play decorating - dressing up walls

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Finally!

After being kept for months, they are up on the walls. We bought four pieces of kufi from Kufi on Kanvas. After two wood carvings dressing up the wall, I had intended to leave the rest of the wall bare and boring. But man of the house thought otherwise. After putting aside differences, we decided on quranic verses or something along that line, so kufi it was then.

 

We picked 3-Qul for ruang tamu. The background is actually blue-grey while the wordings in red and black. It's on stretched canvas with black frame.

 

 Allah & Muhammad at stair-landing wall. As you can see, we have similar colour theme with the 3-Qul. These two came without frame.

The 'bravest' color we have at home. Red. I was a tad bit worried at first coz I don't normally allow colour that 'screams'. Once up on the wall, I think it's nice. Thank you husband for insisting :-) This one is ayat Qursi.

There's a lot more to see and choose actually. I'd say endless possibilities. You can pick any ayat or surah. Pick any color. Pick the size. Pick the size. Pick the finishing. You can also have your name kufi-style.

After pre-ordering, they emailed us images so we can see how they will turn out. No obligations. Once agreed, contact them to discuss on deposits, payment, delivery date and whatnots. In  a week or two, voila, kufi at your doorstep. My only complaint is - no installation service provided. Which explains why these pieces were kept for months! Coz, drilling walls isn't really our forte. Or rather really isn't our forte! Last weekend ada electrician came to change bulbs. Ada 25 bijik nak tukar and jenis downlight yang ada cover cermin tu. Man of the house is still traumatic after that jatuh tangga incident back in 2012. Kalau sikit-sikit he does la. Banyak-banyak ni we always panggil orang to do it. And the bonus... boleh mintak drill dinding sekali. Yayy... kufi finally up the wall.

 

Here's how to contact Kufi on Kanvas, and their showrooms locations. To be safe, call dulu kot-kot ada changes okay. I take this from their fb page.

 

 

a sofa.. finally!

Months after moving into our renovated house and months of contemplating, (and after visits to few kedai perabot), we finally bought a sofa for our living area.


I think everything about it is just right for that area. Simple lines, clean cut frame with dull grey (my kind of palette) cushions. A 3-seater from Rattan Deco. Like most other furniture shops, you can choose the frame and color to go with it and you can also pick the kind of fabric and color. Placed our order at its Plaza Ampang City's showroom and 2 weeks later it was sent to our home (and received with much love!)

Bought some throw cushions from Jusco. 5 to be exact! Excuse the wall behind. We were in the midst of fixing the cracks at that time. In photo above, that was actually just a tiny-miny-minor portion of it.

Have a look below...

*faint*

That was exactly how our living area looked like when groups of family members came for Eid!

of a (coin) box

At last! Dapat jugak this box which I've been meaning to get for the past few weeks :D

of a pot at the bay...

Got this innocent-white pot (I have three actually!) from IKEA few months back. Only recently that I managed to buy some greens to go with it.

Hopeful that I will be motivated to spend more time in the kitchen! :D :D

of throw-pillows (ideas)

photo credit to www.ikea.com.my

After giving some thoughts for quite sometime, we finally decided to get a sofa for our kozi-korner i.e. small family area downstairs. Previously, there, we had 2 tatami mats and few throw pillows that were purchased from Home's Harmony.

I had absolutely no problem with that arrangement. Maybe because I rarely spend time watching TV. On those days that I do, I'd lie down on the tatami and next thing I know Tebby woke me up. Cosy-ness! And he had some disagreement on that (on tatami arrangement and maybe on me always falling asleep on those :D)

We bought a 2-seater KIVIK last Saturday and had it delivered on Sunday evening. In Dansbo Dark Grey. I had my eyes on Teno Light Grey but scrapped the idea. Teno range is more expensive (by RM600!) and the color is prone to comotness. Well, that's just me justifying actually ha ha.

The boys are grinning from ear to ear. The sofa fits the three of them just nicely. They slump on it while I sit on the rug, folding laundry :P

However though, I think KIVIK needs new throw pillows. Something of contrast against its dark-greyish-ness. Something that stands out. Now, that doesn't sound like me. I love things monotonous, earthy, dull and boring. But, yeah, bring it on! Maybe another color won't hurt.

The domestic-goddess-ness (which hits me once in a blue moon anyway!) in me had me purchased these two fabrics yesterday :D :D

photo credit to d'amani cotton therapy

photo credit to d'amani cotton therapy

Both are of Dena Design, which I purchased online via d'Amani Cotton Therapy. Yellow-ish-ness against grey. I hope they'll turn to something like this..

 ... or this....

I just remembered our walls are painted in antique olive! Grey, green and yellow?? I hope I won't faint :D :D

time for flower

I am not much of a flower-person when it comes to decorating (although I love getting fresh bouquet :D) Nevertheless, lately I am getting these urges to have simple flower arrangement atop a small console that we have.

