Lilian and I haven't been really step into a furniture shop since our last renovation. Hence we were like mountain tortoises when we went around shopping for items for the new place. We also find that what we use to fancy no longer appeals to us. I guess that is what is terms as ageing.
Below are some shops we liked in case anyone of you are in the same boat as us. I'm not very good at categorizing the shops to various themes so it would be best to click on the link to see if they are what you are looking for.
The okay, affordable shops:
Comfort Design: This place has a huge variety of tables and chairs, so much so that they call themselves "The Table and Chair People". If you have been visiting designer furniture shops, you may find some similar designs here.
Pomelo: This place carries some very nice furniture. Loft, warmly feel.
Grafunkt: This shop would be a favourite if you like wood furniture. They place alot of thought and effort in their design and manufacturing.
Commune: This shop features many walnut wood furnitures. I liked their Kardell sofa so much that we almost bought it.
XZQT: Initially not on our list of shops to visit, a "see see look look" walkabout ended with us confirming one of their dining tables.
Massimmo: We got our sofa from them. What we liked was that we could customise our sofa to something we liked.
Lush: We bought our previous sofa from here. The shop run into some bad reviews online in recent years so approach with your eyes open.
The 太空价 (outer-space price) high-end shops:
Space: This huge place is decked with designer furniture that are usually out of our range. I visit this almost every week when scouting for furniture because its right next to NAFA. Kills some time while waiting for Xavier to end his class. There are some bargains though during their sales period.
Xtra: Similar to Space, this place is decked with designer items priced beyond us. Still, a good place to shop to wow on those Herman Miller items.
We now have a balcony (and a backyard) and we have thoughts of doing decking at our balcony. It is one of the area which we spend quite a number of time researching on.
Our start plan is we want something with minimum maintenance and the choice is easy, WPC decking, also known as Wood Plastic Composite decking. They do not need sanding and re-vanishing every few years, unlike natural wood. They will also not have splinters or crack or split.
However when our ID shown us the product sample, I had second thoughts. It feels very plastic and further research points out the cons, like getting very hot for bare sole under direct sun, having to have a bigger gap between planks to cater for larger expansion, will scratch like natural wood but it will become permanent as you will not be able to sand and re-varnish again.
Of course there are different grades of composite decking. Absolut Outdoors' composite decking is already "pre-expanded" so they could build with smaller gaps, and the feel is alot less plastic. Forexia Eco Wood Composite Decking from Evorich comes with a 25 year warranty.
On the other spectrum are the natural wood. Common wood used are Chengal, Ironwood, Teak, Merbau and Balau. If you like the feel of wooden decking, there is no compromise. The natural wood feel/"warmth" gives you the resort feel. Chengal seems to be the preferred wood by many, including my ID. This is because Chengal is characterised as hard wood and is naturally resistant to termite attacks and fungal growth. You can find out more from Nam Soon Timber.
Engineered wood, or eco wood, falls in the middle. These includes brands like Accoya (carried by Evorich), Heveatech (carried by several companies like Floorxpert), and Abodo (carried by Calvary Carpentry). These are treated wood where they go through processing to make the wood perform better. Hence these brands often offers warrenties.
Then there are wood tiles, or tiles that look like wood. These post very minimum maintenance as they are tiles. There will still have grouts though as they are afterall tiles. But done by the correct people, it can look great too. Hafary Holdings carry a wide selection to choose from.
For WPC and tiles, the look should stay the same thru the years without major fading. However for natural wood and engineered wood, it will the vanish/coating will fade and it will look greyish (for Chengal). It will look like old jetty wood decking landing. So after a few years, you would need to sand down and re-varnish again.
After much deliberation, we decided to go for Chengal decking for our front balcony, mainly cause we like the feel of real wood decking and we would be able to sand and re-varnish for a look like new decking every 3-5 years.
I have never really taken notice of ceiling fans, not until we decided to put one in every room and started researching. The ceiling fan universal is huge. I will introduce some that we like.
Start point for us was we were using standing fans every day when we were in our previous home. Be it watching TV or taking a nap, we try to use fans over air-conditioning as much as possible. So since we are using standing fans so much, might as well install ceiling fans for all rooms. Moreover, ceiling fans actually frees up precious real estates of our home, as pointed our by our friend Alan.
The basic criteria for choosing the right fan would be the size of the room/area where the fan will be installed. There must be enough clearance between the tip of the fan blade and the wall/cabinet/L-box, as well as the clearance between the fan and the ceiling. Different fans have different clearance requirement so do check.
There are two main types of ceiling fan, AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). In a nutshell, AC fans are more powerful, uses more energy, and are more noisy than DC fans. And they usually cost lesser too.
Reliable AC fans are like those from KDK and Crestar. The simple yet elegant Crestar Icol fan caught our eye. It is available in two two sizes (40" and 46"), four colours, and optional light and remote control. Combine these with a reasonable price and this fan becomes a popular choice.
Image from Crestar
Fanco has a similiar fan call I-Con. It is only available in size 48", has four colours, remote control and optional lights. What is interesting about this model is it come with four blades and you can change the blade configuration to three blades or two blades yourself.
DC fans are where price and design factor starts to go up. Top on my list would be the sexy Big Ass Haiku fans. The highly sought-after finishing is the Bamboo, coming in two colours (Caramel and Cocoa). If you have wood finishing furniture or flooring, this fan will match very well. The sleek design won me over. And just in case you are wondering whether the bamboo finishing will last or break, this following video will probably give you the assurance.
