Lifestyle based interior design…Going beyond just making a style statement
A couple of incidents in these past few months set me thinking deeper on the subject of lifestyle based interior design and what it really really means on the ground and at the time of planning and execution. While the idea of Lifestyle based design has been ingrained in the way we do things at The Studio, its understanding, and why it is so critical and key to the entire design and creation process is something, I believe, that is still not not well understood and appreciated by most home makers.
I’ve had many customers tell me that all they want is for their home to look like a hotel and everyone who comes should say WOW with their jaws hanging down. There have been others who’ve asked us to use the most expensive stuff available in the market, for the kind of circle that they move around in, making a statement is what really matters. By no means I want to say that these are not valid requests. The fact that a family makes a home just once or twice in their lifetime, it’s important that they do exactly what they feel is right for them. At the same time the aspect of how a family’s lifestyle fits with the design of the home and vice versa needs to be examined and planned thoughtfully to bring about balance of style and livability. Let me pause here now and tell you about the two incidents that got us thinking here…the ones I mentioned at the start of this post.
We’ve been using the lockdown to get through the design discussion for projects in the pipeline and in one such design discussion the client sheepishly mentioned that his mom would feel great if we can put a stone slab for washing clothes in the bathroom. “You know what would be nice”, he says “I know it might sound odd but my mom is still in the habit of washing her own clothes despite the washing machine and all”. Now this is planned to be an all contemporary home, a brown and white theme with a landscaped terrace garden etc., but THAT (the stone slab) is the core example of a lifestyle based ask – something that makes you YOU, something that will make the home feel like yours. Thinking back, I’ve come across multiple such requests from customers. In one home we converted a western type WC to an eastern one (most people do it the other way). In another we made the storage space for the gas cylinder in pure granite – this was a space right in the middle of a contemporary hi gloss kitchen in Acrylic with LED lights shining bright in it and all – the reason was that the lady of the house was used to washing the gas cylinders – literally with a hose and the design therefore needed to accommodate that.
So if you are in the process of doing up your new home, remember – the beauty, bells and whistles are the easy part, more difficult is to design it in a way that make the home “really” yours.
