A trend called madness?

Being maverick, never really quite popular, is the flavour of the season, says Kishore Singh

It’s what’s exercising designers — how to give their clients a look that is distinctive when, in an easily accessible, globalised world, everybody has the exact same things as everyone else in real time. Go into the stores and you’ll find the same South-east Asian Buddha relief panels as in your neighbour’s house in Malabar Hill, the banker’s office on Wall Street or pointed out helpfully by Elle Décor as a collectible.

Furniture follows certain trends and styles and is no longer the distinguishing factor in homes in any geography. Home accessories — the sofa fabrics and candle stands and tableware and art and even antiques — now no longer surprise, they’re part of a pattern. It makes home spaces predictable.

But they needn’t be, say experts, who believe that people need to reinvent the way they live to create a sense of excitement around design.

Such as? “Pull the kitchen into the living room,” suggests Mark Andrews, an international home stylist, on an Indian visit. “Let people walk into the heart of the home when they enter, right where the family gathers, stretched out, so you can have fun while you cook, or enjoy a drink.”

Andrews says it’s possible even in Indian homes where kitchens tend to be fussy, hot and often messy places. Treat a part of the room like an extension of the main kitchen, “a place where you can grill a kebab”, he grins. What’s more practical though are more international formats — such as a sunken dining lounge where you might make yourselves a Mongolian hot-pot, for instance; or set a cheese fondue. “It’s fun to do things together, and your home should suggest it,” he says.

Perhaps. What Arjun Ahankar, an architect based in Gurgaon, suggests is changing the architectural space through some sort of dramatic intervention. The corollary to which is that it might not always be possible, especially given the way urban centres allocate plots for homes, already built spaces, or apartments.

It’s something that is possible in the hills, or in Goa, for instance, but with Indian cities hardly taking into account geographical features, it’s the architecture rather than the location that must be made a sculptural centerpiece.

This might be a little simpler to achieve than many believe possible. One of the easiest to attempt, with toughened, crash-proof glass, is having a ceiling, at least in public areas, made entirely of that glass. Imagine having a ceiling that lets you view the clouds floating overhead (or the sun beating down!) or awash with the patter of rain, while you watch TV, entertain your friends, or dine… Ahankar suggests extremely high roofs, especially over slightly narrow seating areas, which he says dramatises a space.

If the ceiling height for such a living area were to rise three storeys, he suggests, with an outer wall of glass overlooking the garden, or backyard pool, the effect could be most astounding — pleasantly so!

But placement and architecture aside, Andrews suggests shopping for home interiors across unconventional stores. “Do a leopard print sofa,” he says, “have furniture that doesn’t match but harmonises, invert lamps, paint a floor purple, let water flow under a glass floor, park the car in the bedroom, think” — he grins — “different, don’t be part of the flock.”

His suggestion: Buy old rolling stock from the railways to convert into great extensions for apartments. Our assessment: Good Earth might be safer, folks!