Chettinad Inspired Villa (Home Tour of Deepak & Swapna)

The rise of social media seem to have replaced my blogging journey but after my typical “Yes-Yes” & “No-No” thoughts I finally decided to open my blog for this home tour, which deserves to be here and cherished for long just like the other showcased several homes previously.

Subtly accentuated rooms with splendors of classic architecture and discerning aesthetic strokes of designer Nehal Shanghavi at Caasa Mia are just a few of the many highlights of Deepak and Swapana's cultured and curated home.

Easy going yet undeniably stylish home today is a vision of designer Nehal, who is drawn to things that have history, character and soul. And while reading this please don’t take your eyes off the images. 

Interior Designer Nehal has rightly converted her passion of decorating into work through her design. Nehal’s work is powered through reflecting her love and passion of traditional Indian décor that she was secretly harboring. Nehal strives to push the creative envelope when it comes to providing her clients the best. So far it has been a surreal and exciting journey for her filled with tremendous experience.

Nestled on the outskirts of Bengaluru, away from the hustle and bustle of the city's chaos, is this Chettinad inspired villa which is an embodiment of tranquility and chic design sensibilities. Designed by Nehal Shanghavi @caasa_mia, the home owners, Deepak & Swapna's 3,800 sq.ft. home is lovingly named ‘Kamala’ translating to mean the seat of Goddess Lakshmi. 

 

A pair of rustic and gigantic 100 year old pillars spotted in an antique store at Pondicherry was the starting point to their design idea. The pillars bring in a Chettinad touch and paved way for other ornate design elements like the hand crafted teak wood swing, couch, bench, coffee table and a unique triangular 2 seater sofa. 

A good beginning with a focused mind led Nehal championing a fresh and an unconventional approach to those pillars. Her wit of using these traditional pillars in a modern way very much sums up the core of her style. 

Enticing display of silk cushions along with brass idols and green planters accentuated the overall look. Every detail draws the eye and creates the flow. The colors and accessories compliment one another adding a bit of a zing to the interiors.  

The architectural quirks of those pillars are well extended in the dining room. Through careful research and with love for every detail Nehal has merged art and luxury together. A unique round dining table with cane work under an eclectic chandelier was placed alongside glass doors that opened up to an intimate green sit out.

Nehal's stylistic touch runs through out the house. The collage of rustic frames, rustic storage shelves and the rustic looking handsome yet chic desk here simply compliments the entire surroundings. 

To lighten up the walls and accentuate the overall look, a mustard wallpaper with a clay like finish, a blend of ethnic stone plates, wooden carvings and a Ravi Varma art on the feature wall were used. 

The doors of the pooja room in their home has a welcoming vibe and strengthens the point of focus here. Pooja room, being a powerhouse of divine energy, they decided to retain the charm of an old temple with intricate carving along the doors and stone work inside. Meticulously designed traditional pieces like this door never go out of style. The door here breathes elegance and simplicity.

To keep the game going, visually weighty swing is inserted with well-edited elements in the background. The careful placement of each and every piece infuses every square inch here with whimsy and glamour. 

Chiseled to perfection pieces are sited and placed in the most unexpected places. The confident mix of modern and antiques are conversed brilliantly by Nehal creating an impactful effect in her interior choices. 

Each corner around the home has gone through intelligent and deliberate design process by Nehal. She brilliantly inserted this cozy reading nook along the stairway put the space to the best use.

In Swapna's words - "Thanks to our designer Nehal Shanghavi, we were able to style our home to perfection and have a space where we can relax, meditate and introspect after a hard day’s work. A few minutes at the swing with spiritual music at the backdrop, catching a book at our nook or coffee at our sit out with occasional conversations over the dinner table is our idea of a day well spent."

I agree with every word you narrated here Swapna. Your home is an innately nourishing space with a remarkable visual appeal! Nehal has nurtured every corner of this home lovingly and filled with things that Swapna's family will treasure for long. 

Concluding this home tour, wishing Nehal many more accomplishments and accolades for her artistic designing journey further. You can connect with Nehal on her Instagram feed right here.

Stay connected on my social media feeds for the upcoming festive decor, unitl than toodles!

Splendors of Classic Traditional Accessories - Featuring Crafts N Chisel

When a business is powered through reflecting love and passion of Indian handicrafts that we all evolve in....brands like Crafts N Chisel is borned. With roots in India and wings in USA, Crafts N Chisel will be your one stop shop for the next level up in decorating your home. Learning from the trend of globe, collecting with an appreciation for the unusual and gathering from the diverse sources - Crafts N Chisel will help you bring the much-needed aesthetic stroke to your home via their extensive range of home décor products.  

