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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dress Me Up



3 years back when we bought our apartment, the first thing the visitors noted was the wall colours followed by the light fixtures and then the woodwork.
The bright sunflower yellow breaking the light green (jasmine wisp) and beige (sugarcane) colours of the rest of the walls were proving to be a talking point for our visitors.
I remember the pains we took in deciding the colours. The long hours spent at the Asian paints colour screen deciding the shades in various simulated lights. To tell you the truth what we picked up based on the computer turned out to be unpleasant on the walls. So finally we had to beg or buy a single can and try out on the wall directly before taking a call.
We were sure that we wanted a yellow breaking wall in our rooms. Apart from the reasons of it being a happy, cheery, welcoming colour, we choose it because it was the safest bright colour. I would love to have a red brick like effect or a crimson/ deep pink wall with a self pattern right behind the bed but hubby was strictly against such bashful bright colours. With both our Leo temperaments, we did not want too much of red adding fuel to the fire, not to forget that we chose the South east rather than south west room as the master bedroom. So yellow it was to break the monotony of jasmine wisp and sugarcane. And the jasmine wisp has a role to play in toning down the fiery nature of the yellow.
We also went overboard with the lighting. We did not want to leave even a single space unlit. Apart from the tube lights for everyday use, we added extra light points for “yellow’ lighting which gives a warm, cozy, romantic feel and also imparts a different glow to the skin. We found a nice shop at Mount Road called MS Lights which had a lot of trendy, modern fixtures and the owner was talking in marketing language- defining the concept and whether it is modern or traditional or futuristic. We selected quite odd shaped fixtures the prime method of selection being the quantum of light they were emitting rather than keeping it to themselves. Usually there are these flower shaped ones that don’t allow the light to emit into the room. All the yellow walls were given Picture lights so that when we invested in paintings, the light would highlight them well. We also selected a crazy looking chandelier.
For all our pains, the 1st year was spent in paranoia, nobody allowed to lay even a finger on the wall, no furniture should be touching the wall etc. Today all has gone for a toss. With Ojas & Tejas competing with each other on who scrapes the wall better with the mobile phone or the rackets, we cannot even dream of maintaining the walls now.
So tell me, what colours you chose for your walls and why? What is a nice colour or texture to experiment with? May be the next house or the next painting time we could think about it!

9 comments:

Minka said...

Ah ! White it is for me . I tend to tire of any color very soon . Boring eh ? But works wonders for the home - it's all nice and open and bright thanks to the white. And the wood-work is all beech color .Actually I wanted the pale aqua shade somewhere - I guess the same as the jasmine color you're talking about. But the interior decorator shot it.

We bought light fittings from Krytsal Lights also on Mt Road. But I chose all the muted steel frame fittings which was good since it's easy to keep clean and doesn't blacken like the gold color.

~nm said...

ITW, I still need to own a hosue to decide what colours I would want! But knowing me it might look quite obnoxious to the regulars.

I will tell you one combination that might make you understand how obmoxious my combinations can be ; Image 3 walls in mehenadi green..the dried mehandi powder color.. and one wall in rust brown.

Get the idea? I know lot will squirm and roll their eyes but I can truly imagine how it will look like being from the creative field.

Hip Grandma said...

we plan to paint our flat soon.May be you could give some ideas.

Sukhaloka said...

Hey, I've had a fallout with your "guess the word" widget. It doesn't allow for synonyms - now is that fair??? :P

Sukhaloka said...

and the weirdest part is, of course, my peculiar word usage. I type "Britons" and they sat it's "British", I type "remnants" and they say it's "remains". Exasperating, nahin??

Just Like That said...

I wanted white or at least off white for the walls, so that I could use vibrant furnishings of whatever colour I iked for the curtains, upholstery etc. But hubs found it very dull, and boring, so settled for cream. Not too bad, but still not white...

when we paint our house again, I intend to do it up in white, with one wall coloured... ah.. dream dream...

The Inquisitive Akka said...

I understand completely. My husband and I went crazy selecting colours. We painted the walls off white in our living room and one feature wall (with a french window)was painted a mango colour, I think it looks warm and welcoming. We stuck to off white in the kitchen. We painted our bedroom walls light green and the painter guys convinced us we needed another feature wall, so that was a slightly darker shade of green, they did something called a ragging effect. To be honest, you can't really make out. I think the ragging effect is clearer when you use brighter colours. We painted the other bedroom light purple,it looks ok (I think:)). Our furniture is made of white oak, I prefer light coloured furniture to dark ones.Well that's the story of our home. I totally love it although I am sure there were so many things we could have done better!

Itchingtowrite said...

We are quite an experimental bunch.. seems so.. my next project wud be to convert the 2nd room to the children's room. theme bed/ walls/ white board for their art work etc. only thing in a 2-bed room house, it is extremely difficult to make way.. any extra object seems to find its residence on teh study table/ dining table/ sofa... until forcibly removed!!

Kimberly El-Sadek said...

Currently I am stuck with the color that the uni family housing authority has selected for everyone. It's a bluish tinged gray that matches nothing at all other than the industrial carpeting they have put down as well. In my former home that I recently sold the entire downstairs was a lovely shade of pale green that provided lightness and was welcoming. It set off the white moldings, doors, and cabinetry, and the dark red oak wood floors.