Home Is Where The Art Is...

[May_dream1 14]

@ May_dream1:

Yup. It's a dream come true for me too!

My current home is in Choa Chu Kang and though there's nothing wrong with CCK itself, I've always wanted to live somewhere more central and closer to the east, where most of my family and friends live. Besides the food at Old Airport Rd is way better!

I used to stay opposite the market. Incredible food.... You really lucky to be able to find this unit!!

[mummymantras 0]

First, welcome to RT, mummymantras. Indeed, I must say that you have cool ideas and a creative knack to make your new house looks warm and cozy. Pictures of your current place speak thousand words.

Your 'Lifestyle' idea reminds me of my two friends. One whose place is a showcase of his arts (from entrance to kitchen, dining and toilets) while another refuses to have a TV in the living room (insists that guests are to mingle and not drifted with TV). I am just wondering, perhaps just kaypoh-ing to drop some ideas:

1. Passage way to bedrooms

I would rather leave the area without a door. You can still utilize the wall to hang some of your lovely artworks. Have a light shine on them.

2. Washer/Dryer area

Again, no door here. Should budget permits, house these items inside a cabinet. It looks 'clean' that way. You still can place something on top of the cabinet and also to hang some artworks above it, on the wall.

Basically, the whole idea is to showcase it as an art house that spans throughout the house except the bedrooms. The only consideration would be airconditioning.

I am sure you will have a beautiful home, mummymantras. Hehe, and pardon me to kaypoh big time.

Hi Reiki!

I'm a great fan of your reno! My hubby says that it's one of the few homes we've seen so far that he'd actually be happy to live in!

For the passageway to the bedrooms and the entrance to the service yard, I'm thinking of concealing them behind 'hidden doors', which would appear to either be part of a feature wall or the kitchen cabinets. Something like this...

The reason for this is that I work from home and occasionally have clients or project teammates over for meetings. When that happens, I want to be able to close off and conceal the 'private' areas of my home (i.e. the bedrooms and service areas). So, not only will my clients and colleagues not be tempted to be kaypoh and poke around in my bedrooms, they won't in fact even know they are there!

[mummymantras 0]

First, welcome to RT, mummymantras. Indeed, I must say that you have cool ideas and a creative knack to make your new house looks warm and cozy. Pictures of your current place speak thousand words.

Your 'Lifestyle' idea reminds me of my two friends. One whose place is a showcase of his arts (from entrance to kitchen, dining and toilets) while another refuses to have a TV in the living room (insists that guests are to mingle and not drifted with TV). I am just wondering, perhaps just kaypoh-ing to drop some ideas:

1. Passage way to bedrooms

I would rather leave the area without a door. You can still utilize the wall to hang some of your lovely artworks. Have a light shine on them.

2. Washer/Dryer area

Again, no door here. Should budget permits, house these items inside a cabinet. It looks 'clean' that way. You still can place something on top of the cabinet and also to hang some artworks above it, on the wall.

Basically, the whole idea is to showcase it as an art house that spans throughout the house except the bedrooms. The only consideration would be airconditioning.

I am sure you will have a beautiful home, mummymantras. Hehe, and pardon me to kaypoh big time.

Oh, and we will be hanging artworks all along our passageway as well, with the main focal point being the end opposite the door. It seemed like the natural thing to do... Now we just have to decide which of our stuff is most worthy of this honour...

[mummymantras 0]

There u r.

Thanks, Jaskel!

That looks really nice... but the problem is that the lower closet will then bump up against a window (see below). And part of the headboard for the bed will be resting against the window too... Is that even do-able?

For reasons I connot fathom, HDB decided to stick a window there instead of at the end of the room (where a blank wall now exists).

[mummymantras 0]

Welcome to RT mummymantras! oops, am abit late huh? hee...

love ur current place's artworks, they r so quirky n interesting

wouldnt we all love a library inside our own home sweet home? i know i do!

but d a r n... my place just hasnt got that much space n walls anymore..

Good morning, Newnyew!

I realise that I go to sleep much earlier than the folks who usually hang out in Renotalk...

Anyway, yeah, we love our home... The slightly strange artwork (posters of albums by 80's Brit indie groups seem to dominate, together with reproductions of stuff by Edward Hopper and Patrick Caulfield), our 'interesting' lamps (we have one shaped like a giant matchstick and another that looks like a wedge of cheese!) and our many, many books.

Actually, for that reason, when we were thinking about what kind of look we wanted for our home, we found ourselves inspired by indie bookstores, like Whatever Cafe & Bookstore:

And other local independent bookstores with simple but pleasing aesthetics like Littered with Books (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Littered-with-Books/153135064725041), Books Actually (http://hellobooksactually.blogspot.com), and Woods in the Books (http://www.woodsinthebooks.sg).

[dinobros 1]

hi like to share some book shelf design with you.

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2011/02/06/tree-branch-bookshelf/

[mummymantras 0]

hi like to share some book shelf design with you.

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2011/02/06/tree-branch-bookshelf/

Hi Dinobros!

