Going Trendy with Glass

It is fast finding its way to replace wooden and other furniture and is now a key component of interior decoration

You have bought your dream home. And now it is time to think about the interiors and acce­ssories to adorn the home. They should look peppy and at the same time functional. They should look modern yet affordable.

Glass, which has been ubiquitous material in the construction industry, fits all these definitions well.

From being used as facades and in the exteriors, it is fast finding its way to replace wooden and other furniture and is now a key component of interior decoration, mainly for partitions, shelves, art and others.

They are also used in landscaping, mainly to ensure illumination of the premises and for aesthetical appeal.

With toughened, laminated, wired and fire rated and other variants, glass, aided with new technologies, is bec­oming a safer ma­terial to handle. Among others, glass offers flexibility to suit various purposes.

Art murals, crystals, decorative mi­rrors for bath and dressing rooms, domes on the ceilings, centre tables, wardrobes, computer tables, CD ca­ses the list is long. All of these are now available in glass.

“Glass is a versatile material that gives a feeling of more space ava­ilable,” says Deepali Paul of Chrysalis, an interior decoration firm.

Paul says she is liberal with the use of glass in her projects for furniture, dividing walls, cladding etc. “Cost effective apart, it is easy for cleaning them compared with other materials,” she says.

In words of Hussain Lokhandia, ove­rseeing the marketing efforts at Modern Glass at Hyderabad, a firm providing glass products for over three decades for domestic and export markets, the value addition possible in glass is limitless and with no decay in the product and almost maintenance free.

For instance, a dining table, centre table or a desk is priced in the range of Rs 15,000 upwards, varying with spe­cification, he says.

There is an increasing demand for air brushed glass combined with engraving, etching and stains that give an antic look for use in the motifs and art pieces that fit into the ceiling, windows, doors, wardrobe, partitions and more.

The wall partitions can be also be made in stacked glass, where small glass strips are stuck together to create a wall, with chipped, polished or cut edges.

Bigger products like tables and shower cubicles for an exotic feel, where toughened and laminated glass is used together with fabrics, paper and film, too are high on the purchase list.

There is also glass hardware — door ha­ndle, studs, patch fittings, door locks, spider fittings, glass adhesives and more to com­plement the design of the new age buildings.

“Imagine a shape or a purpose and we can implement it on glass,” says Lokhandia ad­ding that there also requests from several customers to make deities with glass to adorn their priced homes.

The glass industry is focused on enhancing safety and strength of glass and the same time making it aff­ordable,” says Sanjay Ganjoo, vice-president of All India Glass Manu­facturers Federation (AIGMF) and chief operating officer of Asahi India Glass.

Furniture and interior decoration segment is a new and growing opp­ortunity for the over Rs 4,000 glass industry, he says.