Hotel du Parc~ A heritage villa

Hotel du Parc ~ A heritage villa, is where we spent our Christmas Eve in Pondicherry.

Built in the 17th century Heritage Villa Selvom, which has served as the residence to many French governors now is Hotel du Parc.

Beautiful pale yellow and pastel turquoise has been used to bring in the feel of Provence, South France.

Loved the blend of colonial style and contemporary look in the villa...

The dining area with the view of the huge Mango tree that forms a canopy outside in the courtyard...

The deck in the night...

Elegant rooms with antique furniture...Silk drapes and porcelain lamps add a touch of elegance...

The best part about this lovely villa is that it is located at walking distance from the Aurobindo Ashram!

P.S. All the images are from Hotel du Parc's website, my battery died just on the eve of Christmas:-(

Hues of Pondicherry...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Our December vacations last year was spent mainly with family, doing absolutely NOTHING:-)

Okay, well almost...one day we decided to drive down to Pondicherry and enjoyed strolling through the various rues or streets.

Pondicherry being a former French colony in India still retains some of the influences. Here are some colourful captures...

Traditional door colored brightly...

The temple elephant...

Fabulous shade of orange...

Loved the huge doors...

...and the grills

The door-knobs...

The street signboards with french and tamil influences...

Hope you liked the various colours of Pondicherry, coming up next is a post on a lovely heritage villa where we stayed.

( images by Arch)

festive lighting...

Diwali is long gone and it's time for Christmas with reds & greens, cakes & cookies and loads of happiness....

...but festivity can never go out of style, can it?

I received a mail, few weeks back from one of Rang Decor's readers Rama Ananth and she wanted to share some of her Diwali moments with all of us. I loved the way she has used fairy lights and other traditional lamps to bring in festivity.

Here are few captures from her lovely home.

These are truly beautiful Rama, thanks for sharing it with readers of Rang Decor!

(images by Rama Ananth)

A Hundred Hands...

A Hundred Hands is a nonprofit trust based in Bangalore, India.

Their vision is to create a world that celebrates the pleasure of handmade crafts in our homes and daily lives.

'The Handmade Collective' A showcase and sale of all things handmade is on and I had an opportunity to drop by yesterday and enjoy the beauty of various handcrafted work.

The gracious Mala Dhawan of A Hundred Hands showed me around and here are few lovely products that I captured from a variety of handmade goodies...

Amazing Aepan painting on tealight holder lamps...

Gift boxes...

'Aepan is a unique craft of the Kumaoni folk , where they use finger nails, originally done on walls. Intricate patterns are made using natural dyes as this craft gets a new lease of life decorating homes and office stationery.'

Christmas gift items by Flower Belles Decorators...

I just loved this idea of having fairy lights decorated with recycled egg crates by eCoexhist...

Eco-friendly Ganesha by eCoexist...Beautiful Sanjhi Art...

'Sanjhi is an art of cutting paper on non metallic surfaces with the help of plied scissors and sharp blades. While this craft flourished since its origin in the lands associate with Krishna, in Mathura and Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, today only one family claims to be carrying it forward through it's fifth generation of artists.'

Lush green plants for sale...
Beeswax products...
Hase Chitra, a tribal art form from Shimoga and Karwar district of Karnataka. Usually done on special occasions like weddings etc, now trying to bring it into our modern everyday life by painting on canvas and metal...

It was a great to learn about some very interesting art forms of India, that are being revived by 'A Hundred Hands...'

Do drop by at

A Handmade Collective

24th Nov to 28th Nov. 2010

4, Ashley Road, Behind Hotel Ajanta

off Brunton Cross Road

Bangalore

Do check out their Facebook page for other updates.

(images by Arch

Art by Aarohi...

Nazar Batto Box...

Today, I dropped by at Aarohi Singh's exhibition at Pageturners Bookstore and was completely engulfed into a world of vibrant colours and Indian Kitsch.

Here are few captures of her wonderful work.

Side View of the box...

Horn Ok Please Kettle...

Thayyam Box...

Nimboo Mirchi Series Paintings...

Gorgeous Thalis (psst...that lovely Goddess Saraswati thali will soon be mine;-)

The lovely lady with her stunning work:-)

Aarohi's exhibition is on till 28th November, 2010 at

Pageturners Bookstore,

89 Kannan Building, MG Road, Bangalore

So if you are in Bangalore, do drop by:-)

Freedom Tree Homestore.

Recently I interacted with someone from Freedom Tree Design. To be honest I hadn't heard of them before, so I did my research and landed on their colourful website and subsequently on their Facebook page.

I was amazed to see Freedom Tree Homestore's contemporary home decor collection of furniture, table ware, linen, accessories all made in India.

Freedom Tree range of ceramics

Poochapalam textile range...

Latika Khosla is the design director of Freedom Tree Design, a color and trend studio based in India.

Freedom Tree Homestore is her latest venture, where the focus is on creating colourful, remarkable design & print and also has designed, curated collection with quirky overtones.

The Independence Collection...

Mombaye, The City range...

Kukkiballi Textile Print...

The Independence Collection...

Aranya range...

ceramics...

Dhurries...

'The spirit is to celebrate modern India and as a vibrant design destination – it is a thumbprint against standardization. Loveable and fun products make everyday living beautiful celebrating a freedom of expression, freedom of thought and freedom of being.'

~Freedom Tree Design

What a lovely thought!

The Freedom Tree Homestore is based in Mumbai. They are also on Facebook.

(images from Freedom Tree Design)

photography inspires art...

You might have heard many times, "Oh, that photograph looks like a painting!" or "The painting is so real I thought it was a photograph."

One of Rang Decor's lovely readers Pree pointed me towards this blog, CreationS - The Essence Of Arts by Rachana Saurabh.

What a lovely surprise awaited me. Remember the post 'paint your prayers...' where I had shared photographs of little feet painted on pebbles? Well, Rachana a very talented artist has created a lovely painting inspired by that photograph!

My photograph...

Her painting...

It's wonderful to see readers get inspired by the little ideas I share here on Rang Decor and really appreciate it. Thank you!

P.S. If you have been inspired by any post on Rang Decor, do share your photographs on Rang Decor's Facebook page.

Rang Decor now on Facebook...

Facebook being a great space to interact and share ideas and inspirations, I have finally created a page dedicated to Rang Decor.

Readers will be able to get updates, when I post on the blog and hope to add many more interesting features...

So do drop by at Rang Decor on Facebook