Indian Festival Decor

Festivals are an inseparable part of our Indian culture.  We Indians celebrate a large variety of festivals throughout the year. Festivals create positive vibes at home and in our heart!

A Sense of true fulfilment is always inside our little heaven, a heaven, which is called as home! One doesn’t really need exotic space or expensive accessories to decorate home during auspicious months or festivals..

Simple things at home, say an oil lamp or diya, an old brass vessel, or a string of fresh flower can change the mood of entire home. A vibrant rangoli, simple bamboo mat, colorful cushions, or an ethnic or antique piece of furniture can usher so much warmth, grandness & elegance that you feel one with them!

Festival decorations are not necessarily expensive, however they certainly catch the eye and set the celebration mood!

Here are few ideas one can try out to transform a modern home to an Indian traditional theme, during the festivals. Considering today’s lifestyle, these easy to implement tips would be useful for modern Indian couples who want to re-live their childhood,enjoy festival mood at their modern home!

1. Play with colors!

Colors play important role in setting festive mood. Choose primary colour scheme to transform your home into traditional outlook.You dont have to change your wall paints.But try bright & vibrant cushions on your contemporary sofa. Drape your windows with colorful silk blinds or curtains. Not only that, but bright eye catching table runners, and handmade mats on floors are key elements to describe the Indian look.

2. Create Focal points:

Focal points are for creating the visual interest about the space! During festivals, make use of simple accessories like fresh flowers, an oil lamp,decorative pooja thali,or a vibrant rangoli,which can create wonderful focal point. Other than that, antique piece of furniture, wooden statues, brass vessels can set a festive atmosphere, a traditional mood in the same modern home.

3.Beauty is in simplicity!

Today at many home décor shops, handmade bamboo or coconut mats are easily available. It’s a very good idea to use these handmade mats during festival season. Enjoy low seating arrangement for a while! Add some vibrant throw cushions to add the charm. Display antique brass or copper vessels. Add marble or wooden statues in your living room. Try wind chimes or string of lights, and fresh flowers .This will certainly set the perfect mood for festival.

4. Enjoy Fragrance of celebration!

Details are not details, they make the design! While taking care of visual interest to set festive mood, never forget to fill your heart with celebration Fragrance! Natural fragrances like camphor, sandal sticks or fresh flowers, spread the aroma of the festive day. 

Home decorated with such traditional festive theme, will bring back sweet memories of old times. It is for all those moments, which make us believe that life is beautiful! .... Try cherishing your little heaven with these simple things, and let the life be celebration always!

What is the color of your emotion today?

Have you ever noticed that often we use colors to express how we are feeling?

I remember my story-time with my little ones…when I used to say “…And the King got Red with anger”…& those innocent twinkling eyes, used to imagine a big angry face…have you seen teenagers writing few romantic lines on Pink paper & getting feeling that they are in love?... And as we grow old, we learn to say, its Monday, feeling blue! J

Not only we associate colors in our expressions but, we actually live our experiences in colors…You go to temple, your experience becomes serene & pure white. You go to nature; your experience is green & refreshing. You go to seashore, blue shades of sea & sky would fill mind with calmness. You see rising orange sun, you would feel hopeful, & optimistic…Colors have powerful impact on moods,feelings & overall life..

There is some color sensing mechanisms of the eye and brain in us. Its logical to assume that the color we see, can affect the systems of our body. As a designer, it’s important to understand the psychological effects of colors & chose right one for right place!

In commercial world too, Color plays an important role in brand identity. It draws consumers to products, stirs emotions & makes them remember.

When someone looks at a logo of some company, the color is the main thing that they remember. They say, 80 percent of visual information that we take in is related to color. That is the reason logo design companies use of color Psychology in appropriate manner…Here are few examples of company logos & their colors!

Once we did interesting exercise in our class. When I told students to make logo for play school, many thought about using shades of yellow & orange. For restaurants, it was red, For health care products it was green, For service providing companies, offices it was blue & for Pubs it was violet, purple or black…

Isn’t it interesting to search colors for our feeling & emotions…May the life get filled with interesting colors of the rainbow…Lets spread the colors of joy, love & peace!..happy holi!

Balance is beautiful…!

(2^nd Design Principle)

After a long hectic week, finally its weekend…weekends are made to slow down, relax, restore, recharge & spend some peaceful moments at home... it’s a dream of every person!

For home makers & designers it's always a challenge to create a space that is visually beautiful & practically convenient…but other than this there is one more aspect too..

it's about  creating a space that can make one feel calm and at peace with the world.

How do you design such a space? … Our design principles help us to find answer !

After Creating Unity & Harmony, second principle talks about Balance…!

Very first lesson life teaches us about balancing, is learning to walk… Whether it be learning how to walk or ride your bike, or knowing how much to work, when to take a break, or how to creating work–life balance! Balance is a constant part of our lives.

Design becomes peaceful if we translate this importance of balance in it.

Everything just feels right when a space is well-balanced. In designing, balancing is about distribution of visual weight of objects!

The size, color, texture, shape of designing object can decide its visual weight. For example, larger, darker, highly textured, complexly shaped objects typically feel heavier than smaller, lighter, simple objects.

Balance in design can also be achieved in three ways: symmetrically, asymmetrically and radially.

Symmetrical balance

A Human body is perfect example of God’s symmetrical & well balanced design.

For achieving symmetrical balance, elements are given equal "weight" from an imaginary line in the middle of a piece. It is also known as ‘formal balance’.

If you want your space to feel calm and balanced, it’s important to introduce symmetry. People who enter a room that is arranged symmetrically often describe it as pleasant & peaceful.

