Traveling is by far our number one place we gather inspiration. Whether we get ideas for color combinations, furniture styles, or overall design aesthetic, I don’t believe we would be able to create the designs we do with out these kinds of trips!

A shot of the colorful city, and a little detail of one of the spaces we designed for our client.

India is a fascinating country. We spent a week in Bangalore, which is supposed to be one of the more civilized cities in the country. Even in Bangalore, the amount of poverty and lack of modern amenities is overwhelming. You really have to pay attention to detail to be able to take in all the beauty that lies in this beautiful country. It’s easy to be distracted by the trash, roaming cattle, and stray dogs. But behind all of this is color, pattern, and beautiful craftsmanship. India is a culture full of art and creativity.

We were taken by all the beautiful architecture in the city. Buildings that have been around for hundreds of years, with so much detail on every corner. The most fascinating aspect of this city is how different each building can be. You can have a castle sitting right next door to a run down neighborhood with huts for homes.

One of our favorite parts of our trip was a morning spent at a local Block Printing company called Tharangini Studios. The talent and craftsmanship that exists on this property was out of this world. EVERYTHING is done by hand. We watched these artists hand dye, hand wash, and hand block hundreds of meters of fabric. We recognized some of our favorite fabric manufacturer’s prints being made here, and Padmini, the owner was such a joy to spend time with.

Who knew the shopping would be so good in India? There were places we went that had great deals, like the local markets and fabric stores. We also found some amazing stores that sell retail just like American stores and even have US websites!

Imagine a home that could have collected pieces from these places in the world. I believe a home that can incorporate beautiful textiles and artifacts mixed with new, fresh designs gives that collected, lived in look that we love to design.

We are working on a way we can share some of these beautiful things we have been sourcing from our travels, like the fabrics we purchased in Bangalore, so stay tuned!

The last day of our trip we traveled outside of the city to go explore a village called Nandi. We had breakfast, walked the village and went on {what turned out to be} a rigorous hike. Exploring this village was one of the best parts of our trip! Everything was so beautiful! We truly felt like we got to explore all that India had to offer by spending time there.

There was a beautiful temple inside this village, called the Temple of Chikballapur. We learned all about what these temples mean to the village people and what it does for their community.

We also stumbled upon a silk farm where beautiful Indian women were pulling the silk right from the cocoons of the silk worms. It was incredible!

The hike was intense. But could we have gotten better views of this beautiful country? After the hike they were selling fresh coconut water on the side of the road, so of course we had to stop and enjoy.

This was truly an incredible trip. We really had no idea what to expect when going. Everyone warned us that we may not want to go back, and that it would be a complete culture shock. We truly had the opposite experience. The people were so kind, the food was delicious, and we saw so much beauty in this place! We plan to travel back in the next year, we felt our time was not up and want to explore the northern region now too!

If you are planning a trip to Bangalore, let us know. We would be happy to create a travel guide to help make sure you can have as wonderful of experience as we did!