Doing up the study room - getting it all right
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Chennai-based Sujatha Shankar, architect, planner and interior designer, who won the `Best Interiors (1998)' award from the Institute of Interior Designers, Mumbai, shares with HEMA VIJAY her expertise on how to do up the study room
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THE RIGHT PICK: Neutral colour schemes for walls and décor bestow a sense of calm
THE ECONOMICS of getting a study room done can range from a frugal Rs.700/sq foot to a lavish Rs. 3,000 and above.
But the most important aspect is since the study room is built primarily for a single person (or for a single group of persons such as kids), the character of the person, the age group and the purpose decide the nature of the study room, says Sujatha Shankar.
Here are the specifics:
It is the most intensely personal space; it is that nook in the house where a person feels truly at home and at peace with the universe, intellectually speaking. Yes, we are talking about the study room.
Location
If the study is being built for a professional such as a lawyer or a doctor, make sure that at is located right near or just outside the entrance of the house, so that visitors need not trail through the house and invade the privacy of the rest of the family.
But the study should be accessible from within the house as well so that the person for whom it is meant can easily slip into and pick up a book at midnight, for instance. On the other hand, if the study room is for a child or a teenager, it should be located well inside the house, away from the entrance and the TV room to avoid distractions. If the study room is air-conditioned or located in a noisy place, use doubleglazing on the walls to shut out sound.
Space utilisation
If your study is going to host visitors, then it needs a desk, a chair and a computer work station for yourself, a few chairs for visitors, a side table for visitors to keep their stuff, a storage unit, and a library rack. On the other hand, if it is a study for children or professional such as a writer who works alone , then a ledge or nook in the corner of the bedroom can be easily converted into a study. All that you need then is a workstation that combines storage space for books and other paraphernalia within itself, and perhaps a foldable writing plank that can fall back on the wall to save space.
Style
You can choose from a whole range of material such as traditional oak wood panels to a very minimalist and contemporary looking steel-chrome-glass combination. Then there are also the custom-made computer workstations that are generally very handy and easy to maintain. For those who want easy maintenance, go easy on the detailing. The more detailed and ornate the furniture, the more fragile and difficult it is to maintain. The ideal table height is 30 inches, while the width of the table should extend across a minimum of two feet.
Revolving chairs, which come with scope for adjusting the height and the inclination, make for a wise choice. It is important to have natural lighting in a study room as natural sunlight has a positive influence on moods and emotions.
You can also opt for overhead task lights for nighttime use.
Lighting
Task lighting ensures that the rest of the room is spared from the illumination and is especially ideal in study room that is part of other rooms.
For people working for long hours on the computer, throw in anti-glare lights, which are easy on the eye.
Stay away from flashy loud colours. Neutral colour schemes for the walls and the décor bestow a sense of calm and peace in the area and work better here. Go for colours that are serene and inward looking. Pastel shades make for a good choice. On the other hand, flashy colours agitate the mind and are not desirable. .
Flooring
While tiles, mosaic, and marble floors that you have in the rest of the house would be good enough, another option would be to opt for a wood or vinyl flooring to demarcate the study space.
In fact, this kind of flooring can be laid over a pre-existing floor. Adjustable blinds that can modulate light make for an ideal choice here. As for material, you can choose from fabric or wooden blind, or the very ethnic looking and sensible cane thattis, roller blinds, vertical blinds, venetian blinds... .
Accessories
Pin up boards, white boards with hanging markers and dusters, hanging pouches with different partitions to segregate and stuff mail and important leaflets into... there is a big list of functional accessories that can keep order in the study.
A chest of drawers would be an offbeat but very handy choice here. For an old fashioned feel, go for a roll top table.
While you do so, pick up stuff keeping the general colour scheme of the study in mind and pick up things that will merge with the ambience. And then, most importantly, don't forget the dustbin.
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