A survey by YouGov India reveals how Gen X and Gen Y like to style their spaces. By Team Viva 

Indians are looking towards celebrities and social media for inspiration to do up their homes. Most of them have moved on from traditional home decor like heavy wooden furniture, handicrafts and Indian textiles and are increasingly seeking efficiency with style and are moving towards contemporary decor.

At least 23 per cent of the people of both gender get their home décor inspiration from celebrity homes while 57 per cent people derived their  inspiration from social media. While Gen Y chose social media, Gen X chose family and friends. A little over half of the respondents (52 per cent) said their family and friends inspire them to decorate their homes followed by up to half (48 per cent) stating lifestyle magazines and travel and lifestyle shows (43 per cent) as their source of ideas.

One third of Indians said they prefer contemporary styles over traditional ones and close to half are willing to spend the most on furnishing their living rooms. To beautify their homes, at least 56 per cent would hire an expert or designer to handle their interior designing, if cost is not a barrier, but 44 per cent would like to do it themselves.

The success that Swedish home furnishing  brand IKEA had when it opened its first store in India in Hyderabad last month makes it evident that Indians are more than eager to bring new styling into their homes. The European brand is known for its do-it-yourself, light and contemporary pieces of home decor.

Among the respondents to the YouGov India survey, close to half of the respondents (47 per cent) said they are the sole decision makers while over half (53 per cent) said they take part in matters relating to home décor choices but are not the sole decision-makers. More men indicated being the sole decision makers while women said they take part in the decision but do not take the final call all by themselves.

The respondents chose contemporary styling, followed by modern and mid-century modern. Only 16 per cent chose traditional, Indian interior design styles suggesting that people today are more accepting of Western styles. Not just the millennials, even the 40+ group indicated similar results.

Among the two places in the house that people sought to decorate well were bedroom (38 per cent) and living room (33 per cent), with men preferring living room and women favouring the bedroom. However, if they had the funds to splurge, 43  per cent people indicated spending on furnishing their living room, followed by bedroom.

South India was the highest spender in the under Rs 10,000 category while East India was the highest spender in the Rs 50,001-75,000 group. At least 23 per cent respondents in the age bracket of 18-29 would spend less than Rs 10,000 in the next six months while eight per cent of the respondents in the above 40 group would spend more than Rs 1,00,000 in the next six months. At least 45 per cent respondents said they are always on a lookout for pieces to improve the look of their house and do not mind spending if they find something good and 36 per cent make spontaneous purchases sometimes but don’t buy anything too expensive that often, while 19 per cent said they don’t spend too much spontaneously and only buy when necessary.

The hardest part about spending on home decor was deciding between quality and affordability and the response was same 29 per cent among men and women. Among the respondents, at least 42 per cent lived in self-owned homes while 26 per cent were in rented homes.