Wednesday 9 September 2015

Of farewells and welcomes...

On my walk today I could smell the freshly mowed lawn that is so typical summer and at the same time I saw the tips of the sumac and sugar maple starting to blush a deep shade of red.

A season in transition. 
As I leave behind memories of a beautiful summer and walk into one of my favourite seasons filled with crimson hues, warm spices, cozy blankets, sweaters & leaves...
I wanted to thank Mother Earth for the bountiful produce, stunning flowers and all the musical chirping of the birds that came to visit our backyard. 
So I made a Mandala with whatever remains in my garden.

Cooler mornings with the hummingbirds returning south and the call of blue jays getting louder, I can feel fall in the air.

I made a delicate twine garland to welcome the season. Whimsical arrangement and styling is fun. 

I draw great inspiration from nature. She never disappoints.

Nature-inspired seasonal garland to adorn entrances, windows and fireplaces.

 I had few dried roses and hydrangea that I added to the garland.

A warm hued colour palette. Deep browns of pinecones, dried natures treasures, brass bells and a twine.

Hydrangeas dry beautifully on the bush, I brought few big ones inside.

Just grateful to be surrounded by such beauty of nature.
Have a great day and enjoy the season in transition!

(Images by Arch and are copyrighted)

Tuesday 8 September 2015

New Age Furnishing Shopping: CustomFurnish.com

In my previous post I had mentioned about my recent purchase, curtains for my home. 
I can't stand the chaos in the markets during festive season, it makes shopping for furnishing such a hassle and I need time and peace to select a stuff. Moreover to escape from overcrowded chaotic markets I always end up paying more for furnishing that isn't actually a perfect fit for home and is not to my liking. Not to mention few more trips to market to get it stitched in my choice of style. 
I had been looking for buying curtains of my style and choice but I wasn't ready to go out and hunt for fabric. And that's when I received a mail from CustomFurnish.com, the only online store where you can buy customized curtains. What more could you ask for, customize and shop for furnishing while sitting at home. Let me share my wonderful shopping experience with CustomFurnish with you'll.  

Buy Furnishing Online

CustomFurnish.com is an online store for customized furniture and furnishings. No need to go anywhere and do lot of research before buying furniture and furnishings. CustomFurnish will do everything for you from sending you up to 15 free fabric samples of your choice (so that you can have a closer look of fabric and its pattern) to pick up the samples back again, from stitching the curtains in your choice of style to shipping it to your address. Here are the steps how can customize your curtains on CustomFurnish:

Step 1 Select the curtain style:
There are many styles you can choose from like eyelet curtains, classic tab curtains, pleat curtains and many more. Select the style that looks best with the chosen fabric. You can choose fabric in next step.

Buy Furnishing Online

Step 2 Select the fabric:
Now this is something very interesting. There are endless choices available to choose a fabric from and that's not all, click on any fabric on the right side and in the left side window you can check out how the curtain will look. This can give you a fair idea about the look of the curtains. To narrow your search you can choose colour/material/pattern from the drop down menu and only that kind of fabric will be displayed.

Buy Furnishing Online

If you are totally confused (just like me) and liked number of fabrics but you are not sure whether the fabric quality is good or not, how heavy or light the fabric is, will it go well with your interiors or not, do not worry at all. Select up to 15 fabric samples and below every fabric image there is an option 'Add To Samples' click on that and the fabric SKUID will be added to the list of free fabric samples.  Free fabric samples is a catalog of all the fabrics that you will selected and it will be sent to you by CustomFurnish team and when you have chosen one fabric from the samples you can write a mail (can be found on CustomFurnish website) to them to schedule a pick up for the same. You just need to pay Rs 500/- which is of course refundable.    


Buy Furnishing Online
Step 3 Select the dimensions:
Next select the dimensions of your curtains. In this step you will measurement guide in the left side panel. You can go through the guide to find find out how to take measurement for your curtains. After the measurement is done you can select the  dimensions of curtains from the right side panel. 

Buy Furnishing Online

Step 4 Select the lining type:
In this step you can choose whether you want lining for your curtains or not. If curtains are light in weight then I would suggest you opt for lining for perfect fall and shape of the curtains. You can choose lining style from options available there. 

