Budget Room Makeover 2011

It is a bit late in the day for this post. But I am super-excited about my room makeover carried out inch by inch by yours truly. Its not the best room makeover - its as much as I could source out of my shoe-string budget and lack of certain kinds of room pieces in India.

Furniture

My parents had coupons left over from Fabindia and we were able to manage a larger than usual single bed in dark Mango Wood. Later we happened to be in Amar Colony where second hand furniture is sold. I came across a beautiful wood carved chair which was the one piece of a pair and after tactical bargaining with the vendor, my dad and I managed to buy it for Rs. 3000 (approx. $66). Yep!

Curtains and Linen

For the curtains we scrounged around Lajpat Nagar market (famous for cloth shops) to find a deep royal pink (Rani colour in India) silk cloth that I got the tailor to stitch up into a french window curtain (my room entrance is a set of half french-window doors). With the leftover cloth, I asked the tailor to make cushion covers to go with the curtains.

Accessories

Most of the stuff in my room has sentimental value and no matter how cheesy or kiddish it gets, I'll never get rid of it. The book shelf (part of the colonial structure that is my house) was much cleaner and less cluttered before I moved to Oxford to pursue my studies. Now, its got a lot of my mom's stuff which couldn't find place elsewhere in the house!

Lights

The golden bulb lights that I nailed around my mirror were bought in Malaysia. A similar set in pink, white and purple are nailed along the skirting of the wall with the bookshelf. Next to the mirror, there are lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The blue lantern was a gift from my Mom. The purple lantern was bought from a small family run antique store from Jew-Town in Kochi, Kerala. It is now a popular accessory in many cafes and restaurants in urban cities in India.

Closet

Its only a picture of the outside of the closet - the inside was almost empty as most of stuff is here at my College residence. The closet, from the inside, I must say is very well organized. I designed it myself because I've been very disappointed with closet spaces I've had since I was a kid as it didn't conform to my organizational ideas. But, this one I measured and drew on graph paper and researched until I got it perfect! The colour, the size, the shelf sizing, height, depth et al. The only sad part of my story is the Carpenter messed it up a little. If you look closely, its supposed to be a bi-fold closet door which folds and pulls towards yourself (outside). The carpenter made it such that the door bi-folds alright, but folds on top of the other half of the door. Sigh. If only it weren't for the doors my closet would finally be perfect. I am grateful though, its definitely an improvement on the previous ones!

All in all, I love my room. And there is much room for improvement! (pun-intended) But as I said, on a shoestring budget, which does not allow for too many options to pick from, a colonial structure and an amateur designer will only get you as much!

Next time:  Oxford bedroom! Keyword: Retro


More Later!

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