Snapshots of my Vacation

It's the monsoons, and the perfect time for a quiet, picturesque retreat at a very familiar place - my parents' coffee estate where I spent many of my childhood holidays. Rich in flora and fauna, with the River Badra enveloping it on 3 sides, this place is close to Kudremukh National Park, an ecological hotspot.

The famous vakil bench - almost every old house has one of these.

A Mangalore-tiled roof with rafters and an antique light bulb.

I love peeking through this chik and enjoying the rain

The river beyond the coffee plants.

Anthuriums

Pretty hedges

I'm not sure if these are China Pinks, but I spend a lot of time admiring them!

Periwinkles in the hedge

Crown of Thorns

More anthurium plants

A rain-drenched rose

Can you spot the Malabar Grey Hornbill on the tree?

If you missed the post on Rekha's vacation pics of lovely Rajasthan, click here!

We have a winner!

Thank you Madhavi Yob for the lovely background image
and for your constant support to The Keybunch!

Peacock Themed Interiors

The lobby at the dining

Somehow, I have not been able to update my travel pictures so far and Sharon keeps chiding me for this. One obvious reason is my poor photographic skills and the other of course is sheer laziness. This time, however I promised Sharon that I am going to post pictures irrespective of their quality. So, here we go…..

The reception

Last month, I happened to visit the Club Mahindra resort at Kumbalgarh in Rajasthan. Needless to say, the décor had all the typical elements of Rajasthan. This resort had their décor based on peacocks, not sure if these birds are found in abundance in that place though. Peacocks seemed to be around everywhere, from bed rooms to the reception and dining. Everywhere else, the color combination of blue and yellow followed. I fell in love with the color combination used. Take a look and let me know your views.

Close up of the peacocks

Btw, Kumbalgarh is known for its beautiful Kumbalgarh fort with its perimeter walls that extend 36 km in length claimed to be the longest after the Great Wall of China with over 360 temples within the fort. There is an interesting story on how the fort was built on the wiki, check it out. The fort looks awesome when it is lit up in the evening and the view from the fort is breathtaking. Luckily for us, it rained and we managed to escape the scorching heat that is typical of rajasthan. Now, over to interiors....

The peacock theme spills over to the room

Close up of the head rest

My favorite- built in window seating/bed, loved the color combination

Pictures of the famous Kumbalgarh fort

Beautiful pattern in marble

Colorful ceiling

Typical Rajasthani niche

Btw, don't you think my photographic skills need to be brushed up ? :)....Any suggestions are welcome. We will be announcing the giveaway of the lighting shortly, watch out.

We are featured in the Bangalore Mirror..

...in an article that speaks about blogging on topics totally unrelated to one's professions. Both Shashi and I are freelance business/ technical writers, and I guess that's why we were interviewed. We were happy to get featured, moreso because our blog was mentioned:)

It's the monsoons and getting to do any work is pretty difficult - all I want to do is have some nice hot pakodas, washed down with fragrant filter coffee or milky tea, and then curl up on the couch with the latest Inside Outside, dreaming about my new home! The rains have a way of making you slow down, and just enjoy the freshness in the air! That I am off on a 2-week break tomorrow onwards, is not helping either!

Too lazy to even click my own chai-pakora pic, I borrow this one featuring onion pakodas from one of my fav food blogs, A Taste of Mysore. Thanks Lakshmi! A tea pic folks, may or may not follow ;)

And oh! the fab pendant light giveaway is still on, so do spread the word, and/or participate!

100th Post - Giveaway from CSN Lighting

It is our 100th post, and we are celebrating with a give away from CSN Lighting, open only to our readers in the US and Canada. For the rest of you, we hope to come back with give aways in your location too, so don't lose heart!

The giveaway winner will receive one of these beautiful pendant lights selected by The Keybunch team. Aren't they gorgeous?

The pendants are brought to you courtesy of CSN Lighting, a store with a host of options ranging from ceiling lights to floor lamps, to table lights.

These beautiful pendant lamps come to you from the Medici Collection from Kenroy. On March 6, 2009, The Hunter Lighting group and Kenroy Designs merged to create an incredibly popular lighting décor company dedicated to furnishing all homes with beautiful lighting. With a commitment to remain competitive with their pricing, as well as in the quality of workmanship, Kenroy Home employs a team of talented designers and technicians to ensure that only the most practical, high quality products make it into your home. Using various finishes and designs that are both classic and futuristic, Kenroy Home features a brilliant collection of mix and match styles for the enjoyment of anyone looking to light up their home with well placed lighting.

Liked them? Read on to know how one of these can be yours.

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To be eligible for the give away, you have to

1. Visit the CSN Lighting website, and identify your favorite lights.
2. Next, come back here to The Keybunch, and leave us a comment, saying which ones you liked, and which room you would like to see them in.

Earn extra entries for each of the following:

• "Follow Us" on Blogger
• Publicize this give away on your respective blogs, twitter pages or social networking sites.
  
  Leave a separate comment for each of the above, and remember to leave your email id too.
  

Entries will be accepted until Sunday, July 19 and we will announce the lucky winner on Monday, July 20.

Good luck to our readers, and many thanks to Jonathan from CSN Lighting.

