By Tasnim Jarin
“Home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling” – Cecelia Ahern
This sentence is quoted from an Irish novelist named Cecelia Ahern, who once said, “In these unsettling times our homes need to be a place where we feel happy, where we can rest and play and most importantly where we can be ourselves.”
Today we will present a similar kind of house, that resemblance togetherness, emotion, and childhood moments; altogether. Here we are covering the story of Tahmina Rahman Eva’s house, which is located at Bashundhara in Dhaka. By profession, she is a banker and a mother of two little angels. Mrs. Tahmina and her husband Shahedul Islam moved into this house last year November. Since then, they have planned to decorate their house with the help of interior designers and finally their house is ready to be covered in Berger’s Fabulous House segment.
It is an 1800 square feet house, having three bedrooms, dining, living and a spacious balcony and garden area. Mrs. Eva lives here with her husband, parents and children. Right after entering the house, the two little goldfishes living in a bowl welcomed us in a beautiful neon ambience. From this portion of the house, the long passage from the door to the balcony is clearly visible. Yet, we take a turn and enter into the very first room, which is the living area.
The first thing that seems eye-catching in the room is the off white and golden theme decoration, added with wooden work around the corners. The best part of the room is the well-organized furniture and wall fixed cabinets, which reflects well planned and thoughtful ideas of the owner. Being a book lover, Mrs. Eva has designed a special corner for her favorite books. Also, the sets of couches make a proper balance with the overall theme of the room.
Next, we enter the dining area where we get a quick glimpse of the family photos. All the framed photos have a story to tell to the audience, therefore this dining wall is the perfect place to portray all the special moments together. Apart from the pictures, the wooden dining table in the center of the room has been customized and specially designed to get an antique texture. Being a banker, Mrs. Eva needs to spend most of her hours outside of the home, but at night they spend family moments together during dinner time.
As the color off-white is her most favorite one, so from the very beginning it has been decided to paint the whole house in off-white theme. In contrast with the theme she has chosen matt golden shaded curtains for the rooms. From the dressing table to the wall cabinet, everything has a creative wooden pattern shape and is nicely maintained. The reason behind this wall attached furniture is to utilize the space properly. To decorate the house beautifully, quite a few over hanging lanterns and focused lights are used, one of those will be found right in the bedroom ceiling glowing in neon vibes.
Though the initial plan was to put wallpapers on the wall. But having children at home, there’s a high possibility that the wallpaper might get damaged. That’s why as a better solution she picked up the illusion paint option for a particular part of her bedroom.
Among all other rooms, this family living area is her most favorite corner to spend hours after office. In this cozy place she likes to either take rest or spend time with her children watching movies or arranging story telling sessions.
Apart from that, the garden area next to the living space is also in her favorite list. She has set up a swing chair on the balcony. Having a cup of tea and watching her children playing are what she loved to do on her weekends.
The most highlighted part of this 1800 square feet house is the balcony and the garden area. Basically, this portion of the house is one of the major reasons to move into this house mentioned by the owner of the house. According to her words,
“During the pandemic time, this open space has certainly helped my children to get energized and playful. They didn’t get bored at all and I feel blessed that I chose this house for our living”.
She has added that it was always her mother’s passion to start gardening. But living in Dhaka city, it seemed almost impossible to get much space for gardening, but here finally she got her desired place for plantation. Already there are a few trees in the garden. Those are- Orange, Lemon and Jujube are there with other plants.
Living in a concrete jungle, it’s also quite hard to get an open space where children can get a place to ride a cycle or elders can spend evening hours with a cup of tea or can enjoy watching rainfall. In this regard, Mrs. Eva is blessed enough to get such a spacious open balcony in her fabulous house.