IKEA is here in India. An aankhon dekhi from Almhult Sweden, IKEA's birthplace.

Hej dear Peeps,

If you've followed me on Instagram and Facebook you'd know I was in Almhult, Sweden last week, the place where the iconic company IKEA was born; now the Product Development and Design hub for this much loved Swedish household brand.

Invited to the IKEA DEMOCRATIC  DESIGN DAY 2017 - a big, global, vibrant showcase of design, products, future collections, product developers and designers, collaborators and the happy vivacious IKEA people. All in a setting brought together with people, music, freshly baked and delicious food and yes, drinks! Such a happy place to be :).

I'm back totally energised seeing so much up close, with some fabulous sneak peeks at the upcoming collections, having seen the future idea for our homes that IKEA is envisioning & collaborating on and coming back with the imminence of buying IKEA products in India (and in Mumbai). Seriously excited!

"There's an air of Celebration about opening in India," chirped Mia Lundstrom, Creative Director Life@Home IKEA - the impressive lady in Indian Ikat and silver; chairing and championing the research and insights that provide the bedrock for IKEA's India entry.

As for me, having lived away from India and having had easy access to IKEA products, IKEA has been a vital and substantial part of my life (setting up and settling down) after marriage and has been a big part of my child's toddlerhood up-untill the 9 years of his happy life. In fact, a significant part of our everyday kitchenware, tableware, kitchen equipment, storage boxes, much of my bed linen, table linen continue to be from IKEA, despite having been back in India for close to two years.  

So, when I sat down to blog today I asked myself 'What am I feeling so excited about?' It cannot just be the imminent easy access to IKEA binge buying. It's a much bigger and bolder pattern that has become obvious to me after this IKEA immersion. It's the synchrony, the synergy of mindset between us as Indians and the values behind the Democratic Design Framework that IKEA is holding so close to its future vision and products. A global brand with a fundamental promise to deliver on Form, Functionality, Affordability, Quality and Sustainability—more categorically now than it has ever done before.

"We want to shake the world up, make it a better place. And we thought we'd start by making everyday life better": so begins The IKEA Democratic Design Manifesto.

The Manifesto goes on to say "...Our mission is bigger than just design, bigger than just low prices. Our mission is the almost impossible idea to combine beautiful form with good function, long-lasting quality, produced in a sustainable value chain with low price.:" and when I read this I see the India- relevance ticked in all the boxes.

√ Beautiful form

√ Good functionality

√ Long Lasting  and √Low Price is already an Indian obsession  

√and socially relevant Indian entrepreneurs can locally deliver as Sustainability partners at various levels in the IKEA value chain {Some are already front-running IKEA partners - watch out for my post on this big IKEA opportunity}

So when I met up with Maria O'Brian, Creative Leader for IKEA on the sidelines (whose role it is to predict, forecast and thus influence trends and styles for future IKEA collections) she seemed wide-eyed and excited about this market, as though India is being looked at through a whole new "wow, this phenomena is happening here also" kind of viewpoint and for me, that's what globalisation is about! The realisation that we are interested in many of the same things and the view that we have lot of similarities from a humanistic standpoint - Its time has come!

On my prompt to forecast a trend for India, Maria pointed me to the big over-arching opportunity in the surge towards urbanisation and sustainability as well as the growing consciousness around 'How Do I express Who I am' amongst the India consumer. I was told that the IKEA insights show a growing affinity towards a more pronounced Individualism here and IKEA sees this already manifested in the home furnishing segment and in the way the Indian consumer is beginning to demand modification and personalisation of home products.  This trend, when I check, is certainly true for me and my extended circle!

To me, combining this trend with the Indian ethos of recycling, repurposing, quality and 'How can IKEA be more Indian?' is where it's all hinged at. 

Overall, as an IKEA India customer-in-waiting to be able to drive down to an IKEA store over a weekend, spend hours swooning over home-decor displays, buying some of the best designed home furniture, furnishing and essentials without bursting our wallets and making a meal of some of the best Scandinavian delights and gorgeous coffee on the way out; our Time Has (almost) Come.

My Pick, if you may, from the new collection :

√The immensely versatile Flottebo Sofa-bed-everything (Just what every living area always needed, a dream for the space parched Mumbai apartments)

At the IKEA Democratic Design Day : Design collaboration with the much celebrated Tom Dixon; with Marcus Engman, Head of Design IKEA

Although, the Flottebo a little too big to carry home in the new Yellow IKEA bag! Nonetheless...

Now to have our very own collection of these Yellow bags and say no to plastic bags:)

#IKEA. #IKEAddd, #IKEAToday

The Tale of a Rug

I have wanted to own a certain kind of a Rug for some time, a kind that will frame the very traditional wooden pieces that we have collected over the years, a kind that would bring a certain character to all that was going to surround it. And it somehow couldn't be just any Rug!!

Several obstacles on the way - the critical one being the price that so effortlessly tags along with anything in the category of rugs or carpets.  Also, Mumbai wasn't really the haven for carpet buying considering the round-the-year tropical heat and the small living accommodations that most have that directly proportionates their availability. FabIndia - true to its character, does stock Durries, Carpets, Kilims of a respectable variety - but the brand itself typifies the markup they charge on items retailed with their tag. The bigger dissonance has always been in my nagging knowledge as a Delhi-ite - having seen just the most gorgeous smattering of carpets at shops and homes of many - and knowing that much of that buy is from the mobile carpet-wallahs that dot the Capital's roads no sooner that Autumn knocks at the doors lining the Delhi streets. Great variety of hand oven weaves and at very reasonable rates, and options of exchanging your old with new and even some of the most innovative EMI offerings:).