Introducing Craft N Chisel

Indian handicrafts are making their presence felt across runways and have created quite a stir in home décor industry. Thankfully, we have sources like Crafts N Chisel at our fingertips, resulting in a much wider choice. This e-commerce website will leave you spoilt and show you the ropes and pave the way for your home advancement. Art and objects at Crafts and Chisel begs exploration that echoes splendors of classic traditional accessories.  

Marble Tile Diplays

When Megha got married and moved to USA, she was majorly missing the traditional touch in her décor. Raised in a tightly knit Indian family where Megha’s mom is an architect and brilliant artist, Megha was fed with the love of handicrafts, paintings and murals. Inspired and instilled by her mom’s artistic direction Megha had hard time meeting the pleasing and practical needs of fulfilling her dream home here in USA. To give free run to her more adventurous design inclination, she managed to ship home décor products from India for her home here in USA. Admiration of her choices in home décor by friends and guests let Megha unfold the dream of the brand Crafts N Chisel with a motto to bring Indian handicrafts to homes away from home. 

Carefully Handpicked Collection 

When it comes to your home décor – making sure it has layered collected feel means tons of tough decisions. Often what gives our home an authenticity is the visual stories of our home décor...our artfully edited collection with colliding eras and styles of our roots. Keeping the same in mind, Megha cherry picks the best of the authentic and quality pieces via collaborating with multiple artisans in India.  

Dizzying Array of Wall Decor

Let Crafts N Chisel relieve the stress and restore the fun while introducing you to their extensive collection of home décor products from the most sought-after collection. Quality and Customer Satisfaction being the success mantra behind this brand, Crafts N Chisel value customers and their needs more than anything. Keeping the assurance that customers are really happy with the product and service, they go the extra mile to fulfill it.  Their masterly vision brings not only best of the products but they offer free shipping and free return. 

Traditional Touch of Brass

 Megha has converted her passion of home decor into work through Crafts & Chisel by taking along many creative souls behind the brand to bring it together. She points out: “We are a team of young enthusiasts trying to bring rich Indian art easily to people. Here at Craft N Chisel we don't just sell products; we sell ethnic decor ideas. Every day we try to build new collections and styles around our products, keeping it interesting. With every product styling, we bring a little piece of us to people, our customers."

Classic Brass Decor

Crafts N Chisel has rightly won to bring the boldness in home décor via big and little strokes of their products. Their business breathes on about bringing unique and luxurious Indian art to homes in abroad. Apart from collaborating with artisans, they also design a wide range of products in-house which brings uniqueness in their products. 
As they embrace success …..they take great pleasure in their creations of Crafts N Chisel along with the love and smile they bring to their customers. 

Traditional Brass 

While focusing more on their dedicated collection, Megha coins: "The heart of our brand is detailed oriented and proficient handcrafters of India. We realized the reach is the primary issue for artisans to bring their art on a large scale. We are the bridge bringing the Indian traditional art from artists to the world, and also help artists create new products around their traditional style. We explore, curate and collaborate with artists specializing in different Indian handicrafts, and design and experiment in-house products."

Pleasing palette of Dokra Art and Leaf Frames

Indian Handicraft is nourishing in every sense of décor. But with Megha’s masterly vision and never-ending curiosity she brings in the best of both the worlds in her décor brand. Along with traditional she also injects a touch of bit contemporary in her products. Crafts N Chisel by all means embraces its roots but the products are also designed for a new generation look. 

Global Decor Accessories

Giving her creative persona its freedom Megha’s ability to see the light beyond dusky horizon has resulted in this brand. Now she has come full circle as a president of Crafts N Chisel. Result of her vision and courage to see differently has crack open the decorating choices for many homes across the globe.  If your home deserves a playful mix of these easy going yet undeniably stylish products, scroll into their website here and you are sure to be assured of quality and standardized services. 

Décor accessories always go on a long way ensuring our home possesses character and life. As we sign off, wishing Crafts N Chisel all the very best for all future accomplishments. Do visit their website here for more inquiries or product search. 

Their shipping and return is free worldwide for a limited period. 

Follow along Crafts N Chisel on 

Instagram here

Facebook page here

Pinterest here 

Until we meet again, stay connected on social feeds of Pinkz Passion on Instagram and Facebook, toodles.

