, shade, and semi-shade plants. There is very little room for bargaining. Most of their regular visitors are villa owners from the neighborhood. If you hear radical sentiments echoing on a radio, you’ve found the right place. I just bought a Tulsi(Basil) for Rs.15 from here.

Rows of pots till the eyes can see

The picture below is taken at the Manjunatha nursery - the first big one you will  encounter after the Khader nursery. This one will be to your right if you are driving from Whitefield. The small flowering plants are not healthy here. However, you can pick up a Rubber plant, which I did for Rs.30, or Palm at nominal prices. They also stock hybrid varieties of Star cluster. Another landmark for this nursery is that it is at a busy temple junction. But, when it comes to a organized way of displaying and selling plants, nothing comes closer to the Jeevan Bhima Nagar one.

Rainbow of colors

Don't you love the Hibiscus?

Shall we end this post with a picture of the new comer in my balcony garden? This wooden Rhino is about 3-years old. My husband got it from a trip to South Africa. Over the years, he (the Rhino, I mean of course)  has occupied various corners of the house, the last one being in the last shelf of a closet. I decided it was time for him to come out into the wild and sit next to the frog.

Rhino

I picked the Lily plant (flowing over Rhino), Chili and Aloe at the Jeevan Bhima Nagar nursery.

Rhino and Frog

Aloe Vera

Who likes stepping into a dingy, stinking bathroom every morning? The most private space in a home needs as much care as the rest of the house. I remember dreading to use the toilet as kid in my grandparents’ home because it was dark and infested with cockroaches. Thank God, the bathrooms of today have come a  long way  from those dungeons and serve as a relaxing corner than a mere functional space.

If there’s one grouse I have in my current apartment it is with the bathroom(s). The layout and tile color makes it hard to maintain. If you’ve already formed a gory image of my bathroom, then let me assure you they don’t stink We were young, short on time and design illiterate when we bought the apartment, that we currently live in, eight years ago.

Let’s just say, I have got wiser over the years and have better ideas now for a good layout. Maybe a remodel project is on the cards, who knows! If you are a new apartment buyer, here are a few ideas that will make your mornings bright and cheerful (oh! isn’t that where you step in first every morning?) .

How about some real indulgence!

1. Natural lighting: Let the sunlight flow in. Do you need to flip the light switch on before entering the bathroom during the day? It’s sad that the only opening in most apartment bathrooms is a 1*1 feet aperture for the exhaust fan, which limits the amount of light streaking in. One of the things I would love to have is a 2*3 ft skylight opening with a glass top above the sink fixture.

Isn't the skylight soothing?

Natural lighting in a small bathroom

2. Dry = clean: Dry bathrooms always require little maintenance. The more the water on the floor, the higher the tendency for the tiles to absorb dirt. So, how do you keep it moisture-free in an area that is meant to have water? Well, what I meant is limit the usage of water to the shower area. Wipe it clean or let it dry naturally after everyone has had a bath. It also helps in keeping fungus at bay during monsoons.

3. Demarcate the shower section: One of the key aspects in bathroom design in order to keep it dry is to segregate the shower region. There are several ways to do this. The most common is to install a glass panel or a shower cabinet and ensure a lower floor level for the square-shower section than the rest of the bathroom. If your child shares your bathroom and you are not keen on installing a tall glass panel, what you could do is have a tiled section till mid way and a glass partition above that. If there is a bathtub installed, then half your troubles is already taken care of.

Segregated shower area

You could do without the glass door too!

4. Clean the clutter: Minimal things in a bathroom makes it easy to maintain. Stacks of towels, hand-towels, and toiletries look good in advertorials and hotels. Unless you have a live-in help, it’s impractical to maintain a spic and span bathroom. So, limit the bathroom to absolute essentials and stow away the rest in storage closets.

5. Choose your tile colors with care: White again looks lovely in ads, but mirrors dirt in no time. If you are short of help and time, go in for the dark or earthen colors. Not only do they look attractive, it’s easy to camouflage the dirt for a while. There’s no dearth of colors to choose from in the market currently. The only downside is that bold colors make a space look smaller.

