FOR A PHOTOGENIC HOUSE

Want to inject some colour in your home décor? Tathagata Sen shares some tips for going from an absolute newbie to a favourite of architecture magazines in no time

Here’s a small experiment. Think of all the households you’ve been to and note how many colours you saw. In other words, think of the colour palette used in most Indian households. You will notice two things in most cases— either there will be a range of neutral colour shades of brown, grey and white, or you will see too much colour! A purple here, some golden there, reds and yellows splashed here and there. The former is too bland and uninteresting, while the second seems too garish and over the top.

There is not a person in this world who doesn’t like colour. Even the folks who only use dull shades such as beige, brown, cream and grey love colour! Most of them, however, don’t know how to use it, and hence, choose to steer clear from the rainbow altogether. People who overload their houses with colour obviously love colour. But they tend to overdo it, rendering a confused, erratic décor.

How, then, should you use colour to create some interest in your homes? Here are some tips to re-do your interiors to ensure interior décor magazines start hounding you for pictures!

GET INSPIRED

As Oscar Wilde, the renowned Irish poet and playwright once said, “Talent borrows, genius steals!” While you should obviously not blatantly rip-off someone else’s décor theme, browsing pictures of home décor can definitely give you some idea of how to go about it. Don’t singers start by singing others’ songs? Think of this first step as something like that. It’s educational. You’ve got the world wide web. Just go through images that appeal to you and save them in a separate folder. Twenty, fifty, hundred — no matter how many you like, just save all of them in that folder and give that folder a fun name (not necessary, but hey, why not have fun while learning). Next, find out the pictures you like the most and find out why you like them. How have they used colours?

What kind of furniture have they used? What are the colours of the walls? How about the floor? Everything.

Now, ask yourself why you like them and what the details you like in them are.

IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

The transformation of your home from ‘alright’ to ‘wow’ needs to happen in your head first. More of it is planning, imagining and experimenting with your imaginations than going to the closest furniture store and buying two of this and three of that. That’s s not how it’s done. Once your aesthetic sense starts to develop, you will notice a change in you. You ou will start observing more, understanding colours, patterns and nd colour combinations more (yes, practice trumps talent anyday, at anything). You will understand that t when going for a classy look, it is imperative to start with a neutral base first. Say, off-white walls and a white marble floor. Next you add some essential elements in neutral tones such as white, grey, brown, navy. The third step is adding colour pops and interesting patterns. It could be a hot pink throw on your couch, or better still, a hot pink couch! You can have a solid mahogany bed in your bedroom, which gives it a sombre look. You can lighten it up by just a small zebra-patterned lamp beside it.

GOING PRO

Here are two words that will ensure you have a fabulous looking house: baby steps. Go slow, incorporate all your learnings from the previous step, but only in your mind first. If the walls in your house are white and so is the floor, instead of the light grey duvet you currently own, replace it with an orange one. Visualise your house as you want it to look. Sometimes a tiny tweak can elevate a room’s look from ‘just moved in today’ to ‘studied art in Italy’! With practice, you will ace this game in no time!

THERE IS NOT A PERSON IN THIS WORLD WHO DOESN’T LIKE COLOUR. EVEN THE FOLKS WHO ONLY USE ONLY DULL SHADES SUCH AS BEIGE, BROWN, CREAM AND GREY LOVE COLOUR! MOST OF THEM DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE IT, AND HENCE, CHOOSE TO STEER CLEAR OF THEM.