Lounge room.
At last, the apartment is looking bright and cheerful. Here’s the lounge room, with traditional low to the floor Indian seating. You can also just see that there’s a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
We found the other fabulous light from a small shop on Link Road, Malad, for 1000 rupees ($30). The mat and striped yellow cushion cover (we have a door curtain to match it) came from Home Stop, in Shopper’s Stop, InOrbit Mall, Malad. The other traditional cushion covers we got from an “exhibition cum sale” of handicrafts in Bandra. They cost 150 rupees ($5) each.
Bedroom.
This is the bedroom. The wall hanging we got from a roadside vendor near Juhu. It cost 250 rupees. The cushions were from Home Stop. The lamp, from the small lighting shop. It cost 500 rupees. The palms we got from a nursery in Borivali.
Kitchen.
This is our typical looking Indian kitchen, with a three burner gas cook top. Modular kitchens are only a relatively new luxury concept in India, so sadly we don’t have one.
Courtyard and garden view.
This is the view of the apartment complex courtyard from our lounge room window. I really love the tranquil green outlook into the garden.
The nicely decorated inside of our apartment is quite an exception to most apartments in India. People really don’t put much effort into decorating their homes in India. They have plain walls, fluorescent tube lighting, and minimal furniture. I guess it’s because people believe the money could be better spent on day to day living.
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hie, i stumbled across your website thru someone mentioning about it in ht blogs, i must say your a real sweetheart !!! i hardly know you
but your blogs are so simple and beautifully penned !!! and your a real sweet girl at hear too………clearly yu live in a different world and are very happy in it too. and trust me tht makes me happy as well……. you have seen a life in Mumbai and Kolkata…… i hv lived in Mumbai too all along and got married to a guy in Delhi.
People here in delhi are real show offers and only spending money whereas mumbai is more realistic and simple esp the maharastrians and catholics…….. they really dont beleive in spending a lot on the interiors of the house as well….. take in a peek into one of the lives of delhi and you ll know what the difference is.
this is just the start and am gonna be in touch with you thru this blog and wld love to know u better !!!
tk cr girl !!!
Hi Shalini, so happy to meet you here….and thank you for all the positive feedback. My blog is still a work in progress. I’ve got lots of updating to do from the past year or so. I just started the blog last week, so I’m surprised people are reading it already! Thanks so much for sharing your perspective on things too. How interesting that you got married and moved cities (gosh, what a contrast Delhi seems). It sounds like we’ve got quite a bit in common. I look forward to getting to know you too and hearing more about your life. Wishing you the best….
I wonder if you live in Mumbai or in Navi Mumbai like Vashi or some place!
Kandivali West actually. It’s outer north western suburbs!
Wow! Your apartment is really nice. Not at all what I expected to see. I meet a girl online who is currently dating an Indian from Chennani and she flew to meet him and took pictures of his apartment. Wow, it is night and day compare to yours.
Thanks Chrisitna.
I must admit, I have tried to show it at its best angles. In some places there is paint coming off the walls! The landlord refuses to repaint it, saying it’s unnecessary. Most Indian apartments aren’t very well decorated at all. Every time an Indian person comes into our apartment for a look around, they always “oooh” and “aaah”. It makes me laugh because by western standards, our apartment isn’t that nice at all!
I mist say, for an apartment in Mumbai, that is spacious
Really it’s not! It’s only a 500 sq ft (is that what apartments are measured in here?) one bedroom apartment. I’m longing to live somewhere more spacious!
You are in the world’s most crowded city, and space comes at a premium
I loved da lamps & cushion covers!Ur color choice is mindblowing!
coming in too late but i am tempted to comment.
My Parents have worked hard, spent a lot of money on building a house. Not to boast, but everything wood that you’d see in our place is teak-solid all the way.Italian and Indian marbles.Granite. All furnitures custom handmade by Rajasthani carpenters under our supervision(meaning we would ask for certain design and feature and they’d do their best to come up with final product). All the decorations were done by my parents including approval of every intricate design made anywhere on the house. The end result was luxurious looking albeit certain areas being dysfunctional cuz parents have no proper education in architecture(dad is construction material retailer though). But not bad.
My major gripes –
You guessed it – wet bathrooms
Hate the bloody fluorescent(white) lighting. Fortunately most rooms have yellow lights but not quite in the right place as white lights. This was the result of my mom’s stupid idea that she’d be able to read trash magazines
clearly in white light and chop vegetables sitting anywhere in the house. Naked white tubes makes me sick and i have a feeling that i am a patient in hospital or standing in a long queue at a govt office for something. Fugly things ever.
Now i am in the process of changing things.
Got shower rod and curtain while i had the chance at IKEA. Those are damn easy to install no screws. Extendable to different sized bathroom.
Water repellant curtains.
Heavy solid wood chop board and sharp set of knives and knife sharpener so that mom won’t have to carry around the veggies around the house.
Reinstalling certain cfl white bulbs to yellow. Dad was considerate to put nice looking enclosure for those ugly naked cfl bulbs.