Buy Furnishing Online
Step 5 Select the curtain hardware:
See I told you leave everything on CustomFurnish and they will do everything for you. You can even select curtain hardware from the vast variety available there.

Buy Furnishing Online
Step 6 Add to cart:
This step will show you all the details about your chosen product. When you are sure that every detail is correct, hit the 'Add to cart' button. 

Buy Furnishing Online

Step 7 Book order:
After hitting 'Add to cart' you will see your cart and all the product and prize details. Here you can select the number of curtains you want and click 'Book Now'. Fill in your shipping address details and this is it. Wait for just few days and your curtains will arrive in a carefully packed neat package. 

Buy Furnishing Online

And here is how I got my free fabric samples with SKUID and all the details on it, leaflets containing information about measuring curtains, returning samples and ordering curtains and a measuring tape too. 

Buy Curtains Online

Beautiful fabric samples. It was really hard to choose from the samples as they were all so beautiful.
Heavy, light, dark, printed, neutral, plain, shiny, dull and list is long.

CustomFurnish

Somehow I managed to select only one fabric and booked my order. Here is how the package arrived.

Buy Curtains Online

--Now see them hung in my home--

I was astonished to see the change that a rightly chosen curtains can bring about. See before and after pictures and you will know. 

CustomFurnish

Here is after....

CustomFurnish

Some more shots so that you can judge rightly how beautiful my curtains are looking and how replacing only curtains has changed the look and feel of my space. Am I happy......I am extremely happy with the fabric, the feel, the quality and the most important thing that I paid 30% less from the market rates. 

CustomFurnish

These curtains are so pretty that they look gorgeous every time, no matter it's day or night. Curtains look beautiful when light falls on it. 

CustomFurnish

They look even more beautiful when natural light streams through it. Which was not the case with my earlier curtains. They looked ugly during the day time. 


I clicked pictures to my heart's content with big smile on my face. The very first time I liked my curtains and I can't believe that I bought them while I was helping my son with his homework. No more visits to overcrowded markets now. Happy me!!


Dear readers, I hope you all liked my choice. 
Thank you CustomFurnish for excellent services and quality products. I highly recommend CustomFurnish for their best quality products. My shopping experience with them was awesome! 



Monday 7 September 2015

DIY- Blooming Dry Branch

Namaste dear readers!! Hope you all had wonderful weekend. 
So what are you planning to do next weekend? Let me suggest you something.....try this quick & easy DIY - blooming dry branch. Yes you heard it right, a blooming dry branch!!

DIY Paper Roses

I pruned some of my plants that were growing wild in my balcony garden and there I found few dry branches. The moment they fell off the plant, I knew it that they will going to make a gorgeous center piece on my coffee table. Doesn't this blooming dry branch look outstanding. And let me tell you the DIY is super easy, can be completed in just four steps. Let's get started without much ado.

DIY Paper Roses

Gather all these supplies, which I know are easily available in any household. 
1. Now either using compass(geometry tool) or using cap/lid of any container, draw circles of different radius on the craft paper of your choice of colour. 
2. Cut out all the circles then draw spiral on each circle with pencil. Now cut along the drawn line. 
3. Using quilling needle/toothpick roll the craft paper until you reach the end. The center part of the paper will serve as a base to stick the rolled flower on it. Gently take out the needle and glue the end. Paper rose is ready. 
4. Make as many roses as you want to stick on dry branch. Make a tiny hole at the base of each flower, put a drop of glue and then stick it on the branch. Blooming dry branch is ready.

See the below picture for all the four steps:

DIY Paper Roses

I am so excited to show you how this simple and easy DIY has enhanced the look of my living room.
And I am so sure that many of you will definitely going to try this DIY.



Check out the swirls, they make flowers look pretty natural.

Dry Branch Decor


Dry Branch Decor

Dry Branch Decor

 I know I know....you are just too desperate to try your hands on it. Well go ahead, make this beautiful blooming dry branch for yourself and don't forget to share the picture with me :)

Hey! by the way did you notice my recent purchase, my curtains in the backdrop in above images. They are gorgeous and of supreme quality and you know what, I didn't even step out of my house to buy them. Watch out this space to know more about this hassle free shopping experience and some more images of my home.