Somehow, being in Singapore never really fuelled the considerations that kept me away from daring to buy a rug (we bought our very first handwoven carpet here!). So back here this time, and N a little more in tune with the possibility of a second such purchase we chanced upon this Afghani Balouchi handwoven marvel at a fairly decent price at the same shop nestled in the quaint centre of Holland Village. Owned by this chatty Indian punjabi couple (now Singaporeans for 20 years) we went in at the lure of the Clearance Sale advertised in bold.

And here's what had transpired over the years - the infusion of machine woven carpets  was shaking up the very price foundation of the hand oven carpet industry. The machine made ones were obviously copying the look of the hand woven variety, close in design & easier to maintain. And in this age of price / time proficiency many patrons were switching to these machine made, washable at home, easy on the pocket variety. And the consequence - no longer is it sustainable for these retailers to sell the craftily handwoven variety of carpets woven painstakingly over days - perhaps months- and to charge a price tag commensurate with such 'labour of love'.

So here they were, Mr & Mrs Hamim who had decided to clear out their stock and replace their rug-business with Indian & Tibetan art & artefact, sourced from parts of North India, Dharmasala and Rajasthan:). Happy in their decision, and convinced that the business that sustained a fulfilment lifestyle for them for over 20 years in Singapore, was a no-gainer in their journey ahead !

and we were only too happy to bring away a piece of their legacy home with us:).

Feeling flight-full :: Festival of Lights

Happy Deepawali my Peeps!


 That time of the year when nothing bursts the froth of bubbling happiness & well being in my heart.

Am off to Delhi, my hometown, for Diwali & more and already "आज कल पाव ज़मीन पर नहीं पड़ते मेरे..."

Narayan's parents did a small Puja at our new apartment

The lights have been lit since :)

Tiled-in-piece

They travelled places with me;

wrapped, unpacked, put in boxes, in soft folds, unwrapped, relished when revealed,

subject of ideas, imagined murals, conjured collages,

stuff of dreams & escapades on the wall, corners, centerpieces

and finally rest(ed) in peace, piece-by-piece, in a wooden casket of Burmese origin,

of toil and labour of weeks and some.

Now standing Regal, centre staged, no more in parts, now as a Whole

bringing moodiness to all that surrounds :)

 

a WIP life...

my precious handmade tile collection/
the Orange one is of Turkish men in a collective swirl symbolizing Joy, precious buy from Istanbul 

These are like the ingredients of a baking frenzy before they go into the oven, into different pies, cakes, cupcakes, and all the luscious bakes that you can dream of...

the exquisite Indonesian floral yellow tile, a chance find

Totally looking forward to some ideas come to life!

soon to be part of larger frames!

On an iMpulSe

What : Wood and sheer poetry in carpentry
Where : ओशिवारा  लक्कढ़ बाज़ार
When: How : while on a recce, after eons!
What : What could one do with this find?
Why : *silence*

A frame for a mirror ;
a wood crafted तोरन
just a wall mount,

or just beat up self for the impulse:)

कॉपीराइटेड  लाइमग्रीनवाल्ल्स 

I've got the bLues...

Summer's Springing at my doorstep when the Reds start to look too warm

I feel this urge to douse the warm in some cool cool hUes

so this, my friends, is of the bLues that invade me this weekend,

I allow them in -

calm, cool; in drops and shades; of the sky above,

as of the water across the end of this city - that is my Home !

Un Captionable

Fruit of temptation : My brand new Ikat printed Candle Stand

I know I'm soon shifting out and my pledge to self has been to freeze on any new additions; but tell me, tell me! - could you have resisted such gorgeous accessories, in shades that have seized your mind & being at the moment!

 Ikat continues to invade my moodiness these days - from the Reds to the Blues - just a climb down to cooler climes:)

Photo Credits: all pictures by me this weekend, copyrighted.

of Brocades and new Beginnings

Completed two years without my Dad today, December 29, 2011. Just so many thoughts and feelings interlocked, woven together, some nostalgic, some sombre, some happy & hopeful and none too sad! And some traces of resolve to do things differently, and try do different things as I tip-toe into 2012 - traces of a golden lining in the distant sky quite in sync with my (few) new acquisitions to liven up life, so to say!

These speak of my mood these days  - golden synchrony in Cushions as we happily allow in more of the Sun, multiplied in zillion sparkles across the Arabian sea that my windows overlook, during these lovely balmy Mumbai- winter days.

Happy holidays and Happy beginnings,
Hello 2012.

Turkish Delights!

Yes, yes it seems I have a windfall in ceramics these days! And these ones are gorgeous courtesy Narayan's maiden trip to Turkey last week. Quoting him "I could visualize Shalini & you let loose at the Grand bazaar in Istanbul...", while he himself hasn't done a bad job of letting loose.

I begin by posting these gorgeous ceramic bowls that he picked up quite arbitrarily, that form quite a set of 4s. Yummy stuff!

The Swan

Though I am yet to feature my current Bandstand home, couldn't resist putting up this beautiful Swan in my collection of pretties - a gift from a friend couple on their first visit since my Mumbai return!

the Swan giving company to my Ganesha standing alone for too long