In a land of amazing architectures it is a sad state of not decorating the house properly. There a numerous cheap ways to decorate. I know a lot of people around who own luxurious villas and still keep White lights under the pretence that yellow light makes ‘em friggin blind. They have really badass shiny chandeliers but never turn it on. Its like having your sat radio/gps system removed to have cassette player on your BMW.
I shat bricks to search for fitted sheets and i didn’t get any. Turns out none of the mattress we have is any of these – single,double,king,queen etc. doesn’t conform to any standards just random sizes. Expensive rubber mattress that these retailers just suggest random sizes depending on the cot or rooms size. I hope now mattress sizes have been standardised.
There is been a lot of changes in standards of sizes of different household products but still not solid enough across the market.
Heck, the toilet commodes are weird in my house. Premium flush doesn’t perform well because of the poor design of the commode. Very deep and the ‘p’ or ‘s’ drop is not of proper sizes resulting in a colossal water wastage. I hear the Japanese TOTO(can wash$dry ur butt clean) is awesome, but burns your pockets.
Don’t get started with the plugs. I understand there is a hazard for little children when the plugs are placed at 2 feet high but 5 feet high is insane.
Wall chargers, mosquito repellants sticking out ugly on the walls with dirty hand marks around them.
The tile mason guy can’t lay the tile on the corner of the bathroom properly so that the water drains completely. dirty soap scum on the corner near the drain hole. Is that so hard?
The kitchen, the chimney guy placed it a foot higher than proper specs relative to the stove and has disastrous effect of oil everywhere except the chimney.
None of the above cost extra, its just ignorance and poor design choice.
Sorry about the rant, lets my steam off. I gotta appreciate your design choices though .Sharell, I am just curious that i don’t see a chimney/window in your kitchen, don’t you get blackened walls with oil all over.
Haha, wet bathrooms and florescent tube lighting!
Inescapable items in Indian households. I also share your dislike of those hideous and unflattering tube lights. And I’m dismayed to see that they’re still installed in brand new, modern Indian homes today!! Plugs and switches are constant source of confusion for me. I’ve had to label ours with their function (such as fan, light) because in one place there are no less than 8 switches lined up… how is one ever supposed to remember what each does!! 
I can only wish that Indian kitchens have chimneys/rangehoods, but it seems to be a real rarity. 
The prospect of blackened and oily walls doesn’t really bother me because I tend to cook only in a little oil and keep the temperature low, so it rarely goes everywhere (although, when we moved into the apartment I had to scrub the kitchen wall to get rid of the residue left by the previous occupant’s cooking). What really bothers me about not having a chimney (although there is a window) is that the steam from the cooking remains in the kitchen and makes in unbearably hot, so that I’m dripping sweat as I cook. Not fun at all!!
May i suggest exhaust fans. They are a little helpful with the heat.
“The nicely decorated inside of our apartment is quite an exception to most apartments in India. People really don’t put much effort into decorating their homes in India. They have plain walls, fluorescent tube lighting, and minimal furniture. I guess it’s because people believe the money could be better spent on day to day living.”
OMG!!! sharell , I really dont know ,which India you are talking about or may be the part of India you live in , is totally different from my place.
Come to Delhi/NCR or even Punjab, Haryana , Rajasthan and UP..and you will be surprised to know how much amount of money is spent on interior decoration albeit with varaition on the money spent with different financial capacity.
I suggest you when you talk about something , be specific about the states and city because the spending pattern of all the cities are different.
when you say that the interior of your appartment is an exception to the most appartment in India , this is really a very misplaced, and untrue statement for the people in northern states and even in mumbai who spend lacs of rupees on decoration.
Your appartment is nice and gud but that kind of interior is a norm here in Delhi/NCR. Also , the appartment here are generally more sapcious and even cheaper with better facilities(club, gym ,swimming pool,powerback,RO water,security,reserved parking) and landscape.
A 3BHK (1350 sq ft) with all modern facilities alongwith your much wanted chimney and Modular kitchen cost about 8-13K rupees per month in Gr Noida-Noida/Gurgaon.
About the fluorocent Tube , you will be surprised to know that earlier only yellow light bulbs were popular in India and Tubelights came later as a sign of modernity and power saving.
I’m talking about middle class India… not those with money! Most people in Mumbai are lucky if they can afford to buy an apartment these days, let alone spend much on lavish decorations. Seriously, all 50 lacs will get you these days in Mumbai is a one bedroom apartment in an outer suburb.
Yes , You are rite !!!
Mumbai is becoming unrealistically expensive these days..
I have heard a project called WORLD ONE by LODHA Group and cost of apprtment is starting from 15Crore for 3BHK and goes upto 50 crore for 4BHK.
That will be highest residential building in the whole world. 100 storeys!!
Thats why , I really like Delhi/NCR region because here you will get a damn spacious 3BHK with all the facilities in 50 Lacs and with better infrastructure.The first F1 track is also coming up in Gr Noida.
A good concept, so long as there isn’t an earthquake or a fire.
@ Abdullah K -”A good concept, so long as there isn’t an earthquake or a fire.”
I guess when there is so much on stake , they will denitely care about the maximum withstand capacity against the strongest quake and fire .
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