An old wood plank could be turned into a cloth hanger? Seriously? When it comes to Interior design, it's always the old Karaikudi style houses that are the go-to option for most people. But ever thought of giving it a classy eco-friendly touch with recycled woods. It was Ukkadam old market that gave life to her design career.
Nivedhithaa Ramaswami is a 24- year-old interior designer in the city who combines the best of modern and classic to her designs with recycled wood. With a small budget and a creative mind, Nivedhithaa is slowly being appreciated for her outstanding work.
Coming from a background of civil engineering, she was not interested in interior designing at first, she confesses, adding, “My mother is an interior designer, my uncle is an architect and my father out of interest, chose the civil field as well. So, I grew up in an environment where architecture and civil engineering took precedence. But, somehow interior designing did not appeal to me."
After completing her civil engineering, she interned with a few Chennai-based companies, following which she came back home to Coimbatore. “Within a month, I joined Westa Architects and that inspired me to explore the field of interior designing,” she says. But due to some personal reason she had to quit her job in Westa. “I was at home for almost three months learning different languages and cooking. I also started designing our new house as an experimental project,” she explains. This made her realise her potential in the field.
“I was freelancing for a few months where my work was appraised. When one of my neighbours saw our home she asked me to design few rooms for her and that was my first official project,” says Nivedhithaa. After this, others started approaching her and she decided to start her own company. "I love the beauty of Tamil language, so I named my venture Utpura, which means 'inside'," she smiles.
The most interesting project that she has done till now is with the Signature Moments Studio. Talking about the project, she says, “They wanted me to decorate their office space. But the space was really small. It was divided into the recording studio and the signature moment studio, the recording studio was easy as it was acoustic and wood. But it was difficult with the shoestring budget.
I went to Ukkadam old market to hunt for some wood and recycled them by doing some DIY’s (do it yourself)’ she adds. That’s how she started creating recycled interiors. ‘We made rope lights made out of bamboos priced less than ` 2000,” she laughs and adds that “since many people consider old woods as bad luck I don’t know how far I can incorporate this method into my designs.”
Her future plan is to make her interiors more traditional with a few her own elements, “Karaikudi is one of the gorgeous places with the most detailed architecture, I am planning to study them and incorporate them into my projects in the future,” she concludes.
For more details visit her official website: www.utpura.com.
