Home Decor

- UNDER CONSTRUCTION -

Home Decor had always been an important element in setting the mood for any home.  And decorative essentials ranging from fanciful lighting fixtures to artistic paintings are all catered to bring out every individual owner's personality.

This blogging entry would hopefully serve as a reference to home decor.  Apart from decors used for my home, I have also included items from retailers that could hopefully imbue creative inspiration among other home owners.



Buddha Portraits

I had always wanted to have some artistic paintings at home and the ZEN-themed artworks had been a rage with home owners for quite a while.

So when I came across portraits of Buddhas, I would cringe at the thought of having to become hundreds of dollars poorer in pockets if I were to acquire just one of these art pieces.

Then my opportunity came when I chanced upon an online seller trading in these art pieces which he would be letting go at a fraction of the retail price sold in shops.

Even though the actual source of these art pieces remain unknown, I realized that I have had a very good bargain from the seller.

Both paintings had a grainy & "sandy" texture.  And maintenance is quite an issue because both paintings were prone to getting moldy.  And there is no recourse to cleaning the paintings once they are blemished with mold spots.

As the saying goes in Buddhism that there is impermanence in all things in life, let us overlook the "blemishes" and appreciate the painting in good humor. :)

When I first acquired this piece of artwork, I was slightly perturbed by the expression of the Buddha's eyes.

Those eyes had a certain aggression to it & instills fear in some people when looked on.  Unfortunately, this could not be mirrored clearly through photography in view of lighting (& photography) limitations.

I was quite worried over my hubby's reaction to it as I bought it without consulting him.

However, I was very relieved when it was love at first sight when he saw the painting!

This is a (HUGE!) second portrait that I had no choice but to make this obligatory purchase since I ordered a golden version in a large size from the online seller & rejected the art works becox of quality issues with the paint strokes.

The obligatory purchase is a grayish version of the Buddha's portrait, seemingly done up by the artist who did the first portrait that I bought from this same ebayer.

It was very difficult to capture the exact shade, which is a sandstone gray.  And the expression too... It doesn't have the fierce expression unlike the first piece I acquired in earthy tones.

According to our Taiwanese geomencer, earthy tones were the best colours for our living room as a couple.  I had my reservations with this sandstone version as the colour theme didn't fall under the earth element. 

My attempts to locate an earthy version (first portrait)  with the same facial orientation as illustrated in this sandstone painting was unfruitful.  As such, we had decided that it was our affinity that we had acquired this art piece of which the Buddha's outlook does have a very serene & calming effect on visitors when looked upon from the main entrance of our flat.

(I left the plastic wrappers on until we are ready to get it mounted on the wall & would be updating more photographs once the paintings are mounted on the walls in our home.)

Lighting Fixtures :  Decorative Lamps
I have never been a fan of decorative light stands or table lamps because I had the idea of maximising on the mileage of ceiling lights.  Moreover, I'm a bag of lazy bones when it comes to cleaning & dusting furnishings.

(photo - pending)
This is one of the artistic pieces which made its way to my home in year 2002.  It was a gift from an Australian expatriate who used to be based in Singapore as a medical professional.  I was amazed at the quality of this decorative table lamp as it's coming to 8 years old & seems to be age-resistant!

The metal spokes are made of aluminium that's beaten & curled at the tips to an artistic perfection and the white "plastic" which had been rolled & held in shape by nails is still as pristine in white as it is since day one!!! :)

I am also showcasing some nice table lamps from SILIC LIGHTING CENTRE @ Balestier Road (Singapore) which I felt would be such nice additions to a home :

According to Jenny of SILIC LIGHTING CENTRE, these table lamps were imported from Japan and are new arrivals as I could see that every lamp shade had been encased in a clear plastic.

These styles of table lamps seemed timeless from my perspective and I supposed they do go with some retro style furnishings too!

Isn't this such a romantic piece?

For a moment, I had the impression that this was an expensive property that was found on acting scenes of Regency / Victorian period dramas.


