A home in Bombay

Anavila Sindhu Misra and I have been exchanging creative notes since the time I blogged about her work. We met when she came to Delhi to exhibit her exquisite sarees and fabrics, where she very graciously gifted two handcrafted fabric art works from her studio to me. It was such a pleasure to meet Anavila in person, and as we chatted about our creative likes and dislikes, the blogger in me instinctively knew that her home would be as lovely as her. I pestered her for a home tour, and here we are - the beautiful and distinctive space that Anavila, her husband and their son call home! Anavila also shares her personal style and aesthetics below...

My home style is very India inspired. From the wall art to the textiles, all are craft based, with some occasional picks from travels which I couldn't resist - like the antique gong and bird cage which I bought at an exhibition from a Thai/ Indonesian old couple, who were putting up there lifelong collections for sale.

 

 

Most of the things you see around my house are my own designs and products collected over the last seven years ever since my association with crafts. I go with colors like green, beige, whites for home with little accents of brighter shades. For me, plants are a must and most of my decorations are botanical. 

Home for me is putting together familiar and inspiring things that make you comfortable and happy ! :)

Many thanks Anavila for the lovely home tour!

Looking forward to seeing you and your pretteh textiles in Delhi again soon :)

[All images copyright: Anavila Sindhu Misra and An Indian Summer] 

A home in New Delhi

Aneela Zeb Babar and I have known each other's virtual presence for a couple of years now. I love what and how she writes, and she enjoys the doses of pretty from An Indian Summer. Aneela moved to India recently, and one hot summer afternoon, we met at her new home in New Delhi. Over refreshing cups of Aneela's special chai, we had endless conversations, laughter, and a tour of her lovely home. I loved the fact that each little thing in her home has a story, a history, or a memory attached. And I won't even attempt to retell these stories to you, for I have the utterly charming and fabulously witty Aneela right here! Over to Aneela:

When you ask me about style and inspiration I guess for a long, long time it has been my mum, and my earlier houses were kind of an 'inspired tribute' to how she had done up her home but some time last year I think I finally grew more comfortable with who I was and now that I look back at the photographs over the year, I recognize how the blues and reds and a sense of eclectic are replacing the creams and beige and tapestries of before!

Ours is a family of Baba, Begum and a 3 year old. Sometime in September 2009, we packed up 'The House With The White Picket Fence' in Melbourne to live a life ‘unsettled’. Which meant that most of the paraphernalia of what constitutes as home was packed up in a garage and only the 'portable memories' made the cut in the boxes. The past three years has seen a lot of travel and homes combined with aspirations that my child grows up with some objects around him that have remained consistent and that we don’t exactly kill his sense of the aesthetic living in rented houses at times with someone else's furniture.

I think our home in Delhi now reflects the design demands of living out of a suitcase and combining a bit about who the father and me are and our journey so far....the 3 year old has quite an opinion about what makes it across the threshold too so the rooms combine some of his stories as well.

I thought that most of our purchases were random or something that the three of us could finally agree on…but I realize now that there is quite a method to our mad buying. Most of the artwork has a strong woman's voice. I know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but with our house rules of no TV…everything from the paintings, the bed spreads, the lamps, and of course the book shelves have to tell a hundred tales. I have quite a design crush on the art of kantha, also the Bengali jatra...so the three year old has spent many a summer afternoon poring over the bedspreads tracing stories with his finger about the embroidered ghouls, and camels,  parrots,  fish,  birds and butterflies.

I am guilty of being like many South Asians who dream in English but like to live the subaltern...so I give good business to Barefoot in Colombo especially their lovely painted ceramic pottery and the metal craft workers of Bangladesh who introduced me to their reading of Ganesha and Saraswati. Some things have not changed, I still cannot kick my family's addiction to carpets so there are a lot red carpets lying around the house bought in  Afghanistan and from Rawalpindi and Quetta in Pakistan! My husband is getting help for his penchant for lamps around the house.

We indulge in our penchant for nostalgia with wing back chairs, collecting faux antique writing desks, the odd gramophone , antique wall clock. My favorite child remains the Chicago Phone which amazingly still works.

  

When it comes to portable memories ...some things like my grandfather's war medals, my grand mum's trays, a grand aunt's milk jug, and father's books will always find a place in my suitcase. And there will always be a wall to accommodate my collection of political cartoons.

Aneela, shukriya (thank you) for sharing your lovely warm home with us!

You and I need to have another round of your fragrant chai soon :)

[All images copyright: An Indian Summer and Aneela Zeb Babar]

 

Rani, Amrita and Shawn..

...invite us to their homes!

You carry a bottle of wine

I'll get the flowers :)

Rani's Home

Rani C. [Charmy Gray's nom de plume] , is an Indian born Australian national, in love with all things exotic, eclectic and Indian. She has lovingly done up her tiny eccentric apartment as a palace fit for a Rani (queen). Her palace-home is a cozy little space of warmth and beauty, filled with textiles, art, jewelry and colorful vintage objects, that she also retails from her fledgling online boutique - One Rose One Ruby. Rani's exuberant personality is reflected in each little corner of her exotic home.    

Rani: I hope you let us, mere mortals, visit you in your gorgeous palace! I can't wait to visit!  

[Send a note to Rani C. here] 

  

Amrita's Home

Amrita Anand, after having moved three countries in her 2.5 year old marriage, has now created a beautiful and warm home out of a small apartment in Hong Kong. Amrita has always been keenly interested in beautiful interiors and hasn’t let the limited space in her current apartment stop her from creating an uncluttered, traditional, yet modern home. She graciously shared a few corners from her home, that she has styled with flowers, cushions, paintings, frog collectibles and all things colorful and bright. Amrita, with her thoughtful personal touches, has converted an impersonal apartment into a beautiful homely space, that she shares with her husband and their dog, Tutsi. 

