The trendiest home accessories are not what draw fashion choreographer Liza Varma’s attention. Rather, she is fascinated by the old-world charm of traditional wooden objects. From a wooden windowpane right at the entrance and a big wooden Budhha in the living room, Liza has collected many things in wood over the years for her house in Gurgaon.
A fireplace from Rajasthan, Buddha statue from Thailand, a set of two wooden mantelpieces from Gujarat, a wall-hanging from Rajasthan, artefacts from Uzbekistan, a Morano glass bird adorned with ruby and diamond are some of her finds from different parts of the world. “Now, we have got so much stuff that we don’t know where to place them. We are planning to move to a bigger house soon where our collection would get a better display,” says Liza, who has been living in this house since the last seven years with her husband and two children.
The couple just couldn’t stop themselves from buying a set of rosewood lions from a flea market in Portobello, London on their trip last month. “My husband is a compulsive buyer too. We decided that we won’t buy but he couldn’t stop himself and went back to the shop later and bought it,” says Liza.
However, the best part, she says, is that their choice is almost identical. They both love things that have a story. Like, they bought some papaya-shaped artefacts from Uzbekistan that now has a place of honour on the coffee table in their living room. The uniqueness of these objects fascinated her. “It’s a kind of fruit which after drying shrinks and becomes solid. It’s sold as decorative items after painting them in different colours,” says Liza.
While everything around has a traditional feel, the furniture in beige and blue is contemporary. “We chose modern furniture because it’s more comfortable than the traditional ones,” she says.