Category: India pied-à-terre Decorating

Cool and calm. That’s what I hope to achieve in the India pied-à-terre, because it sits amid a busy and sweltering Southern India city neighborhood. Here are images that capture the cool feeling of escape that I’m aiming for (from a Pinterest Board – India Apartment Decorating Inspiration) …

Via Elle Decor:

A chair from Matter that looks like a chair in my husband’s family photo in Southern India when he was a little boy. But the cost of this one chair probably could have housed, clothed and fed their whole neighborhood back then:

Continue reading “Cool and Calm Amid Chennai Chaos”

Each Friday, I invite you to a Pinterest Board that I hope opens a world of inspiration for you. What I love about Pinterest is it makes sharing so much easier — and clears a little room on our hard drives too.

So today, welcome to the images that inspire decorating ideas for our India apartment in Chennai:

As of today, there are 280 images of rooms, furniture, accessories, textiles, walls, paint effects and various other things with something that struck me as inspiring for our place in India. But I’m always pinning more, so follow along there if you want more images in the future!

Those following along here for awhile may see I took a break from blogging about completing the Chennai, India apartment. There has been no progress since mid-December, honestly, when we returned to the States from the last trip. We’ve found it’s difficult — really difficult — to get quality work when we’re not there supervising in person. We’d rather stop the work than rip out and re-do.

The apartment is stuck in a pergatory state between finished enough to be nearly habitable, but still uninhabitable. For example, we got to the point of installing a copper farmhouse sink in the kitchen. The whole kitchen is nearly done. But we had to leave before essentials like hooking up faucets, toilets, etc.

There are stories to tell about why we’re stuck at this stage — stories of trust issues, disappointment, even dismay. I’ve hesitated to speak those stories, but will soon because they’re part of the process, and good to know for anyone else who dares tread where we’ve now been.

One part that makes me happy is simple: hardware! We’re choosing unique hardware. I think of it as jewelry for the place.

It starts with the hardware on the antique main door. The doorknocker:

The lock and the skeleton key. Yes this really is the key, and it’s a big thing to haul around; you’re looking at only about a third of it sticking out here:

Continue reading “The India pied-à-terre and its Hardware”

Attn: Cher! Will you adopt me? I’d love to be a baby in this “crib!”

OK that’s the end of trying to be hip here. I’m now gonna go all ga-ga slobber all over this place. This is exactly how I see the India pied-à-terre when it’s done! It’s (for me) an ideal mix of natural colors, just enough patterns, Asian and western, new and old. Comfortable and just a little bit luxurious. Just enough nomadic feel. Carved wood. Symmetry.

This is Cher’s Hollywood penthouse, designed by Martyn Lawrence-Bullard and featured in Architectural Digest’s July 2010 issue. They called it an Indian Fantasy. They got that right!

If Cher is not going to adopt me anytime soon, I need to buy this back issue so I can live with it forever.

Perfection…
Oh, perfection
You drive me crazy with perfection

     – Cher