Hotel Mandawa Haveli.

We chose Hotel Mandawa Haveli, a haveli built in the 18th century by a wealthy Marwari jeweller for our stay at Mandawa, Shekhawati, Rajasthan during our winter break.

Soaking up the winter sun in the outer courtyard of the haveli.

Entrance to the haveli.

The outer walls of the haveli framed by flowering trees.

The haveli has been restored and converted into a hotel by Dinesh Dhabhai. There are beautiful frescos painted all over the haveli and especially in the inner courtyard. The theme is of Lord Krishna and scenes from his life.

The inner courtyard being spruced up for the Christmas Eve celebrations...

The intricate rangoli design painted by a local grandmother & grand-daughter team...

The original intricately carved Rajasthani doors have been restored.

Lovely antique furniture line the courtyard.

The rooms have been named after the various names of Lord Krishna.

We stayed in 'Rasesh':-)

The inner view of the room.

The stunning view of the courtyard all lit up for Christmas eve and the melody of Rajasthani folk music just took our breathe away!

The friendly turbaned gate-keeper at the Mandawa Haveli:-)

Do stay at a restored haveli, when you visit Shekhawati to truly experience the local flavor of the region:-)

(images by Arch)

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Please pass the potatoes ....

May I just say you guys are the best!  You really know how to make a new gal feel welcome here in blogland.  I've loved reading all of your thoughtful comments, of which I do not deserve!  Thank you!  And, I have to give a special "shout out" to Cindy at Cottage Instincts (for highlighting my humble guest "loo" redo), Beth at The Stories of A to Z (for sharing my fireplace/mantle tranformation) and Kim at My Domestic Bliss (for mentioning, and relating to, my admission of my ADD (Attention Decorating Disorder)! 

If you feel like staying for a bit, I'd love to show you our breakfast area, highlighting a few changes we made to it.  As always, feel free to enlarge the pics by clicking on them.

BEFORE: Imagine a big ol' red wall (RL Stadium Red) ... try (AND try) as we did, nothing seemed to work.  ANYthing we put there seemed to get swallowed by the tall wall with vaulted ceiling.  And, as the kitchen cabinets share the same wall (I'll take you there soon), symmetry and balance went by the wayside, which drove me ker-azy!  Sorry this isn't a better pic:

AFTER:  Welcome dry bar (magically built by our friend, Paul)!  We're super pleased with how it turned out ... love how it fills the space.  We wanted it to have a few different features than the kitchen cabs, so we chose rope-accented molding, legs and feet ... a metallic backsplash ... black countertop and glass accent doors.  I love that the center cab is shorter and bumps out (Paul's idea).

We really enjoy the convenience of the wine cooler ... Chardonnay? Shiraz? Champagne? Sparkling Cider? What can I get ya'?

I did a not-so-great job of adding the metallic backsplash (from Lowe's), hoping for a bit of pizazz.  And, when the budget allows, we plan on changing out the counter to Golden Beach granite, which would then match our kitchen countertops:

I cannot tell you how much I've loved having the extra storage, too !!

Aside from the dry bar, we traded the blinds and panels for roman shades (done in a whimsical polk dot fabric) to add a bit of fun coordination to the cornice (both treatments were done by my great friend and neighbor, Christy). 

I recently grabbed this accent table at Kirklands, which I'm still "futzing" with:

And, lastly, I'm lovin' the oversized lazy susan I recently scored at Tuesday Morning ... really like how it resembles the top of a wine barrel and is the perfect fit for our kitchen table. I'm testing out my Southern Living tray on there (which I filled with faux grapes, wine corks and wine glasses, one of which is filled with a small votive *melted* candle).

Well, that's all for now ... it's almost time for football and a hot bowl of white chicken chili, topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and Scoops ... yummy !! 

Stay warm and be safe if you are one of the many surrounded by snow and icy roads !!

I'm linking up with:

Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

Made It Monday @ Persimmon Porch

Toot your Horn Tuesday @ A Silly Little Sparrow

Do It Yourself Day at A Soft Place to Land

Make it Yours Day at My Backyard Eden

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

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Art from Chitra Santhe...

Tomorrow, the 31st of January, 2010 is Chitra Santhe~ Art for all.

The one-day art event organized by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath every year on Kumara Krupa Road.

This event showcases artists, painters & sculptors from all over India and where people can pick up art at a very affordable price.

Today, I want to share with all of you the unique pieces of art bought from very talented artists during the last few years that we have been visiting Chitra Santhe.

Watercolours by M.G. Hegde from Bijapur.

Mixed Media folk art from a young artist from Shimoga.

