This Portland-based design firm earned to be on this list of the best interior design websites with their breathtaking imagery and great project categorization. The Minangkabau traditionally embellish the wooden walls, pillars, and ceilings of the rumah gadang with bas-relief carved wooden motifs that reflect and symbolize their adat. The women who share the house have sleeping quarters set into alcoves – traditionally odd in number – that are set in a row against the rear wall, and curtained off by the vast interior space of the main living area. But this can lead to repetitive, uninspired work and form a portfolio that doesn’t show off your true potential. You will learn more about the design styles that you like and the ones you don’t, about your favourite colour combinations and the best lighting setups to show them off. These rows divide the interior into four long spaces called lanjar.

Interior of the Pagaruyung Palace, showing the long common area of a rumah gadang. A communal rumah gadang is a long house, rectangular in plan, with multiple gables and upsweeping ridges, forming buffalo horn-like ends. In addition to the Minangkabau’s rumah gadang, the Batak of Lake Toba region build the boat-shaped jabu with dominating carved gables and dramatic oversized roofs, and the people of Nias build the fortified omo sebua houses on massive ironwood pillars with towering roof structures. A number of rice barns (rangkiang) ideally accompany a rumah gadang, with each having a different name and function. Each element of a rumah gadang has its own symbolic meaning, which is referred to in adat speech and aphorisms. Despite large-scale deforestation, Sumatra still has millions of acres of unexploited rainforests which provide building materials. Minangkabau adat was derived from animistic and Hindu beliefs before the arrival of Islam, and remnants of animistic beliefs still exist even among some practicing Muslims. The best interior design websites have one thing in common: they are blazing fast. They make a room feel modern and optimized for futuristic living.

Traditionally, large communal rumah gadang will be surrounded by smaller homes built for married sisters and daughters of the parent family. It is said that the number of married daughters in a home can be told by the counting its horn-like extensions; as they are not always added symmetrically, rumah gadang can sometimes look unbalanced. The remaining twenty-nine motifs refer to humans and sometimes their activities or behavior, such as rajo tigo (three kings of the realm), kambang manih (sweet flower, used to describe an amiable girl) and jalo takambang (casting a net). The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic, but also follow their own ethnic traditions, or adat. It is the responsibility of the women’s maternal uncle to ensure that each marriageable woman in the family has a room of her own and to this end will build either a new house or more commonly additionally annexes to the original one. The Pagaruyung Palace is built in the traditional Minangkabau rumah gadang architectural style, but one unusual aspect is that it has three levels. The rumah gadang is built in one of two basic designs: koto piliang and bodi caniago. The two level floor is a symbolic element specific to the palace.

An additional six columns are required at each end for the anjuang of the Koto Piliang variation. Money earned on these trips is remitted for the building of contemporary rumah adat. The inner side of the shutter is painted as they are visible when open. Read more on that here: What not to do when choosing curtains – from measuring to styling all is revealed. There’s no place like home, so ensure all your senses are alerted to the feeling of home the minute you step through the door. Contemporary homes, however, are more frequently using corrugated iron in place of thatch. Unlike the Batak Toba homes, where the roof essentially creates the living space, the Minangkabau roof rests on conventional walls. The rangkiang sitinjau lauik, contains rice for the family, particularly for adat ceremonies. This type of building is used by clan leaders as a meeting place, and it is not enclosed by walls, except for the anjuang of the Koto Piliang model. The koto piliang design reflects an aristocratic and hierarchical social structure, with the house containing anjuang (raised floors) at each end to permit elevated seating of clan leaders during ceremonial events. The bodi caniago design reflects a democratic social structure, with the floors being flat and on one level.