Showing posts with label Home Tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Tour. Show all posts

Monday, 9 January 2023

A Home Tour of colourful proportions

Came to this blogspace after years. Importantly, because I felt the need of space to say what I want to say (not ideal on Insta). And, possibly, also as the circulating hormones of a brand new 2023 are in play. 

Cutting to the chase, onto the tug of space that inspired me today, we are just back from a holiday in KL, Malaysia, graciously hosted by our friends Vernika and Anshu Nahar, their kids Ira and Viraj and Bagel, their darling fur-ball. Their home is located in the quietly posh Mont Kiara, (often stylised as Mont' Kiara), an affluent suburb at the northwest of downtown Kuala Lumpurconsisting mainly of high-rise residential condominiums and office complexes, with a robust ecosystem to support all daily and social needs. 

Their home-apartment, that they invested in and moved into recently, is spread over 4000 + square-feet of space, in a layout that lends as much credence to the living and kitchen or utility spaces, as to the  well-appointed bedrooms, lobbies, balcony and landing areas. For someone used to the pigeon holed expectations of Mumbai-living, it was a delirious entry into this home.

My attempt here is to share the rest of the drama of this home, in photos— the drama as much in the choice of colour on the walls, as in the choice of upholstery, contrast and detailing, and in the staging of art & artefact— a collection that they say, they are keenly building.

Mixing feminine flourishes with chic elegance into a vibrant, kaleidoscopic living space. From dramatic pops of pink, delicate tape trim details, jewel tones and florals, plush velvet, to lacquered, oriental console and sideboards, porcelain garden stools placed casually, embroidered throws for contrast and cosiness, to gorgeous Srinathhji on Pichwai -welcoming you at the entryway. Yet, the best part about this home for me is the sparse, uncluttered quality to the interiors, the unhindered flow of energy and vibe it lends to its spaces, despite the deliberate riot of colour, texture and form.

Eclectic, bold, brave and thoughtful.  

As always, I am ruing the many corners and rooms that I did not click photos of. Nonetheless... enjoy the visual splash!






















Tuesday, 6 December 2016

of Gratefulness and December

Hello Peeps, I've been gone but have been here all the time:). Hope you have been well too!

It's December calling—a month on a kind of default-setting of summaries, salutations, rumination, hope, gratitude, feeling settled, baking, waking up to the urgency of planning our holiday, questioning my comfort cocoon that built-up in the year and a-note-to-self to tease me out of it in the next visible time-frame. 

December is also the month when my boy-child rounds off another year of being in our life and yes all that benign beauty of Christmas.

As I write this post there are seven other things that I am reminded of, that I need to attend to, that needed to have been started (or closed) yesterday—feeling the sudden rush of the week sliding into it's second-run in the month. WE HAVE YET TO PUT UP THE TREE !! and the birthday party, and  the holiday checklist...!

So as I clicked some random morning frames, I thought of you and many others who so frequently stop by, read, comment or just send me love ('n Likes) that helps me write a few more posts through the year. And so today it is my turn to reciprocate a big THANK YOU and send you a grateful Namaste as I blow you a wish for many islands of calm and Being, amidst the rush of checklists, resolutions and the all-consuming-Doing.










 
  

All images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com

Wednesday, 14 September 2016

A year since our return

Time for a visual tribute to the apartment that we made into our home in Singapore. These are images scattered over 18 months in no particular order but certainly in order of my lifelong memories cocooned in those spaces.

Follow the link:



All images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com


A year since our return

Time for a visual tribute to the apartment that we made our Home in Singapore. These are images scattered over 18 months in no particular order but certainly in order of my lovely memories in those spaces.
Follow the link:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMcmL3QTK2gS6MR4DTPMotKjbi6MBeNmQpp2N0D



All images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com


Saturday, 23 July 2016

Gorgeous weekend #Throwback HomeTour (Prismma splashes Amar & Geetika's home colours!)

The link to a HomeTour I contributed to Prismma couldn't be accessed and so here's a visual-throwback of the beautiful Noida home of my friends—Geetika and Amar <3<3. This visit dates back a bit and I reckon it's time for a next visit :).
Screenshot of the published HomeTour

 

Entrance lobby
 

The bold red velvet upholstery makes a grand statement




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Thursday, 11 September 2014

An Indian Summer In France : A Home Tour

Many youthful summers, many evenings loitering the local colony parks & lanes, many Autumnal days & nights during Pujo - year on year- were spent together with her. Ritu, didi (my big-sis), me and a gang of some others (who I am missing terribly as I write), had totally inseparable growing-up-together years, replete with escapades, incidents, some accidents, beguiling and widely discussed crushes (at times on the same boy), sharing of beds, food, sarees & clothing, shoes & secrets and just about everything else that early and teen years are romanced for! The perfect pre-20s of our lives which would not be half as memorable or wild without each other.

