Brick and Stone

I discovered this brick, stone and wood grain wall paneling in Houz Depot last weekend by Klaus Decor. Called FashionWall, it has a variety of designs. Get rustic, get sleek designs, with time and cost savings because it is easy to apply (DIY) besides you can achieve the same look and texture without needing to pile your porch high with loose materials. In fact, it's environmentally friendly material as well mold resistant, giving you peace of mind that it is a long term investment.

http://klaussdecor.com/index.html

Old Postcards....

Over the years, surely you had accumulated a vast amount of old postcards. News from afar, from friends or family, or could be a postcard you picked up during your travel as a remembrance. I picked up a lot of postcards over the years in cafes or news stands just because they are free and nice to look at. The old postcards need not continue to rest unnoticed in a box under the bed, there's a good way to display them. 

• Use them as bookmarks and don't forget to store them away nicely once you are done with the book.
• With paperclips and some strings, clipped the old postcards in a line above your work area or even across your window.
• Patch up and decorate as you go. A glass bottle, a lamp shade, gives it a vintage look. 
• Put up your own postcard collage wall. 

Soap Dishes

Remember the soap dish you had before? It could have been a love-hate relationship. The gooey substance left on the dish after the soap has washed away in bits, then you had to wash the dish which holds the soap. It baffles me at times, to need to wash the item which we use to hold the substance we need to clean our hands. Irony. 

If you no longer need those soap dish for its original purpose, why not bring it out to good use. This time, no cleaning or love-hate relationship required. 

• Turn your old, unused soap dish into key or coin holders. Good to hold non heavy items.

Framing Your Style

For ages, men have been framing precious photographs. It comes in various sizes, colours, material, display style, as time changes, technologically it changes as well. Now, it is in digital photo frame, sliding your precious memorable photos across time one by one.

At least once in your life, you will either be giving or receiving a photo frame. Although it has been ages sicne developed, till this age, good old traditional photo frames are still being produced and can easily be found at your nearest stationary, film shop, super and hypermarkets.


It is relatively cheap and simple. (By the way, Parkson stores carry beautiful photo frame varieties.) If you prefer the loud ones, like the bright coloured, multi-design frames, easily found in the souvenir departments.


1. Make a feature wall from a variety of photo frame. Bye-bye to blank wall.
2. Do not rush to fill the frames with photo, you can leave it blank till something suitable comes along. Hence, you can put up the frame with its existing phoot from the store or blank even.
3. Sometimes, it need not be a photograph, you can frame a child's drawing, a pressed flower, etc. I had a friend who framed the fur and a photo of her dog who passed away. After all, don't forget, there is a high chance that visitors to your home will view these frames. It's good to tell a story of your life through this feature wall.

Daisies in a Tin Can

Who could resist a friendly flower such as a daisy? Taken from the movie "You've Got Mail", when Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) was ill with a bad case of flu, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) presented her with daisies. And she said 'Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flowers?' Yes, I do!

• It is simple and friendly to the eyes. 
• It makes a place simply uncluttered. 
• Find a used tin can, clean it up to put the daisies. 
• If it's too plain, dressed up the tin can with your favourite wrapping paper. Border it with lace or stick on some nice unused buttons. 

Remember to place it near the window but not under direct sunlight, as daisies flourish under a healthy sun ray.

Daisies in a Tin is also good if you are considering to dress up your wedding reception with a simple garden feel. 

Living Under a Beam

Living in a small space should not lessen your chance of being creative. In fact, it is because of the space constraint, this should bring about even more creativity to maximise the usage of whatever space that is available.

'L' shaped corners                       Patterned corners

Case study- If you like to create a wall to separate   different rooms, take a look at the style below. A straight setting with 'L' shaped upper corners as opposed to a curve or patterned setting as seen below, creates different mood to the room. Which is more your style?
Budget - This need not be too expensive. To add on the curve or patterned setting, you will need to discuss with your contractor. Usually, they will apply a piece of triangular wood based block to the corners, paint finished.

'L' shaped corners                                      Curved corners

Another example of a dividing wall separating two rooms

             

Customise Bed and Storage

The bed room is a personal space for all of us. The place we would spend more than 50% of our time at home. It will be pleasurable to make it as comfortable and personal as possible, since we spend so much time there. Having a personal touch to the style of the room will be even better. How do we do that, when there isn't enough space to begin with? I came across some ideas on making use of that odd space. 


Case study - If you have an odd space under a beam that can not be demolished, why not make the space useful. It may turn out more unique than you know.

• Box up the space, customize the bed height so you can have storage space underneath
• Open shelving above the bed area for additional display area - picture frames, candles, etc
• Charmed up your bed time with some curtains
• Remember to have some lighting installed within the box up space, you don't want to read in the dark!

Budget - Customising furniture always cost more than ready made ones. In this case, when you take into account having storage plus bed frame, this minismise the need to get storage boxes, not to mention already having a 2 in 1 concept in the room.