Contemporary, Traditional, Classical, Tropical, Rustic, Gothic, Art Deco, Asian, Eclectic, Minimalist, ... You've heard these interior design lingo, and more.
In choosing a "style", I go by one simple criterion: practicality. I would have loved to opt for a cool, minimalist, post-modern style, but looking at the amount of stuffs we have in possession, it'll be anything but a misfit. A house, being a place where we live, has to blend with its occupant's lifestyle and habits. Guided by this, I set two objectives: ease of maintenance (as in housekeeping), and lots of storage space. The former is important as my mother would be the one doing the housekeeping mostly, and I would like to make her job easier. It's also important to child-proof the place and make it senior-friendly, such as laying anti-slip tiles in the kitchen.
And, may I add, all these to be accomplished within my budget, which was
initially set to $25K (but later ballooned to $28K due to rising cost; that's
the time when the prices of rice soared), against the usual $40K to $50K which
most other households spent.
This was achieved by careful research and prudent spending.
It is important to keep an account the watch the book closely, which I did,
and I did it down to the cents.
Some good deals I got are the coffee-table at a IKEA's promotion, and the LCD TV and Dell computer I bought at an IT Show. Of course, the best cost-saving strategy I would like to give credit to myself was the DIY efforts I made on self-assembling the furniture. As I have long suspected, and later confirmed, custom-made furniture are a lot pricier then ready made ones. DIY is terribly exhausting, yes. But it makes you feel as if you are not only owning the house, but also a creator of it. The self-satisfaction is enough compensation for all the toil and sweat.
I spent several months, in fact more than a year, poring over magazines, brochures
and newspapers, and visiting major furniture stores and exhibitions picking up
design tips, and looking for the best deals and ideas and products that suit my
needs. Occasionally, I would chance upon something that looks irresistible, be
it the well-known
Arco Lamp
designed by two brothers Archille Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni
in 1962, the
Aalto Stool
by Alvar Aalto in 1932-1933, or the
fabulous bookshelves such as those in
30 most creative bookshelves designs
and
Bookshelves furniture. Without doubts, these would certainly
up the oomph factor tremendously. But there, we've got to be mindful of
needs against wants. In plain language, it's all about budget,
again.
Aesthetic and ease of maintenance sometimes do clash. The open bookshelves in the above websites look marvellous, but I had open bookshelves before and I know how quickly dust gets settled in there. So, right from the start, I said no to open bookshelves. They must come with doors.
In dealing with the storage needs to better utilise space and to reduce clutter, I aimed for multi-purpose items. For example, the custom-made half-height shoe-cabinet doubling up as a seat, the switch-box cover doubling up as letter drops, the Eubiq power outlet system, the extensible dining table, the BESTA storage furniture, the coffee table with display units, and the the bed frame with storage.
At the end of the day, I can't give a name to the style that emerged. Does it matter, as long as you feel okay with it?
I wanted to experiment a bit with colour combination, hence I stayed away from the safe choices of complementary colours, and opted for some bolder colours like orange for my bedroom (but I did complement it with a more soothing light purple on the opposite wall). When I picked four colours for the four panels of the bathroom door, the interior designer gave me a weird look. In the end I settled with two colours: blue and green.
I noted down the colours and laminates I chose below for future reference:
| Item | Description | Code |
| Bedrooms - Floor Laminate | Supreme's Imperial Maple | LS632 |
| Bathroom - Bi-fold Door | AC6004 | Blue (MF30) and Green (MF34) |
| Bathroom - Shower Sliding Doors | Bubbles | 803 |
| Paint - Master Bedroom | Gold Sunset and Evening Tide | WW26212L and WW21313L |
| Paint - Mom's Bedroom | Sherbet | PL2206 |
| Paint - Cowen's Bedroom | Forever Blue | PL21575 |
| Paint - Living Room | Gold Sunset/Evening Tide, and Purple Dream | WW26212L/WW21313L, and LS21744 |
| Paint - Gate | Orange Peel | GL27181 |
| Paint - Door Frames | Magnolia | GL633 |
| Kitchen - Top | White Stone | BTC011 |
| Kitchen - Cabinet | Vanilla | ASP2109G |
| Bathroom - Vanity Top | Baby Pink | BT1560 |
| Bathroom - Vanity Cabinet | Dawn | ASP2242G |
| Laminate - Shelter Door | Alabaster Blossom | DXO1321D |
| Laminate - Glass Divider | Princess Beech | WG4210NT |
| Laminate - Shoe Cabinet | Frosty White | |
| Leather - Shoe Cabinet | Buff | 6313 |
| Laminate - J-ledge | Yellow | ASP2163G |
| Laminate - Wardrobe | Neon white (brushed), Metalized (brushed), and Latin stripes | PL103T, PL2407T, and DXN5314X |
The five elements, the four celestial guardians, the Flying Star charts, the Ba Gua formula. Yes, we are talking about feng shui.
You might have heard about these at one time or another. That air-con should not be positioned above the bed's headboard, that bathroom door should not face the bed (this is considered the worst bathroom's position in a bedroom, and it happens to be mine), that the ideal shape of a house is squarish or rectangular, that beds and sofas should be backed by the wall, that no sharp corners should point to the bed, how certain arrangements of furniture are undesirable, and how other arrangments could improve your relationship or help your career, and many more.
I bought some books on feng shui as I wanted to find out more about the subject, and was quite intriqued by its vast contents. Personally, I divide the information into two groups: one that deals with the balance and harmony between human and his envioronment, a notion I believe in and subscribe to, such as the flow of qi and the interplay of yin and yang, and the other that deals with symbols such as luck enchancers and rituals, which are something I just read to feed my curiosity.
I like most of the stuffs around here so I should focus more on the misses. First, let me confess that after all the DIY, I've developed a deep phobia of drilling. My first attempt at drilling to secure my bookshelves to the wall ended up with me puffing and arm over-strained after half an hour, and the wall still did not bow!
It was a pity I could not fit the Besta storage floor-to-ceiling as we missed the height by just a few millimetres after the floor tiling was done. As a consequence I need to re-arrange the modules. A floor-to-ceiling storage would have eliminated the need to clean the top, apart from providing more storage space.
I spotted a set of three black-and-white canva drawings of really cute Pandas that I loved it the moment I sighted it, and had planned to bring it home to adorn the wall fronting the shelter's door. However, I realise that it is not easy to hang the pictures, as we tend to access the shelter all too often. So, it has been categorised into a want and the idea has since been abandoned.
Perhaps, I could try my hand on my own manuscript and art works and put up them. But that would take time for me to brush up my skills as I've not done such things for a very long time.
I thought the idea of a soap dispenser would help to cut wastage and help reduce clutter. But old habits die hard. In the end I am the only person using it.
Seeing mom and Jane setting up the ironing board each time they want to use it and then stowing it away after use makes me ponder about whether there is a better way. I came across this Wall-Mounted Ironing Board (and also found something similar on this website: Fold-Away Wall Mounted Ironing Board) and thought that this could be the solution. However, due to the lack of wall space I eventually abandoned the idea as well. I've yet met anyone using this.
A house is organic and takes on a life by its own. After a while, I found some items appearing mysteriously, like these chairs with mismatched colours. I also have no idea where this massage_chair came from, and we have no room to place it, so it is now sitting in the living room.
