My Latest Project

For the last 18 months I have been working on Govindam, a 4500 sq ft bungalow in Noida, and about a week ago I completed the photography of this site. This project, like any project I take on, ended up being a real labor of love- a site that tested my patience, made me want to pull out my hair in frustration, and where anything that could go wrong, did. But with a great team and wonderful clients, we managed to get things done and I am so proud of the results.

Originally I was simply going to post images of the site, but as I was nostalgically looking through all the pictures of the site that I clicked over the 18 month period, I thought it would be far more interesting to show the story of the site and its transformation from when my firm, SPDA, took on the project to the present. 

Here goes...

The Exterior

Clockwise- The site before we started work, our proposal for the exterior and the finished exterior

The Living Room

Clockwise- The original living room before work commenced, a conceptual 3-d of the space and finally, the living room as it looks today

The Dining Area

(Before)

(After)

The Entertainment/ Family Room

[All images courtesy- SPDA]

You can see more images of this site here.

Flying Solo

Just completed the photography of my first solo project under my firm’s banner SPDA (Shalini Pereira Design Associates) on Saturday, and as we wound up with the shoot and headed off for some well deserved cold beer, I realize that I had finally reached the end of an extremely long and hard journey that lasted two years. Yes that’s right- two years!

This was a small site, but it seemed to go on forever. Later that night, as I looked at the images we got, I felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders, and in its place was a sense of deep satisfaction. I had stuck it out, through all of it, the good, and the bad, and saw it through to the end.

This was both an incredible and challenging experience for me. Here’s what I learned…

I’m tougher that I thought I was 

I never knew I could scream so loudly at someone other than my husband

Sometimes things seem scarier than they actually are and if you happen to be terrified fake your way through it

Being your own boss is great, but the stress that comes with it isn’t!

I can’t always have things my way- I’m not that good or that famous… yet!

I really love what I do- I may moan and bitch about all the stress, the sleepless nights and all the other craziness that comes with the job, but I can’t imagine doing anything else!

Before I sign off, I want to say a big thanks to the hubby- it’s tough living with a highly strung creative type with borderline OCD, but you do it so well! Also wanted to thank my amazingly talented sister-in-law Ujwala for the amazing images she clicked.