Doing it yourself, the Indian way

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards, our dwellings shape us.
– Winston Churchill.

And what better way to shape it than using one’s own hands and mind. Currently, the growth of the Do-It-Yourself or DIY segment in India is primarily driven not by the popular mindset of saving money, rather by thirst for knowledge, learning a new set of skills and getting appreciation from family and peers. In most of the cases, DIY is deeply rooted towards having the fun of creation. This satisfaction has worth that just cannot be measured.

Speaking particularly of the Indian masses, there are varied reasons why people are now turning to build their own homes. But there are also certain reasons why they are still apprehensive about doing it. For instance, the social environment may not be conducive enough. Also, when you can get branded stuff, why break your back doing it the harder way, right? But now, at least in metros, younger families are slowly taking up the DIY route.

Why do it?
Home, being the most personal space in one’s life, needs to be designed very
carefully around the way a home owner lives his life. Earlier, for this, the home owner was totally dependent on others as no means were available to articulate one’s need and within bigger households, everyone could not have a say in having a part of their individuality being reflected in some corners of their living spaces.

Today, because the trend is majorly shifting towards nuclear families, as a home owner, you want to customise every space after consultation with each member of your family, thereby, taking care of their needs and preferences.

The online revolution is going to have a lasting impact on all our lives and lifestyles. It is here to stay. We go online for almost all the information we need. The young generation wants to be a part of the home design and build process, instead of just leaving it to the builder or the designers.

As technology seeps into every aspect of one’s life, there are now various platforms which are built specifically keeping the Indian audience in mind and are now available to every home owner and each member of the family, where everyone can collate innovative ideas and create their personal statements through design ideas.

When you make something, you have a chance to customise it so that it does
exactly what you want, not what someone else’s marketing department told you – that this is what you want. You will always learn from the experience of building, even when it seems like a mindless chore, putting components together as per the instructions in a manual.

When it has been finished and installed in your system, and doing exactly what you want, the fun and pride of having made it will always be there – long after the job is done. You can validate this feeling by asking this question to a young preteen who just completed his or her science project to assemble a speaker system.

Imbibing the DIY culture in your children at a young age has great benefits that no formal system can provide. Give a DIY toy to your child and watch the joy unfold on his or her face as they explore, learn, unlearn and re-learn; in essence, building their imaginative, mathematical and visualisation skills that are going to be their supportive and probably primary skills for a lifetime.

Building your dream home can similarly be a very rewarding exercise when the semi-DIY approach is taken.

Thing of beauty
And after you have finished the construction and all that is required of you, get into the details of decorating the interiors of your home. Participating in the design aspect, material selection and procurement part of building your home can be quite challenging, yet satisfying experience.

Feeling various textures for upholstery and getting a firsthand experience of the
final envisioned piece of furniture or curtain finishing brings in a feeling of pride and joy when the chosen raw material is finished and installed.

A terrarium or a distressed finish on a small piece of furniture or a relief work mural or even an accent wall created using your favourite posters framed or old CDs spruced up in interesting patterns with acrylic paints and hung tastefully on a side-wall can add meaning to your home.

Today’s home owner is well-informed and has access to explore and find information at the click of a button. Websites can give you all the information needed to ideate, get inspired, shortlist, design, find materials and then keep a check on the team of contractors on how to go about building a dream home.

I believe it really makes a difference when each item in your home has a personal signature. Then the positivity that you generate by looking at that item everyday manifests itself into the hearts and minds of the your family, which shares this sentiment. You can create your home that is comfortable, beautiful and full of love.

Try out a project or two; get your hands dirty, and fall back in love with your space – and you will know what we mean.

(The author is co-founder & CTO, My Home Design)