I was so surprised to find such a design in Singapore because it gave me the impression that it came right out of historical romantic novels written by Barbara Cartland!

This is a smaller variation of its larger counterpart as shown in the photograph displayed above.

A dainty & cute table lamp that exudes romance.  Another feminine collectible for any vintage lovers.










Country Style Decor
I have also noticed that country style decor seems to be a timeless classic which is almost an all-time favourite of many home owners and furniture & home decor, including quilted bags & cushions were frequently a common sight in the retail market.

As such, I figured out that home decor that are inspired by country styles is still pretty popular among home owners.  And a worthy point for us penny pinchers to take note is that, many of these country style or vintage-inspired  items don't come cheap!

While we were shopping for lighting, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that SILIC LIGHTING CENTRE @ Balestier Road is selling these country style decorations which would definitely be of interest to home owners and collectors who love vintage-inspired stuff.

As you could see from the photograph above, these country style decorations are just a fraction of what's found at a corner of a showroom on the 2nd storey of this lighting boutique.

This is a cute little piece that might work well in bedrooms, service yards and even kitchens!

I believe that it's made of solid wood and hand painted to give it a sweet & romantic outlook.  It's definitely another feminine piece of furnishing for young girls & romantic ladies.

(more photographs pending)

Art Decor (Painting)

It's a real pity that this art gallery which is known as 艺美苑 (Yi Mei Yuan) at Lucky ChinaTown had already closed down for good.  Its owner whose a PRC national by the name of 杨峰 had doubled up both as a grandfather to his bundles of joy at home and an entrepreneur.

Unfortunately, he has decided to wind down the business in view of many reasons, one of which being domestic as he had plans to return to his homeland which he misses badly.

While the art gallery is no longer in operation, the photographs that I've taken for sharing on a local forum wouldn't go to waste as I would be publishing them here on my blog for the purposes of art appreciation.  And trust me, it's a feast to the eyes!

Although I'm not trained in the field of fine arts, I've always expressed a keen interest in canvas painting and have acquired my first collection in the form of 2 cheaply priced canvas painting from a pushcart sometime in Year 2002.

One of which featuring a beautiful scenery with hills & waterfall as the sun sets, had been passed on to my brother-in-law.

The second had been retained as that was a meaningful one that we felt emotionally attached to as it was catered for Geomency purposes even though it didn't age well under the hot sun - the oil painting had started showing hairline cracks.  However, we loved the painting so much that we had decided to retain it in our home.  And it'll be mounted happily on a champagne coloured wall at our balcony. :)

So here comes some lovely canvas painting which are already hanging on the walls of home owners!

Peonies painted on "gold foil"

Lotus on Canvas
Done up in the style of "Vincent van Gough" is how I would comment this piece in a layman's language.

Lotus on "gold foil"
This is yet another lotus-motif art work that is painted on gold foil and looks a lot better when seen in person.

It was a pity that I didn't get to buy it or other variations of it as they were all bought by other customers by the time I get to visit the art gallery again.

People :  A duo of Ballerinas
When I first set my eyes on this elegant painting, I am immediately reminded of the ballerinas in the Natalie Portman's movie, The Black Swan.

People :  

Courtesan or Imperial Concubine ?

While I was walking around in the art gallery, I stumbled upon this beautiful canvas painting of artistic nature which in my opinion, would be appropriate for private boudoirs, spas or beauty palors.

I've taken a snapshot of this painting, depicting a courtesan or royal concubine of the Tang dynastic era. It isn't sleazy by nature & would be well-appreciated from the artistic perspective.



Wealth Inviting Decoration - Maneki-neko 招き猫

I have started a recent collection of the all-time favourite fortune cat among many home owners.  If you are interested in looking at my humble collection of fortune cats, please feel free to visit my blogging articles at:

 

Maneki-neko (Part I) : Peony & Koban

 

 

Maneki-neko (Part II) : Sakura
















Chinese New Year Decoration - All Year Round! (from GEMINI BODY SHOP @ Pagoda Street)

During our recent audit by our Taiwanese geomencer, he had recommended that we place a red picture or a red scroll on a certain section of our wall.  At that juncture, Chinese New Year was well over for a couple of months or so.

