Whimsical homes,
and where to find them

Custom-printed wallpaper is normal in India now, so a cherry or gingham print is a question of asking, not hunting.

Terrazzo and patterned cement are the two floors doing the heavy lifting here. Both come in a real version and a printed-tile version.

Shape does the work here, not colour. A fan, a finger, a flute — all three read as playful before you have even picked a shade.

Paint codes

Every pastel on this page has an Asian Paints code. They all live on one page, so you can walk into a paint shop and ask for a shade by number.

Knobs, lighting and wall pieces change a room faster than furniture does, and cost a fraction of it.

Buy by the metre and you can put the same print on a headboard, a lampshade and a cushion — which is how these rooms hold together.

The cheapest way to test a pattern before you commit a whole wall or sofa to it.

Cane, curves and a swivel base. One good shaped chair does more for a room than three straight-edged ones.

The fastest way to make a room feel like a storybook. Nobody expects the light fitting to be the playful thing.

An oval or a scalloped edge breaks up all the straight lines in a room, which is most of what makes a space feel soft.

A scalloped rim is the cheapest whimsical thing you can own, and the one guests actually pick up.

One pastel appliance left out on the counter says more than a cupboard of matching tins. Buy the colour once, in the thing you use every day.

One oversized print does more for a blank wall than five small ones, and it costs less to frame.

Small, cheap, ships tomorrow. These are the pieces that make a room feel like someone lives there rather than styled it.