Tips and tricks to convert your rental home into a place of your own

This one is for readers who have or are in the process of renting out a home. The simple tips below should help you get your home to reflect your lifestyle and your style without cashing out your wallet.
This article also appeared on the home page of Deccan Herald - Homes & Interiors this morning...happy reading
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While you may not be able to do much about your nosy landlord, there is lots that can be done to make your rented house reflect your lifestyle and make it feel like “home” without cashing out your credit card.

Each of us has lived in a rented accommodation at some point in our life whether it be due to moving cities, the need for a bigger place or just that it was not yet time to afford a place of one’s own. While a new place comes with its own quota of excitement, doing it up to suit one’s taste and lifestyle is a bit of a tug of war between balancing the costs against the desire. The simple tips below should help you balance this equation.

Before you zero in on your rented home

Make sure that the place you are renting has the right amount of fixed furniture. In the minimum, the place should be fitted with the Kitchen and the Wardrobes in each of the rooms. These are your CORE storage spaces and without these, no matter what you do, your stuff will be found lying around in places where it is not supposed to be, giving your home the typical “rented home” look

Also press upon your landlord to install a decent enough chimney in the Kitchen. Without one, sooner than later you will see black soot accumulating around the cooking area which will be a “no-win” both for you and your landlord.

Just before you move in

There are things that need to be done that need the house to be empty hence a bit of planning may be required for this bit. At least one day before you move in with your truckloads get the floor cleaned – acid washed if it’s too dirty. Additionally get a round of pest control done through a reputed company. Doing this in an empty home is better as you can reach into every crevice and corner, secondly your kids don’t suffer the inconvenience and the poisonous fumes.

You may also want to get the curtains resized according to the window dimensions of the new home in advance so that they are ready to go from day one.

Now that you have moved in

Let’s start with the curtains where we left off. If you already have them ready then they will define the colour theme of the home, else if you are planning on getting new ones and don’t want to spend a bomb then you can look at some of the ready - made ones available in the market. With a broad colour theme in place as defined by the curtains decide on the bed linens. Your existing sets of linen will mostly do, however look at adding small cushions in different finishes and colours to either merge with, or to contrast with the colour theme.  Once you are done start adding other things

The Highlight Wall: Look at highlighting one of the walls of each room, including the living room in line with the colour theme. You can do this by painting, using wall paper or wall hangings & photo frames. Wallpaper and paint may sound difficult but nowadays it takes not more than a few hours to do up a single wall nor is it too expensive. Just this single investment will go a long way in adding a fair degree of the desired warmth to the new home.

Depending on the space available you can look at adding designer shelves for showpieces or books on the other walls. Nowadays there is a wide range of such shelves available to purchase online as well.

A Dash of luxury on the floor: Rugs and mats will add that bit of a luxurious look to the place that you need. Look out for ones that go with your colour theme. With the weather in Bangalore you can have the rugs on 365 days however be careful not to overdo it since rugs everywhere may make the space look smug & small.

Lighting: This is again a small investment that will make a big difference. To most people lighting = having enough light in the room to be able to read which is the equivalent of using a space shuttle to go to Mumbai when it can take you to Mars. Depending on the living space, proper lighting can either make the place feel warm or full of energy and affect the mood of the inhabitants accordingly. In a rented home though you may not be able to do much about the light fittings that your landlord has provided you can definitely enhance the same by changing to warm white LED/ CFL’s and  adding floor as well as table lamps. A dimmer on the lamps can help you adjust the brightness in line with the mood you want to set and the time of the day. Do also remember that yellow lighting, also called warm white, will make the space feel warm and cozy while white light will make it feel more efficient. In well-designed homes you will hence find warm white in the living rooms and white in the study

Greenery: Plants, both indoors and outdoors add colour as well as style to the living space. If you have the luxury of a large balcony or a terrace then take help of the local nursery to identify the right plants that will thrive in the given space based on the direction of the sun and have a combination of flowering, fragrant as well as fruit giving varieties. For interiors there are a number of different plants available including bamboo, parsley & ferns that can be arranged in regular pots as well as in vertical stacks available nowadays. Some of these indoor plants also have air purification properties ensuring good health along with a plush look.

The Doors: If your rented place is passing its middle age then the doors will mostly have a worn down look. One may feel that not much can be done about it - nevertheless there is still hope. First – scrub down the doors with a good cleaner – you will not believe the years of accumulated dirt that will come off them. Now that you have them done and dusted get small trinklets that you can hang from the door knobs. Doors of kids’ rooms can also have some catchy posters. The resulting clean and catchy doors will bring in a substantial change to the overall look of the home.