Madhubani paintings by a folk artist. Ardha-narishwar & Goddess Kali (still waiting to be framed;-)

The two acrylic on canvas by Vishwas. M. picked up at last year's Chitra Santhe.

This is a lovely sketch made on old magazine sheets by Mr. M.U Raja

For more details on the event, do visit http://chitrasanthe.com/index.html

If you are in Bangalore tomorrow, do drop by this very colourful event:-)

(images by Arch)

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Thank You BlogAdda!

Thank you Harish Krishnan and his team at BlogAdda.com { the largest community of Indian bloggers } for the interview about Rang Decor.

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Skip to my loo ...

the guest loo, that is.  Between 1) the creative bathroom re-dos I've been drooling over here in Bloggerville; 2) Rhoda (at Southern Hospitality) chatting about the return of wallpaper (click here to read her great post); and 3) my current love affair with brown, I thought I'd share our guest bath.  I've always been a little scared of wallpaper ... as one who likes to change things around a bazillion times, its simply too much of a commitment for me. LOL. HowEVER, when I spotted this lovely brown paper, dressed with large, gold decorative circles and apple green accents, I just HAD to have it.  I was ready to walk down the aisle and say "I do" to it.  So, I did.

I don't have a before picture of this little room (just imagine *builder-white* paint ev.er.ree.where.), but here it is, all dressed up.  Yippee.  I love the mix of the brown, gold and green.  (Feel free to click on any pic to enlarge.)

We added the glass shelving unit and went with accessories in creams and golds ... thought they might bounce nicely off of the wallpaper.  And, while I am in NO way "crafty-creative," it was super easy to make the "B" initial by enlarging a font (Monotype Corsiva) up to, I believe, 240 pt, and then framing it.

I chose a gold, metallic shower curtain to "bling" the room up a bit and added the apple green textured fabric above to give the room more height (pulled out the ol' glue gun to adhere the tassle fringe). 

Towels courtesy of SteinMart ...

We also added crown molding and painted the ceiling Ralph Lauren Metallics/Golden Candlesticks. (I kid you not ... the ceiling in every room of our house is going to end up being painted this color!!)

Annnnd, just pretend that I've already added molding (painted Golden Candlesticks) around the mirror to dress it up and tie in with the ceiling paint.  Alas, I'm also going to be adding a bronzey-gold faucet ... I'm *this* close to knocking that out myself calling a plumber to do the switcharoo for me.

Well, if you're still with me, I sincerely thank you for stopping by my little guest bath ... can't wait to post pics when I complete the finishing touches (and work on my photography skills).  As always, I'm open to any ideas on how to improve !!  And, I'm also working on redoing our master bath (currently repainting and re-accessorizing) ... imagine that !!  Hello, my name is Becca, and I have a problem !!

I'm linking up with:

Make your Monday at Twice Remembered

Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts

Made it Monday at The Persimmons Perch

Making the World Cuter Monday

It's So Very Creative at Cheri's

Toot Your Horn Tuesdays

Do it Yourself Tuesday at a Soft Place to Land

Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk

Fondly,

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Havelis of Shekhawati, Rajasthan.

The Sonthaliya Gate, Mandawa.

When we decided on our winter vacation destination as Rajasthan, we immediately knew it had to be in the lesser explored regions of Shekhawati. Shekhawati region is known for their heritage Havelis.

Haveli- Is a huge private mansion in India or Pakistan.

The Rajasthani havelis were constructed by the wealthy Marwari community in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan in the 19th century. A haveli typically has two courtyards one for the men and the inner one for the women, the walls were adorned with beautiful colourful frescoes painted by commissioned artists.

The themes were usually images of Gods, Goddesses & animals.

Mandawa, Ramgarh, Fatehpur are dusty little towns in the Shekhawati area that have many old havelis, which in their glorious days would have been a treat to the eyes, but even today have not lost their timeless beauty.

The huge old havelis in Mandawa.

A handful of these havelis are being restored and given a new lease of life by private organizations, historians & architects. Some of them have been converted into heritage hotels.

Nadine Le Prince is a french artist whose love for Indian cultural heritage has inspired her to restore a haveli built in 1802 by a rich tradesman of the silk road.

Beautifully restored courtyard at Nadine Le Prince Haveli Cultural Centre, Fatehpur.

Ramgarh Fresco, a restored haveli, earlier known as the Khemka Haveli is 100-years old and has been renovated by the Khandelwal family who wanted to showcase the beauty of the frescos and the architecture to the visitors.

Amazing hand-painted frescos at Hotel Ramgarh Fresco

We had a lovely thali lunch here:-)

The traditional haveli courtyard.

In my next post, will showcase another restored haveli~ A lovely place where we stayed, soaked in the winter sun and listened to the folk music of the desert...:-)

( Images by Arch)

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