Living and Dining Room – Gul

I remember casually walking through the living and dining room of ‘Gul’ when I first visited this home many months back. Until I reached its terrace, and stopped in my tracks. Almost 200 square feet in size, its roof three floors above it, with an actual, live tree growing right in the middle, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Was I floating in the sky, half way up a high-rise in Mumbai? Or was I about to step into the garden of a quaint bungalow in a little town on the outskirts. Either way, I was in love.

I usually picture sofas and chairs falling into various corners of a home when I do a first walk through. Here I began to picture a myriad flowers, chirping birds and an endless view of the skies. I think I decided right then that the underlying theme of this home would be a garden full of flowers. And I am so glad the clients agreed.

And so, today, I proudly present ‘Gul’ or blossom, this home inspired by nature and flowers. Though I am not sharing the terrace with you just as yet, the living and dining room of this home are completely inspired by it. So let’s begin our nature walk here.

The Plan

You enter this home into a small passageway which is perfect to protect the living and dining room from direct view, and give it privacy. We fit in a slim floor to ceiling storage behind the main door. Other than that, we left the tiny entryway as is.

The dining and living area fit in well into the spaces assigned for them. What we added on was the bar.

This home had a powder bathroom where we have placed the bar. The clients were happy to have the guest bath double up as the powder. So we removed the extra bathroom and fit in a beautiful bar in that niche.

Let me show you all of it.

First Look

Standing in the foyer, this is the first look you get of this lovely living and dining room.

The living room has large, glass sliding doors along two walls. The one in front leads to a smaller balcony while the one on the right leads to the terrace.

We used light furniture along the open sides, with a simple chair and a bench, to keep both the doors easily accessible.

A large, comfortable sofa along the closed wall nicely rounds up our seating here.

TV Unit

One problem we had with this arrangement was that we couldn’t place the TV in front of the sofa. This wall, on which we have placed the TV, is to one side of the sofa because the sliding doors to the terrace are directly in front.

Our solution to this was to have a sliding base for the television. The entire wooden backing behind the TV slides out left, so that it lies in front of the sofa when they want to watch television.

This wall, which houses the TV unit, had a large glass window right in the middle of it. While I love the natural light that filters in, the view from that window is almost duct like and not a pleasant living room view.

We decided to build our unit right across this window, to make it look like one single piece instead of separate, individual units. We covered the window with this delicate stain glass with pink cherry blossoms. It lets in the light, blocks the view and plays along with our ‘Gul’ theme beautifully.

To the left of the glass, as you saw earlier, is our TV unit.

To the right we have a sideboard with a mirror.

This works well as a foyer console for our entryway and also a crockery unit for the dining space.

So we managed two separate units with different functions, yet combined them to look like one large unit.

The Dining Area

As you enter this living and dining room, you are first greeted by the warm dining space, flanked by the crockery unit and mirror on one side.

What highlights this dining space and sets the mood for this living and dining room, or rather, this entire home, is this glorious wallpaper.

Fragrant flowers, beautiful birds and blue skies.. this is exactly what I had imagined when I first walked into this home. The large open terrace gave us the vibe on the outside, but I also wanted to bring this vibe all the way into the home. This wallpaper was just the answer I was looking for. We used it along this innermost corner of the living room and the entire space began to blossom.

The Bar

Just round the corner from our splendid wallpaper, we placed the bar.

It fit perfectly into the niche from the powder toilet.

We ran the bar counter right across the wall and built the cabinet along the inner length.

The portion of the floor that was inside the powder bath did not match the living room flooring. We used wood finish tiles in this area. They gave the bar a distinctive look and saved us the trouble of changing the entire living room flooring.

On the inside, our bar has a glass cabinet above and drawers below for barware and bottles.

A Living and Dining Room One With Nature

We decided to go with sky blues for this living room quite literally, to bring in the skies.

This beautiful rug, with it’s silvery blue base and delicate florals, was the starting point.

Sky blue upholstery for the sofa with a patterned fabric in a deeper blue for the chairs got all possible shades of sky into the room.

This delightful stained glass window brought in the blossoms.

Lush green plants, which are an essential in any space we design, did more than just beautify the room here.

All our accessories, whether a bunch of dried flowers in a vase, an abstract piece of art like a bit of sky framed on the wall, or the delicately embroidered floral cushions, all played along with our theme of going natural.

And we finally got this living room, as close to and one with nature as we could get in a small apartment.

Before and Afters

The entrance and dining area…

Planned with the dining table in the centre, flanked by the crockery unit on one side and the bar on the other.

A view of all the windows of this living room…

Transformed into one cohesive space.

The only solid wall of the living room…

Around which we arranged our seating.

The powder bathroom dining niche…

Which we broke down to expand the space into a larger dining area with a beautiful built-in bar.

Get The Look

Here are just a few of the things that went into making this living and dining room inspired by nature. Click away if you would like to beautify your home with them.

| – 1 – Meditating Face | – 2 – Klimt Mirror | – 3 – Persian Cushion Cover | – 4 – Zoey Cushion Cover | – 5 – Chelsea Sofa | – 6 – Mythos Rug | – 7 – Metal Elephant | – 8 – Donut Flower Vase | – 9 – Leaf Shape Serving Platter | – 10 – Boho Bench |

Which brings us to an end of the tour of this nature inspired living and dining room. It does seem incomplete though, doesn’t it? Are you wondering where the that terrace I’ve spoken about so much is?

It’s right there.. as you step out of the sliding doors to your right. Can you see that comfortable wicker chair just waiting for you to step in?

And that balcony straight ahead. Two mugs of beer waiting for us on the bar counter there… one yours and one mine.

I’ll be bringing those up next on the blog. Remember to sign up here so we can tour those together next.

Click here to see more of ‘Gul’.

Until next time,

.

Photography: Biju Gopal of @bizou.photos    

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