Once you are through with the above changes you will surely have a place to call your own, hopefully you have a long enough rental contract with your landlord to ensure that you enjoy it for a long time to come.

As always, will welcome your feedback and comments

Signing off

NM

FAQ's on Home Interiors in the Comments Section: We crossed 1000 comments this week

Just to let you know - we crossed the 1000 mark in comments & questions under the 25 posts on this blog. These FAQ's on home interiors are probably as rich in information and inputs as the posts themselves and the best part is that these have come up through "live" issues & questions raised by "you".

So if you haven't done so already then I would strongly suggest you browse through the comments section of the posts.

Happy Reading

NM

Home Interiors - Thumbrules for costing based on market rates in Bangalore

While I have a similar post on "Costing your Woodwork" done earlier on this blog I got your feedback that the earlier post captures a method for costing just the woodwork and not complete interiors, also there is a need for broad thumb-rule costing that is quick and easy.

For some time now I have been using some thumb-rules myself whenever I have had inquiries from customers & felt no harm in putting these in the public domain - ofcourse this will have its detractors who may have strong opinions on how "correct" is this model and its output, however having used this model myself for my projects over the last couple of years I can vouch that it gives realistic rupee value estimates that you will end up spending even when executing the work yourself, provided the assumptions and scope (also mentioned below) remain the same.

Also, just like water taking the shape of whatever bowl you put it in, interior spends tend to take up any budget that one gives to them, hence there is really no upper expense limit for doing up interiors, especially with the range of stuff & brands available in the market today ... remember the old Indian saying ... "the more the Ghee the tastier it will bee". Hence what is below is an estimate for a starting range of decent quality Mid-Hi End interiors

Before we get into the model here are the assumptions

1. Woodwork has to last a min 7 - 8 years - hence there is no compromise on material selection and the material is not necessarily the cheapest available in the market
2. All taxes, government levies etc. are actually paid and not avoided
3. Workers are paid at prevailing market rates in Bangalore - they need to make a living too :)
4. Workmanship & finishes are similar to those seen in Mid to Hi end interior works
5. Designs are done in accorance with the needs and lifestyle and not with the sole motive of minimizing cost.
6. Wood used for the work is BWR ply - typically having an mrp of around Rs 80 - 90 per square feet
7. The material/ brand used is genuine and not fake

Now that we are one step closer to unveiling the model its time to define the scope of the work that the model covers (...and you are getting eager to get to the actual model...wait, wait we will get there ... anything worth having is definitely worth waiting :))

Ok, the scope covered is

1. The entire woodwork for a healthy and comfortable living i.e. Wardrobes with lofts, TV unit, Pooja, Foyer, Modular Kitchen (including chimney & Hob), Study unit, Crokery Unit, work in the bathrooms etc. etc.
2. Painting in mid range paints
3. Light fittings - again mid range
4. False roofing - to support the lighting effect planned
5. Hardware assumed is Hettich throughout, kitchen drawers are soft closing - no cheap and troublesome thali baskets etc. assumed..that's what is meant by mid-hi end mentioned earlier
6. Copper piping for cooking gas

And here is what is NOT covered in the scope (now you really really want me to get to the model:)...I will, I will ...in just a bit)
1. Grill Work
2. Geysers & fans
3. Furniture including Cots, Dining Table Sofa sets etc.
4. White Goods
5. Furnishings/ Curtains & Upholstery etc.
6. Any Civil, Electrical or Plumbing Work
7. Kitchen Slab Work
8. Anything else that you can think of

Alright....so here it is ...ladies & gentlemen, keep your fingers crossed

AHEM

Take the super built up area of your residence in square feet
AND
Multiply it by 800

...and voila...what you get is what you will end up spending on your interiors...that was easy, wasn't it? :)

Here is a sample calculation for those of you whose maths skills are not exactly something to talk home about

If the super built up area of your imaginary residence is 1000 sqft.
You will need 1000 (which is the super built up area of the residence) X 800 (which is the multiplier) = Rs 800000 for the interiors

There is HOWEVER a way to do it cheaper - at a multiplier of 600 instead of 800, but that would mean using Commercial Ply (& not BWR) and compromising overall on the stuff used. this will also ensure that your stuff will demand major repair around its fourth birthday. This "may be" an option for those who are using the residence purely for renting out and financial returns.

Also - remember what I said at the beginning - the more the Ghee the tastier it will bee bit  "there is really no upper expense limit for doing up interiors especially with the range of stuff & brands available in the market today. What is below (now above) is an estimate for a starting range of decent quality Mid-Hi End interiors"

The cat is among the pigeons now...recall I used this ending phrase in another of my blog posts...just that this time the cat is bigger and more hungry.

As always will welcome your bouquets & brickbats@#$%#^ ... time I took out that helmet :))!!...

