Fresh flowers for your home

This conversation started the other day. We were standing on the bus stop facing an artificial flower & plant shop. Now it was Kensington and the window display was beautiful. But if you looked a little  closely you could understand that those were all artificial flowers. We got talking about whether it makes sense to buy artificial flowers or  go for the fresh ones.

How do you like decorating your home ~ with fresh flowers or artificial ones? In hot countries like India where flowers spoil rather rapidly, I guess it makes sense to buy artificial ones. Now a days in the market there are such lovely artificial ones. I love those silk flowers, created with so much attention to detail. They look pretty darn real.
But if you buy artificial ones, you are stuck with that bunch and can't buy different varieties that you can with fresh ones.

Do you like buying seasonal flowers like tulips for spring or do you like sticking to the same flowers which you always buy?

Though I don't have a traditional brass urli, I like arranging flowers in an earthen pot once in a while. This one came from the sweet shop when we bought misti doi (Bengali sweet yogurt). Once the doi was over, I cleaned the pot and kept it for my flowers.

Fresh flowers can bring in a pop of colour and brighten up a space instantly even on grey and dull days.

You don't have to buy expensive flowers all the time, a few from your garden/pots in the balcony can make all the difference. I love picking up wild flowers and putting them in a jam jar.

By now you must have guessed we love fresh flowers, ah the sheer variety of them in the market and the different shapes and colours, not to mention the smells. Let us your preference.

Climb those stairs in style !!

Something I was very intrigued and thrilled at the same time when I was doing the research for our house. Stairs ?? Really ? Did'nt think you can glam up staircase in so many ways. I found loads of photos of people Jazzing up the stairs. Back in the 90’s it  began with using different types of materials to build the stairs, nice wooden stairs, glass ones look gorgeous and elegant. Then the intricate carvings on the pillars , lovely family photos, paintings have started showing up around the staircase area.

Today, the virtual world is filled with pictures of DIY stairs. Oh, what can i say about the staircases over which the artists creatives juices are flowing with no limits. The ideas are so fresh and unique and immensely pleases one's eyes. I so wanted to this when we were moving but even though the builder was enthusiastic about it my husband dearest didn’t give a damn :) of course, his excuse was time and budget because we have to do all the stairs all over. The wood on the existing ones wasn't in a great shape and so carpeting it was a practical move. Well, I guess sturdy stairs is also an important aspect than the look.So, if you just moving in or renovating the house, this is the correct time to revamp the stairs as well. especially if they are carpeted previously. You just don’t know what’s underneath.

There are so many options, colour the tread bright and leave the step rustic, stencil some vintage design on them or go all out and paint sceneries. Here are some I picked from pinterest for you to get inspired!!

This is my Favourite. If I ever get a chance to do our staircase again, it's going to be these. Blue tread and a dark wood step. Just love it !

Paint them!

Love this stripy zig zag look. use a masking tape to achieve straight bold lines and get painting.

Stripy Staircase

Ever so glam !!

For the book lovers 

So, get inspired and jazz up your staircase to give your personal touch. Go to our DID board on pinterest for many more pictures of gorgeous stairs to climb those stairs in style !!

G

Cushion craving

Cushion covers are a weakness for me. I have so so many of them, and mixing and matching them is something i love doing. I think i get it from my mum who also obsesses over the colour combinations, embroidery and so on and the discussions we have over cushions are quite elaborate.

I love both Indian and contemporary designs. I have my moods, in which i sometimes rearrange things around the house to match it. Fab India and Anokhi are brands i absolutely love when it comes to Indian cushions. Sadly, i get to shop there only when i go to India, and once a year doesnt really quench my thirst for cushion covers.

I am in the process of putting together some décor inspiration for 'the house' and these are some of my favourites - Indian themed ones. I have a whole other batch for contemporary designs.

You can never go wrong with the blue and white combination. Works brilliantly when it comes to décor, crockery and even clothes

This is think is my favourite from the lot. So elegant and absolutely gorgeous. This is definitely an option i'm looking into

If you have a corner arm chair you want to accentuate, then an attractive cushion like this would do the job. I mean, just look at all those bright colours. I would be too possessive about that cushion if i had it at my house :)

Not as Indian as i'd like, but it could pull off the ethnic look, and its something different

This is another idea i'd like to give a shot at. Have mismatched cushions scattered around and with gold block prints. I am a sucker for anything with block prints.

This, i'd like to display on a white comfy sofa in my conservatory. It screams of summer and lazy days to come.

Images are all courtesy of the pinterest board called 'Cushion craving' and do check it out for some more inspiration.