We were almost going to buy a mega print of red roses when a PRC national friend well into her 40s mentioned to us that it's highly recommended that we kept to the conventional practice of using a red scroll with Chinese auspicious wordings on it.

She mentioned that there is a particular shop in ChinaTown that might have what we were looking for.  And there I was in ChinaTown, but tracking down this shop wasn't easy becox I had to ask many of the neighbouring shops for its exact location.  It was made extra tough by the unpredictable weather.  Sunny one moment but rainy during the next second.

Much to my relief, I finally found it!  It was actually running along the street that leads us to the escalator for Chinatown mrt station.

I was extremely surprised that it had such a huge variety of Chinese New Year (CNY) decorations even after CNY was long over.

The boss, Marcus Choo, said that CNY decorations were available throughout the year in his shop.  Although the demand for such decorations weren't as high as during its festive season, there is still a constant stream of customers from drama theaters and tourists requesting for them.

And his signage GEMINI BODY SHOP reflected the festive mood of CNY in a cheery tone of red, which is one of my favourite colours!

Initially, when I saw a giant version of the Mystic Knot being sold at his shop, I was almost going to purchase it becox I love such knots as it is one of the auspicious symbols in Buddhism.

It is associated with an abundance or endless amount of good energy & luck.  As such, it had also been known as the Endless Knot and had been very popular with high fashion houses & their designers.

However, after much serious contemplation while looking through the CNY wares at GEMINI, I've decided to settle down for the traditional red felt scrolls since our Taiwanese fengshui master had recommended a red "painting" or picture on that section of the wall.

I was extremely happy that GEMINI has a huge variety of such red scrolls.  Although they looked really cliche & typical of an "oldish" CNY decor as there's nothing modernised about it, I had decided to purchase one of these red scrolls since they would serve our fengshui requirements well.

After browsing through a good variety of red scrolls, I selected a version that has the Chinese word "福" (fu) written in a hundred ways as shown partially at the bottom left hand corner in the photograph.

Apart from CNY decorations being sold all year round in GEMINI Body Shop, they also sell traditional wares which are being used during Chinese weddings.

Rental of the Chinese "KUA" which had been used traditionally by the Cantonese during the wedding tea ceremony is also available at the store.

I took a snippet of 2 of such costumes in GEMINI Body Shop and they do look pretty & elaborated with the intriccate embroidery of the dragon & phoenix in silvery & goldish threads.

Perhaps I should jux rent one for myself for a wedding anniversary photo shoot & my hubby could pair off with me in the Chinese skull cap with his pig-tail! :P

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Disclaimer:

Permission has been sought from the following parties for their products & stores to be featured in this blog :
Jenny Ow of SILIC LIGHTING CENTRE PTE LTD
Marcus Choo of GEMINI BODY SHOP
Mr 杨峰 of 艺美苑 (Yi Mei Yuan Art Gallery) - No longer in Operation

Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of products and services provided by the aforesaid company.

I am not affliated to this company and am a customer who bought products from these shops.

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread.

For the ease of viewing and any enquiries related to contact details of these companies, photographs that are ear-marked with such details are uploaded.

Some photographs related to these companies had also been water-marked in view of copyright issues.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Vanity Drawers & Kitchen Doors from Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd

The Vanity Drawers & the Kitchen (Sliding) Doors were being installed last year in 2012.  We hope that home owners would find this review useful.

To contact Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd for a site measurement, please contact Mrs Kang at the following address or contact number:

#01-1227, 5060 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2

Singapore 569563

Tel :  6-382-2081

Vanity Drawers

The recess area below my windows are subject to weathering from the exterior part of the flat and water leakages during heavy downpour are inevitable.

As such, we had decided to opt for water-proof aluminium cabinet doors which are also known as vanity "drawers".  Even though there obviously aren't any drawers behind those cabinet doors.

