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Healthy Interior Designing

India is the vast treasure hold of science. Environmental psychology popularly known as Vastu Shastra has been in practice in construction field from time immemorial. The design concepts and design elements are said to affect our mood and productivity. At this point, the importance of healthy interior designing starts.

The space you are in drives your mood thought process and creativity. For example, if you spend some time in a confined space with minimal lighting, it induces fear, suffocation and discomfort. Imagine a space bright, spacious and colourful. There your thoughts become positive, creative and you ultimately become happy.

So here are few tips to incorporate into your homes to have a healthy living space that inspires and motivates you.

Healthy space

A claustrophobic and dark space is a mood killer. A spacious area where there is a proper flow of air circulation ensures a fresh environment and no place for bacterial growth. Make sure to incorporate design elements that bring in a lot of lighting to your space.

Toxin Free paints

Use inspiring and energetic colours to paint your home. Avoid lead rich paints that on continuous intake while breathing results in health issues related to lungs and eyes. Use pollutant free paints easily available in the market and maintain a pollution free air inside your home.

Declutter

A clutter free home results in a clutter-free mind. Keep the rooms in your home clutter-free. Make sure to use minimal furniture and decors in each space to have a neat and tidy feel for your home to ensure a good space to work in. Always use the space defined for that purpose. For example, avoid TV inside the bedroom as its a space designed for calm and relaxing moments and a good sleep.

Use multi-purpose furniture with storage compartments;

Get rid of the stuff you aren’t using frequently (use a three-box method: one for keeping, one for storing and one for throwing away);

Give one item to charity each day;

Organize a garage sale;

Use the 80/20 rule (normally you wear only 20 per cent of your clothes all the time);

Clear off flat surfaces;

Categorize things based on similarity; and

Use alternative storage solutions.

Go Green

Try to use plant decors as much as possible inside your home. This ensures to maintain a positive feel inside the home and green is a colour that soothes your eyes and inspires creativity. Green plants health circulate air as they absorb excess CO2 from the home and release oxygen so that the air is refreshed.

 

These are few of the many healthy decor tips that you may adopt from a hundred other options available. Interior designers in Kerala stand to keep your family healthier.

 

 

 

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Gift Giving: The Top Gifts People Use to Decorate With

top gifts people use to decorate

The art of gift-giving for people with an eye for design can be difficult. You will want to pick something that is unique and practical. Below is a list of top gifts people use to decorate that are perfect for any home that will not be forgotten on a shelf.

 

Cocktail Tray

This is the perfect gift for your friends that do a lot of entertaining in their homes. It doubles as a coffee table piece to house coasters, tissues, remotes, and other living room essentials, as well as a serving piece for cocktails for guest.

 

Cutting Board

Since cutting boards come in all textures, materials, and colours, you can easily pick one to fit the person you are gifting this too. This gift has a double feature, an appetizer serving piece and a useful kitchen tool.

 

Leather Magazine Rack

Everyone seems to have magazines stacked on their coffee table simply holding our glasses that tend to sweat through the covers of our favourite reads. A leather magazine rack will solve this clutter problem, as well as adding a touch of style with the leather feel.

 

Coasters

We all hate those ring stains left behind on our favourite furniture pieces. Coasters, of course, solve this problem and can add a touch of colour and trendiness with the many design options out there. Gift this piece with the personalized monogram and your friend will be sure to use and display their new coasters.

 

Cloth Napkins

Whether for display, casual dining, or formal dining, cloth napkins make for a sweet gift. The colour, personalization, design, and texture are all components you can play with when choosing the right ones for your gift.

 

Candles

This may seem like an overused idea, but gifting candles can be reinvented with a twist. Try to find a candle in a glass jar that is personalized with initials, a favourite sports team, or a cityscape that your friend has visited to reminisce about memories.

top gifts people use to decorate

 

Photo Frames

This is a classic gift but add a special touch by going ahead and printing a photo of you and your friend to place in the frame ahead of time. This will become a memory piece instead of a frame that the person never puts a picture in becoming a dust collector.

 

Tea Towels

Tea towels are great for kitchen decor, but they can also be a memory piece. Most tea towels have a hand-painted caption on them or an embroidered scene. This is the perfect opportunity to create a memory with your friend with a piece they can easily display.

 

Cocktail Stirrers

Cocktail stirrers come in many different colours, materials, and styles for any person’s taste. This is an item that can be displayed in your kitchen or outdoor bar area in a glass vase ready for cocktail hour. It’s a trendy gift with a purpose.

 

Wall Grid

This is a great gift for your friends with limited space to add a touch of glam with a certain colour or pattern. A wall grid works great to display photos, post-to-do lists, and can easily be moved from room to room if they decide to decorate differently.

 

Garden Herb Grow Kit

For all your at-home chefs and plant-loving friends, a garden herb grows kit is the best gift. It is usually small, housed in a ceramic piece, and brings the outside in. Also, it requires little supervision, sunshine and water and it will prosper on any windowsill or countertop.

 

Personalized Flight Tray

For your beer loving friends, gift a personalized flight tray. A beer or wine flight tray can easily be ordered online in a wood material. Taking the extra time to have it personalized with their name or alma mater allows for a perfect personal gift that will bring friends together.

 

Globe

Give your friends the world, a globe is a wonderful conversation piece. Whether placed on an end table in their living space or on a desk nestled away in their favourite reading spot, a globe creates inspiration and thought.

top gifts people use to decorate

 

Pottery

Pottery can be as personalized as you want it to be. Whether you choose a usable piece for dining or a piece that is shaped as their favourite mascot, it will make for a great gift that they can display and possibly add to if they like the artist.

