Blank walls are passé as the city dresses the walls of homes and eateries in arty styles Its the blank canvas of every house,waiting for the artistic signature of the residents. The walls,as every interior decorator stresses,are more than the backbones of a building. Sitting by the window at Priya Jagat's new eatery,Cafe Willow,in Sector 10,you look out at the leafy creepers making their way down the white walls. A few metal frogs positioned with care add to the aesthetic touch. At Jagats other outlets,Cafe Nomad in Sector 7 and Backpacker's Cafe in Sector 9,too,the walls make a similar statement. While the walls at Cafe Nomad wear framed photographs in black and white,at Backpacker's,the walls house a mini-library of travelogues and bric-a-brac. Apart from adding to the theme of a restaurant,such wall décor is also high on utility, quips Jagat. The city,it appears,is fast turning attention to decorating its walls. Restaurateur Karan Deep Singh Suri,for instance,didnt want his new bistro Flambe Bois in Sector 35 to have the usual dining décor. Pointing towards the niches in the wall that stand out in charcoal grey,he says,We started with blank walls and were debating on what to do. We placed huge candles and let them burn all through the evening. The result was artistic and striking. Diners,too,stop to look twice at the walls molten wax and smoky look. Even public walls are no longer about paan stains and political posters. Check out the mural that covers a large side wall of a unit of showrooms in Sector 17. The design was chosen from a host of entries invited by the Chandigarh administration. Though it is hardly an example of high aesthetics,the mural has become a popular backdrop for photographs by tourists. Theatre director Neelam Man Singh's home in Sector 4,boasts of a dining room wall that is a great conversation piece. Smeared with haldi,it is both ethnic and exotic. The wall happened by trial and error, explains Man Singh. We were working on an exhibition on Sikh history at the National Museum ,which Prof BN Goswami was curating. His only instruction was that we use yellow as a backdrop and we just couldn't find the right shade. I got haldi to show the painters and tried it on the wall with Fevicol and water,but it became patchy. So,we decided to blend it with primer,and we got our colour, recalls Man Singh,who replicated the process at her own home,and loves the patchy and bright look. What's more,turmeric is an antiseptic,so there are no lizards or mosquitoes on this wall. Educationist and artist Sangeeta Vardhans walls at her Sector 7 residence are just as artistic. Right from the garden to the verandah,from lobby to the sitting area,glass paintings,hand-painted motifs and Buddhist art adorn the walls. For me,art is anything creative that I paint on the walls,tables or anything else. Art makes visible anything imagined, says Vardhan,pointing towards the Ganeshas in the eastern garden wall. The Ganeshas look benevolent and instill harmony. Likewise,the Buddhist symbols she has created are intensely coloured for the protection of the back of the house,while,on the verandah wall,lotuses and peacocks abound. I make stencils of these symbols and use a mix of colours to make motifs for walls, she says. Costume designer Dolly Ahluwalia had tribal artists from Madhya Pradesh hand-paint a wall in her home. They created the journey of life on an entire wall,depicting birth,growth,decay and death. On another one,she has created a glass wall,giving a double lining with brocade and livening it with hand-painted Egyptian art. I ensured that the work complemented the wall, says Ahluwalia. According to interior designer Monita who works on both commercial as well private buildings in the region,an increasing number of people are choosing to let bricks on their walls remain exposed. It gives an earthy look thats quite trendy, says Monita. Extensive use of mixed materials on walls is also catching up. One wall could hold glass,bricks and wood,all of it together. Also wood paneling and tiles on the wall in mosaic setting are popular, says Monita,who has also incorporated leather cladding coupled with glass and stone on bedroom walls.