Be my guest! (Guest Room Reveal)

 The world is being challenged with fear, frustration and anxiety with the sudden pangs of social withdrawal. As we face the unexpected circumstance during this pandemic, our life feels chaotic and seems it will take an eternity to see the end.  

During these difficult times, it's very important for us to recharge and focus our energy on other positive things. Channeling all our energy on creativity is the best upside of our quarantine – since we have both - time and incentive to knock out some of those projects that we may have put off. While doing so, we will keep ourselves grounded (and probably remain sane) throughout this chapter of our life. 

With the onset of summer on the horizon, I am dreaming of a back to normal life, where we will be hosting again too! Being said that, we actually had a long list of guests this year on our agenda from friends to family who were planning to visit us. I don't see that happening in near future but I am glad that we completed this long-due project of our guest bedroom done in time. 

We have a designated guest bedroom with an attached washroom and a walk in closet. Yet, we wanted to erase the visual clutter in the guest room when there are no guests around. So that we also can have an extra room on hand empty for more space that can be used for a variety of other functions aside from sleeping. We decided on a customized Murphy bed or a wall bed, which adds space and flexibility in our guest room. 

This built-in Murphy bed is both practical and stylish. It transforms the space into a welcoming guest room in a snap. We bought this Murphy bed in the early beginnings...about 6 years ago but today’s fold-up beds are becoming even more functional often incorporating a desk or even side tables. Besides it’s perfect for small space solution.   

We also customized the queen size bed with lights above for ease of excess for older guests like our parents or keeping in mind those guests who like to read before sleeping. Two side tables are from Bouclair store here in Toronto because things don't need to match it has to be mixed :). 

The opening space of the actual bed was quite tricky to add or hang anything since the bed had to be lifted away when not in use so I ended up stenciling the wall. I will save my painful stenciling story for some other day as it took me forever to complete this small portion inexpertly about 2 years back. Nevertheless, I am very happy and proud of the results ;).

Our guest bedroom has always been ready but now with new finishing touches (and my DIYs) it breathes new elegance. The full size mirror in the guestroom from Ikea is a great addition, not only for guests but also for me to check my final look in that mirror when the room is empty. 

For us, whether we’re expecting guests for one night or for one week, we always strive to make guests feel comfortable and at ease in our home. Nobody likes to watch their hostess scramble around to get things done after they arrive, so I take care of the guest room beforehand. I ensure to have things around for them by putting the things they'll need throughout their stay right there in the room. Some examples include books, water bottles, and towels. If you want to go the extra mile, have some flowers or plants around (yes, their addition is a heart warming gesture).

No room of our home is too small for grace notes of beauty. I aimed to keep useful and beautiful both things around in our guest room. From an antique looking four drawer Chester to an eye catching ikat lamp that improves a short stay of our guests. 

My creativity has soared in this lock-down phase and while achieving some great DIY results, I have been entertained, distracted and amused in equal measure. Also my fetish of kutchhi handicraft found a new perspective. Instead of hoarding these batwas (purses) in drawers, I decided to appreciate them on my walls. The kalamkari lamp is a DIY project, that you can check out on my Facebook here.

DIY projects aren’t always about the end product, and how useful or practical they will be. These DIY’s are very often about the process, which I have enjoyed tremendously in these days. Carrying forward the same theme of kutchhi batwa I DIY these frames too and they were an absolute delight to indulge into. Shall you decide to make one for your home, check this video. 

Here is the final look of how our room looks empty when the bed is stowed away. The space is perfect for my teen's friends to play board games and for me also to do my extra craft activities. But for now, until we have guests rolling in again and until I go on another vacation again....this room has been my 'stayacation' adda :) during this quarantine.

Adding on to an existing home is a long process that takes a lot of parts coming together. And if you are like me who is trying to get exactly what you want from the project, it takes forever. But I am glad that my forever has ended and we have completed our guest room. 

Here is the short video clip of the room, enjoy!

May this long weekend be filled with peace, health and restful moments for all of you. Until we meet again, seize the day and hang in there, toodles!

Sources:

• Custom Wall bed: Eco Wall Bed
• The quilt and the curtains - Home Sense Canada 
• The side tables : Bouclair
• Tall lamp: Walmart
• Mirror: Ikea
• Antique cabinet is from one of the furniture warehouse here in Toronto while they were closing down the business.