Symmetrical balance is very common in interior designs. Well balance symmetry talks about feeling of stability, calmness and dignity!

This is an example of great symmetry 

Asymmetrical Balance

Balance doesn't necessarily mean symmetry, though. Asymmetrical ("informal") balance occurs when elements are placed unevenly in a piece, but work together to produce harmony overall.

Asymmetrical balance relates very strongly to the visual weight of objects. Here we don’t repeat same item, or element on other side of axis…but we use different elements of similar weights to achieve balance.

Sometimes too much symmetry makes the space boring. So asymmetrical interiors are used to create drama & add glamour! This type of balance is always more interesting, more dynamic and less rigid, because here variety of objects works together to create balance. This form of balance can be more difficult to achieve. It often requires an skill & eye for design..!

This is an example of asymmetrical balance

Radial Balance

Radial balance means arrangement of items around a central point in circular manner. It can be either extending outward or inward. Common examples of radial balance  is spiral staircase…or chairs centred around a table.

In designing, radial balance is used to create focal point. If you wish to create focus on a central item, applying radial balance is a great way to achieve this.

This picture talks about radial balance

The way we create this balance (asymmetrically, symmetrically, or radially)  in our design, it effects in perception of our space, culture & mood.

Once we create right balance in our design, next step is to create Rhythm…But next time…

They say Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.. Let the design be balanced with life !

Life & Design…Its same, when it comes to “Principles”!


Life is such an amazing journey....I had never thought that one day; life would give me opportunity to teach also. And before I could think, it just happened…!!

I was teaching “Design Principles” to my students. When I was a student, I hated words like “principles”, “theories”… And yes, while teaching, I was reading same thing in those young eyes :-)  … So I told my young friends, some words simply sound bit heavy.  “Design Principles” is just one of them! Actually “Principles” are just guiding friends.

Whether it is our life, or a simple design…making use of right principles help us to take right decisions.The fact is, every successful design created by a designer, has a strong foundation of design principles.

Today let’s peep into the first & most basic design principle!

It begins & ends with “Unity & Harmony"...!!




This wonderful design principle tells us to think in totality. Designing is not about creating an abrupt experience, but about creating series of pleasant sequence.

As a designer we deal with space planning, furniture, flooring, lights, wall treatment, accessories, furnishing & many more things…The whole purpose of dealing with all these elements is to create a Lovely experience.

Design professionals consciously make use of various shape, colour, texture, material, patterns to create this experience. Using principle of “unity & harmony” effectively is the key of successful designing!

Unity...

From our childhood we have learnt that “ true strength lies in Unity”. Yes.. its same in designing as well. Design becomes powerful when we make use of this principle.

How to create unity in design…

It is all about developing some common characteristic among all design elements.. Right from entry to end,let each design element tell you, that they belong to each other! Space becomes wonderful when those elements work together to complement each other!
Repeat these common characteristics across the project. It leads us towards Harmony.!



Harmony...!

Harmony, as word suggests, is closely related to pleasant feeling. Effective use of this design principle can create bliss in your surrounding.

How to create harmony in Design?

Harmony is about creating pleasing combination of all design elements together. It relies on the selection of elements that share a common trait or characteristic. It should not be mistaken as using same thing all over project.

Too much sameness, or unity can be boring; too much variety can cause a restless feeling. Juggling the elements and principles to get just the right mix is a key to create harmony

We can achieve harmony by using a complimentary color scheme or by keeping the style of the furnishings consistent, Creating contrasts, using fabrics and accessories that have similar color schemes, Creating consistency in shapes, sizes, & patterns etc.

In short, Harmony in visual design, means all parts of the visual image relate to and complement each other!
Designing means creating theme…creating storyline. Let every corner of well designed space tell the right story.

On matters of style, lets swim with the current, but on matters of principle, lets stand like a rock…
Whether in life or in design, once we achieve harmony & unity, next step is to create “Balance”…!

After this, Its time to create balance…but , next time! till then... Let the design flow with life ….!

Journey from Design to Interior Design…

Once again it was New Year's eve. Celebration mood. End of one more chapter. Mind started summarizing. It made me introspective.. I looked back…my personal journey, professional journey, social journey…and I found only one factor, common everywhere “Design”!

What is this Design? Why we design? What purpose does it serve?

For me, design is the soul of everything. It’s not only a theoretical subject to learn but it’s a way of living life. It’s an approach, it’s an attitude, it’s a theme, and it’s a beginning of every journey!!

Design is that area of human experience, skill and knowledge, which is associated with our ability to mold our environment to suit our material and spiritual needs. We all are designers by nature. We design our dreams, goals, thoughts, actions, work, actually our entire life.

Every design has four fascinating stages. Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver! and every stage is an amazing journey in its own way!

My fascination for designing made me step into the wonderful field of interior designing. A subject closely associated with human life.

Interior designing is a field which gave me opportunity to touch the human mind.

Interior Designing is a field of creativity. It’s a field of expression. My small interior designing firm “AkarshDesigns” took an interesting challenge to understand the need of our clients and deliver their expression in the most beautiful ways. It has been a challenge to make the space speak about the user.

In designing, we not only sell only products but we also sell our ideas, we sell our thoughts. We create wonderful experiences! We create welcoming spaces. We give different perspective to look at things. We create moods. we give personality to the spaces we work on. We create happiness, we create comfort. We create memories. In my view its one of the best profession that touches human life very closely.

While stepping in 2014, I felt like expanding my horizons of interior designing. Want to learn more about it. want to express, discuss, talk, share more about it.. Want to become a part of many lives, many human minds, many welcoming spaces. Yes...at the beginning of 2014 my new design is taking shape...!!