The Studio by Nandita Manwani

The Home Renovation Project: Learnings from doing up The Studio’s Own Interior Design Centre in Bangalore

Home Renovation
Home renovation is an area that most customers struggle with, I hence thought it best to pen down our experience and our learnings so that others benefit from it.

As some of you may be aware, we recently moved our Interior Design Centre to an Independent Villa in the middle of JP Nagar in Bangalore. This was a 40-year-old house that has now been refurbished making it a showcase of good Interior Design practices for customers. The refurb project, spread well over 5 months, taught us many new things about renovations and how best to approach them. Home renovation is an area that most customers struggle with, I hence thought it best to pen down our experience and our learnings so that others benefit from it. So here goes.

 

1. Timing: When, or Rather, when NOT TO renovate:

If it is an independent home, bungalow or a Villa (I will call all 3 as Villa in subsequent paragraphs) that you are renovating then time the work to avoid the rainy season. The frequent power cuts during the rains, the difficulty of the workers getting to-and-fro and the dampening mood of the rain affects the overall rhythm of the work. This is not as much an issue with apartment renovations where one can shut the windows and the work goes on as usual. The power backup in apartments is also a big help.

In addition, one of the first things that needs to be planned in Villa renovations is the water proofing of the roof and walls and that is best done in bright and sunny weather. The same applies to wall painting and wood polishing – damp weather is, well, a dampener in general and best avoided.

 

2. Surprise!!! Are you Ready??

Be ready for major surprises that lead to cost, scope and time over runs. Just to give you an example – just after having finished renovating the bathroom when we did the first trial, we found that the complete drain pipe that was running outside the house was blocked and beyond repair. The whole thing had to be excavated out and changed. Then, one of the old pipes started leaking and dampened the wall messing up the wood panelling on the other side of it. The panelling itself came with its own set of surprises – we found the wall not strong enough to take the screws and nails of the panel – it had to be strengthened with fresh plaster just to make it ready. We also tried running electrical wires from within the existing ducting for the additional lighting points we needed, only to find these blocked leading to a fair amount of additional electrical work than originally planned. The lesson – always plan additional resources – be it time, material or cost

 

3. Do not Over Design or Under Design & don’t forget the Core

The underlying structure of the house, however old or dilapidated it may be, is core to the design that should be planned on it. It is therefore wise to do things in a theme or a manner that dovetails into the core structure than one that conflicts with it. Dramatic deviations may mean redoing a lot of the structure itself else the design and the structure will not seamlessly merge. While this is an intangible, it is however one of the most important aspects that needs to be wisely planned and executed to get a natural flow in the design and the aesthetics of the place. Just to give you an example – our place has fairly large windows in front – these had an intricate grill design, however the lack of maintenance clearly showed on the windows. Our first take was to cover the windows with a wooden border and glass, hiding both the original windows and the grill and giving the front a contemporary modern look. We designed and rendered it on the computer and it looked great. Then we zoomed out to visualise the window design in context of the entire building and suddenly it lost its sheen. We redid the render with the original large windows – cleaned and restored and with a few planters and colour / texture changes and THAT came out far better. The team spent the next 3 – 4 days restoring the windows as much as possible to their original form and that’s how they stand now at the design centre today. The same thought around bringing seamlessness of the structure and the design theme is true for the wainscot design on the inside walls, the shape & choice of light fittings, the choice of murals & decor and the false roofing & general lighting that has been done inside

 

Exteriors – A different ball game altogether

Interiors is one thing, the design of the exterior of a Villa is a different ball game altogether. Design of the elevation and exterior façade therefore has always been a separate field in Design, different from “Interior” Design. In Villa refurbs it plays a major role since a well-designed façade and lighting can give life and positivity to a Villa from the moment one sees and enters it. For exterior refurbs there are a number of options available starting from Stone tiles, ACP, HPL to the regular material like textured paint etc. Contemporary design also requires some bit of greenery to show on the outer façade. Designing and visualizing the same on the computer definitely helps in taking the right decision on the facade – and it does take more than the normal number of iterations due to all the different options available

 

Work Sequence

Before I sign off, I guess some tips of the work sequence to be followed will definitely be helpful for those planning their renovations. The sequence below should work well for most projects

 

image 1

 

Do trust you find this useful, as always shall welcome your comments & feedback

Signing off now

Nandita

6 thoughts on “The Home Renovation Project: Learnings from doing up The Studio’s Own Interior Design Centre in Bangalore”

