I know of people who've spent Rs 25lakh on just a wash basin: Interior designer Lathika Nambiar

After a 15-year-long career in a creative but slightly ambiguous-to-the-outsider field like interior designing, Lathika Nambiar decided to indulge her entrepreneurial streak in another equally interesting venture, namely opening up a home store called Loom. “We have everything from bed and bath linen to even a beach collection,” she says before pointing out that one of the unique factors of the store is the fact that for its up-scale location, the products are extremely affordable. “The most expensive item in our store is around Rs 3500.

Our product range starts from as less as Rs 200,” she says. While the beautiful store could inspire a story in itself, we choose to veer off the track a bit and ask Lathika to ennumerate interesting observations she’s culled from her long stint as an interior designer. Here’s what she shared:
Since the time I started, 15 years back, to today, a lot of things have changed in the field of interior designing. For one, people are more aware about it today.

And unlike the old times when you did everything on your own, today, most people invariably hire an interior designer.

Contrary to common perception, men are more house-proud than the women. In fact, I’ll say that I’ve dealt with more men as my clients than women. They are more involved and clued-in with the entire process of setting up their homes than the ladies are.

Indians spend the most when it comes to doing up their homes. I know of people who’ve spent Rs 25lakh on just a wash basin! The Milan Design Fair, in fact, has more number of Indian designers taking part. That said, the market today is equally tempting too, throwing up choices like platinum and  gold tiles for instance. And yes, there are people willing to buy them.

If you ask me, interior designing is not just about drawing plans. At its core, it is about ensuring the perfect finish to someone’s home; that you deliver what’s been conceived in the blueprint to the last bit.

Talking of inspirations, even simple things can inspire me. I once remember having a client who loved a bad couch he owned. I had to work hard to come up with a theme that worked around the couch.

If you are looking for safe choices when it comes to colours for your house walls, I’ll suggest going for beige, brown and gold. They are subtle, muted and allow you to experiment with your accessories and decor. The problem with painting your walls in bright shades is that everything else — from accessories to home decor — needs to complement them.

I am a minimalist. As someone who gets cranky if a room’s too crowded, a decorating idea I love to follow is having just one painting hanging on one large wall in the room.

I have a very simple piece of advice to couples who are starting out building a house: Research the market well. Visit all the different stores in your city before you decide on your home’s decor because as it always happens, once you start doing up your home, you will end up spending more than the allocated budget. So I’ll say, better be prepared before you jump into the bandwagon.

I place extreme importance on quality. Once again, my advice to anyone looking to buy stuff for their houses is to be quality-conscious. You’d rather spend more on a top-class product that will last you for a longer period of time than spend less only to have it replaced in six months.

I believe there’s no single idea that fits all houses, which is why giving generic tips for decorating homes never works for me. But all the same, I always tell people that when you are doing up your home, the thing to remember is to make it a happy place that you want to return to at the end of every day. You needn’t necessarily have a mansion, but if done well, even a shoe-box apartment can keep you happy.