Mi casa

I have been dithering over the house pictures for the longest time. But no more, today a complete house tour has been organized. Well, it's not as much a tour as a 'take a look' given that it is a Mumbai flat, not a mansion but I thought I would walk you through it anyway. Without much ado, chez Parul.



This picture was taken on Diwali, hence the toran at the door.



This mirror hangs alongside the passage. Now this passage is awfully narrow and I have been thinking of some way to bung in a shoe-rack here but haven't been successful so far.



Just next to the mirror, our keys and the ubiquitous tea-light holder. I love tea-lights and often add mogra essential oil to the diffuser. Of course, the other day, my boy got hold of the bottle of the said oil and was smelling like a sackful of mogra flowers the entire day. Less reputable comparisons came to mind but I remembered my tehzeeb just in time.



The walk through the hall. Both M and I have a huge weakness for UP and Kashmiri carpets. When we have enough money, rugs from Morocco and Turkey will follow but for now, these do nicely. I think.

This is our sitting area. I realize now that I should have fluffed up the pillows and cushions a little. Coffee table began it's life as a dining table but has been demoted since.



Being on the first floor means we don't get as much natural light as we'd like. This handblown glass Preciosa chandelier is switched on more often than we'd like. Incidentally, we have light-saving/LED bulbs everywhere and I can tell you from personal experience that it makes a huge difference to the electricity bill.



The dining room. It has a wall full of windows on one side.



Our dining chairs. The Italian fabric bears the marks of the toddler already (carefully concealed in the picture).

My candle-stand and diffuser spend their lives sitting on the dining table. Both bought many years ago at Good Earth. Good purchase in hindsight because I haven't grown tired of them at all.



The planters that sit on the sill of the dining room windows. Ghanta Singh hangs above them.



I love terracotta animals and things. This frog sits in one of my planters, croaking at passersby. Now let's step into my favourite place in this house, Adi's room.



This room thankfully gets a lot of sun, specially in the mornings. We have our tea and Adi his milk in this room. We got the table and chairs from Popcorn Furniture. The gray pants in the background behind the Rajasthani trunk are the maali's as he waters the plants. Given that M and I don't have one green thumb between us but love greenery, this guy's job is rather critical. Pigeon is not part of property.



Couple of details from our bedroom. The clock is fake antique looking something. I liked the design and picked it up but it doesn't keep very good time. The brass urli, bought from Dhoop, one of my favourite stores in Bandra is sitting under the bench, not been packed yet after Diwali.




Detail from guest room/spare room/parents' room. I had my mera walla cream moment with the Asian Paints people while having this particular niche in the wall painted. I wanted this exact shade of turquoise and after much brow-beating I finally got it. The Tanjore painting was made by Amma (M's mom) in 2001. Her father was an artist and she makes these paintings to keep the art alive.



This is my small study. It was being used as a drying area by the previous owners, as you can see by the clotheslines outside the window. I had a wooden floor put in and covered the whole thing with blinds and now I have what Virginia Woolf called a room of one's own. I love that writing desk and I love my big leather chair and often write here.

So yes, there you have it, my labour of love. It's far from complete, of course but then a house is perpetually a site under construction, isn't it? Hope you enjoyed the house tour.

Edited to add: Most pictures taken by the good man and husband with his Nikon D 80 camera using either his 50 mm f1.8 or his 18-135mm f3.5 lens. Not that the photography mumbo-jumbo means much but still, I aim to impress.