Entrance and Passage – Taru

Hello and welcome to our newest and latest project, ‘Taru’. I can’t wait to walk you through all of this beautiful home. There are so many pretty pictures that I am just dying to share. I feel like putting them all together and sending them all at once. But I’m going to take a deep breath and start at the very beginning. So hi again, and a huge welcome from the entrance of Taru.

Entrance of Taru

‘Taru’ is inspired by nature. Starting with the earthy greens, whites, beiges and wood tones of the entrance and living area, to the floral pinks and purples of the girls rooms to the ocean and sky blues of the master and guest bedrooms, you’ll see colours, motifs, and finishes influenced by the cosmos all across the home. Which is why we call it ‘Taru’, meaning tree.

Taru is home to a gentle and warmhearted family of four. We’ve tried to give them a home as gentle and warm as them. And the warm welcome starts right at the entrance of Taru.

The Plan

The main door of the home opens into a good sized foyer.

Though I loved the size of this space, as I saw it, there were two disadvantages. First was the shape. It’s so much longer than wider. If we place a regular-sized sideboard or console in the centre, it would make the space look narrower still. We solved this problem by using a 10 inch narrow shelf running across the length of the foyer.

The second disadvantage was that this space has no windows, and so no natural light. But I’ll show you how we dealt with that afterwards. For now, it’s time to step into Taru.

Main Door

You are welcomed with an earthy, natural vibe right away at the entrance. The main door is clad in veneer. We used a large piece of live edge wood on it for a handle.

We usually like to light up the space around the door. In this case, there wasn’t much space around, so we turned our lights inwards, onto the door itself, with such dramatic effect. The light highlights the grains of the lovely veneer and accentuates the live edge handle.

The Foyer

Open the door to step into the inviting foyer. With its soft green colour and wood and wicker finishes, the earthy, natural vibe of the main door carries through into the foyer.

That 10 feet long wall is the first thing you see as you enter the home. We wanted it to create an impact, and so couldn’t leave it blank. If we put anything large enough to fill it up nicely, it would make the foyer look narrower still. So we designed this slim yet long console that fills it up beautifully, yet doesn’t get in the way.

The console holds folding shoe racks towards the right side to keep the footwear out of sight. The end towards the living room has been kept open to keep it looking light from the living room. We added the single, black leg on the open end as eye candy.

I had mentioned earlier that this space had two disadvantages. The second being no source of natural light. It’s at the far end of the living room, away from its large windows. Also, it’s almost 10 feet long. Which means the far corner of the foyer gets almost no light at all.

Notice how the floor is also a dark grey marble? That added to the dark vibe here. So we decided not to ‘solve’ this problem at all. We used it as a feature instead. We went with darker paint on the walls and ceiling to give it a moody vibe.

As you turn to your left and look through the foyer, the dark foyer makes a stark contrast against the light and open living room. The bright, airy space immediately catches your eye and draws you to it.

But we aren’t going to look at the living room today. There are SO many beautiful things to share from this space that I have a full post dedicated to it coming up next week.

Do you see that lovely glass door behind the dining table? Let me show you what lies beyond that.

The Passage Inside

There is a long passage behind the door, that leads into the kitchen and the four bedrooms. At the far end, we hung a tree of life tapestry on a rod to make an elegant wall hanging that can be seen right from the foyer when the glass door is open.

There were two niches in this passage. The niche further down the passage can be seen in this photograph. We fitted it with a large storage for all the extra household essentials that are otherwise ‘homeless’. The storage shutters are painted to match the wall.

The Mandir

There was another niche close to the passage door. We placed the mandir in this niche. It has a storage unit below it, topped with white quartz. There is a pull-out tray below when a larger space is required for the pooja. A tree of life wallpaper on the wall behind and a cutwork arch on top complete the look.

Also, notice the door? It has a delicately embroidered sheer fabric sandwiched between glass. Doesn’t the embroidery look like an amalgamation of the tree of life from the wallpaper and the cutwork of the arch?

Just like the foyer, this passage has no windows either. This glass allows light to come into the passage even when the door has been shut for privacy.

Back to the Foyer!

Standing in front of that beautiful door, that’s the view of the foyer beyond the living room. You can see the dark, moody vibe of the foyer contrasting with the bright living room. You also get a sense of how the wood tones and green flow into the living room. Also how our lone black console leg is not so lonely after all. We have a sprinkling of black accents in the living room too. But more of that next week…

For now, let’s get back to the foyer.

Before and Afters

Here are some before and afters from the spaces I have shared above.

The main entrance door.

We changed the veneer to match the one we’ve used across the home and added the live edge handle to make a bold statement.

A view of the living room from the foyer.

Looks so beautiful now, doesn’t it? I can’t wait to share this with you.. remember to come back next week for this!

Get The Look

And, as always, here are a few of the pretty things we used to decorate the lovely spaces I have just shared with you. Click away to own them yourself!

| – 1 – Gold Smokey Glass Wall Light (we bought them at a local store, but this is link to similar) | – 2 – Tree of Life Wallpaper |– 3 – Cream and Gold Ceramic Mandir Knob | – 4 – Blue Finials for Wall Tapestry Rod | – 5 – Artificial Mini Rose |

.

Which brings us to the end of this post.. but it is only the beginning of our journey through ‘Taru’. This home is full of beautiful spaces, colours and features that I am so excited about sharing with you. The living and dining comes next week..

Till then, let me know what you think of the foyer. Do write in the comments below.

Until next time,

.

Photography: Biju Gopal of @bizou.photos 

Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links