Is An All Black Apartment the Answer?

I'm quite bored with the all-white-apartment-with-splashes-of-color look that has been omnipresent for the last two years or more. It has moved from being a design trend to a design staple, and it is now high time that it reached the 'Oh SO passé!' stage.

Here's a rather unusual and exotic answer- An all-black space owned by the TED speaker and international advertising consultant Cindy Gallop. I'm not quite sure if I like this as an alternative. What do you think? It used to be a Y, and her apartment was the swimming pool!

An interesting end note- Cindy Gallop also spearheaded a rather fascinating project, IfWeRanTheWorld. A real-world experiment in tapping good intentions and turning them into tangible, do-able microactions. As the site states- All of us can achieve more than one of us, and everything starts with a microaction. 

On that note of a belief in a greater good, I wish you all a wonderful weekend ahead!

The Art of Stenciling

As all of you who've read this post, know how much I love going beyond just dabbing some color on walls. Here is some gorgeous stencil inspiration (To be specific, inspired by India pied a terre via Pinterest), that has been making me wish I didn't live in a rental.

Over the past 2 years, with great delight, I've followed Maryam setting up of her boutique hotel 'Peacock Pavilions'. I love how she has stenciled Moroccan patterns in so many innovative ways with absolutely gorgeous results.

A stenciled staircase

Ceiling and Floors

And even stenciled placemats!

Here's some more inspiration from Melanie Royals of Royal Design Studio responsible for several of the stencil projects featured above at Peacock Pavilions.

This lovely stencil design called the 'Gujarat Indian Border' was on sale the last time I checked. I need to mention that the colors used here also have lovely names- China Blue, Bengal Rose, Indian Purple and Agapanthus.

 via

Leaving you with one last image...

 Again via Indiapiedaterre on Pinterest

 I had a wonderful thanksgiving with family and friends. Hope yours was as good?

Craftsmen from Morocco at Work

I absolutely love Moroccan architecture, design, lanterns, embroidery and I could go on; as would anybody reading this blog.

Here are a few gorgeous images from a Moroccan home that was a spotlighted on Elle Decor a few issues ago to give you a taste of Morocco invading a home.

Hopefully, you've now fallen in love with Morocco too? Then this video by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York of Morrocan craftsmen at work should be a treat for your visual senses.




The craftsmen are working on a wing of the New galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. You can find more information about the new wing here.

The Met along with the Rubin Museum of Art, happens to be one of my favorite museums in Manhattan. If just the wing is so beautiful, could you imagine how gorgeous treasures must be treasures that the museum is going to house there soon?!

I bid you goodnight or good morning, as the case may be, with a huge smile of anticipation on my face.

Tip: If you are in town and visiting the Met, call me. Else, make sure you go looking for the Spanish section. When you stumble on a sunlit courtyard with intricately carved balconies and a high ceiling covered in tiles you know you are in the right place ;)

Dishoom: A Fun Design Story

I'm taking you to eat Vada Pau, wash it down with some Spiked Colaba Iced Tea and end the meal with some Kala Khatta Gola.  Iced tea not to your liking eh? How about a Thums up float then? We are heading to Bombay you think? Nah... We are heading to London's own 'Dishoom Chowpatty Beach' pop-up on London's Southbank where 48 tonnes of sand have been shipped to create a beach! If you think that is extraordinary, hold your horses till you hear the design story behind Dishoom.

My love for jugaad is well known. Dishoom exemplifies the spirit of jugaad in their design.

Let's take a walk to Chowpatty Beach...

The exterior is made out of old freight pallets, gorgeously re-purposed.

The terrace sit out is made out of reclaimed railway sleepers as benches and colourful barrels as seating. 

Let's head inside and take a peek...

The bar inside has a wall erected out of old tightly rolled newspapers!

I love how the metro-white tiled interior has quirky brightly coloured chairs and old jam jars as lighting adding just the right touch of pop. 

The blurry old sepia photo in the background is actually a clock! And how fun! The lopsided moustache definitely had me cracking up!

And let's not forget the Golas I promised earlier on...

 

Wondering who is behind all of this?  That would be the Gujarati trinity of Amar, Adarsh and Shamil Thakrar. Over numerous trips over the years back to Bombay, inspired by the charm of old Bombay cafes, they decided to bring a large slice of Bombay back with them to London. 

So, Amar the E&Y Chartered Accountant, Adarsh the Merrill Lynch  Equity Fund Manager and Shamil- an MBA turned serial entrepreneurs finally took the plunge with the original Dishoom Bombay Cafe in London. You can read all about the first Dishoom cafe's equally interesting design story here.

Please head to Dishoom's website to see more photos of their fun cafes. 

A special thanks to Rebecca Brett from Roche Communications for all her help in putting this post together. 

Here's a shout out to London to Shilpa Bhatnagar for letting me know about Dishoom's existence.

{Photo credit for all images to Dishoom}

I Like! You?

A rain forest scene in bas-relief porcelain tiles. The Marmouset Jungle cabinet by Jean Boggio. I love everything about the cabinet- the intricate work, the colour and do check out the brass monkey handle! Who thought porcelain relief could look this pretty eh?

A little OTT you think? A room center piece, I say!

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The Ikat Deluge!

Remember my weekend in Boston? A trip down Newbury street, Boston's 5th avenue, Ikat assailed me from every display window. Every boutique had Ikat winking at me on a dress, on a cushion, on plates. I come back home and hit the treadmill and opened Elle Decor to be overwhelmed by ads for Ikat rugs and curtains.

 Clockwise from top left: Brunschwig & Fils- silk & cotton fabrics, Gucci butterfly print silk dress, Silk lampshades by Sloane, Urban Outfitters Indigo Chair, Madeline Weinrib cushion covers, Distant Boutique's Vintage Uzbek teapot, Anthropolgie bowls and Gail DeLoach capiz-shell bowl.

{Photo credit for 2010 Elle Decor pictures go to Geoffrey Sokol}

I even saw Ikat cushion covers at Target a few months ago. You know what they say about trends, its no longer haute couture if you see it in your chain stores. Well, take a walk down Manhattan's 5th avenue and Juicy Couture, Gucci, Diane Von Furstenberg et al have all gone Ikat.

Clockwise from top left: Madeline Weinrib velvet cushion covers, ABC Carpet Silk Ethos Rug, Ceylon et Cie Louis XV Style Silk-cotton Armchair, Charlotte Moss Rug for Stark Carpets, Diane Von Furstenberg's famous jersey wrap dress in Ikat, Madeline Weinrib's Silk Ikat clutches and Diane Von Furstenberg's Ikat Kindle cover for Amazon.

Elle Decor wrote an article in '2008' on the Ikat trend alert! Some images from the article below. Though not a fan of wallpapers, I loved the Ilkat wallpaper.

{Photos credit to Elle Decor 2008}

Though I love Ikat to death, it has been a serious Ikat overkill don't you think?

Bollywood Cushions: Urban Barn

So many many times I've looked at kitschy cushion covers from some of the talented South Asians I've featured or drooled at similar features on other blogs and sighed wondering why owning one required me to either pay prohibitively for shipping or even worse wait for my next India trip to cart them back *Sigh*

So, you can understand my delight when I found these lovely Bollywood/India themed ones at Urban Barn. which is geographically at least slightly more gettable!

How about some really innovative ones made from jute rice bags? They made me think twice about throwing my rice bags out! I heart everything re-purpose-able and recyclable.

 And of course, these are 'Made in India' and carted here ;)

{Image credit for all products to Urban Barn}