First home adventure
- Nothing is as exciting as the search, discovery and setting up of one’s first home. From tallying a couple’s taste and budget to availability and affordability, location, size, scale and style, this adventure calls for an exercise of tolerance, patience, understanding, agreeing, disagreeing and agreeing to differ.
It can be as smooth or as rocky as we choose it to be, but drab or dull, it never is. Enjoy the experience, it’s worth it!
Too much too soon VS spartanand drab
- Oftentimes, we binge. A young couple cannot be blamed for hyper excitement and impulsive buys. It is after all, that time of life when the fragrance of roses far out shadows the smell of coffee! But this is the time when one should rein in the enthusiasm – because, living spaces grow on you. They grow with you. And there is no need to cram ones home at the start leaving no room for change or growth.
And, the other extreme of spartan and clinical kills the cosy. So, can we work a balance?
Collecting or curating
- Not all art that you see appeals. And not all art that you acquire, appreciates in value. Choose art because it reflects your taste and personalities. You need to love what you acquire, because you need to live with it long term. Such pieces areassets, whether or not they become valuable investments worth millions in the long run. However, picking up impulsively because something is on sale or someone else likes it, may often degenerate to a burden –on both mind and purse. Watch what you buy, your first brush with art can make or break your artistic journey.
It can be as smooth or as rocky as we choose it to be, but drab or dull, it never is. Enjoy the experience, it’s worth it!
- Hunt Around
It’s so easy to shop on whims and fancies, especially for your first home. If it’s love at first sight, hold on. Sleep over the impulse and go back to get it if it still calls out to you. It’s so easy to buy in haste and repent at leisure. Buy only what you love. Even if it is an original that’s apparently on offer (usually great stuff never is on offer) stop. Is this what you love or is it an ego driven keepsake for the loft? Hunt around patiently. Read up, look around and browse a bit. There are no serious deadlines to buying art for life spaces.
It’s all yours now. You’ve picked and chosen. What next? Fitting and seating your stuff – what else ? There’s a space and place for everything ! Let’s learn more about it.
The art of choosing & placing art
- Color matters, but don’t get carried away trying to match all objects in the room. Sometimes, in fact very often, a stark contract or a randon mix match can add character to the space in an instant. Look for what appeals to you. Yes, colours will find their equilibrium too.
- Size and scale matters too. Yes, thumb rules help, but norms can also be broken . If the choice is big or small, go big. Choosing many tiny pieces often leads to clutter sans any statement.
- Above a sofa or bed, try cover at least 2/3 the width of the furniture. You can achieve this with a single piece or a grid-like composition of smaller, similar pieces.
Wall art— compose it right
- Mix them up – Something old, something new. Contrast creates a compelling visual. Classic and contemporary, old and new, heirloom and new age collections – there’s no rule that says that these distinctly different works of art can’t coexist and share space. Compose aesthetically.
- Point, nail and hang? Oh no! while it’s easy to say, whose rules are they anyway and place your pictures as and where you choose to, there is a golden rule to heed – yes, the number 56. Or say, just about 5 feet from the ground – the average eyelevel of most adults. However, when you align picture frames to other furniture life sofas and beds, there is a need to consider the lines of the furniture too – try work a balance that keeps the eye level rule and yet has fair space between frame and furniture.
Got it? Now, go for it! Enjoy!