6. Mirror: A must-have for any space. A larger one if there’s enough unobstructed wall space will create the illusion of a big bathroom while using dark wall tile colors.

Mirror in a eclectic bathroom

7. Open fittings: With a tempting variety of fancy vanity fittings available in the market today, making a choice becomes difficult. But, I prefer simple glass/wood shelves or inbuilt wall shelves to store soaps, shampoos and moisturizers. I go by the principle that when storage is out of sight, one tends to accumulate and stash way stuff one doesn’t need. Allocate a closed storage beneath the sink or in a corner to keep cleaning agents such as Harpic, toilet brush and a bin, so that it is out of sight.

If you are buying chrome fittings, exercise caution as they tend to get rusted after a few months.

Sleek shelves

8. Layout: This is by far the most important aspect. Where you position the toilet, sink and shower column decides how easy it is to keep a sparkling clean bathroom. For instance, you don’t want a toilet opposite the shower area in a small bathroom, or you’ll end up wiping the water off it every time you bathe. Messy, messy! Similarly, the toilet can get in the way if it is not in the same line as the sink or the shower in a narrow rectangular layout. In a, let’s say 4.5*8 feet bathroom, it’s best to push the toilet in one corner and the shower in another with the sink sandwiched between the two. For narrower bathroom, a glass partition is a must. For nearly square layouts such as 6*7 feet, you can play with the positioning.

9. Wall mounted sink with large counter-top: Call me old school, but I like large counter-tops within which the sink is inserted or placed on the top.

Granite top

When the design is perfect, and the floor and wall shine, the rest (like a vase by the window or a frame in the wall) doesn’t matter.

Images:

1. Trendir

2. Houzz

3. HGTV

In the summer of 2009, I created a category called “Home Decor” to segregate the growing list of design blogs. Within weeks, this section outnumbered the blogs under business, career, momma bloggers, and writing sections.

According to me, Apartment Therapy should come with a disclaimer: If you don’t have a job, then by all means take the risk of stopping by our site.  Because once you do, it’s not so easy to get away. I’ve heard of addiction to the Prison Break series when you’ve watched one episode and the urge to stay up all night to finish the entire season, but this one surpasses that. There have been days when I’ve lost track of hours spent indulging myself in AT land.

Who wouldn’t know Holly Becker of decor8 in the world of interiors blogging? I admire the lady’s resolve to      dig ceramicists, photographers, potters, Scandinavian stores and stylists we would otherwise remain oblivious to.  When you follow  bunch of home decor blogs, it’s easy to see, how many bloggers copy Holly’s finds  and feature them on theirs a few weeks later. Her casual writing style exudes warmth and friendliness that’s hard to come by.

How about orange: Authored by Jessica Jones, How about orange is a treasure house of DIY projects . I love the color orange, and that drew me to this blog. I have tried many of Jess’ easy DIY projects  including the newspaper basket and a holder for magazines from a cornflakes box. Jess also frequently posts links of other great DIY sites. But, I have a confession to make. If there is something called “reader fatigue”, I experienced that with this one; maybe because of the number of sewing projects lately.  If you’ve never stopped by How about orange, I insist you do You’ll love it and get glued to it.

It’s Pretty Good: The name says it all. Written by Mary, a self-taught photographer, “it’s pretty good” had me hooked the first time I landed on the site. Quite different from a regular blog, Mary has adopted a distinctive style of captioning images with thoughtful words. The visual inspiration  site consists primarily of closely shot images of flowers, table settings, delicious savories, freshly picked fruits, and home accessories. Mary’s eye for beautiful details of life will ensure this site finds a permanent fixture in your reading list.

Die Frau I’m Haus: You may think I’m crazy, but wait till you see the stunning images. I recently discovered Die Frau I’m Haus and I despise the fact that I can’t understand a word of what’s written on the blog. It’s probably not a bad idea to learn German so I can follow  “the woman in the house” and not depend on Google’s translation abilities. The Hydrangeas and the snowball tree flowers often pictured here are lovely.