- Sharon and Rekha

PS - 3 cheers to another lovely blog celebrating 100 posts
with a lovely giveaway as well. Head over to Ennui

If it touches the heart, it’s art…..

Life partners

One needs guts to walk away from the comfort zone and take a risk to follow your passion and Sujata Tibrewala, a self taught Bangalore based artist has done just that….. chucking up her cushy job as an engineer to take a plunge into the artistic world.

Sujata’s illustrations have been featured in a couple of magazines and holds regular exhibitions at prominent art galleries across the country. She portrays her work through her site pratibimba.in. I couldn’t make it when Sujata invited me to her exhibition held last month at the Renaissance art gallery and hope to check them out some time soon. Meanwhile sit back and enjoy her work.

Devotee

“I look for beauty and get mesmerized when I find it in both perceptible and imperceptible environments. For me, art and science are inseparable because none can exist without the other because both are from and for nature”, says Sujata.

Reflections

My beautiful world

Down the memory lane

Nature life babies

If it touches the heart, it is in some way art - This is Sujata's motto.

Globetrotting with The Keybunch:The minimalist urban home of Sharma and Jeevanjee

Photograph Courtesy: Curbed LA

Today I bring you a home quite different from the ones we usually feature on this space. This home caught my fancy because the architect couple to whom it belongs, have successfully addressed the need for outdoor living space in a dense LA urban environment through a courtyard which serves as an entry court and formal dining room. Not all of us are lucky to have a spacious living area, and this home is a wonderful example of putting limited space to great use.

Featured in several design magazines, and quite the talk of the architectural world, this home boasts of a minimalist design that adds to the charm and reinforces the functionality/ affordability of their style.

Photograph Courtesy: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
The marble-topped dining table in the picture above is designed by Ali

Husband-wife duo Ali Jeevanjee and Poonam Sharma of LOC Architects were faced with several challenges when they bought two second-story apartments in Los Angeles’ Chinatown for their home-office space. The units were 600-square foot one-bedroom apartments and a common ground floor area (cost: $600,000 plus $200,000 in construction) with low ceilings; they were dark and cramped and had too many walls.In addition, the couple had to resist from making constructional changes to the exterior that would have spoilt the historic charm of the street.

The couple's first priority was to create an outdoor dining area, because they both loved to eat outdoors, and their previous home in another city had a 10-person dining table on the patio. They wanted to re-create that somehow.So they carved out a 17-by-11-foot opening in the roof to create a courtyard at the center, managing an outdoorsy, open air feel to their dining area, reminiscent of the courtyard homes in Asia, where the couple has their roots.

The glass doors where the living room meets the courtyard open in
their entirety to both cool the apartment interior and provide a
continuous outdoor experience.

With the dining area decided, the entire plan of the house just fell into place. The couple raised the ceiling, and Ali's signature theme (in most of his projects), transparency and connectivity solved the problem of the dark rooms. He installed windows in all the rooms opening out onto the courtyard, including the office space and the bedrooms so that natural light from the courtyard was fully taken advantage of, making the place cooler and brighter.

Further, the apartment is designed to stay cool without the use of air conditioning.For cross ventilation especially during summer, the couple installed an open-air gate at the bottom of the stairwell leading to the street. Even in the hottest months, the gate creates a current of air funneling from Chung King Road to the courtyard and through clerestory windows into the living area. The new courtyard delivers natural light to adjacent rooms, including the master bedroom, a baby’s room (for their little daughter Noor) and a home office. Pivoting glass Arcadia doors connect the open living area and kitchen to the outdoor space. Says Sharma, "I would have to say that while being very minimal and modern, the house is very South Asian in its spatial organization. The entire apartment is organized around a central exterior courtyard, something which I truly appreciated while growing up in India."

The kitchen is designed for maximum functionality while
maintaining total openness towards the living room.

The master bedroom is designed to take full advantage of
the courtyard in terms of light, air and experience.

The rear balcony provides additional garden space as well
as spectacular views of the downtown skyline.

Photograph Courtesy: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
The master bath takes maximum advantage

of the courtyard to provide an indoor outdoor bathing space.

Photograph Courtesy: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Ali and Poonam at their office space, which is
another room that opens out into the courtyard

For the interiors, the couple used a lot of plywood and Ikea along with their own designs to create a unique style while managing to keep things functional and minimal at the same time.. Most of the furnishings and fixtures are either Ikea or custom-designed.

Photograph Courtesy: Curbed LA

Says Poonam, "We are both interested in plywood mainly because it is a cheap material that is not usually used as a finish material. We are interested in finding ways to make inexpensive, ordinary materials look beautiful. We used Ikea cabinets and closets which are very simple, white, modular...in different ways, another way of 'teasing out' the beauty from the ordinary."

Photograph Courtesy: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Above: A functional book space made of plywood that runs
along the wall in the living room. The top of this book case offers
convenient seating space.

Below: Plywood walls and floors with the silver of the
steel window frames and other embellishments create
a nice contrast.

Here are some before and after pics to show you what a wonderful job they have done with their place.

Before

After

Before

After

This house has been featured here and here. We are looking to feature more Indian and Asian homes across the globe.

There's a cool giveaway coming up on The Keybunch. Keep checking in:)