Currently only available in Singapore in 60", it is more suited for living room and maybe some bigger master bedroom. However, I understand that Big Ass Fans Asia Pacific is in the mist of getting regulatory approval to bring in the 52" Haiku fans so it should be available later this year.
They are also bringing in a new Haiku model equipped with the SenseMe technology and I couldn't resist not getting it. SenseMe bascially makes it an "Intelligent" fan with sensors to automatically start the fan when someone comes into the room and switch off when everyone leaves. It can also automatically adjust the fan speed according to how many people are in the room. You are also pair it with Jawbone and it will know when you are sleeping and to slow down the speed. Haiku is also available in Composite finishing with two colours (black and white).
AeratronAE2/AE3 fans also caught my eye. Initially Lilian didn't like them but the looks are growing onto her. I like the two blade AE2 variant more. Shaped like a leaf, it actually won a number of awards for it efficiency and strong airflow. Singapore seem to only have the 50" size available in both black and white. In Australia where it originated, they come in three sizes (43", 50" and 60") and in five colours including two timber colours.
Some other things to note. If you are installing the fan on your false ceiling (as oppose to your actual ceiling), you need to make sure there are additional support on the false ceiling for the fan. Malaysia may have the same or similar fans at a much cheaper price but it can be a hassle when your fan breaks down so do weight your options. Lastly, some shops or brands do offer discounts if you are introduced by your Interior Designer (ID) so do check with your ID.
Updates on 17 May 2015:
If you are looking for fans for small room/area, the range of DC fans in this area are very limimted. There could be others available but the smallest we found are the Amasco Trinity 42" and probably the soon to be available Aeratron AE3 43".
Back to AC fans, the choices are aplenty in this zone. The two models I like are KDK M11SU (aka KDK Baby Fan) and Franco Mini Bee.
KDK M11SU is a 110cm (43") fan. It comes in silver and white and with remote control, coupled with reliability of KDK fans, it will help to cool small areas. There is a slightly larger model call R48SP at 120cm (about 47") if you want something slightly bigger.
Franco Mini Bee is a 36" fan with 15W three colours LED light. The fan comes in 3 colours (white, silver and multi-colour) and remote control. The interesting model is the Multi Colour version, it adds a dash of colours to any setting. The small blades does mean the area that can feel the wind would be limited so do take this into consideration.
The last fan I want to introduce is the Vento Fino. At 13" is a really small fan that can be ceiling or wall mounted. As this model does not turn or oscillate, you will have to plan before mount where you want it to face. My friend Alan mount it at a corner of the children's room, away from the bunk bed and yet still providing wind to the children. I have also seen it being used at the balcony and even kitchen. This comes is an array of colours. There is another model call Fino II. Its slight larger at 16" and the most important feature is it can oscillate. The price is more than double Fino though.
Just a pointer to end off this extended post, do take it with a pinch of salt when you are testing fans in fan shops. The fan shop often wants to display as many variety of fans as possible. Hence the mounting and the position of the fans might not be ideal like in an actual room application. And you are likely to be standing directly below the fan with the shop turning the fan to max speed. This of course makes every fan windy.
Hence when testing in shop, do test the fan you are keen at various speed settings and also test the wind in various spots away from the fan so you get an idea how large an area the fan will cover. Lastly, if you know someone who has the same fan installed in their house, ask if you can test it. That way you can get an actual feel of how the fan performs in an actual setting.
I am currently in the pre-renovation stage. I would like to pen down some thoughts on this stage.
1) Do not expect a perfect unit/apartment/house from the developer. While you might be very excited when you get your keys, that can quickly turn into anguish and disappointment if you expect the "perfect" house.
2) Look for and report the major defects as soon as possible. Engage professional help in spotting defects if you need, or if you have a bad back. I had backaches for 3 days after checking defects myself, and I still missed out some major ones till later. And its time consuming looking for defects you are not familiar with.
3) Try to close an eye on the minor defects or defects that will not really matter at all. Examples are patchy paints on the wall, if you are going to put wallpaper then it does not really matter. There are cases where a minor defects was made worse during rectification.
4) Resist committing or paying deposit for a products or service way in advance, or before you get your keys. Chances are there may be a better deal when you are ready to renovate, or you get access to better variety, or you may prefer to engage another company for the same product/service.
I had such impulse sign ups and am now regretting as I sort of lose confidence in that company I paid a deposit for after coming to know various reviews from friends and neighbours.
Hence I hope you do not get into such impulse purchases as I did. After you get your keys, you will still have time to consider the various offerings.
5) Try to look for and join a social media group for your development. Often there will be bulk purchases offers that certain vendor offers to the group.
After a long three years wait, we finally got our keys to our new place. The view from the balcony makes it all worth the wait.
But before I go into more pictures, I must first make my new house huat huat! And what better way then to roll ong-lai (pineapples)!
The next step is to check for defects and get it rectified. Renovation will follow thereafter. Without the luxury of time and the energy that I have when I did the renovation for our first house, I actually find it pretty stressful this time round.
So many things to research on, consider, compare and decide. We decided to engage the interior designer that did our first place as we find him pretty responsive and friends whom we recommended him to all have good feedback about him.
Let hope all these results in a great home to look forward to.
