This is one of our first contributed artciles. We would like to thank “Living Space” from Sulekha Blogs who let us reproduce the article here.  

When decorating a room, the windows occupy an important place in the scheme of things for two reasons. One, they occupy a large area, and will direct visual focus in a room. Most homes in India have reasonably large window areas, so windows become a dominant feature in the room. Two, the fabrics and colours need to be well co-ordinated with other things in the room such as furniture, paintings, artefacts, wall paint, carpets/flooring etc.

Image Courtesy : thepivot.biz

When deciding what kind of window treatment would be suitable for a room/area the following things need to be kept in mind.

• What is the overall theme of the room? Western, Indian or Oriental— Classic, Contemporary or an eclectic mix. This would help determine the ultimate look of your windows.
• What kind of furniture is in the room, and what would be the best way to complement that furniture and accentuate it further?
• What is the wall colour and wood finish …this goes a long way in determining the usability of colour in the room? Most Indian homes have white/off-white walls, so they are fairly neutral. However, in modern day interiors a lot more colour is being used and window treatments should complement the colours of the room. Complement does not mean blending into the same family. Sometimes, a contrast is the best way to bring life and drama into a room–even if it is a subtle contrast.
• What kind of flooring is in the room …marble, wooden, stone or mosaic? Pay attention to the rugs/carpets in the room? Sometimes, rugs/carpets can be a constraining factor in being able to play around with different concepts.
• How much natural light is coming into the room? This is a very important factor, as the filtration of light into an interior space greatly determines flexibility with colour.
• Do you want the room to have a formal or informal look? Again, this would have a bearing on the kind of designs one would opt for.
• Is the window close to any large piece of furniture, such as a sofa or a bed?

• What fabrics already exist in the room—and cannot be done away with? This would require a design that would effectively highlight the piece of furniture without being too dominating, and at the same time blend with existent fabrics.
• How can you tie in the window treatments with other accessories in the room? This is the trick that makes the difference between a well co-ordinated room and one in which the drapes look like an afterthought.
• Colour, texture, fabric and design. These are the last things on the list , but by no means the least important…

Colour

Colour, is very important, because just having neutral drapes is effective only when there is some other feature in the room that is providing some colour relief. Colour, does not mean having red curtains —–you could have off-white drapes with some colour detailing and that would be more than enough colour !

Texture

Texture of fabric is far more important than having a multi-coloured fabric because texture has an understated elegance.

Fabric

Fabric is an essential component, because each fabric has a distinct personality and says something about the room. The question is—what do you want it to say?

Finally, we get to — designing the window treatments. This will tie up all the homework you have done above and help you decide which concept would best complement the personality of the room. Going in for simple window treatments does not mean just hanging drapes in a neutral colour that make no statement whatsoever. You can go in a for a very simple style but if it caters to the points above it will end up looking like a room in which the window treatments were given much thought and consideration and end up contributing significantly to the overall personality of a room. In the same way, having very elaborate window treatments that are not well co-ordinated, can be a nightmare. If it is a small window in a big room…drama will probably be the order of the day. If it is a wall to wall French window scenario, detailing and subtlety will be the best way to achieve that integrated design look.

The magic mantra for great interiors is integration, personality and accessorizing !!

Article Courtesy : http://interiordesign.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/10/window-treatments.htm

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We have written about flooring materials before. At that time though, we covered only those materials that were widely used in the Indian construction industry like Vitrified tiles, ceramic tiles, mosaic, marble etc. Today we are covering a flooring material that is not yet heavily used in India, but it will surely become more popular as people become aware of all its inherent benefits.

 

Moreover, the fact that it is now available for use in India through several importing agencies should drive its adoption in the country a bit faster. We got these details from one such agency – Halcyon in Chennai - when we happened to speak to them. The material we are talking about is Vinyl sheets.

 

Vinyl is an artificially created flooring material. It invariably has several layers within it; consisting of protective wear layer, printed design layer, glass fiber, etc. The exact arrangement in which the various components in the sheet are put together and their thickness can differ from case to case. And with these varying compositions, the properties of the concerned sheets can change.

 The key properties of vinyl are:

1. It provides protection against germs because of its anti microbial nature.
2. UV coating on the wear layer ensures that only a minimum of dust accumulates on the sheet and that it is easy to clean.
3. Glass fiber reinforced cell with foam backing maintains the dimensions of the material. This means that the flooring does not shrink or expand due to climatic variations like hot & humid conditions.
4. Good noise reduction. Vinyl sheets absorb footfall sounds much better than the other flooring options.
5. In some Vinyl sheets, a thick clear transparent layer at the top makes it resistant to abrasion. Thus, it is low on maintenance after installation.
6. Vinyl does not react to reagents used in hospitals and clinics. Thus it should be used in places where the floor would otherwise get stained easily.
7. Bright, colorful patterns can be created – like natural wood finishes, marble /carpet /slate finishes.
8.  It is very easy to install, almost a do-it-yourself project. As little as a single night is required to lay the flooring for an entire house. Vinyl can even be laid on top of most existing floors without having to dig up the old layout. It can be removed quite easily in case you want another change later on. 

