History of Interior Design

Tags

infographic, interior design

For 2012, my goal is to learn more about Interior Design. What better way than to start from the beginning.

Here’s an infographic about the History of Interior by DesignShuffle.com.

For the full infographic head on to DesignShuffle.

Mad hatter: Hats galore

Tags

bedroom, closet, hat display, hat storage, wardrobe, washi tape

Just another tweak to my bedroom. As you all know, I share a room with my 2 sisters and everything is a tight squeeze. Our wardrobe solution was to install IKEA wall cabinets and a clothes rail (actually a 4-bar towel rail) below it as our additional “walk-in wardrobe”. While the cabinets do provide essential storage, they do look  boring (in my words: meh), so I decided to spice them up a little.

With the help of some adhesive hooks, decorative tape from Daiso (washi tape) and a pair of scissors,

my cabinets are now a functional and beautiful hat display. 

Yea, we sisters like our hats and there are a few more caps/hats hidden behind the doors. What was a shortcoming has become a focal point of beauty, with a little thought and action. What do you think?

Snapshots of home

Tags

vignette

Notice how blue and yellow are the accent colours midst the brown? The blue ties in with the blue hallway and the yellow complements the blue.

apartment therapy: BIG BOOK OF SMALL COOL PLACES (Book review)

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book review, small space solutions

I have to admit I’m biased right from the start. I am an AT (apartment therapy) fan; I follow their blog pretty much everyday. Naturally, I was beyond excited when I found that the library had this book in stock and on the shelf. With a muted “Whee!”, I checked it out and yes, it is finally in my hands! *cue diabolical laughter*

So how does this book stack up against my expectations? It actually fared pretty well. Almost all of the homes featured in the book are new (not featured in on the website insofar as my memory can tell) and they do cover a rather wide range of styles from modern, minimalist to period drama. The focus on small spaces is particularly relevant to Singapore as is the focus on apartment living since majority (is it over 90%?) of Singaporeans living in HDB/ apartments.

The first section is on entryways and I liked it because it gives clear real-life illustration of the landing strip concept that Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan espouses. The way that people manage to squeeze an entryway into really small areas and defining these areas stirs my own creative juices and is compelling me to look for new solutions to my own entryway. Well, it is what a good book does to you, it makes you go beyond reading, to thinking and (best) to doing.

The recurring theme for small kitchens is to open-kitchen concept – opening it up to join the dining/living areas. This not only makes the kitchen look bigger, increase the natural light but also increase the space for entertaining, making the kitchen a social area for interaction between cooks and other people (family members and guests).

Art in the kitchen is also another thing to take away from the book. Too many Singaporean kitchens are just purely utilitarian, including ours, but adding art creates a cohesiveness to the house. Instead of being an afterthought, the design of the kitchen becomes intentional.

One tip from the book is add mirrors to the back of glass cabinets. This reflects light into the room and also illuminates the glassware displayed. Great idea for dark gloomy cabinets like mine. IKEA LOTS mirror pack should be an easy way of getting this effect or finding mirror tiles.

As for bedrooms, it seems that the best loft beds are custom-built. Such as the one the cover which is over a kitchen and the winner of the 2008 Small is Cool AT contest which is over a wardrobe and kitchen. Now.. if only we can custom-build a loft bed for 3….. *dreams*

Colour-wise, white is king. Almost every other home featured in the book has white walls. Though the other popular option (at least one that stood out to me) is to go really dark like black or navy for a cozier feel.

Other things that stood out to me are:

• building shelves into odd-shaped/little wall nooks
• having a wall of storage
• built-in bookshelves with a wider shelf as a desk for an office solution
• a HUGE photo mosiac

Let see what I can implement with all this new inspiration.

Interesting event: Heritage Along Footpaths

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events

This looks fun in a nostalgic way. Possibly a good photo-shoot opportunity?

Heritage Along Footpaths

The Heritage Along Footpaths project seeks to re-introduce trades that were once common in the past at two designated sites within the Bras Basah and Bugis precinct – the Singapore Art Museum and Stamford Arts Centre (along the mural wall facing Middle Road). At each of the sites, tradesmen that were once commonly found along alleyways or five-foot ways – namely street barbers, cobblers, fortune tellers, ice-ball sellers and kachang puteh sellers – will ply their wares at the prices of yesteryears.

The project will take place over two weekends in December from 3 to 4 December 2011 and 10 to 11 December 2011 from 10am to 5pm each day. For more details of the location, please download the map.

Vignettes? How to make ordinary things look pretty

Tags

bag storage, blue hallway, box frame, organising, vignette

Vignette in interior design, insofar I can tell, refers to a pretty still shot. It is like the decorative corner of the room, the spot of flowers in the field; something that draws the eye in.

Please keep in mind that I am an amateur and while I may have grandiose delusions about my skills, my actual abilities may fall short.