Selection Process for a Professional Installer

We have interviewed several aluminium contractors and had eventually narrowed down to Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd.  

The reason being that when the boss, Mr Kang himself came down personally to take measurements and provide a quotation, we were pleasantly surprised when he told us very honestly that he would recommend wooden doors instead of his aluminium doors.

Additionally, he had demonstrated the depth of his knowledge with much credibility in his technical explanations.  Both my hubby and myself were pretty confident that we got the right contractor to take up this assignment.

And now that Han Fong Aluminium Pte Ltd has completed the installation of these vanity "drawers", we are very happy to share on RT forum that we are glad that we found them as we were in very good hands!

We didn't have a camera at hand when Han Fong's inhouse installers dropped by during the first trip.

So we only managed to take these photos when their staff came down for the second installation.

Here comes the photos...

The protective film of plastic had not been peeled off yet - so it doesn't show off any high glossy shine / sheen.  It has the looks of the kitchen cabinet's concept in IKEA.  It's just that their version is made of glass whereas ours is made of PVC  of the same/ almost similar colour tone.

We intend to do the "opening ceremony" after we are done with refurnishing our homes :  better to protect it from any accidental scratches...

This is the finished product of a dual-panel cabinet door below the window for my spare bedroom.

We were very surprised to see that they had used several types of silicon apart from drilling the aluminium frame to the concrete parts of the wall.  And it came in several colours for camoflouging.

The installer also explained to us that it is anti-mouldy and even when it gets wet, we won't have any issues of seeing those blackish-greenish mould spots staining the silicon in the near future.

Balcony

The balcony is a real headache when we got several aluminium contractors to drop by.

Many didn't realise that there is a discrepancy in the height from the top of the concrete part (below the window) all the way down to the ceramic floor.

It was only when 1 of the contractors highlighted to us that the concrete structure flanking the recess area is uneven, that we realised what the implications would be.  That contractor turned down our assignment straight on the spot.  The reason given was it's difficult to install cabinet doors in the balcony as we would be unable to slide the doors after installation.

When Mr Kang from Han Fong Aluminium stepped in, he too noticed that the uneven height after taking measurement - the section on our left hand side is shorter in height.  But he assured us that it could be done and that he might need to use an anchor to "hold" or balance up the frame (in the middle portion).  And he told us that it wouldn't look so nice and he would try to see if we could avoid using the anchor.

This photo shows his installer fixing the frame and the sliding doors at my balcony and no anchor is required.

The use of anti-mouldy silicon to cover the gaps between the frame and the concrete flanking the frame.

Another type of silicon which is gray coloured with a different texture had also been used for the sides and bottom.  For camoflouging purposes.

The finished product at my balcony - which is very messy because we are in the midst of doing a minor face-lift for my flat so it's extremely cluttered with raw materials and our "garbage".

The plastic film that you noticed dangling down from one of the doors is the protective film.  The original PVC has a very high shine, glossy surface.  Just like glass.

A close-up shot of the finished product.  The reflection seen on the panels are from the huge stack of "goodies" piled up at the balcony.

(Note: The PVC panels are opaque.  The colourful images which are seen on the panels are a reflection of our personal effects which were placed directly OPPOSITE these vanity drawers which are alot better looking in reality.)

Here comes the mini lockset which had been installed on the spot by their installer :

Dining room

Our dining room had the same problem on structural discrepancies as the balcony.

But we were amazed at how he sawed the short trunkings (sorry not sure what terminology to use) manually with a saw and the artwork was seamless!

Applying cement to the gaps between the aluminium frame and the concrete walls at the sides:

Red carpet had been brought in by Han Fong Aluminium's staff to minimise the cement spluttering all over the place.

We were fascinated that the staff bothered to vacuum the aluminium dust from sawing during the first trip they made to install the framing below the windows.