What’s on your reader? What’s that one blog that you never get tired of reading?

Edited to add: I think it’s only fair to list the other blogs on my list after Sharon pointed out The Inspired Room.  Elements of Style by Erin Gates, PadStyle for funky designer products, My Notting Hill, Melissa’s The Inspired Room, and few by Indian authors including The Key Bunch, An Indian Summer, Art n Light, and Art By Aarohi complete the  list.

Do you subscribe to any of the home interiors and decorating magazines, or pick a random bunch off the shelf every month?

Home Decorating magazines

Do you lean towards Elle Decor with its emphasis on stylish living and following the seasonal trends closely? Or do you prefer Good Homes for its easily adaptable decorating and gardening ideas?Or you inspired by the exquisite homes showcased in Society Interiors?

I have a monthly subscription for  BBC Good Homes, but read the others such as Society Interiors, Ideal Home and Gardens, Better Interiors and Elle Decor on a regular basis from the library or buying recent issues at cheaper prices.

I’m slightly biased towards Good Homes because it has a glossy feel to it and has the right mix of advertorials and features. Except the home tours which are quite lengthy, the other features are a quick read. I absolutely love their multi-part design series spread over many issues. Good Home is currently running a Decor Lifecycle series.

Society Interiors reads like a architecture book and puts me to sleep.

What I don’t like in the home decor magazines?

Know your audience. Home decorating on a budget sells like hot chips. Seriously. If one has the capacity to blow, let’s say, Rs.10 L on soft furnishings, then one also has the ability hire a really expensive interiors consultant. So why present only accessories and products from high-end stores such as FCML, Atmosphere, which are eye-candy but out of reach for a normal household. For someone looking for doing up their home with limited resources, there are far and few ideas.

Sample this, for instance. A sofa chair by Pinakin Patel from Pinakin for Rs. 52,000 (Elle Decor, August 2009). The Mtouche range of porcelain tiles from FCML Home at Rs.1,300 a sq.ft (Ideal Home and Gardens, September 2009).  That way I think Good Homes strikes a good balance of expensive and affordable products such as Snapshot Coasters  at Rs.995 a piece from Apartment 9, and Glass Funk Coasters at Rs.600 for four from Silk Road and Beyond or Star Coasters at Rs.1,200 for six from Good Earth.

The home tours are again a drab. They make you drool, no doubt about that. But with the amount of styling that goes in for a shoot to present the image of a picture perfect home, we all know it wouldn’t work in a practical setting.

What works for you and what’s on your reading list every month?

I just realized that it’s been  while since I posted a DIY project here.  The store tours had kind of shifted my focus away from everything else. So, here’s a easy project you can try over the weekend.

One of the easiest ways to spruce up your kid’s room is to decorate it around their favorite cartoon characters. My three-year-old is very fond of the Disney character, Winne the Pooh and his buddies Tigger, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, Eeyore, Lumpy, Kanga, Roo and Piglet. But he is at such a age where his liking for the fantasy characters is short-lived. A while ago, he doted on Noddy, and around the second birthday, he was quite crazy about Barbie (if only, for a brief while like two hours during which he felt she wasn’t quite her kind of fun),  and now, it’s Winnie and Spiderman.  Winnie has being going steady for nearly a year going by the Pooh accessories we have at home now - wall stickers, piles of books, soft toy, a deck of fun cards, and a towel. Anyways, while I wanted to do up a wall of his room around Winnie, I didn’t want to put up a permanent theme on the walls by painting which would make it difficult to change.

So, I got started on a acrylic on canvas portrait of Winnie The Pooh.  It took me about three hours t finish the project from start to finish, including shopping for materials.

Winnie The Pooh

What you’ll need:

1. Canvas

2. Acrylic paints

3. Tracing paper

4. 4-5 sheets Carbon paper

5. Paint brushes and palette

6. Self-sticking tape

7. Hooks

8. Varnish

Total Cost of the Project:

Under Rs.300

How to paint:

1. If you’re good at freehand, then draw the character directly on canvas. But if you’re like me who needs help with drawing, you’ll first have to find a picture large enough of the cartoon character. Look around for posters or stickers in stationery shops. Or if there’s a real nice picture of a smaller dimension, enlarge it on your computer and print it out.