One thing in creating a vignette is a mixture of texture and colours. In this case, I have displayed my clutch on drawer/shelf I painted. The square box creates a perfect frame for my item. However, there is still a lot of white space (more than 50%) and it just looks a little empty. As such, I dug around and found these two books of fairy tales. The cover art of “Antique Fairy Tales” ties in with the clutch through the gold edging, while the illustrations for both are whimsical and delicate.

Of course, there is much improvement to be made but I’m satisfied as of now, until I find something better. Besides there are more spaces for me to fill.

Look at the hallway now. The drawers make a perfect box frame for displaying items. I’m not sure how intentional this looks but the reason why my clutches and frame bag are outside is because there is no space to keep them in the room, without them getting crushed and buried.

1. Mix textures and colours and height for a vignette.
2. Box frames are good for display (and you can use old drawers as box frames)
3. A lack of space can force creative solutions. If you have no place to store it, display it!

Before and after: scalloped bookcase

Tags

arranging, bookshelves, organising, painting wooden shelves, vignette

Remember my furniture painting spree from before? Well, I “inherited” an old bookcase that has so much potential: solid wood with scalloped edging. However, it was old and the backing had started to peel off.

Dad stripped off the peeling bits and reattached the backing (with lots of tiny nails) and I sanded, primed and painted it, in the same way I did for the wooden shelves.

Doesn’t it look so refreshed with a shiny new coat of paint?

Well, there is how it looks like in action: doing its job holding up most of my books. Yes, I do double-layer – I place the older/ not so interesting books/ books that I intend to give away behind the books that I like more or just plain newer.

The trick to arranging bookshelves to be interesting (and also maximising its usage) is to not just places them in rows but to stack them as well. By breaking up the vertical lines with horizontal stacks, it breaks up the monotony and creates visual interest. Of course, scattering a collection of Garfield plushies is like scattering fairy dust – it just makes everything better.

Well, I guess it is pretty obvious from the contents of my bookcase what my major is, isn’t it?

Inside Interior: The Orange Thimble

Tags

art, cafe, indie, modern, orange thimble, tiong bahru, vintage

If The Orange Thimble is a girl, you will find that she is no ice queen, despite her pretty looks. Once you talk to her, you will find her approachable and ultimately very charming. The Orange Thimble gives me a feeling of home but nicer, more polished. It is welcoming; cosy and also elegant. It is bright but not attention-seeking. It gives off an old colonial feeling without an oppressive museum feel.

(Apologies for the lacklustre photos, I didn’t have my usual camera with me, except my iPhone 3GS, which is not known for good photos. I admit that the photos do not do this place justice.)

Perhaps it is because it is an old shophouse, complete with a backyard that gives the spacious feel. Perhaps it is the blend of art, old architecture, vintage and pretty that makes it so interesting.

The cafe is a warren of little spaces: the front where the counter is, along with the cake and pastry displays, the centre, the nook, the semi-courtyard and the courtyard.

Love the old windows. There is even a cracked pane in them. The art display can also been seen here: instead of mounting the frames, the frames are suspended with a track system. This increases the versatility as different frames can be hung without nailing a million holes into the wall.

The courtyard is just so bright and peaceful. I will imagine that it will be a nice place to hang out in the evening when the sun is down and the temperature cools a little.

The magazine display is a perfect DIY idea. Just collect some window grilles, spray paint them white if they are grungy and hang your magazines using bulldog clips and S-hooks.

An old-school canteen sign? Or perhaps it is from a kopitiam? I’m leaning towards canteen sign idea. What do you think?

Again, the old architecture shows itself in the air vents and the window grilles. I like how they use the windows and window grilles as dividers, separating the different areas.

A little crude but cute toilet sign.

Location: Blk 56, 01-68, Eng Hoon Street, Tiong Bahru

Space and galaxies

Tags

mural, old house

Does this house look familiar to you? Yes, I used to live here.

If you ever drive by this road, you will have seen it and will have asked yourself: who lives here? Well, now you know. I did. No, I didn’t paint it. It was painted by the owner before us, who wanted to use the house as a childcare centre.

Unfortunately, this iconic mural will no longer look like this anymore. I heard that the new owner will white-wash it away. While my heart sinks a little at this news, I’m not surprised because the paint has been peeling for a while.

An utter mess

Tags

staging room, unpacking

One challenge of moving from a big house to a small apartment with no time for renovations is the lack of storage space and the lack of time. We moved everything in the space of 2 days. Everything had to be boxed and carted over and once it come over, there was no time to put anything away before the next box came in.

Our “solution” was a designated box/staging room – the yet-to-be study room.

Now, this is the real reason why I didn’t want to post any photos of the study room. Such an utter mess. Of course, I had to unearth my laptop from this massive pile-up.

Of course, all the mess spilled over to the living/dining room (which is the largest space in the house.

And thus, we slowly unpacked from this room.