  1. Need to renovate my 2bhk to 3 bhk. This needs civil work and interior. Pls contact if you are the right contact.

  2. Hi, We are looking for wall designs for our home.. Is it set u able for PIN code – 560016.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Acetech Bangalore, Home Automation, Interior Designers in Bangalore, LED Lighting, Murals, Partitions, Sky Light

Feedback from The ET Acetech 2015 Bangalore

If you have been on Bangalore roads in the last couple of weeks you would not have missed the huge

Apartment Home Interior Pictures, Interior Designers in JP Nagar

More Photographs – Latest project at Elita – JP Nagar

Project pictures of our work in the initial years in Bangalore - this was in the year 2011
Interior Designers in Bangalore, Light Fittings Bangalore

Shopping at Chickpet & City Market Bangalore for Lighting for Home Interiors

Found my way to Chikpet/ City Market today after many many years. All this while I have been doing my

Interior Design

“Save the best for last” … this is not about the song, it has everything to do with Interior Design

Interiors and Interior Design is usually the last item on the home buying list. Once the bank, builder and broker
Best Interior Design Companies in Bangalore, Home Interior Designers, Home Interior Photographs Bangalore

More Photographs – Home Interiors Bangalore

The Bar Unit was the show stopper in this project. This is one of our initial projects in the year
Home Renovation

A Home to Redesign, Renovate and Refurbish

Life stage based interior design is a concept that I have discussed on this blog multiple times but it will
Kitchen Design, kitchen interior design, Modular Kitchens, Vaastu for Kitchen Design

Home Design Vaastu Shastra – Episode 2 – Best practices in Kitchen design

One of the most tricky spaces at home in terms of design is the kitchen as it needs to be
Century, Fake Plywood, Greenply, Interior Designers in Bangalore, Kitply

Plywood Fakes in the Bangalore Market and a brief interaction with the Kitply Management on the same

A few days back I happened to get an email from a senior member of the Kitply Management team acknowledging

Interior Designers in KANAKAPURA ROAD, Purva Highland Interior Pictures. Economy Interiors

A few photographs of the Eco Package (Budget Interiors) executed recently at Purva Highlands Kanakapura Road, Bangalore

I wrote about the Eco range of interiors for 2/ 3 BHK apartments sometime back. Here are a few photographs

A couple of my home interior design projects featured in Homify Magazine

A couple of my Home interior projects were recently featured by Homify magazine. Do please see them in the links

Home Interior Designers, Home Interior Photographs, Modular Kitchen, Sliding Wardrobes

Photographs of my recent Home Interior project at Yelahanka, Bangalore

It is a beautiful penthouse – top floor, some 3000 sqft with a huge kitchen, party area and the works.

Blog

My Interior Design Blog on Times of India Online

Times of India Online will now be featuring my Interior Design Blog. I have named it “The Culture of Space”

home lighting, LED Lighting, LED Lighting Bangalore, lighting for home

Lighting Design for Homes – Interior Design Done Right

Lighting Design fundamentally determines the personality of the space and how people perceive it, feel in it and how they
Lifestyle based design,Proud,interior design

Be Proud to be You

Lifestyle based interior design…Going beyond just making a style statement A couple of incidents in these past few months set

Interior design advise

The Best Interior Design Advise That You Can Get

Perhaps the most valuable part of this blog lies in the conversations happening under each post. With over a thousand
Living Room Interior Design

Some Photographs of my Home Interior Project at Mantri Serenity – Kanakapura Road Bangalore

This one was keeping me busy over the last 3 months, so apologies for not being too active on the

Best Interior Design Companies in Bangalore, Best Interior Designers in Bangalore, Interior design best practices in Bangalore

Symmetry and Balance – Why Some Interior Designs Seem Better Than the Rest

The best-looking designs - and this is irrespective of the finish, colour selection or the money spent – are the
home interior best practices, Interior Designers in Bangalore, lighting for home

Interior Design Masterclass on Home Lighting & Automation

We are all set to host our second Residential Interior Design Masterclass – this one will be on Home Lighting

Home Interior FAQ, Interior Designers in Bangalore

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

Lacquered Glass finish

Lacquered Glass finish shutters for Home Interiors

The interest in Lacquered glass shutters for home interiors seems to have picked up lately in Bangalore. I’ve had a

Related Articles

Scroll to Top
Thank you icon

Thanks for your Interest

We will get back to you on this shortly