This house is Keerti’s baby – Sharad Kelkar
The lovely couple Keerti and Sharad Kelkar got themselves their first house around four and a half years back. While their dream house is yet getting ready, they take us around their house, showing the various rooms, unique gifts, little secrets and stories attached to each aspect of their house. GR8! Gives you a glimpse of the suave, classy, simple yet elegant house of Keerti & Sharad…
Keerti:
Turning a flat into a home requires a lot of efforts and you actually love the entire process of decorating your house, giving that finishing touch, it adds an essence of your personality. We have lived in rented apartments and every eleven months shifting was a pain and we always used to think that how would we decorate our own house. Our friend and interior designer Vivek Popli has helped us in the designing.
Whoever has come to my house, has said that they love our house, as it isn’t cluttered or doesn’t look congested. It accumulates everyone there’s a lot of furniture but still there is free space around. It’s spacious and yet not crammed up.
I hate white light and we didn’t have a single white tube light in the house though now Sharad has got these save electricity kinda lights!
I don’t mind shifting to our new house, I know we have put in a lot of effort in ornamenting this house but going through this process once again will be as exciting. I love to decorate and design so it’s fun and a feel good feeling, I so want to do it all over again.
We didn’t renovate much as we will shift to the new house once it’s ready, so we just changed the leather of the sofas as they were badly torn by Bacardi. He also has chewed all the tables from below, you can see it. We have used Composite Leather; we don’t mind people spoiling it so there are no worries of people spilling drinks, etc.
Our house is made up of small small things. Wherever we go, we pick up something interesting and unique from that country or state. I like to collect things, each small gift or a showpiece holds a memory that is dear to us.
We practice Buddhism, since six and a half years believe strongly in it; it gives a peace of mind. We believe in Ganpati too. All our friends know so they give us related gifts, that’s why you can see so many idols all around the house.
I wanted everything in white and gold but Bacardi sheds a lot of hair so as darker shade will hide it thus chose brown and gold. Brown was a necessity! I love wood and thus most of the interiors and things are carved in wood. I love gold, like that glittery thing, so Gold was the perfect colour. The interiors are based on an Indo- western theme.
Both the candle stands are gifts; Hukkah is gifted by Surveen Chawla. Ash tray is a gift too.
That flag is a symbol of India’s win in world cup final and we too were on the roads.
I love everything in my house except for this Centre Table. I don’t like its size, shape, and even its stand below is shaped like a charpoy. There was this piece of wood left and we realized that there should be a center table, it had just slipped of our mind, so we had to make this and I so hate it.
The chairs around the dining table are beautifully carved and have a perfect shape.
Sharad:
“This house is Keerti’s baby and she has put in a lot of time and effort to make it look beautiful. We had a mutual choice; I liked her choice so it isn’t that the house is according to anyone’s choice. We have been practicing Buddha so people keep giving us idols, books, etc.”
There were two important things that were in my mind, that there should be enough sitting space for at least thirty people so that there isn’t any chance of gathering furniture, stools and chairs from others and yet the house shouldn’t look clumsy.
The other important thing is that if the wood used in the furniture isn’t good then it doesn’t last long and if you buy ready-made furniture it is way too costly as well as not exactly what you want. Its four and a half years and the all the furniture looks as new as ever, TouchWood (Smiles)! We didn’t want the typical wood colour and make it monotonous at the same time we never wanted unnatural shades like grey, white, etc. So we have used different shades of brown, walnut brown, light and deep dark brown, etc. This gives warmth to the house.
Each sofa has a space to keep stuff inside; each and every piece of furniture has storage space inside. A lot of though and process has gone in selecting the furniture, etc.
Everyone likes this white sofa, all my friends love to and come and sleep on it
Bar: It was pre-planned, it’s totally Sharad’s department. It looks simple and classy and that’s how I wanted. The bar took the longest time and I was quite anxious as to how will it look.
Our Bedroom: Anyone and everyone love their Bedroom as that’s the place where you finally wrap up your day and get that homely feeling. I think with us also the case is similar, we both love our bedroom.
That little space, is the best spot in the entire house, everyone loves to sit there, be it us, our friends or Bacardi.
We had planned to keep these gaps in the furnishing so that we could keep all the small gifts given to us instead of shoving up all of them in a closet. Naresh Suri gave this piano; this showpiece was given by Krishna from Choti Bahu. This is the watch from U.S. and the glass was broken by Bacardi.
Bacardi’s Den: He always comes and sleeps in the room; it’s his territory, his domain. He doesn’t like anyone interfering in his space and acts as if he is the owner of the house. For instance, when our bedroom’s A.C. wasn’t working, we used to sleep here and Bacardi used to be like so hyper and wouldn’t listen to what we say. He used to eat anything, pee anywhere, do all sort of nasty stuff. He used to throw attitude making us feel that Boss, this is my space which you have invaded in, so you better bear my tantrums!
Multi-purpose Room: We wanted different themes for each of the rooms and this room took the maximum amount of time and thoughts. We call it the Media Room, as we have a projector here and watch movies, matches, etc. here. We and few of our close friends saw the World Final here. We party also here and this is also the Study and has a Library out here. We included the Balcony in this room and placed a day bed. This room has an oriental theme. We also chant here. This is our Sunday room, we see movies, etc. We love dancing and when we have house parties this becomes the dance floor too! It’s a multi-purpose room!
The clock, this fish, all are birthday gifts, this frame also. It’s the prettiest, most beautiful and the comfortable zone.
Keerti is into reading and not me. I read bestsellers, Buddhism literature or nay interesting book.
Little Storage Hub: This is like this small storage room and a hub of a lot of things like, the treadmill, files and bills.