Interior decoration is an integral part of home making. Art is one among the many ways one can enhance the visual and aesthetic appeal of a home.

In this article, we are covering a niche art gallery located in Chennai – “Gallery Sri Parvati”.

Main Gallery Building

Gallery Sri Parvati is managed by Ms. Lakshmi Venkatraman. She is no newbie in the world of art. She was an art critic/writer for ‘the Hindu’ Newspaper for nearly two decades before her current role.

The gallery is located near the TTK road flyover junction in Chennai.

For the rest of the article please click here

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I have always been fascinated by curtains in homes as it is one of the easily visible spots that tell you a lot about the home owner. The type of material chosen for the drape and the way in which it is hung, whether curtains are drawn or even the absence of curtains speak volumes. Most of the other features in a home come in shapes and sizes that are standard; and there is less scope for differences in choices (of course, this is debatable).

Given below are some of the ways in which curtains can be hung and used as interior decoration. The pictures are all from alternative-windows.

Café Curtains

Hourglass Curtains

Valence Curtains

Lined Curtain

Tabtop Curtain

And the styles shown above are just the tip of the iceberg. The sheer variety of choices that are actually out there is mind boggling - sunburst, eyelet, envelope, smocked, Jardiniere, Italian are among the dozens of other curtain styles that are available.

By the way, curtains are not just used for windows; they are also hung over doorways sometimes. For the trivia inclined, these door curtains are called portieres. Here the materials used are chosen not for its light blocking properties but more for interior decoration. Hence, we are more likely to see some artificial artifacts being strung together to form a semi separation between rooms; the traditional cloth curtain seems almost passé in this space.

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• Window Treatments
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I have tried a few garden plants at different places, please adapt my experience to your space & location.

Image Courtesy: homegrownwisconsin.com

Tomato/Coriander/Tulsi/Green Beans/Ginger/Turmeric/Yam/Guvar/Chilli - All these respond well to Indian weather conditions, and as long as you provide some sand in a pot, and get good amount of sun-light they yield good results without much pest attacks.  Green beans, Guvar, Chilli and Tomatoes should be planted 2 months before summer.

Cabbage, Cauliflower, Lettuce, Potatoes: Grows well in cool climate only.   Need loamy and wet soil. Need protection from frost and hail, best to be grown 3-4 months before summer.

Curry leaf, Plantain, Lemon, Sweetlime - Need clay type soil, with some amount of sun-light, but easy to take care.  Plant it before rainy season, to reduce your work. 

Bittergourd, Snakegourd, Sweetpotato, Grapes - All these are climbers, that grow quite well in Indian conditions.   For Grapes, pick local varieties for pest resistance.   Snakegourd needs a horizontal mesh, while the rest can take up vertical or horizontal mesh.   You can harvest 3-5 kgs of grapes with a single plant, that can be raised in a 1sqfeet land-space.   However grapes, like pepper needs additional plants in the vicinity as they need some level of ground cover near their roots.  Other than grapes and pepper , other plants have to be planted soon after the rainy season, so that they start yielding in Spring and Summer.   You can choose late spring planting too, but you may spend more water.

Roses, Groundnuts, Karamani (black eyed white peas), Leek, Radish, Onions - Respond well to loamy, red-soil.   In fact all the potted plants on the first line can be raised on this kind of land.   Groundnuts need to be harvested shortly after their flowers start withering.   Good to plant them shortly after the rainy season.

Pumpkins & Potatoes - If you do Vermi composting (organic wastes from the kitchen with live earthworms and sand), you can throw any seed on it and can be assured that you can get a healthy sapling.   Note that healthy saplings replanted elsewhere have a 80% higher success rate than direct sowing.   Anyway vermi composting locations are as such good places to plant pumpkins, and all you need to do is direct the climber to your nearest terrace or shed, and you will see lots of pumpkins.    In villages pumpkins thrown over rubble has seen 30-40 pumpkins within 3-4 months, provided the weather is cooperative (plant towards the end of the rainy season, so that harvesting happens around spring time to early summer).

Image Courtesy : Google Images

There should be more vegetables and fruits, you may want to try for your kitchen garden. 

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Mostly seen in hotels and offices, venetian blinds are slowly gaining popularity in Indian homes.

Image Courtesy : www.artisticblinds.co.uk

So what does a Venetian blind offer over conventional curtains?

Besides the aesthetic appeal, venetian blinds offer a greater control over the amount of light that enters a room. Based on individual preferences and mood settings, venetian blinds give flexibility to set the room’s ambiance accurately.

In most cases venetian blinds are used in conjunction with closed window panes. This is why these accessories are very popular in hotels and offices.

When the window is kept open, venetian blinds tend to attract more dust. Their surface area is more than conventional curtains. This makes cleaning them a tedious affair.

But many tools are available for cleaning the blinds and most modern vacuum cleaners have attachments to facilitate cleaning of blinds.

Venetian blinds can be installed in manual or automatic modes, where the later makes use of motors to control the movements.

The various materials deployed to make the blind are plastic, polymers and also wood. Wooden blinds give a rich look to the home.

Based on the type of installation, blinds can either be horizontal or vertical.

Wiki excerpt

Blinds have varying thermal effects: they can block unwanted heat of the summer sun and they can keep in heat in cold weather. But in both of these applications, they also reduce light to varying degrees, depending on the design. Many kinds of blinds attempt varying balances of blinding external viewers and allowing sunlight.

More on wiki article can be found here

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Event Profile

Interior & Exterior Expo-Chennai is the opportunity to showcase latest collections, to engage into business with potential distributors and agents, and to find business partners.

Visitor’s Profile

Architects, Interior Designers / Decorators, Wholesalers, Distributors, Manufacturer, Importers / Exporters Consumers are the target visitors.

Exhibitor’s Profile

Profile for exhibit include artifacts, aluminium products, bathroom fittings & accessories, ceramic tiles, carpets, decorative lighting & chandeliers, designer lamps & fans, doors & frames, electronic products, false ceiling, fencing, floor coverings, flooring tiles, fountains, furnishings, modular kitchens, paints & raisins, landscaping & gardening, pottery & vases, sanitary wares, shower curtains, wall hangings, water treatment systems, windows & frames.

Location

Rani Meyyammai Hall, Chennai.

Date

Oct 5-7, 2007 
 

We hope to cover it, just as we covered Inside Outside from Chennai on 25 August ‘07.

Maybe we see you there !

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