9 steps to a designer home

Yes, we’re talking homes. The hunting is over and you’ve zeroed in on what you think is your dream house. How do you take it forward from there? Yes, we know… you would love to have the dining set you saw in a glossy and do up your kitchen like your best friend has.

 You can do that, but it’s best if you weave them into a master plan so that your house becomes your home and not a mish mash of designs copied from various sources. How? Follow these easy steps suggested by leading interior designers like Raseel Ansal and Sanjit Singh and your home may just be good enough to feature in these pages.

1. Decide Your Budget

Setting up your home involves spending money on hundreds of big and small items. And while you may have set aside a lakh or ten for furniture, fittings and gadgets, there are several small items that you don’t notice individually, but which still add up to a substantial portion of your total expenses.

Unless you’ve made provisions for them, you might just find (God forbid) that you’ve run out of money half way through the process.

The solution: regardless of whether you plan to spend Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh or Rs 15 lakh on doing up your home, you have to plan well—talk to interior designers (if you’re using the services of one) and friends who’ve gone through the ritual recently to get a realistic idea of what to buy and where your money will disappear.

2. Identify the Focal Points

Having key focal points helps you set a theme, regardless of your budget. A desired look can be achieved on any budget. The trick lies in paying attention to details.

3. Start from the ground Up

Identifying the material for your floors should be the first step as it literally forms the foundation of your house. You can choose from a variety of options—ceramic, mosaic, mosaic tiles, marble or wood. Marble is the most popular material for flooring these days and costs anywhere between Rs 50 per sq. ft to Rs 1,000-plus per sq. ft. Ceramic tiles are quite common, come in a wide range of colours and textures, and cost Rs 100-260 per sq. ft.

Marble is quite easy to maintain and ceramic moderately so. If you want mosaic tiles, then, too, you have a wide range of options, both in terms of price and style, to choose from. Wood is yet another option and costs Rs 300-700 per sq. ft, but be prepared for high maintenance costs and the probability of having to replace it after a few years.

4. Decorate the Floors

The flooring done, it’s now time to figure out how to adorn them. Floors without carpets and rugs are like wearing shoes without socks. Carpets and rugs define your space and add to its character. If you are on a tight budget, you could buy a woven carpet in cotton, jute or synthetic materials.

You can get good ones for Rs 2,000-10,000. In the mood to splurge? Go for a Persian or Kashmiri rug or wool or silk carpets. The cheapest ones will cost upwards of Rs 10,000 and, well, to put it mildly, there’s no upper limit.

5. Choose Your Furniture and Fabrics

Bound by space? We recommend you opt for a small three-piece 3+1+1 sofa set which offers flexibility and comfort for compact spaces. A larger 4+2+1 one could be used for larger spaces. Sofa seating adds comfort and style to your living space like no other piece of furniture. Prices start from Rs 20,000 and can go up to Rs 5 lakh-plus, depending on the construction, material, and the upholstery fabric.

Unless you’re absolutely set on a particular colour, it’s a good idea to go in for a neutral shade. This will allow you to mix and match your upholstery with your curtains. Remember, there’s no such thing as a bad colour, but there can be bad combinations. If the furniture is in bright hues, then you should choose softer colours for your curtains, and vice-versa; otherwise your room will look too gaudy or too plain.

6. Decide on colours

Wall colours play a vital role and can make or beak the look of a room.There are no rules for colours, but acidic tones—chartreuse, tangerine and lime— are in this season.

Choosing a bold colour can help you anchor your space. Again, depending on your budget you can either choose to paint the wall with an interesting pattern or you may even choose to wallpaper it.

Metallic shades of wallpaper are in vogue, but be careful not to overdo it—you don’t want your home to look like a discotheque. Choose from a variety of trademark motifs, patterns and colours and create your own unique style.

7. Light Up Your World

Lights play an important role in any house; they can make the house look cheerful or ruin the mood completely. It is best to mix up uplighting, downlighting and ambient lighting fixtures to highlight particular points and spaces, such as paintings and niches, and to provide even lighting across the rest of the room.

It’s also very important to have decorative lighting. A wide variety of lighting fixtures are available in the market to suit every budget. Decorative wall brackets start at a few hundred rupees and can go up to several thousand. But if money is no constraint, then go for a Lladró, which has an exquisite collection of chandeliers, fairy lamps and wall lights.

Infused with surrealistic influences, the Niagara from Lladró chandelier, measuring 2 metre in diameter with 131 porcelain fairies, can be yours for Rs 47.92 lakh.

8. Get Your Kitchen Basics Right

Modular kitchens exude aesthetics, class and convenience. They are designed bearing in mind your working habits, cooking style and ergonomics. Prices vary, depending on the size and finish of what you want.

Take your pick depending upon material surfaces, textures and colours from the wide range of kitchenware from Hacker with a price range starting from Rs 3 lakh onwards, while modular kitchens from Lispo, an Indian manufacturer, could cost you anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. However, if you don’t want a branded modular kitchen, you can buy individual items and assemble one at home. The advantage: it will be substantially cheaper—by up to 50 per cent.

9. Bathroom Delights

It’s the least visible of all the spaces, but your bathroom speaks volumes about your personality. You can opt for water tile shower sprays that eliminate the protrusions of typical bodysprays and rid the showering space of visual clutter. Since the product is completely customised, prices vary, depending on the chosen configuration, but they start from Rs 30,000.

A Chinese bronze basin with turtles, fish, and intertwining serpents serves as the inspiration for this Serpentine Bronze Basin from Kolher priced at Rs 86,130 (left).

The River Bath Round brings home the essence of cascading waters to your bathroom. Indulge in a multitude of water experiences ranging from whirlpool, rapids and whitewater to soothe those frayed nerves. The River Bath Whirlpool from Kolher is priced at Rs 9.32 lakh.