A Little Somethin’ Somethin’

You know what they say about first meetings leaving lasting impressions? That pretty much captures our experience at our project in Malviya Nagar, New Delhi. Many a failed call/meeting later, we finally found ourselves in an oasis of calm, sipping the yummiest coffee and chatting with our client about why she wanted to hire us. Yes, the house certainly needed a lift, but with our tight schedule and her ‘must-have-it-by-Diwali’ requirement, we weren’t sure if the timeline suited us. We aren’t sure if it was the super-Zen-like feel of her home, something in that coffee or just her positivity and trust in us that worked, or perhaps it was all three. We decided to give it a go and delivered her home to her three days ahead of Diwali. Below, we unpack, block by block, how we got things done!

As both a family room and a space to entertain, we had to make sure we kept everyone’s tastes in mind while working work on the living space. Hence, we went for a beige palette for the base, adding pops of colour through lively prints for the chairs & carpet and a mix of hues for the cushions.

For the coffee table, we added books that covered architecture, cuisine and history. The tray was our clients’ own and worked out perfectly breaking the regimented lines of the table and books with a bit of curvature . We popped a small plant, some coasters, a candle and a jar with edibles in there making it easy to lift and move in case the surface needed clearing up quickly.

We love the idea of breaking a large room into two areas – in this case into separate living and dining spaces – by using furniture, rugs or even plants! Here we pushed a console table up against the back of the two-seat couch to demarcate the start of the living space while creating visually appealing end to the dining area. The plants only help and for us, frankly, are a must!

We had this sideboard custom-made for our client and absolutely love the colour we were able to achieve. After a few hits and misses, we got the exact outcome we had envisioned. Here, we added minimal decor pieces, to let the sideboard speak for itself.

The dining table is our clients own and we decided to keep the surface free of clutter, by adding only a statement vase with fresh flowers. The rug underneath, also our clients’ own, is large enough to hold all the chairs both when tucked in and when pulled out completely – this avoids unnecessary snagging of furniture on the edges of the rug/carpet.

For the balcony, we threw in a comfortable, no-fuss bench and lots of cushions. We kept this finish slightly distressed and the paint white so that playing around with cushions becomes easier. This space was completed with a small side table and lots of fresh plants.

We re-worked the unused lift shaft at the ground level into a little seating/waiting area using two chairs that were moved out of the living space to make room for the new furniture. We hate getting rid of things and thought they’d be the perfect addition to this spot.

It goes without saying that we had the absolute best time styling this lovely home and we’d love to hear your thoughts on it too! We promise to keep adding more notes here as we get going on other projects.

Till then, sending you all lots of Little Big Love 💕

Bringing it Home

Set-up day for us is always crucial. It involves a variety of factors coming together in cohesion and (crucially) on time. To be honest we feel a bit like artists come set-up day, arriving to a blank canvas and then working furiously through the day to add form, colour and flourish till we reach the desired outcome.

We usually ask our clients to give us their home for the day so we don’t get in the way as we go about executing the brief. If all goes to plan, and that’s a BIG if, we get about 6 to 8 hours from start to end. But, there are many variables in our line of work: traffic snarls holding up furniture deliveries, carpenters showing up without the right kind of tools, lunch orders not showing up at all for three very hungry LBCers and so on and so forth.

And that’s just the set-up; the days, weeks and (sometimes) months preceding are a whole other story. Our CR Park project was a big one involving some major civil work in the living space and refurbishments in the gallery, master bedroom and guest room. But, thankfully, barring a few hiccups here and there, all went to plan and we were able to bring it home in time, and in line with our clients’ vision.

Transformation 101

We’ll start this blog post with an apology. It was meant to be posted more than a fornight ago but with the year coming to an end, projects to close and loose ends to tie up, the time sort of whizzed past us quicker than we thought.

But, keeping that in mind, it struck us that, it’s usually the small stuff, the mundane everyday speedbumps that keep us from ticking some very important boxes in our lives. In our experience it’s the exact same minutiae that had been holding many of our clients back from going through with much needed changes in their homes.

In this post we’re looking at one particular home facing that exact issue. We shared images of its transformation on our Instagram feed and were amazed at the response we got. Many people were downright skeptical of our claim that the before and after images (below) were of the exact same space.

After above, before below

Before we get into the details, we’d like to clarify that there’s no hokey-pokey going on, the images are indeed of the same space in this Punjabi Bagh home in New Delhi. It did, however, see a sea change, one that involved some extensive civil work. But then, that’s what it takes if you’re looking for a wholescale renovation.