 

Artwork

Artwork can be tricky, but you just need to think about the person who is receiving the piece and what interest and hobbies do they enjoy the most. Small canvas artwork pieces can be displayed as wall artwork or on a desktop that they can enjoy for inspiration with a touch of trendy design.

 

 

By Hannah Moses a contributing author for Aromatique

 

For the latest Interior designing trends, check out Best interior designers in Trivandrum

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10 Smart Tips to Build Low Budget Homes

Building a home is a dream come true. But building it within your budget is a challenge. The cost of construction material and labor becomes unbearable with the ever-increasing market rate. So to build your dream home to reality we need to take a few well thought out steps. Following are 10 smart tips top build low budget homes.

1.Smart Design

A well worked out plan will always keep you on track during the construction phase. Approach a good architect who plans your home as per your requirement within your budget. Make sure to ask the opinion of your family members before you finalize the plan. By doing so, you will save yourself from any future demolishing and reconstruction process which is a waste of money, time and material.

 

2. Buy a plot within your budget

Buying a piece of land is a big investment. Land rates are shooting up every day making it almost impossible to buy a plot. Especially near the city areas the land prices are going off the roof. So always opt to buy lands in suburban areas where developers are still undergoing and the land cost is affordable.

 

3. Get expert technical help

It is important to find experienced contractors and civil engineers who can help you technically construct your dream home. Brief the contractor about your requirement of a low budget home. Ask the contractor to come up with cost-effective methods and materials to construct your home. With their expertise, they can find you cost-effective material, labor, and strategies to build your home within budget.

 

4. Buy from reputed dealers

The market has a lot of dealers and suppliers who can supply you with construction material. But the cost and quality of the material need not be within your budget or quality. So do a thorough research and find a well-reputed dealer who can find low cost, low maintenance construction material.

 

5. Use salvaged material

Not all material that comes out of demolished sites is waste. Reusable and good quality materials are sold out into the material market and reused for construction purposes. So hunt down salvaged materials from the material market with the help of an experienced person.

 

6. Pick accessories from reputed suppliers

A house construction is not finished with just bricks, cement, and concrete. Accessories like wiring, plumbing fixtures, flooring all are required to make a house habitable. These accessories are always costly. Always opt for simple accessories without much ornamentation to keep the purchase within budget. Buy the accessories from reputed dealers who can provide you quality low-cost materials and guarantee you replacements if found faulty.

 

7. Avoid unnecessary decor

Always try to keep your home as simple and natural as possible. When you opt for a majestic or expensive look for your home, the cost of accessories that goes into achieving the look is high. To avoid unwanted decors. If you want your j=home to look chic and cool o for DIY decors which has a personal touch.

 

8.A Big NO NO to grand Kitchens and bathrooms

People seem to prefer expensively designed kitchens and bathrooms. Many build their homes around these as a status symbol. Avoid heavy fixtures, furniture, and flooring that may increase your budget. Avoid buying expensive accessories for your bathroom. As far as the low budget materials satisfy your needs to buy them.

 

9. Avoid expensive wood

Cost of wood is skyrocketing. Anything made of wood is high maintenance. Try to buy low-cost wood for requirements that are unavoidable. Go for non-wood fixtures like Steel doors and windows, plastic doors for bathrooms etc. Avoid wooden paneling, wooden furniture etc.

 

10. Use prefabricated construction material

Prefabricated construction material is manufactured off-site and then transport to the construction sites. Prefabricated concrete slabs, concrete blocks, and units can be used to reduce overall construction cost. Prefabricated materials are eco-friendly, saves construction time, labor cost and reduce site disruption.

 

A home is what we make out of it. If you have a majestic house and no one share it with, the whole concept of home is lost. Small or big home is an emotion shared with your loved ones and should be fully functional according to your needs. You may contact us for any renovation & construction works of your home in Kerala. We have interior designers, decorators and top architects who are experts in house renovation & construction work to assist you. 

 

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The phases involved in interior designing

Who is an interior designer?

An interior designer is someone who has been trained to use space effectively and join hand with the quality and safety of interior areas for making them aesthetically pleasing.  He/she requires the combined knowledge of building codes, critical and creative thinking, phycology and technology for the purpose of improving the quality of life and increasing productivity. All of this is accomplished to protect your health, safety and welfare.

The following are the important phases involved in interior designing:

1. Programming phase

The programming phase is where the project is built brick by brick or decision by decision. The programmer researches current and projected needs in such areas as information, privacy and security. A thorough programming process is essential for or maintaining an orderly and cost-effective design process later in the project.

2. Schematic design

Schematic design is the initial design phase translating all the research gathered from programming into rough sketches and ideas for the client. Interior designers combine their skills of problem-solving, phycology, colour theory, environmental methods and codes to rearrange spaces in a way they would be intuitive and safe for future and current users of the space.

3. Design development and Material selection

The design development phase of the process refines concepts created in the schematic phase. First interior designers draw the building shell. The permanent fixtures and millworks are the next. Then they shall check out on the furniture and of course, they create a plenty of notes to make the object clear.

During the design process, the interior designers also select appropriate materials based on their application.

4. Perspective

The most common thing that a client sees is the perspective or 3D modelling on the space. This program is one of the greatest tools interior designers possess. The 3D model displays the design to the client easily.

5. Construction Documents

In this phase, the drawings created in the design and development phase are turned into working documents for the contractor.

6. Construction phase

In the construction phase, the role of an interior designer is to check whether the works conform to the contraction joints and specifications.

Interior design is about much more than aesthetics. It is a combination of a series of complex decisions to solve a problem.