Love for Vintage

When you are doing up a house one of the first challenge is to pick a theme, a mood for the house which makes a 'home'. I am going through a similar turmoil at the moment. As if moving into a new place is not enough challenge we have decided to leave all our existing furniture behind and start fresh. Some have been disposed, and some have found a new home in our garage waiting to get a new transformation:). Although, it’s a sheer pressure of getting things done, this is one of the kind of stress you enjoy. The whole process of researching, browsing endlessly for those unique pieces, clicking on the checkout button and finally unwrapping the delivery is ecstatic.

Honestly, it didn't take much time for me to decide on the look of the house. ‘Vintage’ was an outright winner. Although I love shabby chic, it is getting more and more ‘high street’ status off late with mass production of shabby chic look alike furniture. Don’t get me wrong, but the whole point of refurbishing an old rustic piece of furniture is gone out of the window and the authenticity is lost. Having said that, finding an authentic piece can prove to be a really tough and pricey affair. So the secret lies in striking the right balance of high street, authentic vintage and handmade products. Don’t be scared to take up a DIY project and give the place a personal touch. If I am attempting it, anyone can - you can totally trust me on that ! Style them with your finds from some of the stores which have stuff worth dying for like notonthehighstreet, anthropologie, loaf, Butlers. One of such products I was able to lay my hands on was this gorgeous dining table from Made.com. Quiet affordable at £329 and perfect for a humble dining area with a classy rustic finish. I personally like the chipped finish they gave to the base of the table and the embossed flower pattern against a lovely grey background on the legs.

Coming to my choice of colours, I wanted something bright and lively. Playing with colours with your statement furniture pieces is far more easier than trying to use them on the walls.  The whole process of choosing a colour for the walls, sampling, test paints, busying the colours, painting or briefing the shade to the painters is all too much of an effort for me. Keep the walls white or very neutral and add fun accessories which have a pop of colour. My present obsessions is blue - all shades going up to a very light green are catching my eyes these days. My very first buy as an inspiration for colour and design is this bright Jug with a classic blue English pattern. It almost gives you a feeling as if it's taken out from an old Doulton collection:). 

The blue printed mug which is also part of the inspiration purchase is my favourite now and I bought it for like £2 in a garden shop which makes it even more adorable and my morning coffees even more refreshing. That also happened to be the mug when my son made me a coffee for the first time - so it's ever so special:) 

So when my enthusiasm was reaching its high and just when I am making these 'inspiration purchases' left right and centre I received these two gorgeous, absolutely beautiful stools as a gift from a cousin congratulating on our new house, I took it as a sign of approval for my colour choices from my guardian angels of designing and decided on 'Blue'. The styling and design for rest of the furniture was also inspired  by these two pretty things.

I really loved the vibrant blue pattern and that's something I am working at incorporating in some of my soft furnishings too, I shall keep you posted :) Watch the space for more and more pictures, design crushes and inspirations from Damsels in Distress.

XX  G 

Our Story

So it all started with our homes. You see, of the three of us, G is currently setting up her new home, N is frantically searching for one and S is constantly rearranging the furniture in her dream home. So whenever we get together {which is pretty often}, we talk 'homes'. Just like the way some men talk sports, or teenage girls discuss boys, or new mothers discuss their precious babies, we natter on about whether to have a circular dining table rather than a rectangular one, the merits of an electric fire to a wood burning one, the new range in our favourite furniture shop's catalogue.  We constantly pin house photos, stalk lifestyle blogs, send each other home tour links, explore home decor shops  in and around London, flag textile exhibitions, compulsively buy home accents and hide those from our husbands, the list goes on and on. Basically we super obsess about homes. Rather the decor side of our homes. So much so N and S recently did an Annie Sloan paint workshop, and currently are in the process of painting up every other piece of furniture they can lay their hands on. G on the other hand is battling with husband and builders in trying to keep her vision of her home from going haywire. 

Why this blog: Since each of us are doing a lot of research and constantly emailing links and photographs to each other, we thought we will store all our stuff in one place. So this blog is our virtual scrapbook for all things to doll up our homes.

Who are we: G = Gayathri is an IT consultant by day, a fledgling food blogger, mommy to a cute boy and a harried second home setter. In her first home she had an extensive collection of Ganeshas. In her second home, she has decided to go country and shabby chic.

N = Nisha, the frantic house  hunter is actually a macaron baker by profession. Yup sounds like a dream job, doesn't it? She will beg to differ, specially on days she bakes around 600 of them tasty little morsels. N also has a food blog and is a nifty photographer. 

S = Suchi, the day dreamer, has exhausted all home shows on television, and is looking for inspiration elsewhere. She knows exactly how her dream house should look and feel like. She also has a food blog, but she has realised that she spends more time checking out lifestyle blogs than working on her blog. 

Our connection: We met and connected through food blogging and now supporting each other's home obsession.

What can you expect to find here: Lots of home inspirations.