Five years ago there were dreams.
Five years ago there was a different, dreamy blog name (one I later admitted I didn’t even know how to pronounce).
Since then, there have been lots of forks in the roads, and changes in those dreams. That happens in life. If you’ve been following along recently, you know things are finally starting to happen again in India.
The one thing that’s remained the same here is sharing of gorgeous photos. Today I honor the Nomadic Decorator blog with favorite inspiration photos shared over the years. Let’s celebrate with eye candy …
There was the time I pleaded for Cher to adopt me so I could live here, in her Indian Fantasy home. Many elements here inspire me for the India pied-a-terre:
The carved wood, the antiques, meditative patterns, soothing natural palette. (And there was the time I met the designer of this place – Martyn Lawrence Bullard! I unfortunately did not ask him any smart, substantive questions about interior design as I should have; I was a bit starstruck.)
I was dreaming recently about massive double Chinese storage cabinets. They’d be great in the India apartment foyer and play well with the Indian teak furniture. Really big, like these Chinese cabinets I saw at Primitive in Chicago:
That’s so much more interesting than the modern MDF wardrobe cabinets.
I like a neutral pattern mix, like these from Robert Allen I shared a few years ago in a post about decorating a South Indian country courtyard house:
There was this old crumbling texture, from the time I strolled through the real South Indian country village where I fantasized about the traditional courtyard houses there:
I like the various dilapidated textures from the wood, stone and terra cotta roof tiles.
In stark contrast to the visit to a rural Indian village, I’ve also visited the Royal Mansour in Marrakech, where the wealthy and famous stay. The pattern play there was so inspiring! Moroccan style is very much inspiring me for our India apartment’s design. This isn’t my photo, because it was night and dark when we visited and mine are grainy. I think this is from the Royal Mansour’s website:
Occasionally I do a post focused on a color. And in a post about the color olive, I shared this photo from Envers du Decor. Love the combo of elements here from different cultures:
Oh there have been so many inspiring photos over the years. I should find a way to make more visual links to older posts. The above photos capture what’s sticking with me now, and all together, they show a style. Actually, it’s a style that’s nomadic — a mix of cultures. Influenced by the elegant and the rustic. Definitely more neutral, because I find that peaceful.
Hopefully the real India pied-a-terre, as we continue to work on it, will eventually do justice to the blog! Thank you for following along, I know some of you have been here for quite awhile and I hope it’s been inspiring to you too!