Our Apartment's Story- How We Changed Our Dull Plain Apartment and Made it Home

I've been wanting to do this post for ages now, but I have to confess that I've been a bit lazy. Actually a lot has been going on, and so I just haven't been able to put my mind to doing this. But I'm finally feeling kinda inspired and decided to get right down to it before the mood passes. 

You've probably seen pictures of our place, which was featured on Aalayam a while back(Thank you again Deepa!). But you haven't seen the process of its transformation. That's the idea behind this post. The inspiration for this came to me when I was looking through some old images, and found pictures of our place taken when we just began renting the place. In fact we hadn't even shifted in. It was really one of those moments! Staring at those pictures, I just couldn't believe it was the same apartment! 

Sometimes, when you see a place day in- day out, you don't really register the dramatic way your presence impacts that space over a period of time. We slowly stamp ourselves onto the blank canvas that is our dwelling place, sometimes deliberately, sometimes without even realizing it. We claim it and make it our own. A lot of us live in rented homes, and I'm pretty sure most of us want to make these home 'ours', in a manner of speaking. But how do we go about doing it?

The problem about renting a place, is that it's not yours, so flexibility is very important. Money is also a big factor... I mean who wants to spend a bomb on a place that isn't yours? Am I right? In fact, most of the things you do, need to be reversible and relatively inexpensive. So I thought to myself, rather than giving tips and droning on and on and on with a list of 'dos & don'ts', why not share the story of how we made our place our home.

That's why when I saw those old pics of our place it was a sort of Eureka! moment. They were ideal, for a sort of 'before & after' concept to illustrate my points. The problem with just looking at the end product is its difficult to comprehend and take in things that have been done. Which is why I love the concept of 'before & after'. Having a stark contrast there, visually right in front of you, is a wonderful and really dramatic way of looking at how spaces change.  So here goes...

Here are a few before pictures to start off...

I liked this apartment because it was bright and totally a blank canvas. I liked this because I knew it would give me total freedom when it came to a color scheme. I also didn't have to worry about any horrid looking pieces of furniture and hideous light fixtures that I'd be forced to work around :)

Stage I... 

When we first moved in, furniture was the topmost priority. We wanted our place to be livable, especially since we knew our parent's would visit us quite often. So we got the furniture sorted before anything else. This was our first home, so we invested in making a nice sofa that seated three. It was quite contemporary, so it could be matched with other bits and bobs which I 'borrowed' (or stole as the hubby likes to say) from my parent's home. We also bought a few pieces from some cheap antique furniture stores. Overall, I wanted a style that was contemporary, but one that was also inspired by Indian style, and our furniture sort of reflects this.  

Then came the fun part... accessorizing and decorating! 

Once we had all the furniture in place, which took about a year (we went from most important to least important), the next step was color, color, color...  

I tried to bring in color with soft furnishings like curtains, cushions, throws and some art. Its amazing how a simple curtain and some colorful cushion covers can transform a house into a home. Along with this came plants... I don't have the greenest of thumbs, but I bought a few hardy, easy to maintain plants to liven up our tiny balcony. Another thing I did was replace all those horrid white CFL bulbs with warm white ones! Voila! Instant and dramatic change just by changing the color of the lights. We also picked up a few table lamps to add to the mood lighting. they are great when we have friends over.

Stage 2...

This was more complicated because I had to convince my very stubborn DH to get some walls painted. The hubby did not want to spend money paying a bunch of painters. After a lot of arguing,  ranting and I'm ashamed to say several tantrums, I won! I suggested that we take it on ourselves and we made a fun DIY weekend of it. Although tiring, it was actually good fun and really satisfying! And the green walls made a huge difference.

Stage 3...

This is still a sort of work in progress. I keep making small additions, adding knickknacks here and there. Things I've collected from my travels, in India and abroad. Art work, vases, picture frames- a few months back we got our picture wall done and this is my favorite thing in the whole house till date. A wall of family photos in colorful frames. Its a real favorite with people who visit. 

Another new addition that I'm very excited about is the addition of a blackboard in our dining area. I have been waiting a long time for this and can't wait to get it hung up!

So that's our place and how we made a plain, dull apartment into our home, a place I think is warm and welcoming and a place that has seen a lot of happy and fun times! I hope this helps and gives you loads of ideas when it comes to how you can spruce up a boring wall, or do up you rented place.

[All images- Shalini Pereira & Ujwala Menon]