For this second trip down, he bothered to clean up the place where the excessive cement fell onto the floor or tracks:

After taking his lunch, he used a grayish type of plaster to smoothen out the cemented areas on both left and right sides:

The finished product after painting:

Storage for my personal effects e.g. boxes of DVDs, knick-knacks, etc - no space is too small for optimising storage

My storage motto:  No wastage allowed down to even 1 inch.

Photo of night scenary from my TV room

Just to add a photograph of the camera-shy installer
(managed to "white"-out his face before uploading)

He is a very humble, patient and experienced in his role as an installer.

What surprised us was how he could simply look at the hollow gap between the aluminium framework & the wall, then pick up the aluminium bar and start sawing off the right length on the spot!

We have never seen anything like that until we engaged Han Fong Aluminium's services.

This is a photo of vanity drawers done in a similar fashion under the kitchen stove.  The plastic protective film has already been removed so u could see the reflective surface of the PVC panels really clearly.

It is done by another contractor earlier on but he is unable to "hide" those ugly black rubber strips on the inside of the sliding doors.  :(

We wished that we had got to know about Han Fong Aluminium earlier on.  *sob*

I would highly recommend that those ugly black rubber strips be concealed on the reverse side of the sliding doors for a "cleaner" look.

Once we've installed our IKEA kitchen concepts, we will be reversing both doors becox those black rubbers spoiled the appearance of those already "obiang" stove.  haiz...

Kitchen Sliding Doors (Dual-Panel)

After the breezy transaction for the vanity drawers was completed, we had decided to get our kitchen sliding doors installed by Han Fong Aluminium as this aluminium fabrication company has become our preferred choice for us as home owners.

In view of space constraints for installing a sliding mechanism, we had to opt for a dual-panel kitchen door as the wall wasn't wide enough for concealing the kitchen door when it is withdrawn & concealed.

Mr Kang had recommended a bi-fold door in lieu of sliding doors, which he was honest in warning us that sliding wouldn't be as smooth-going as that of a single panel.

However, we still went ahead & installed a dual-paneled sliding door because we felt that it would look neat when not in use.

The Installation Process

We requested for the same installer who did up our vanity drawers to install our kitchen sliding doors.

A powered driller was also mobilised to hold different parts of the door frame together.

Han Fong Aluminium's installer had also prepared an aluminium stopper which was subsequently placed at the centre of the top sliding tracks as shown in the photograph.

The gadget for beating in nails through the door frame is unknown to us. So we have decided to call it a "stapler gun" as we observed that it dispenses nails with great ease.

After the door frame had been placed such that it was flanking the entrance in the kitchen, both door panels were ready to be placed onto the twin tracks.

We were pleased to observe that Han Fong Aluminium's staff had been very thoughtful when they used autosol to polish the aluminium frame of the doors prior to mounting them on the sliding tracks of the door frame.

The photograph shows the hardworking & conscientious installer inspecting the sliding door mechanism while testing out the ease of sliding along the twin tracks.

Adjustments were made accordingly to optimize sliding along the aluminium tracks.  

Silicon was then used to seal up gaps between the aluminium tracks & the ceramic groove between our living room & kitchen entrance.

These are some close-up photographs of the finished product - our dual-panel sliding doors for our kitchen.

The panels are made of PVC and not glass as it does give readers an illusion that they are glass sliding doors.  We came to realise that there is a certain percentage of translucency to the PVC material as strong lighting has been filtered through from our living room during day time when it's bright & sunny on most days.

As our living room is still in a tragic mess while we embark on an arduous journey on DIY for our home, we have decided not to publish photographs when the sliding doors are fully concealed behind the wall.

Hence, we left the door partially opened as shown in the photograph instead of pushing both door panels to the extreme left of the ceramic wall.

VERDICT :  SUPERB & EXCELLENT!

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Disclaimer:

Permission has been sought from Han Fong Aluminium for their installation works at my home to be featured in this thread.

Kindly note that this thread is strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of works and services provided by the aforesaid company.

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread.

In view of issues pertaining to every individual's privacy, facial identities are witheld from the photographs featured in this thread.

Thank you for your kind understanding.