Eye Chart Art

If I knew a doctor's visit could prove to be such a design inspiration, I'd probably avoid them less!
These Eye Chart inspired posters and items are so cool, and seem relatively easy to DIY. When things are less crazy, I'm going to try my hand at that cushion cover.
You can make your own eye chart here.

via Apartment Therapy

via Cool Material

via Kara Paslay

via Nibs

via fiveftfour

via Artful Home

Not quite shelf reliant

We just bought a new bookshelf for our bedroom, and I'm struggling with the styling of it (On a side note, I thought I'd surprise R and assemble it by myself while he was out - long story short, Bookshelf - 1, Shreya - 0 and I hate the Allen wrench & all the Cap Screws in the world.) But back to the point, the shelf in our bedroom has all the rejected books that didn't make it to the living room and has to also serve the purpose of storage along with style - tougher that you would think. This is what I'm working with (I was pretty mad at the book case so didn't want to give it any unnecessary attention, hence the terrible pic - its one of those that can be placed both vertically as well as horizontally - will be placing it down horizontally)

via Overstock

I've been looking at some inspiration photos of bookshelves online and want some nice but not super expensive storage options within some of the shelves... I also want to be the person who lives in this first photograph.

via Desire to Inspire

via Country Living

via Country Living

via Country Living

via Colour Me Happy

Color coding books (called Color blocking) seemed a little much to me earlier, but I just tried it last evening on a couple of shelves and it wasn't too bad. Evidently, by doing so, it is easier on our over processed eyes causing us less headaches.

Will hopefully come with something that isn't a complete eye sore!

Art wall inspiration

Having moved around nearly all my life (I don't think I've ever called a place home for more than two years!) and after over 8 months in the same space, I am aching to change things around at home!

On my hit list is the wall behind the couch. Its nice, but I want something a little less symmetrical and even. I still haven't decided, if it will look too heavy, or be too much of a forced separation of space and I'm just not sure, but in the meantime, I'm just going to stare continuously (at the risk of losing my eyesight!) at pictures that I've collected as inspiration. Here are some of them, I am loving the salon style layouts.

via Roseland Greene

via Domino Magazine

via Isabella & Max Rooms

via ill seen, ill said

via House Beautiful

Swoon!

The Impersonating Place mat

In December last year, my sister and I were in Crate and Barrel shopping for some accessories for the house. I was looking for some cushion covers and our eyes were immediately drawn to what we thought were cushion covers but were actually place mats! I loved the colors and we quickly realized that with some rudimentary stitching and cushion inserts they could be cushion covers!
I don't think its an original idea because after a little googling I found that a lot of people had had the same idea - but its still a good one!
I think at some point I will replace the stitching with zippers so that the cushion covers are easily removable and washable.

Original Crate & Barrel place mat

Opening the seam of the place mat

Ta Da! The covers are in desperate need of an iron but I really wanted to get this post out!

A tale of two countries

Rohit and I moved into our first home (rented - we are a while away from being home owners) together in December of '09. Our place is a combination of both our sensibilities with a little bit of my sister's and mother's ideas thrown in. I am not certain if we are allowed to paint any walls (which reminds me, I should find out about that!) but I have tried to make up for lack of wall color with accessories and art work.

We were really lucky to find so much space in Manhattan and I love our home - its our oasis in this large, lively, noisy city. I think (and hope) we have managed to capture a little bit of India in the States. A lot of the art and the carpet (!) were gifts from our wedding (We are incredibly lucky to have friends and family with such great taste :D).

Here are some before and after pictures of our Living room (I apologize for the blurry before pic). The bedroom is still a work in progress, but will post pictures once it is done.

BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

Patterned Fingers!

This fellow has been sitting on our couch for over a week now (he moves around when we have company!).
I picked it up from Central Park weekend before last for a project I have had in mind.
I really enjoyed the movie '500 Days of Summer' and am at times in awe of the styling and sets in the movies (An Education = serious style envy). Anyhow, back to the point, I really liked Summer's room in the movie and this lovely origami crane plant.

500 Days of Summer

Something very few people know about me is that I kill plants. Not willingly, I really try, I water them, feed them and do everything according to the directions, I even speak to them but to no avail :(

I had a Jade plant, because my sister recommended them as easy to take care of and that actually lasted a few months, I was thrilled until one evening, I opened the windows to let some air in, and it was one of those evenings where the clouds are dark and heavy and there's this smell of impending rain in the air (which I love) and this strong gust of wind blew the pot out of the window. This is a true story. It then fell over 25 floors and I ran downstairs (I took the elevator but I ran to the elevator and from there) consumed with the guilt of having possibly injured someone and potentially killed the Jade plant. Fortunately, the tiny pot didn't appear to have hurt anyone, and the plant looked okay but I decided to give it away because I didn't trust myself to be as lucky a second time!

So that's how this crane plant came into the picture. I bought the origami paper from Origami Corner and while there are a ton of tutorials online, I used this one to make the cranes (it's in 3D and you can pause the video while you try and figure out that complicated fold!).

I really like with the way it turned out.

The vase is from Crate and Barrel, it is the large Akiko vase.

Also, after making some of the cranes, I really enjoyed the origami (it threw me back to when I was a kid and my mom would teach us to make all these lovely little things with colorful, patterned paper) so I made some more animals and birds for my adorable nephew in DC, he's not yet two, but I thought he might be intrigued.

A frayed knot!

I love looking through the pages of design*sponge, the site never fails to inspire me. Everyone on there is so creative and all of them have such beautiful homes! Coming from a Naval background, the study in our home always had a charming, nautical theme, so when I saw this tutorial on the site, I had to try it out.

I used 12 ft of 3/4' sisal rope and the people at the hardware store were very curious as to why I wanted it!

I broadly followed the instructions and tutorials on the website but didn't stuff the knot with anything. I am just using it to add some texture to a corner of our living room and didn't want to complicate the already slightly difficult knot. It took me a couple of tries (and a few rope splinters!) and I improvised a little with the knot but am happy with the results. I think I tightened it fairly hard and am hoping it stays, but at worst, I can always do it again!

Here it is sitting pretty atop some books -