Back in 2017, I wanted a place of my own in Bangalore for the first time. But coming with constraints like I do — unmarried couple, dogs, you don’t quite attract houses like moths to flame. Coupled with requirements like “must have a terrace, should be in a good area, and close to all the action” doesn’t help much. So after months of a house hunt, when the next thing that ticked all of these boxes, and for once when the landlord didn’t shoo me away like expired milk, I knew I was going to lap it up. (the house, not the milk) challenging as it was. It wasn’t the house of my dreams YET, but I knew it had potential. Plus, I was fresh off two consecutive home makeovers the years before it, so I knew I could work my home-transformation magic, given some time, elbow grease, and complete suspension of other productive pursuits.
The challenges:
1) A tiny living room
2) Kitchen inside the bedroom
3) A horrible barbie pink colour on all the walls
I knew I could fix the first two, and the 3rd a bit, even if I couldn’t help with the last. So the project that started even before I moved into the house, and took months to complete, and continues to this day, looked like this.
The first set of pictures is what I inherited.
But a good challenge it was. What followed was intense days of obsession trying to turn into this Barbie house into a boho, liveable and rather desirable abode.
First step was getting the walls painted. Unwittedly and trying to save money, I attempted to do this myself, finishing one set of walls, but landing up with a debilitating condition called a Tennis Elbow, which persists to this day, almost 10 years later. Safe to say, I’ve never attempted any wall painting myself ever since and entrust the job to the professions!
Second: Giving the house a deep clean, beginning with scrubbing the old-school mosaic floors of years of built-up grime and grease.
Third: Sourcing the right kind of furniture strategically for such a small space which included buying from the likes of Urban Ladder to thrifted pieces to even some custom made ones.
Fourth and most impactful:
Working on accessories and details
I did a lot of DIY art like building a gallery wall, buying some cute pieces from IKEA, Chumbak and other online shops, inducing plants, books, and many other boho elements.
While the transformation didn’t really happen overnight, and the house was constantly a work-in-progress for months or even years after first moving in, by the end of it, it looked nothing like what I’d inherited.
Here’s a few photos of the “after” the transformation through various different times in my multi-year stay here. Over these years, I lived here with my dogs, my partner, many roommates and hosted many parties, intimate get togethers, and loved calling this place my home and looked forward to coming back to it. My little labour of love paid off and how.
SO much so that even after I moved out after buying my own house, I retained the house and put it up on Airbnb and to this day the house is constantly in demand, much loved and usually very occupied.
