The Hindu Business Line : Of Italian marble and more

People in their 30s and 40s are building swank homes these days, spending huge amounts on fancy flooring, glittering crystal, posh sofa sets and well-equipped bars.

Remember the time when buying a flat was the biggest thing probably to happen in the life of a middle-income family? And if they could still afford to buy a couple of chairs and beds, a television and a dining table, that was considered the icing on the cake. Well, that was then and this is now and the times, as they say, have changed.

"A roof over my head and you in my arms" is no longer what couples in love headed towards the altar dream of. The original filmi scene of a modest one-roomer where newly-weds live in bliss has probably been replaced by visions of designer homes in which chic soirees are held in rooms crammed full of every luxury that money can buy. Buying a house is probably the easiest thing to do these days but making it into a comfortable, stylish living space is the biggest challenge facing home buyers today.

As a new generation of Indians who have travelled abroad and have been exposed to global trends gears up to set up home, interior designers are in business. While it is difficult to put a figure to how big the interiors business is today, industry guesstimates put it as an annual Rs 20,000 crore.

And why not, if you consider that prospective home buyers across the country have dreams of living in marbled or granite splendour with musical fountains, designer drapes and plush sofas?

So what are the current trends in interiors as far as Indian homes go? What is it that clients look for when they buy a home and how they want it done up? Who makes the decisions — the client or the interior designer?

While most clients who buy a home begin with saying that they want their house to be an extension of their personalities, a large portion of them simply give up when faced with the avalanche of work that confronts them when they start giving shape to their dream house. Take a look at the dilemma facing them — at least four major paint manufacturers mix up over 300 shades and hues to colour their walls, hordes of companies promise to give them designer tiles, or fancy shower cubicles or sparkling kitchens.

"When we bought the flat of our dreams we also fantasised about doing up its interiors. But somewhere down the line, we gave up when we realised that grovelling before a host of carpenters, plumbers and painting contractors to do a quality and speedy job was beyond us," say Atul and Preeti, a duo of professionals in Mumbai. So they called in an interior designer.

"The cost was big, but in the end we got our home with just the right mix of ethnicity and modernity that we wanted. We simply would not have been able to devote the time to pick up the right artefacts, co-ordinated upholstery and curtains or carpets."

This couple was lucky it got what it wanted. But Mumabi-based architect-cum-interior decorator Anuradha Benegal is concerned that the boom in demand for such services has led to interior décor professionals taking the easy way out by merely replicating pretty pictures out of magazines, without really paying thought to what the client wants.

"While people want a unique identity for their homes, I'm not sure where this is heading in terms of aesthetics. We are in the midst of a clone culture. If a client shows the professional the picture of a Spanish villa and says he wants that to be his home, he gets it. There is little attempt to actually talk to the client and find out what exactly he or she needs. What the client probably wants is the experience of that space but he ends up with the entire villa and never mind if it is completely in contradiction to his own personality."

Most architects and interiors specialists agree that today their clients have a huge choice in materials and accessories. But really good design at the top end is still prohibitively expensive, says Anuradha. Pune developer Atul Chordia leverages the premium on time that most clients face and is today raking in the moolah designing and selling decidedly upscale homes to the likes of Lakme's Anil Chopra, the Chokseys of Asian Paints, the Singhanias and the Garwares through his company Panchshil Realty.

"There are a whole lot of people who have travelled extensively and know just what they want in their homes in terms of lifestyle accessories and comforts. But they just don't have the time to work with carpenters and architects to get the look just right. There are also those not really sure how their home should look. All they know is that they want a certain lifestyle and have the money to finance it," he says.

It is for this segment that Chordia makes homes. Queens Court, his project coming up in Pune's upscale Boat Club Road, will have just one flat per storey of a minimum size of 3,500 sq ft.

The flats come packaged with, among other things, central air-conditioning, a swank kitchen complete with dishwasher and washing machine, top of the range designer toilets with Italian marble, expensive wooden flooring, co-ordinated curtains and guest suites.

"The only thing that our clients have to do to settle in their new home is to buy the movable furniture of their choice. And they are all set to live and party in style," says Chordia.

They could go to his sibling Sagar Chordia, the regional dealer for premium Italian furniture brand Pinnacle Saporiti, which sells a range of sofas and accessories at upward of Rs 40,000 and up to Rs 2 lakh.

In addition, he runs Lifestyle Interiors, an interior design company that imports and also manufactures lifestyle accessories like designer tiles and kitchens and takes up turnkey interior projects.

That business is booming for the siblings is evident from the fact that while Atuls's Queen's Court (prices ranging from Rs One to 1.3 crore) is sold out much before completion, Sagar's client list includes the likes of Tina Ambani, Amisha Patel, Akshaye Khanna and Cyrus Poonawala.

Sagar has sold sofas worth 2.5 crore since setting up Saporiti 18 months ago, and is now all set put up his fourth showroom in a Mumbai next month!

Interestingly, those who splurge in setting up homes today are in their 30s and 40s, and have had some exposure to foreign countries.

This generation is into wine and cheese evenings, where they chill out with friends around their imported bar or sip cocktails out of expensive crystal glasses.

For those short on finance, any number of options is available. "With this option, people are now willing to spend much more on doing up the interiors of their homes unlike earlier when it was tough to pay the EMIs on their home loans," says a senior banker.

"There are clients who spend as much as Rs 12-15 lakh in just movable furniture. This, in addition to their home already having cost upward of Rs 1 crore," says an interiors professional who works in Mumbai and Pune.

While interior decorators too have been quick to tap the burgeoning market for designing homes, which are both functional and have aesthetic appeal, Anuradha is concerned about the neutrality and uniformity that seems to have crept into homes.

"Everybody seems to suddenly have minimalist homes but in the process neither the profession nor the people who live in it have paused to ponder the true essence of the term. Minimalist means a certain discipline and simplicity, but what we have instead are homes that are devoid of colour, almost like a very chic restaurant in Europe," she says wryly.

A strong believer in the Indian crafts tradition, she is convinced that with its breathtaking spectrum of fabrics, colours and craft skills, India could easily develop its own unique identity in the field by weaving these skills in a contemporary form and setting. "It is not easy since most of us do not have easy access to these resources and skills. But the reassuring fact is that there are still a lot of youngsters in the profession who still push the envelope and think out of the box."

Incidentally, Anuradha is giving Bollywood heart throb Aamir Khan's home a new look and says she is impressed by the star's refreshingly simple taste. His apartment in suburban Mumbai is being built in a rustic style, using terracotta tiles that cost as little as Rs 8 a piece!

"In the end, what matters is not how much you spent on the interiors but how much it is an extension of your personality and how comfortable you are living there," she says.

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