Have a lovely week ahead!!

P.S - All images are clicked by me and subject to copyright. Please seek permission before using them.




Friday 4 September 2015

Quick Fall Door Decor






It is begrudgingly that I am slowly thinking about Fall decor. Why?

I have been busy with vacations, preparing our rental house for new occupants and of course, our new granddaughter.

Plus, I LOVE SUMMER. I love the heat since I am one that is always cold.

Though I do love decorating for the changing of the seasons, I just know that after Fall is Winter and NO, NO, NO, I hate that.

My

Hello September...

The transient season of summer in Minnesota is coming to an end, there are signs of the upcoming season of fall all over my walking path.

The break from blogging was great.
My garden and backyard yielded some amazing varieties of flowers, bumper crop of mulberries and the tomatoes are still going strong.




Cocoa Srinivas has been keeping me physically active. He is a load of fun. He is goofy, affectionate, adorable and cuddly. I love being a Beagle-mom!




The break also gave me time to think about the direction I want Rang Décor to take.
I want it to continue to be inherently Indian in terms of design aesthetics but also be global in appeal.
Rang Décor plans to add many new features which will include topics that are close to my heart.

So while it will continue to be about interiors, look forward to posts on Food & Entertaining, Vignettes on creating mindful spaces,
a weekly ‘A Cup of Chai..’ post on latest tea–related topics,
In-depth posts on artists, illustrators, painters & potters whose work I admire.
Do-It-Yourself ideas.
Interesting Flea market finds and ideas to incorporate it into our homes.
MN Home feature: Where I share glimpse of corners of our Minnesota Home.
Guest–bloggers on Rang Decor. Yes, first of it’s kind.


Last but not the least a new addition is Rang Style. A feature that will cover posts on textiles, fashion and jewelry.

So there you go. I am quite excited about the new season with Rang Décor taking on an interesting path.

Hope you will continue to join Rang Décor on its 8th year of blogging.

…and when I am not blogging, I probably am making pots in the studio or shooting photographs for my Etsy Shop.

Do check Archana Srinivas Pottery Page on Facebook
My Etsy Store Archana Srinivas Photography FineArt Photo Prints where I will be adding new listings soon!

(Images by Arch and are copyrighted)

Tuesday 1 September 2015

A New Look for Our Fireplace

Happy September, friends!

I know I've said it 1,000 times before how much I miss the fireplace in our old home (especially during the holidays) ... because we had an 18 foot vaulted ceiling in our great room, that allowed our mantel to be nice and tall!  **sniff sniff**


I knew I wanted something similar in our new great room, but on a smaller scale since our ceilings are only 9 feet tall in here.  Well, after getting a $700 estimate, we decided to try it DIY-style.  And, thanks to Cristina's awesome tutorial at her wonderful blog, Remodelando la Casa, we were able to get it done ourselves (for less than $100, to boot)!

So, here's our fireplace a few weeks ago:


And, here it is now!  YAY!


I consider it a "mini me" version of our old fireplace!  

BEFORE:


AFTER!  We might try our hand at adding a bit of molding inside, but, for now, we're thrilled!


It's amazing what a little MDF and molding can do!  

Now, to decorate it for FALL!

And, speaking of blank slates ... do you love trays as much as I do?!  When I spotted this fabulous oversized beauty at Home Goods the other day, I knew I had to grab it.  I love the size, texture and handles ... now, to add a big ol' seasonal vignette to it!


Are any of you getting your "Fall on?"  


I hope so and can't wait to be inspired by all of you!

Thanks for stopping by,


post signature

This CUTENESS is why I haven't been blogging!




This

Cuteness

Is

Why

I

Haven't

Been

Blogging!

This is my 4 month old granddaughter, Isla (Eye-La) Rose. Our first granddaughter and we have been having so much fun with her. My daughter asked me to make a sun-suit for her 4 month professional pictures. She found a pattern on Etsy and picked out the fabric.


 I have been sewing for 49 years...since I was 8, but have not made a baby