2. Once you have the original image ready, trace the outline and the details by placing a tracing paper on top of the image using a pencil. Clip the corners of the tracing paper to the original image so that it doesn’t move.

3. When you’re done, compare it with the original to see if you’ve captured all the lines and curves.

4. While tracing papers are available in various sizes, carbon paper comes in a standard size. In order to cover the entire canvas surface, use many overlapping carbon sheets and stick them lightly to the canvas. This will make tracing easier.

5. Transfer the design on to the canvas by drawing along the lines.Take care not to exert too much force to void smudges and a dark outline on the canvas.

6. Using acrylic colors, paint the canvas. To cover large surfaces, use a flat, bigger brush between point 8 and 10. I used the Fevicryl acrylic colors. You can use any brand such as Camel, Faber Castell or Camlin.

7. As acrylic colors are thin, give two coats for a uniform finish.

8. Seal it off with layer of varnish to protect the painting from dirt.

9. And, we’re done. Attach a picture hook to the canvas, drill a hole and hang it on the wall.

Here’s the finished piece in its original setting. It fits somewhere  in the middle of those wall stickers I put up sometime ago.

Winnie The Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood

Pooh

I intend to fill in the gaps with images of Pooh’s buddies and a wooden mural of Hundred Acre Wood at the top.  The last thing would be to give a fresh coat of paint for this dull wall.

Hope you all had a good long weekend. “dress your home” turned 1 on July 1st; so we’re officially a year-old now, and I’m taking small baby steps in growing this blog. I’ve decided to continue with the store tours as it gives me immense satisfaction to sift through dozens of home decor stores, decide which one fits in with my philosophy of serving a purpose, finally followed by the actual visit.

Last Saturday, I went to Namma Angadi which means “Our shop” in Kannada. Located in LB Shastri Nagar off Vimanapura, it’s a non-assuming, stone-walled building in a neighborhood most of us never would have a reason to go to. Anjula and Girish were quite helpful in helping me navigate down the narrow, winding roads from Old airport road to Namma Angadi. Namma Angadi is a marketing platform for traditional arts and crafts made by young workers in Kundapura, who were formerly child workers. It is promoted by a NGO called “The Concerned for Working Children.”

Above-18 workers are trained in various trades such as tailoring, embroidery, pottery, painting and weaving at the “Namma Bhoomi” vocational training center in Kundapura every year. The products made here are then marketed and sold through exhibitions held across Karnataka all around the year.

I know we’ve all read how everyday things like newspaper, wood and coconut can be reused to make interesting products. But doing is another ball game altogether? Seeing these colorful bags made from remaining pieces of cloth used for making kurtas rekindled the DIY blood in me. I was like, “Wow. This is nice, especially the door mat.” It’s so easy to discard things we don’t use, and here someone thought about making a nice, environment-friendly bag and selling it for under Rs.100. If only we refused those plastic stinkers at More/Reliance Fresh and used these cloth and jute bags for grocery shopping, they would have a future and the world would be a better place to live in.

Door mats

Are you also fond of Jute bags like me? I fall for the color, the texture, the ease of use and the style. After all, there’s very little one can go wrong with here, right Namma Angadi stocks a huge variety of these bags in different shapes and sizes. These would make for great gift items.

Jute bags

The shop ran out of stock of terracotta pots - something I looked forward to buying during my visit. Wouldn’t the Tortoises look cute in the balcony along with the plants? If you’ve been hunting for a place to get bamboo blinds made, then consider Namma Angadi. A blind of this size would cost you around Rs.450 at Rs.35 to Rs.40 per sq.ft.

Terracotta pots

No brownies for guessing what these objects are made of. I almost jumped on seeing the newspaper waste basket, because I had made a similar one a while ago- infact, the first post on this blog. However, what makes this basket different is that the sides are supported by rolled pieces of paper as well. Quite sturdy in design, it sells for Rs.100 a piece.

