India pied-à-terre Alcove Paint Plan

The architect promises that within a few days some walls will be smoothed, primed, base coat of paint applied, and thus ready for me to start painting. I sure hope so! We’ve already been here 6 days and the countdown moves so fast — I only have 2 1/2 weeks here this trip. I can come back whenever enough vacation accrues and it’s appropriate to take time off from work again. It would be mentally painful to leave without getting some ideas out of my mind and onto the walls — I think my head would explode!

There’s a little alcove by the bedroom doors and public bathroom, and it’s visible to the entire living area of the apartment:

Cabinet doors on the lower three feet of the alcove hide a clothes washer and dryer, because the nearby bathrooms make plumbing hook-up convenient. It’s also near bedroom wardrobes, convenient for laundry. The cabinet doors are plain and ripe for painting! Above the cabinets are a granite countertop and blank wall. Everyone proposed this be utilitarian space with hanging storage cabinets, a tall cabinet to hide vacuum and broom, a sink, etc. Why?!?  I said no. Who wants to look at reminders of the chores of life from dining and living areas? Especially when this is a vacation location. That stuff can hide in less visible areas. This should be purely pleasurable decorative space.

Here are photos guiding this decorative spot, all posted previously as I’ve sought inspiration for the apartment. Gathering them all together here …

My favorite image ever, blogged about here several times previously, from Whirl Magazine:

Every time we sprinkle paprika on hummus, I think of this room because the paprika and chickpea are the same colors. Weird, no?

Source of this image unknown:

In Talitha Getty’s Moroccan Home, via La Vie Boston:

We got this combo of stencils from Royal Design Studio to paint on the cabinet doors and the wall just above the cabinet counter: Granada Border, Squared Diamonds Moroccan Stencil and Floral Fret. The stenciled area will be ivory or cream with darker brown.

Most of the wall will be mottled paprika just like the images above. That’s also the color in our guest bedroom in our Chicago home:

I think there are four or five colors on the guest room walls above (including some dark gray for variation), and the alcove walls might wind up the same with many colors. Here’s potential Asian Paints colors:

To hang over this paprika color, I will make an extra-sentimental-special piece of art:  letter art that incorporates wise phrases that the elders of my husband’s family shared as he was growing up. I’ll make it when we return to the U.S., print it on canvas and hang it during a future trip. The mix of global stencils and letter/text art could be interesting.

I’m also now seeing an old lantern that casts shadows hanging in the alcove, and thankfully the ceiling has electrical provision for that. Our electrician has thought of everything.

Because two of the inspiration images above have gathered curtains, wouldn’t it be cool to drape textiles from the ceiling to soften this area! Hmmmmm … I know Nalli (by Panagal Park around the corner from the apartment) has had paprika color Benares saris with sparkling jewels embedded on them, because I have one! It’s so treasured, I keep it folded and protected on a shelf. It really must be enjoyed more.

If you like this paprika color, here are previous posts celebrating this color:

Paprika

Add Another Dash of Paprika