Under 30 minutes: How to transform your home to adorn a festive look

Can you transform the monochromatic look of your living room in under 30 minutes? Or, if you were looking to render a festive look to your home, how would you do it? All this, without spending a lot on repainting the walls, buying curtains, accessories, or make your credit card bill run into pages the next month?

A friend of my husband was visiting us last Saturday from Denmark. I decided to give the living room an ethnic touch. So, yes, it is very much possible to transform the look in a short window. You just need a ladder to reach the attic and dig out the brass goodies your mom gave for the wedding, or take out the silver stashed away in the hidden drawers. No kidding. This is exactly what I did, and of course, to bring in the color a  bit of shopping on Flipkart.

This is how the room looked before the transformation.

I identified the shortcomings such as no color, barren walls, corner table too drab, no artifacts, and the table lamp not having any character. In short, there was a lot of room for improvement while still keeping the minimalist theme of the house. I didn’t want to clutter the space with stuff that we trip over each other.

Accessories such as cushion covers, candles, photos and plants are the quickest way to bring in a whiff of fresh air into a room. In this case, since it was an ethnic touch, I brought out the brass diyas as well.

So, I made a list of the elements that will bring about the transformation in a jiffy:

1. Table lamp

2. Any old painting to go with the theme.

3. Colorful preferably in fuchsia or purple for the royal look. I was also specifcally looking for kantha stitches or patchwork since the sofa is a solid one. I did have white kantha covers at home, but decided to buy the purple and pink ones.

4. Colorful (I was looking for a lotus or paisley motif) with lots of white to stand against the wood,

5. A in golden shade to go with the wall colors and bring in the festive look.

6 for layering.

7  and silver cutlery.

8. Flowers and plants.

9. Rug

Whatever was available at home, I crossed them from the list and ordered the rest from .

How I transformed the living space:

I cleaned up the whole place as in removed all that was there. Gave a quick wipe down, which took five minutes.

Then changed the cushions.

Replaced the table lamp.

Put on new runners over the side table and center table.

Then played a bit with the cutlery.

And that’s it, it was all over in 30 minutes.

Now, it’s time to show off the transformation. Are you ready?

These are bamboo placemats. As you can see fuchsia stands out bring a cheer into any room, which makes it my preferred color for cushions and placemats. Any other bright color such as orange, yellow or green will also have an electrifying effect.

Now, this is what I was talking about: get out the brass and let it shine in the room.

Notice the character the lamp adds to the corner. From an obscure corner, it is suddenly noticeable.

Not done with changing all the cushions.

Almost there.

And it’s done.

Shopping tip: always when buying a runner or table lamp, see if it can be used in multiple places. So, go neutral on the color if  it’s an expensive piece like I did with the table lamp.

A bit about the shopping experience on Flipkart:

Delivery: almost all products delivered much before the promised date.

Delivery person: they call you before they come ensuring you are at home, so that has helped.

Packaging: good.

Ease of buying: room for improvement especially in the search feature. I spent an inadvertent time looking for the lamp I wanted because I was particular it should hold CFL of a certain wattage. The description of the lamp is not uniform across sellers.

Quality: the table runner from Ocean was good. The cushion covers could have been better.

Overall experience: good.

Image courtesy: all taken by me at home