Minimalism Extended!

My study is the place where I spend the most amount of my time. This is where I watch series, complete official tasks and expand my intellectual capital. I felt that the space didn’t have to be cluttered, for me to think clearly, but I also needed homely elements to make me feel comfortable. Finding the right balance between minimalism and making a space warm is usually tricky, so always make sure to not forcefully accommodate every vacant space in the room. A great advantage of minimalism is that it is easy to manage, especially if you have to clean the room yourself.

An advice I got before going to London was to invest in the decor of my space because if the weather’s dreadful outside, you should have elements of sunshine inside. I couldn’t agree with it more!

Design Elements

As per my previous post, minute details can add personality to your room. My study is a place where I tend to display all unique interior objects that I’ve collected. I’m also not a person to save everything so I usually tend to give away things as soon as I get bored of them. Make sure you’re not a hoarder because your trash IS someone’s treasure. I’ll talk about shopping from Charity Stores in another post but make sure you keep on changing your design elements because it’ll keep you interested in that room for longer.

One key piece of advice is to save your memorable photographs in frames. We’ve stopped doing that and it results in us losing these invaluable memories. I had a collection of photos that were lying around in boxes so I put in an effort to preserve them in frames and placed them in a small cavity in the wall, which was a constructional fault in our house.

I keep two gorgeous stuffed toys in my lounge, the panda was won in a fair in Dubai and Alex is from Universal Studios Singapore. I keep these in a small basket for my younger cousins to play with so they don’t disturb me when I’m working. It’s always effective if you keep toys in your study to keep the kids busy.

The guitar you see is a family heirloom. It was given to my dad by his cousin, who bought it from Spain. It was handed over to my sister and later to me. None of us knows how to play it but it has exchanged numerous hands as all my cousins wanted to have a go at it.

Fun Fact
It was once stolen by our music teacher who was later emotionally blackmailed to return it back. Since then, we haven’t invited a music teacher ever again. Today it gives me company as I busy myself on the computer.

I’ve added objects that give me happiness, on the study table, to make the space appear more fun and interesting. Coffee table books are my favourite design element in a room because they change the entire feel of the space. Also, if you can spot the Eiffel Tower model, it was an engineering puzzle that took me a week to construct but now it’s a fascinating attraction of the room.

Lighting

Lamps are my favourite! Even in a space like this, I prefer lamps over overhead lights. I believe in task lighting because then the light is more concentrated and is comfortable to the eyes but normal lamps are great in a space like this because they keep the surrounding lit while not disturbing your eyes when it’s focused on the computer screen. I switch these lamps off once I’m watching Netflix though.

Furnishing

I bought a vibrant coloured rug for this space because I wanted the study to feel more welcoming. My rocking chair has two extremely loud cushions, which my sister gifted me for my London apartment because she wanted a Pakistani element in my room. I placed them over the plain black rocking chair because then it balances it out. I also used my dad’s old office chair, which was hideous beyond words. So, I placed a throw that I got from Primark over the chair to make it a part of the general theme. Throws are great to camouflage hideous furniture pieces.