Cut to 2014, and I write this post today as a commemorative of our French summer soiree, and the last phase of that vacation spent in the absolutely idyllic city of Nantes, located on the Loire river, in the west of France. (In 2004, Time named Nantes as "the most liveable city in Europe").

Ritu (Ritu Bernaerts now) lives here in Nantes, with two lovely daughters Fiona & Ilona, stunningly gentle & genial Nicolas (her husband), and graceful Twix (the first cat I ever tried to love)!

And she lives!  Ritu and Nicolas have built their cherished home in this urban isle, in its untouched 18th century-character-quarters,  known as the Feydeau quarters. Unlike centuries back, the Ile (Isle) Feydeau is today joined to the main town and to the Ile Gloriette where the river Loire freely flowed back then. (Ile Gloriette of today is a grand parking area giving way to a local market on Saturdays, very much a colourful & vibrant dry/wet market of fresh produce, nick-knacks and all variety of essentials). 

The Feydeau quarters are built mainly in limestone, with ornamental faces framing the facades and wrought-iron balconies, inner courtyards and vaulted staircases. The pomp of these houses are classically expressed as they stand white and serene against the centuries-old milieu.

And visualise this! As you enter one such apartment inside these stylish French Quarters, a blast of India surrounds your senses, almost overwhelmingly - a platter full of colours, engravings, wood, textile, art, craft, sheer warmth & radiance and dotted with stories personal, Indian & French ! 

I'll let the pictures speak for it.


Ritu's favourite seat in this theatre:)






Read the story of the Sewing machine, below
Of the many stories contained in this household of treasures this one is my favourite. In Ritu's own words "My Grand mom's USHA sewing machine which I got shipped from India...When one of my French friends saw it she gladly donated her Grand mom's SINGER sewing machine-table lying in her attic for a long time. The machine & the table fitted perfectly!! Indo-French relations you see..."

 



This beautiful piece of art on leather is a collectible from India, handed down from Nicolas' Great-Great-Grand mom

Love those tomato red covers on those couches

 





An inherited piece from Nicolas' Grandmother

   
Carved ornamental faces that frame every doorway and hang over each balcony... surreal !




The centuries old fireplace : heartwarmingly beautiful despite it's purely decorative functionality today

And meet Mr. Twix, the most French of 'em all







India lined on shelves






The story continues :


We learnt that restructuring the historical city for urban living took nearly 20 years (since 1926), especially to fill-in the parts of the rivers Erdre and Loire that flowed round the ile Gloriette. The areas where the river once flowed is today recognisable in the strips of lawn bordered by granite.  

Where the renovation story gets legendary is that the architects forgot that the houses are built on sandy foundations, and years later, as a result the Feydeau quarters don't stand straight ! Standing crooked, unaligned, though later-on reinforced for their stability, built mainly in limestone, the majesty of these houses indicates the importance of the city's former commercial trade status.


Tilting, unaligned gorgeous Feydeau Quarters

The balconies indicate how distinct each floor was; the ground floor was for commercial use only and is dominated by arched windows and reception rooms. Above were the refined & decorated private apartments. 
Ritu's patch of green - a balcony of potted greens, veggies and herbs 
The facade characterised by ornamental faces and wrought-iron balconies
Classic ceilings

Original tiles at the entrance of the Quarters

These cobbled lanes have braved centuries of walking & trampling by people, horses, carriages & cars
Look who we found, lived here! 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea'

Nantes slave trade port
The opulent life-style in 18th century Nantes was guaranteed by 2 main sources: Africa and America. Ships built and fitted in Nantes ran the triangular trade between France’s number one port at the time, the Guinean coast and the West Indies. The principle was cruelly simple: buy Africans and sell them on for sugarcane to be refined in Nantes. This is how colonial products like coffee, cocoa, pepper, indigo and exotic wood came to be unloaded along the quayside of Quai de La Fosse and île Feydeau. It was here, in particular, that the shipbuilders built up their dynasties, leaving behind magnificent examples of the city's architecture

The isle evokes the extravagant way of life the maritime traders led in the 18th century, when the port of Nantes was the biggest in France and one of the most important in Europe.



All photographs in this post are taken by me & copyrighted to : limegreenwalls.blogspot.com
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