The problem in this home, as is with many other joint family set-ups in India, was that it was never meant to serve as an all-inclusive unit serving the needs of a full family. As the upper floor of a standalone bungalow it became the wholescale unit for one family but the conversion meant that it was missing a large enough living and dining area for both formal and casual purposes. A gallery from which two bedrooms and a third room serving as a living room branched out was just not large enough in its existing state to accommodate a dining table of any size suitable for a family of four.

New paint job, flooring and furniture for a brand new look. In the image above, a wall stood where the blue bench is placed.

The other problems included a dark chip mosaic floor, very dark paint on the walls and a bulky (but very useful) cabinet that took up way too much space in the already narrow gallery. Probably constructed in the late sixties, a solid wall separated the gallery from the living area, taking up a sizable chunk of space and rendering both rooms wholly separate from one another.

The reason we’re laying all this out in the post is to give you an idea of why we so often hold back from making changes. It’s usually because bringing about the change involves knocking down a daunting, solid wall of resistance. In our clients’ case the impetus came from the fact that there was a wedding in the family and they wanted their home to look its very best for the occasion.

Although we’ve spelled out how we went about creating the change that they were looking for in our Instagram post, we’ll still break down the details here. Perhaps, they’ll serve as a blueprint for some changes you can execute in problematic spaces in your own home, with or without the intervention of an architect/interior designer.

• Reducing divisions: if there’s a large obstruction standing in the way of two small/medium size rooms that are connected in purpose but unnecessarily separate, consider removing the barrier to create the illusion of more space. This could happen for a living/dining space as it did in this case, a TV/family room and a gallery used as little more than a passageway etc.
• Paint job: For small spaces paint colours in our opinion are no-brainers: go light. The darker the paint the smaller the space appears. If you really want to go dark, then choose one wall as a statement surface but keep the rest light.
• Sleek not Stocky: For furniture place function over fashion. If you’re reluctant to get rid of pieces that take up a lot of space but hold a special place in your heart, then consider changing how or where they’re placed. If you’re getting new furniture, assess your needs before you buy/order and make sure the new stuff addresses the issues your old stuff didn’t.
• Other things: A change in flooring can make a world of difference in small spaces. Again, this is a very personal choice but consider options that aren’t too busy like mosaic. You could also consider a change in wall art and décor, use mirrors to create the illusion of more space, and/or bring in plants and rugs for a splash of colour.

We hope this post helps you break through the barrier and go through with changes you feel are long overdue. And don’t worry if you feel it’s too much to take on right away! We can’t forget that there is a financial aspect that needs to be kept in mind too. Either way, if you choose to make changes one step at a time or go the whole hog, we wish you good luck! Do tag us on social media if you end up using any of our little big suggestions. Until next time!

 

 

Little Big Changes

Earlier this year we got a call regarding work on an apartment at DLF Magnolias in Gurgaon, but, with a twist. The clients weren’t looking to get their entire apartment re-done, instead they wanted a very serious refresh ahead of an all-important party at their home. The idea of re-working the interiors all together wasn’t entirely off the table, they just didn’t have enough time ahead of the do. Based out of Uttar Pradesh, they were  hosting a large gathering at their Magnolias apartment which serves as a second home whenever they’re in Delhi.

The brief, quite frankly, was a dream: full creative freedom and a comfortable budget. The trouble was that there was only that much we could do considering the place was fully furnished. From curtains to carpets, sofas to armchairs, dining table to sideboards, it was all there already. Add to that we had exactly four days to source, shop, set-up and surprise. If that wasn’t enough my sister and I were caught up in another project at the time, so, it all came down to our Gurgaon-based mum Archana to work her magic.

Who’s Little, Who’s Big?

Starting anything is never easy. This blog post for instance; the delete button has received more hits than any other key in its writing. I suppose that’s apt given the many almost lift-offs that the Little Big Co. had before it took full flight.

But, if we are to look at where it all began, I suppose it was circa 2015. I was in Mumbai, working as a sports journalist, my sister, Priyanka, was in Delhi working in the IT industry and our mum, Archana, was in Gurgaon, working on, well, us, I suppose. We’d all had some big changes in our individual trajectories in the previous year. I’d moved to Mumbai for work, Priyanka had gotten married and was toying with quitting her job (which she did eventually), and mum was dealing with life without her kids at home and yet helping them along via satellite in their new lives.

When I moved back to Delhi in January of 2016 for my wedding, Priyanka and I had already spent a considerable amount of time toying with the idea of starting something of our own. We weren’t at sea luckily. It wasn’t like we didn’t know what our entrepreneurship would involve; we knew it would be interior design. It was everything that went with it that seemed challenging. We hadn’t exactly been exposed to running a business in any way, shape or form growing up. We’d spent our childhood traipsing around India thanks to our father’s career in the Indian Army. We in turn went to school, college and then got jobs like perhaps everyone else in our immediate and close family.