You don’t need professional help to make your home beautiful. Your intuition and personal taste can come into play instead.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in
Anjali Doshi, a housewife and mother of two, moved into her parents’ old home last year. Her parents had never done a home furnishing job, so she decided to change things around. “Their furniture was old and creaky, the paint had been destroyed by several leakage patches on the walls, and even the plumbing lines were old. An architect evaluated the extent of the refurnishing work to be carried out, but when his quote came in, I realised that I would have to save up for several years to afford it!” she laughs.
Putting aside her grand plans to reinvent the entire home, she says she decided to do the basics first. “I got the leakages checked and repaired, then I got the painting and some civil work done. I also changed the drapes and upholstery. These small touches have made a big difference,” she explains.
The rest of us might not even need to undertake full-scale repairs and restoration work in our homes, where little corrections might do the trick. Try these tips:
Decorate with flowers and paintings. Most of us don’t realise the difference a big vase of cheerful flowers can make to a room. Apart from improving appearance, flowers also enhance the mood and add the necessary pop of colour to a space. If you are not interested in buying fresh flowers every couple of days, try hanging colourful or calming paintings on a couple of walls. Doing this negates the dullness of the room caused by plain walls painted in pastel shades, or a lack of interesting furniture. “A client of mine wanted white walls, white furniture, white flooring and white appliances,” remembers Anisha. “I gently suggested adding a large painting or photograph with vibrant colours to make the space more interesting.” Her clients were so agreeable to the idea, that they bought large and small picture frames for an entire wall. “The result was so stunning. The necessary colour now makes the rest of the house look really lovely,” Anisha says.
Let the walls speak. As such, a new trend in interior design is to paint one wall in the living room a different colour, to create a visual ‘highlight’ in the room. “But you have to be careful how you use this wall,” says interior designer Anisha Mehta. “You can put up picture frames on this wall, or a couple of beautiful shelves to add to its beauty. Keeping a tall vase with artificial flowers next to the wall will also automatically draw attention to it. Take care that this wall is plain; it should not have a window in it, nor should you put a large flat screen TV on it. Leave it uncluttered,” Anisha advises.
Other tips are to decorate this wall with simple patterns and colours, leaving the other walls bare. The trick is to let one wall reflect your personality.
Look for interesting knick-knacks. An afternoon spent in Chor Bazaar will give you enough opportunities to get some very interesting and unusual curios 
for your home. Or if you are creative enough, you can recycle some of the rubbish lying around the house to create your own knick knacks. A slowly growing trend in Mumbai is to opt for decoupage to liven up boring old furniture and give personality to a home.
Buy light furniture. The problem with most homes in Mumbai is that the houses are very small, with tiny living rooms and bedrooms. If you buy heavy three-seat sofas and big centre tables, your living room will appear smaller than it already is. “A good idea is to do up the living room in cane. You can experiment with an entire cane setting – sofa sets, an extra chair, cane lamp shades and even cane pouffes,” says Shalini Abraham, a marketing professional. “My living room looks gorgeous because my furniture looks light. Plus it is easy to shift around for cleaning.”
For those investing in wooden furniture, ensure that the sofa set has extra storage space and that your centre table is a combination of glass and metal for a lighter look.
(Pictures courtesy bhousedesain.com, heiressflowers.com, www.mumbailocal.net. Images are used for representational purpose only)