Stylish Spaces

At times in your life you come across things so exquisite, you simply can’t wait to share their wonder with others. A perfect cup of coffee, a delectable dessert, a beautiful afternoon on the beach, a splendid sunset… whatever it is that has made your heart beat a bit faster or your eyes go a bit wider is worth disclosing to the world – so someone out there can enjoy the same wonder and awe. I had this feeling of wonder when I first stumbled across the art of this amazingly talented Uzbek artist Alim Rekhmatullaev   - I remember it was on one of my mundane searches on the net for some images that I   wanted to use as ‘conversation starters’ for one of the   language groups I was working with at the time. With a cup of tea in one hand, I was casually scanning page after page on google images for interesting pictures   - when I was completely taken in by the whimsical lines of one of his paintings there simply called ‘solar wind’ -   his  ...

Elegance is an attribute that I have always admired in others, and at times tried to emulate myself, but somehow I feel it has always eluded me – I have come close, but never close enough to be or feel truly elegant. It is also an attribute we see less of now. There is a saying in France that elegance is the privilege of age, so true -   but women nowadays will go to all kind of lengths to hang on to their youth rather than gracefully age and   glide into a style that defines their age, wisdom and experiences (I myself am guilty of trawling through endless websites that promise recapturing youth). An elegant   women is one who is not only put together on the outside, but has an assuredness about her that tells you she looks on her past life with good humour, has no regrets and enjoys each   waking moment to the full, because she appreciates life. I think the battle with age should be fought philosophically, because no amount of surgoen’s knife can obliterate the in...

  When I moved from the bright, sunny albeit turbulent climes of   Northern Pakistan (Islamabad to be precise) to wet, windy but calmer shores of western UK (Bristol to be precise) nothing struck me more than the black colour so eagerly and reverently embraced by the Goth culture rampant there. The heavy kohl lined eyes, stark against the pale skin, black as night lips, the obvious disregard for current fashion, matched with the sombre looks and the “I am here and I am not happy about it” persona, intrigued and I must confess, frightened me. We South Asians, are born in colour, we embrace it like fish embraces water in an unrestrained, life-hanging-by-a-(colorful)-thread   sort of way. Our marriage ceremonies, our homes, our public transport are rife with colour. I  grew up in Peshawar, for those who don't know the place, it  is a tribal stronghold of Taliban-ish people now, but back when I was growing up, it was a fairly decent place, very tribal...

One of my all-time favourite book characters which has always managed to put a smile on my face is   ‘Uncle Fred’ a   figment of genius humourist author PG WodeHouse’s imagination, who perpetually seeks to spread ‘ sweetness and light’   much to the alarm of those around him, as he invariably   ends up creating chaos and getting everyone else around him in a muddle. His nephew (and I remember his name well, as I found his character and name so funny) " Pongo", is forever fearful of his Uncle descending on him on one of his missions to spread ‘sweetness & light’. Speaking of light, I am not particularly fond of wall or hanging ceiling lights (except recessed, accent or picture lights). Infact guests in my house, on a number of occasions have reached for the light switch and flicked it on, and then stood around puzzled, because most wall switches in my home donot turn any lights on –   I rely on mid-room-height lamps to spread ‘softness & li...

Having a life of leisure has never done it for me. Every time I have found time on my hands to sit back and relax,  the euphoria of perfect leisure and having nothing to do doesn't last longer than a day or two. Before long I start feeling mentally and emotionally fat, which basically for me is feeling irrelevant, rootless and unanchored. The best thing about having a life of leisure is you can wake up and do anything you want, but the worst thing for most people in that position is exactly the same thing, you eventually run out of things you want to do - they become boring, not exciting anymore. When I am busy (working) my goals are clearly defined, my day is mapped out - but left to myself I tend to focus too much on things I might think will make me happy, but surprisingly most leave me unfulfilled and empty inside. I have learnt since that you can not achieve happiness by trying to do things to be happy, the secret to being happy is focusing on those around you (and ...

They say your life follows the highways, foothills and tracks that's destined for you - all I know is these past weeks, it has surprisingly forced me to think (from unexpected quarters) of my design background (which I had stopped practicing professionally seven years ago). True, you never leave design, its all around you to appreciate and critique, but you do stop thinking about it every time you enter a room - you do stop re-arranging furniture, stripping fabric off chairs (mentally, ofcourse, unbeknown to the host!) sweeping your eye over room dimensions, proportions, essence of day light, mood lighting....) So what surprised me these past weeks was, people, out of the blue, spoke to me of design, and these are people who don't know my design background. Most surprising was when I got an instant reply to a job I applied to (a job as far unrelated to any aspect of design as you can think) asking me for my interior design photos - ...