For all you DIY lovers, here is challenging project to get started on. The second one,  a piggy bank made from coconut shell, is any day better than all those ceramic pieces we buy. Wondering how they managed to scrap the insides of the coconut? Well, that’s the tricky part as the bottom is a wooden piece joined to a coconut. It’s neatly concealed with the curvy white design.

The ladle in the basket is made completely from coconut. It took a lot of self-control to resist buying this Rs.40 serving dish. The wooden bowls and the ladle would be a welcoming addition to one’s kitchen. The fruit basket is made from arecanut leaves.

Recycled Items

Don’t the paintings on the bamboo pen holder seem familiar? But it’s not Worli art, it’s called “Hase”. A popular form of folksy expression, it is found in the villages around Shimoga to depict stories revolving around everyday life.

Wooden artifacts

No matter how stylish and elegant modern homes get, I’ll always be fascinated by the traditional Indian architecture. At the risk of repeating myself, I continue with this post

Most houses in the olden times were built on rectangular plots and, in certain places, adjacent homes shared a wall. Vast open spaces inside punctuated by thinnais and mithams, skylight, courtyards, red tiled flooring, huge cylindrical pillars along the mitthams or courtyards, a small hole on either side of the main door to light lamps, and high ceiling supported by wooden beams were some of the common characteristics of these eco-friendly homes. With such years of wisdom going into building of houses, can they ever be wrong? Little wonder there was no dearth of light and air while we feel suffocated, stifled and leave the lights on evening at 9:00 a.m. in a 2,000 sq.ft apartment. What a shame!

Another typical design feature of the old houses in Tamil Nadu was the linear corridor - one could stand at the main door and see the other end of the house. Everything else flowed seamlessly in between with no obstruction as the rooms and courtyards fell on either side of the corridor. Usually, a tulsi plant was what met one’s gaze from the open wooden-carved main door.I regret I don’t have any pictures of our ancestral homes. Maybe this time around, when I visit my grandparents’ I will do a photo shoot before the 100-year-old houses get renovated.

Homes in Chettinad, Kerala and north-western parts of Karnataka such as as Coorg and Mangalore share a common  element of design - courtyard. It is known by different names though in different parts such as thotti mane, nadu mittham and mittham.

While scouting for homes that adopted elements of our architecture, I discovered GoodEarth Homes’ Orchard project on Mysore Road.

Courtyard used as an indoor garden

I fell in love with the project (but for the price) as soon as I saw this picture. Isn’t it beautiful - a small green space inside the house that receives sunlight? Imagine waking up to the first streak of sunlight in the morning.

A modern verandah or porch

Long open corridor - where are the pillars?

Vineeta Nair of artnlight featured a traditional home in Palakkad a while ago.

I agree such vast spaces are beyond one’s affordability in metros. But there’s nothing stopping us from incorporating some eco-friendly concepts in apartments/penthouses such as skylights for better illumination. Although it’s tough to implement in normal apartments, penthouses can do this by placing glass on the roof for natural lighting. This can be extended to certain sections of the bathroom as well. I’m sure you agree that no fancy light can compete with natural light.

Chitra Vishwanath is a Bangalore-based eco-friendly architect. Some of her projects use these concepts of natural top lighting, stone arches and no fans. The project she has designed for the Rays uses the courtyard concept.

Have a story to tell about your ancestral home? Write to me with pictures and I’ll be happy to feature it here.

Images:

Kolavara heritage

Vembanad Lake Villa

For all you stained glass art lovers, I would like to share another discovery. Glasshopper, a stained glass art studio in Defence Colony, Indira Nagar, is close to the Glasscrafter’s studio I featured last week. I’ve not visited Glasshopper in person, so  it’s tough to talk about their products with the same conviction. Glasshopper’s portfolio is not as extensive as that of Glasscrafter’s since it’s only a year old. Though the studio claims to specialize in Tiffany-styled glass lampshades, it’s portfolio is diverse. Here are a couple that I found impressive, but I’m not sure if it’s stained glass or painting on glass as the textures are not clearly visible:

Chinese Calligraphy

Peacock Panel