I have spent a whole lot of time in my New York City apartment in the past two years. The space itself is a mere 70 square feet but it has been so exciting finding ways to decorate it and make it feel like me. Through this process of trial and error, I’ve learned that my design style might be the intersection of two very different cultures: Scandinavian and Indian.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking hard about how I developed my taste for interior design in the first place. The house I grew up in was decorated mostly by my mother who is and will always be my primary inspiration for home design. Growing up, my house was always pretty minimally decorated. I watched my parents, very slowly build their furniture collection. My mom always advocated for high quality pieces of furniture, especially when it came to things we would use every day like our beds, couches and dining tables. We do have a few Ikea pieces scattered about, but in a very intentional way. My mom is also someone who does not believe in hoarding things and our house was always extremely clean and minimalist. The color palette of my house was filled with warm tones, wood and the occasional Indian pattern. I really liked all of these things growing up, and I see a lot of these styles incorporated into my current taste.
Growing up, my bedroom was pretty sparsely decorated until I discovered Tumblr and Seventeen Magazine in middle school. I became pretty obsessed with ripping out images I liked from magazines and posting them on a little corner of my wall. I also really liked to collect maps and tickets from trips I went on and put them up on my walls. My duvet cover was almost always a fun color like yellow or green or pink. I loved (and still love) color so much. I remember my outfits would always be a pretty random assortment of colors that sometimes didn’t go together. Color, especially warm earth tones, comfort me and I don’t think I will ever have a room that is all white.
In college, after taking a lot of graphic design classes, I became exposed to the German and Scandinavian art styles. I really really liked these styles, especially the travel posters that were made in the 50’s and 60’s. I generally don’t love all the color palettes that those styles have, I find a lot of the colors kind of cold. However, I love German and Scandinavian art because it is extremely functional and practical. I find functional and practical things to be really beautiful. Some of the art and furniture is so practical that it makes me laugh. Designers like Herman Miller or companies like Hay Design make such simple yet practical pieces of furniture that can be useful for organizing things in my bedroom.
Recently, I’ve found myself transitioning into incorporating more wooden and Indian flares to my bedroom. My trip to India reminded me how much I like Indian styles of painting and the COLORS. I don’t think many other places in the world can match the rich Indian color palette. It has been really fun to find pieces of art that I really like that contain the culture I’m from and the colors I like. Indian art tends to be more ornate and detailed compared to Scandinavian styles. I kinda like having these styles next to each other. Their juxtaposition brings out the extremeness in each style. I’ve realized that I really like ornate things if I am looking at them, but if I am actually using something on a day to day basis, I want it to be simple and practical.
Call me traditional but I do think that furniture companies “back in the day” would make better quality products, and we would take better care of these products too. Whenever I want to buy something structural for my bedroom, I look for “vintage” xyz on Etsy first. Some of the lamps, toolboxes, frames, etc. are so well made and I have a feeling that they will last a lot longer than something I buy for cheap on Amazon.
Lastly, I have become someone who really loves her plants. I’ve had to back off on buying more because I simply don’t have room for them. It has been really exciting to take care of my three girlies while I work. Perhaps I am losing my mind but as someone who works from home by herself, I consider my plants to be my friends who accompany me through the work day. Yes, I sometimes talk to them, and I swear that’s why they are still alive.
In a nutshell, this is how I got to my current interior design style. It is something that is constantly evolving as I am exposed to more and more ways of decorating a home. The most important takeaway I’ve learned about interior design over the past years is that no matter what my style is, I should take my time and slowly decorate the space I’m in. Often, we see other people’s spaces and feel a need to have a “finished” space immediately. However, a lot of the times, spaces look good because someone has slowly incorporated things over the years, building pretty and complex visual layers within their environments. I’ve also found that if I think for a while about buying something, I realize if I really like it or not. If there is something I still love 6 months later, it is probably something I will like for a while. I’m excited to continue building my taste as I expose myself to new art and the environments around me (especially nature).
Happy decorating :)