Amrita: The next time I am in Hong Kong, I am dropping in for a cup of tea in those lovely tea mugs :)

[Send a note to Amrita Anand here] 

Shawn's Room

Shawn Lazarus, a student in Dubai, sent me an email with a snippet of his room, and told me that he has been inspired by the aesthetics he has seen on An Indian Summer while styling his room. I'll be honest - I never thought men, leave aside young boys will be among my regular readers, and well, Shawn's email and his beautifully done up room has left me speechless! With the rest of Shawn's home decorated to his mother's taste of swedish minimalism, he has created his very own private Villa Kadiri-esque den!

Shawn - It's the cat. How could I have resisted posting about your room when there is that furball in the pictures? ;)

[Send a note to Shawn here]

Rani, Amrita, Shawn - Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful glimpses from your home with us. We'll look forward to more pictures from you in the coming years, as you change, redo, updo, undo things around :) 

If you would like to share your home or room pictures on An Indian Summer, please send me an email, with a link (picasa/flickr/facebook/dropbox) to the images. The images need to be clear, un-edited, taken with the flash off and high resolution. I would love to share the homes Mr. Blog and I like, right here!

Welcome to Keya's world!

One of my favorite e-friends, with one of my favorite homes, moved homes recently. As she set up her new home, we begin to chat about how I haven't done a kids room specific post yet (!), and I rued the fact that it has been very very hard for me to find kid's rooms inspired by India, that I also like. She jumped like a ninja saviour (in my imagination), and hinted that I just might like her daughter - Keya's room. Boy, that was an understatement of the month! I adored Keya's room so much that not only did I pester her to write a post for 'An Indian Summer' on how she did up the room, I also decided to ditch the guest bedroom when I visit Richa, and sleep in this room! That rug would also do, Keya. Thank you! :)

Handing over to Richa now:

The ‘look’ for Keya’s room came quite easily after I found the vintage blue armoire at a ‘Going-out-of-business’ sale.  Not so much distressed as falling apart, it had me at the color.  “It’s my will that is holding it up!”  I often joke when guests look nervous around it. In my defence, I’d like to say that its slim shelves are just the right size for storing paperbacks. Plus, it had in it the added attraction for me to use blue for a girl’s room :)

 

It was deliberate design to surround Keya with happy colors and with things that would enrich her imagination. Take the sumptuously-designed scroll book by artist Pulak Biswas, for instance, from Tara Books (next to the window). It unfurls to a six-foot wall hanging and in its design aesthetic reflects just the sort of unconventional thinking that I hope will inspire Keya when she creates with her own hands. The other piece of art (behind the bed) is a batik by artist Heidi Lange  that was gifted to me by my brother. Keya’s growing quantities of books are a source of both color and decorative inspiration as is her handmade art and other personal treasures. 

 

When it came to furniture, I didn’t want invest in any piece that would begin to look ‘kiddish’ in a few years.  The bed was bought keeping that in mind. A few other pieces of furniture that were lying around were simply re-purposed and brought into Keya’s room. Like the small wooden stool from West Africa that works as her side table. The chakki stool (it used to be our coffee table) is the perfect height to play board games on while sitting on the rug. The ladder is one of those fun extras, making the space just that bit more inspired and interesting. The green chair (from the garden section of a furniture store) delivers a punch of color. Those who have seen my home here on An Indian Summer, will know that I am not tonally restrained ;-). 

Luckily, when it came to designing her sleeping space, Keya’s own aesthetic is more shabby chic than Disney! The vintage, recycled saree throws that are showing up, with their folksy hues are, I think, just the perfect thing for a girls’ bed. They mix and match so well with just about any ditsy print pillows you can find! Given that the room itself is pretty plain with no fun architectural elements, I am happy with this very individual look. There is a little bit of old mixed with some new, and the space is relaxed enough for Keya and her friends to have good times but not so over-designed that there won’t be room to accommodate her changing interests.  

R, thanks and hugs once again for inviting us over to your beautiful abode! :)

Just in case you missed it, here is a tour of Richa's home.

[All images: Richa Kapoor and An Indian Summer]

Gro Mukta Holter's Art and Home

Gro Mukta Holter, originally from Bangladesh, is an artist and a designer, and has been living in Oslo, Norway for many years now. As a young girl of 13, Gro started to paint, inspired by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. She also fell in love with the work and the life of Frida Kahlo, who till date inspires Gro immensely.  

Gro calls herself an 'art nerd' and has always made things - paintings, clothes, bags, pillows, jewelry and dolls. In her own words: My art is much about the magic realism and I see the magic moments in the everyday life. I blend in references to art history, literature, pop culture, music, movies and most of all, travelling and observing other cultures. 

Gro, as Frida Kahlo :)

Gro's exuberant personality and her innate love for color and context is not limited to her paintings alone. Gro's home, which used to be a soap factory, is a reflection of her gypsy spirit in every sense. She has combined antiques, design classics, east and west and calls her style a mix of eclectic, art and urban bohemian chic.

 

Some inherited, and others handpicked during her travels

The bed was custom made from recycled wood, and shipped from Kerala, India

In Gro's words: I collect a lot of things from travelling, and we have a lot of art and furniture that comes from our family.  I love to mix colors that might seem a little odd, but can give some lush combinations. My home got to be playful and I try to make it a place that invites visitors to feel relaxed and inspired!

 

Gro, her work and home have been featured in many magazines over the years. I adore her flamboyant style and have picked up some ideas for my home. Hope you too enjoyed the tour of her work and home as much as I did!

[All images copyright: Gro Mukta Holter. Gro's work: Find here and here]