Interiors for Mr. Prasanna by Ar. Muzakkir G. M. Bijli

INTERIOR DESIGN FOR Mr. PRASANNA’S RESIDENCE @ CHENNAI

The Project Brief:

The Client, Mr. Prasanna approached me to do interiors for his residence at Vanagaram in Chennai. He had bought a 2500 sq. ft. house in a row house development. The majority of houses were 1250 sq.ft. He bought 2 houses and combined it to form a single house of around 2500sq. ft. He had a preconceived idea of having a double ht. Living and all the rooms and their placements were already decided construction was in full swing when the project landed in my hands. Hence there was not much scope for change in the overall plan but to deal with the available spaces. Adding to these limitations were the other constraints given by the client. One of the important things clearly spelt out by the client was that he did not want any ornamentation in the interiors and also use of wooden finish was prohibited.

This was my first project in which I did interior design on my own and most of it was implemented under my supervision through interior contractor Mr. Sundar Rajan of Interface Modulars Pvt. Ltd. The project was completed in feb2014. I waited almost a year to take photographs of the completed project. The reasons for waiting was to see if the things which were planned are working and also to see the house functioning fully (sometimes I come across 3d views and photographs in the magazines and presentations and I feel them to be very artificial). Was I successful? I will share the same as I continue.

The Planning of Living, Dining & Kitchen:

As no wood and ornamentation rule was really strict one, I decided on giving a very clean and minimalist design to the living, dining and kitchen. The plan was to have neat straight lines and play of Black and White. One of the things that I did consider during the planning stage was will this B& W color scheme make it look boring. To avoid a boring look and also to give client his own space in interior design, voids and spaces were left empty. I was vindicated when I saw the finished interiors with beautiful and colorful artificial plants and sculptures adorning the spaces. Also given was a place near the TV to display family memories and it was also well utilized. According to me, these kind of spaces in which objects can be changed help in not keeping the interiors permanent visually.

Though the scope of placement of rooms was limited there were some opportunities. One of the most important things the client asked was the fish tank, but he was unsure on where to place it. Fish tank brings with itself a soothing effect and it was decided it should be placed in such a way that you see it as soon as you enter the house giving a pleasant feel.

Placement of the kitchen was decided, but there was confusion in clients mind on whether it should be a closed one or an open one. The pros of cons of the same were discussed and when told that if the kitchen is open it should always be kept clean otherwise it will not look good from living, Client readily accepted and said we shall go for a open kitchen and only then his wife will try to keep the kitchen clean which in turn will be hygienic. This open kitchen idea gave an opportunity wherein one could watch TV from the kitchen while busy with their cooking chores. This was readily accepted by wife. Client has two children, both very young (8 & 4 yrs old). It was necessary that they be in mothers view while they were doing their homework or studying. To ensure this, a study area was created near the kitchen. The blue vision cone in the plan shown below is suggestive of the same. When I visited the site for photography some cookery show was on and while clients wife was making coffee for me she was still continuing to watch the show (You can see in one of the photographs below).

Lighting was a major aspect that was looked into. The plan of the house which was already done did not give much scope to bring in natural light. Hence to create an interesting interior drama had to be created through lighting. LED lights of various types ranging from ceiling lights, spot lights, mood lights, cove lights etc were carefully selected and used. The result can be seen in photographs.

The Parents Bedroom:

It was a small space of 3m x 3m accessed from Dining. Not much scope with arrangements as there was a requirement of atleast 1.8m (6’) wide wardrobe, dressing area, a space for locker and ofcourse the bed. This room was more of an occasional one werein parents will stay whenever they visit son and more often to be used by the children to sleep and rest during the day. To give more clear space in this small room a corner bed was planned with both head and side boards for the bed. Window and the pelmet were a part of the headboards.  In the intention to add some interest small 6” x 6” niches with spot lights were created. Main idea behind this was that it could be used to keep small figurines but that was not the case to be. I saw that was being used for some other purpose, guess what?? They kept their medicines like tablets and ointments etc., in them.

The Master Bedroom:

This room was comparitively a bigger space. The size being 3.6m x 4.2m. The Master bedroom of house is a place usually associated with love making between couples and their children. Taking a cue from the word love I decided to use the letter L literally and use it in design. This L was used in head board in different forms and an attempt to create interesting pattern. Adding to this was lighting which was placed in places to enhance the same. A combination of White, Green and Black was used as the color for this room. The finish was glossy. Here again some voids were created in the headboard and left to allow the clients to fill in with their ideas and again I could see some customised heart shaped pillows with family photos printed on them placed on those spaces. A concious effort was made to create different moods with artificial lighting used in different places and different colors (as seen in the Photos).

This was my first project and to an extent I feel that I was susccesful in creating what I intended to create. The fact that client is a happy man and his family more happier than him gives me more satisfaction. Hope you also like it. Thanks.