Signing off

Nandita

A Car is not "Just" a Car - The element of "Design" in Interior Design

The thought and the topic of this post came up during a recent drive to Ooty with my sister's family. On a sharp turn the car felt as if it would not straighten up, kind of steering on its own & my husband (an automobile engineer by training) commented "Cars that are designed well do not over-steer & this one isn’t (…designed well)". Don’t expect me to explain what that means as my expertise in automobile engineering is limited to being able to telephone Zakir the mechanic whenever the tyres feel plumpy or the bonnet smoky.

Driving with two men who shared common interest on the subject of Cars, the discussion did move further to things that go into hi end automobile design. Here are a few that I learnt - In hi end cars all the 4 wheels turn when you turn the steering to optimize the car’s turning movement, in some the lights too turn with the steering, some have programmable seating that optimizes your driving position based on your body structure. “Some manufacturers spend considerable time, money and effort just to optimize the interiors of the vehicle and ensure right storage in the right places – ever noticed the space for sunglasses in a Honda, right under the rear view mirror … perfect” said my brother-in-law excitedly. “I do that too when I design my kitchens & my homes” I say…..and that was the moment when it dawned.

A well designed home is EXACTLY like a well designed car – you just know it when you drive/ walk into one, you may not be able to pin point specifically what the difference is but while the car feels great when you drive it, the home just feels "nice" when you enter. I remember this interesting episode of a customer who commented “you know whenever the neighbors come in they say that my home somehow feels different and more balanced” – in that project we had changed the position of the fans in the drawing room to go with the symmetry of the overall interiors of the room. And it does not stop there - things like aligning the tile lines (the lines made by the floor tiles) throughout the house as they enter from the living room to the bedroom, from the corridor back into the bedroom, like deciding whether the shutter flap will be a pull up or a pull down, the drawers will be to the right of the kitchen hob, the left or right under. All these things and more is what I believe to be the “Design” element in Interior Design and it is especially important when doing “Home”Interiors because a Home needs not just to look good but also be built SPECIFIC to your lifestyle & needs (Commercial interiors mostly need to look good & that’s it).

The other aspect to consider while thinking of the Design element in Home Design is around “Visualization & Designing to BUILD”. Some of you who have walked this path would have experienced this when you designed something, and when the carpenter delivered, it looked something entirely different

“Bhaiya, see there is this small gap in the shutters when they close” – Possibly because the thickness of the shutter that the carpenter kept was more than what the hinges he used could handle.

“This line I see in the front – where did this come from” – Because “Bhaiya” made the shutter Inlay while you designed it Overlay.

“When I look from the side, the shutter looks odd on top of the carcass” Because he made the shutters OVERlay while you designed it INlay

If you are a techie then picture this http://lore.ua.ac.be/Teaching/SE3BAC/SoftwareSpecCartoon.gif

Don’t worry – this happens even to the best designers in the field. The point I am trying to make, which you would have guessed, is that the Design needs to incorporate the limitations of both the hardware and the workman. While the limitations of the workman can be managed with over-communication or by getting a new workman, it is extremely important to know the material & HARDWARE that will bring your design to life. With the HUGE Hardware range that’s available in the market today -- Hinges – butt, piano, inlay, overlay, half overlay...  Sliding Systems - Top Line, Slide Line, Wing Line, Inset, Overlay etc.etc. & the Hettich Hardware Manual running into some 1560 pages, this is one research that one HAS TO do before embarking on a design journey.

Colours & Lighting add an interesting dimension to the "design element" as well which is perhaps the most under-rated & under thought. An extremely well designed home can look ordinary if the colour selection & lighting is not done properly and a fairly simple home can look extraordinary with the right colour selection & lighting. While choosing colours bear in mind how you want the room to look - warm, bright, spacious, ethnic or contemporary - once done, choose colours of the walls, textures, furniture, furnishings that complement that requirement - the colours themselves could actually contrast & this part in my view is more "art" than technique. There are some apps available nowadays that help you play around with different colour selections for interiors...look these up.

Lighting on the other hand is a unique design element. Did you know that the a simple spotlight with an LED will give a completely different effect compared to the same spotlight with a CFL? Same applies to yellow lighting versus white lighting. A painting or a highlighted wall lit from the top will give a different look compared to one lit from the bottom?. I recently purchased a basic LED rope from 2 different vendors/ brands & noticed that the effect of one was much warmer that the other...just goes in to prove that there is really no end to learning in this field. A good amount of time spent in a lighting showroom will hence stand one in good stead when planning your interiors.

Well I hope that I have not ended up confusing you than clarifying and will look forward to your comments and feedback...as always Happy Homemaking

Signing off

Nandita