Yeah... I've seen that bookshelf in many different magazines and though it is really nice to look at, I don't think I'd consider it as a serious option for my place. It can't fit that many books... and I have a lot of books to fit!

[Reiki 0]

For the passageway to the bedrooms and the entrance to the service yard, I'm thinking of concealing them behind 'hidden doors', which would appear to either be part of a feature wall or the kitchen cabinets. Something like this...

The reason for this is that I work from home and occasionally have clients or project teammates over for meetings. When that happens, I want to be able to close off and conceal the 'private' areas of my home (i.e. the bedrooms and service areas). So, not only will my clients and colleagues not be tempted to be kaypoh and poke around in my bedrooms, they won't in fact even know they are there!

Hehe, perfectly understand the need to set a right ambience for such business 'home' meetings.

Will you be considering having sliding doors? I mean, having these doors to hide behind your kitchen cabinet when open. Here, I am assuming that you would be erecting a tall kitchen cabinet.

Oops, I can't help it but getting excited about your reno, mummymantras.

[mummymantras 0]

Hehe, perfectly understand the need to set a right ambience for such business 'home' meetings.

Will you be considering having sliding doors? I mean, having these doors to hide behind your kitchen cabinet when open. Here, I am assuming that you would be erecting a tall kitchen cabinet.

Oops, I can't help it but getting excited about your reno, mummymantras.

Yeah... I'm excited too! If anything, my place will certainly be... different.

Yup. I actually have tall kitchen cabinets in mind (I cook every day, so I need to store a lot of groceries at home. And I also have a LOT of crockery to put away - for all those parties we host).

I've thought about sliding doors but I'm not entirely sure whether it's do-able(I guess this is where having an ID / contractor with common sense would help a lot). If it is, then I'm all for it!

[mummymantras 0]

Anyway, I thought I might post pics of some of the more interesting artworks in our place...

When we were selling our home, and had open houses every weekend to show off our place, every young couple who walked in through the door used to ask us about all the art pieces on our walls, where we got them, who framed them for us, etc. I felt like a gallery owner, not a home owner!

Older couples who walked in simply complained a lot about the fact that our floors were covered in genuine solid timber. Sigh...

Anyhow, I'm particularly proud of this piece. It's the rose petals from my wedding bouquet (the first ever bouquet that my husband bought for me!). After I dried them between the pages of one of my Shakespeare texts (hey, that's what Othello is for!), I had them framed between 2 layers of acrylic with an inert gas pumped in (so that they'll never rot or degrade).

I also like this (though it's less fancy). It's the figurine from the top of my wedding cake (we had a real 3-tier wedding cake) and the ad I took out in the Straits Times on the day of our marriage.

[mrdisco 0]

Peter saville is genius no? The unknown pleasures cover is nothing less than iconic. Yes am a Ramones fan amongst everything else.

The sheer genius that is Peter Saville is truly unbelievable. I think there was an exhibition in London recently on his designs? My wife (aka mummymantras) and I bought two Joy Division posters in UK. I was hoping to locate a flypost-size New Order Substance poster but alas... Anyway, we are excited about the propsect of putting these to enliven our new house.

PS - As regards Ramones, rockaway beach has to be their best...

[mummymantras 0]

I've been scouring the Internet and reading local interior design magazines in the hope of finding an intelligent, reliable ID who can hopefully achieve my vision for my home. And, so far, I've been pretty impressed with the work done by the following companies. Does any Renotalker out there have any feedback (good or bad) on them?

(1) Three-D Conceptwerke (http://www.three-d-conceptwerke.com)

(2) The Carpenter's (http://www.thecarpenter.com.sg)

(3) Project File (http://www.projectfile.com.sg)

Thanks!

[adidaem 6]

Project File's style seem to be a good fit to what you have described. I've seen many of their projects featured in Home & Decor and they all have loads of storage/shelves, carpentry etc. We also spoke to the ID when we went to look at the furniture (Motto). Seems nice, easy to talk to and even suggested other stores to look at.

Three-D Conceptwerke was one of those we approached... do be specific about which ID you want... we didn't select them so... nuff said.

[mummymantras 0]

After reading a post by JumpStreet on Mabaricows' t-blog, I've begun dreaming about trompe l’oeil bookcase wallpaper... especially along the passageway leading to my bedrooms, on my master bedroom wall, or even on the cabinets in my open plan kitchen. The printed word as food for the mind and a feast for the eyes... I love it!

Am in love with this heavenly image:

And this one (slightly more modern but no less desirable):

And am really tickled by this fake door:

Can you imagine putting this on your bedroom door? Then, you can play a game with your party guests and see how long it takes them to figure out that there doesn't appear to be any MBR in your flat!

[mummymantras 0]

Project File's style seem to be a good fit to what you have described. I've seen many of their projects featured in Home & Decor and they all have loads of storage/shelves, carpentry etc. We also spoke to the ID when we went to look at the furniture (Motto). Seems nice, easy to talk to and even suggested other stores to look at.

Three-D Conceptwerke was one of those we approached... do be specific about which ID you want... we didn't select them so... nuff said.

So, which ID did you go with in the end?