In our opinion, Vinyl floor is a candidate that should be considered when you select flooring for your new/renovated home. The fact that PVC floors are stain free, easy to clean, low maintenance, reduces noise, germ free and easy to install; makes them quite suitable for domestic residences

The price usually hovers at around Rs. 30 – 200 per sq. ft (LG Chem Floor). GerFlor starts from 70 per sq. ft. It can vary a bit depending upon the type of Vinyl sheet you choose. This price compares with the other high end options for the homemakers like foreign marbles (Rs. 250 per sq. ft.), vitrified tiles (Rs. 50 per sq. ft. onwards), granite flooring, hardwood floors (above Rs. 150 per sq. ft.), wooden laminates (Rs. 80 - 400 per sq. ft) etc. Kerosene cut and water cut in mosaic tiles – 50 per sq. ft.

The write up will not be complete without mentioning the drawbacks of the flooring. You should be careful to mop up water that forms on top of a vinyl quickly. This is because water can loosen the adhesive used to attach the tile to the floor below. This is less important if you use a vinyl sheet (instead of vinyl tiles) since the seams between the tiles are not present there. The durability of the tile is from 5 to 20 years, depending upon whether it has a urethane wear layer and also the overall thickness of the tile. Good care will extend the life of the tile. Another point to note is that this flooring is not advisable for staircases; it is meant for flat level surfaces.

In case you want to know more about this innovative option, please feel free to drop us a line contact@aavaas.com or alternatively, you can contact murali@halcyoninteriors.in. Murali gave most of the information for this introduction into vinyl flooring.

We will be covering more of these lesser known home making options in the coming days. Surely, there are many more of these items out there and in case you know of some yourself, don’t hesitate to let us know.

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Thought I’ll write on the Christmas tree decorations as a follow up to yesterday’s post. It is not commonly seen in Indian homes, but is extremely popular in countries with a more temperate climate. I am guessing mostly US, Canada and Europe although I have been told it is popular in Taiwan as well.

The tree is set up within the house a few days before 25th and is kept inside until first week of January. It is decorated with lights and trinkets to give a very colourful feeling to the scene. Usually, the presents received at the time are placed beneath the tree to give it an extra touch. We used to place the greeting cards we used to get on it. Even that gave off a good show effect. A star is placed right on top as can be seen in the picture above.

The custom itself does not have an indisputably clear origin, unlike for that of Christmas cribs. There appear to be some evidence in favour of a person called Boniface to have started the custom. But at that time it was not connected in a specific way with Christmas season. Martin Luther also appear to have influenced the way in which the tree was set up in homes.

Mass adoption of the tree as an interior decoration at Christmas time appear to have gained popularity around the 16th century. There are clear accounts of some trees being set up in cathedrals of the time. It seems to have become popular in Germany to start with and spread slowly outward. For instance, Britain did not adopt it until the 19th century.

I must say that this sort of decoration has parallels with other festivals I have seen celebrated in India. In that festival also, people celebrate by using a tree (not the evergreen fir tree though) which is adorned with decoration and baubles. Will write about that some time in January.

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It’s that time of the year again. Christmas is round the corner. My advance greetings to everyone

Am going to talk about a uniquely Christmas activity - the making of cribs. For those not in the know, the ‘crib’ is prepared in most homes at the time of the festival - it represents the circumstances surrounding Christ’s birth. It holds special symbolic significance to Christians as Christ is supposed to have been born in a manger - an open box used for holding feed for livestock (a picture is shown below).

So kids at most homes have a gala time preparing the crib. When I was young we used to have an elaborately choreographed crib making. We used to first spread charcoal on large papers to make it resemble rock formations and then arrange them so that they appear in the form of a cave on the mountainside. The actual crib would then be placed inside this decoration with the associated figurines - usually some cattle and the baby’s parents. Think the picture below would make the final outcome clearer. Man, how I wish I had photographed those self made cribs in the earlier years

The custom of making cribs is one of the few activities with clear starting points. It was first done by a person called Francis of Assisi (same person who founded the Franciscan Order which continues to this day) in the year 1223 AD at an Italian town called Greccio. The arrangement proved very popular and was copied widely from then onwards.  

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Further to our article on 17 Dec - For Art lovers in Chennai - Gallery Sri Parvati , we are including a a few pictures here which are in a higher resolution for enhanced viewing pleasures.

To view the image, just click the thumbnail. This is a test for one of our latest features on the site, so if you experience difficulty, please bear with us.

If all goes well, we would be able to integrate good quality pictures in all relevant posts in future.

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