Maybe it's an age matter :D

credit: www.dancingtothespiritofthewood.com

credit: www.gardenofsenses.com.my

credit: www.decoist.com

credit: www.fauxfloralarrangements.com

I have a thing for clean, simple line, no frill, monotonous preference on many things. As you can see, these arrangements above included. Whites will go well with our antique-olive painted wall, don't you think?

credit: www.onewed.com

Nice to have on the coffee table but am not sure if it lasts :D Coffee table is a high-traffic area in the house. Books, toys, kain-lap-hidung are among the inhabitants. But never coffee, despite the name suggests :D

credit: www.mywedding.com

Love these white-greens too, especially the front-most.

stairs & staircase - finale!

Renovation works officially ended. I was hoping we'd be moving back in before 2013 commenced. Nevertheless we were a little behind target and eventually started moving in 5th January 2013. It was a messy affair with the kids starting new schooling term, Tebby with fractured arm and wardrobe and kitchen cabinets were not 100% completed. Even now after 2 months, things are not 100% settled - curtains were only installed last weekend (salah jahit! can you believe it? It's Macy!) and we still haven't purchased sofa. But we have our own cozy corner already :D :D 2 tatami mats and an IKEA's Sultan mattress pad. Yup, a mattress pad in the living area. Sangat cozy baring-baring sambil tengok TV lepas makan lunch hi hi.

I'll just share few of my favorites.

Remember this staircase which I rambled about?

It's been walled up as planned. Based on an architect's suggestion, we made 3 slots for display and later my SIL suggested we have small lights installed - functional and aesthetically pleasing :D

*Paint - Jotun's Antique Olive. Tebby's pick.

Also installed - wooden edging. One contractor mintak RM850 for 3 slots tu. Laminate only. This uncle seen here doing his job, mintak RM650. Kayu some more! Kayu it is then! Same uncle also supply our doors.

Taaadaaaa!! Finally those crystal vases that we got wayyyy back almost 13 years ago (wedding presents) have their well deserved display slots :D

We also changed the bottom-most step. Originally the last step was covered with marble-slab. Lantai pun memang marble. Kalau tak biasa memang ada possibility tak perasan. My late FIL pernah mis-stepped there and terjatuh sampai berdarah kaki bcoz he thought dia dah sampai lantai when in fact he was actually stepping on anak tangga. 

If you look closely behind and beyond Adam, nampak tangga yang last tu dah tukar bahagian atasnya dengan parquet.

grilled and ironed!

After months flipping the catalogue and drooling over photos over the net, enduring with Tebby's yes and no interchanged from time to time on my proposal of wrought-iron grill, wooden gate and pergola - finally we settled on: -

::   Powder coated metal grill (hurmpp..)

::   Pergola with steel beams and poly-roof (I am hesitant to name it pergola... shouldn't it be wooden?)

::   Wrought iron gate (yesss!) with wood-look-alike material (hurmppp... )

Sesi pemilihan material for gate. D*** heavy this thing, even as samples! Now I understand why wrought iron is expensive :P  And due to that, our gate comes with a railing in fear of the heavy pagar might get senget in future.
Yang, dah lah wrought iron tu berat, kalau you buat kayu, lagi tambah berat.
Kayu kena maintain tau.
Owh well..

Poly roof to choose from. Glass oso got but we dare not! Being me, of course I picked the dullest of them all - brown!

Actually this 'iron-man' is 'kaki' Mazlan The Contractor jugak. He suggested Uncle Wong to us and regret not, his work sangat kemas! Everything I ever imagined the grill, gate and pergola would be. Upon our agreement, Uncle Wong tak ambik deposit pun. What a risk-taker. Takpe, nanti siap you bayar. Or, he must be very rich!

2 weeks later, Uncle Wong and his team (2 mamat bangla yang asik kena marah dek Uncle Wong ini) datang install, starting with grill. It took them 3 trips altogether, second time datang pasang beams for pergola and third pasang poly roof and gate.

Uncle Wong, hard at work. Kerja-kerja drill, pateri (fuhh... berapi-api you!) semua dia buat sendiri. Pekerja dia cuma tolong angkat, pegang, angkut (dan kena marah :P) Seen here dia pasang grill kat pintu belakang. Kami tempah yang half covered punya.

Ahhhh... so me. Brown over brown. Tebby had wanted white but he let me picked the color. He picked the design. Earlier I had wanted wrought iron grill with 'bunga padi' pattern but my proposal was rejected due to complexity of design plus the high cost (am not sure which one carry more weightage :D) As I have told before, I won't play with so much color. If the wooden frame is white, the grill should be white. But the frame is brown, so white has to go. I opted for the closest brown of the frame.

Done. Ideally I would've let the windows bare with no grills, it would've felt so open and airy and vulnerable! But in our boleh-land, realistically, grill is essential.

first furniture - Macy's

Started scouting around for furniture about one month back.Starting with dining set hihi. Asal berkait dengan makan, laju aje yer.

Love the table legs but I shivered at the glass top! Nice-to-have-but-cannot-have category :P My boys are reckless at times so we're not taking chances here.

Yess!!! Same leg design with wood top! L.O.V.E!

L.O.V.E but in category nice-to-have-but-cannot-afford-financially-to-have. RM369 each! 4 chairs? *financial pengsan-ness*

Finally after about 2 weeks, our things were home! At this point I must congratulate Macy for its customer-service. They called up before coming and knowing they were gonna be a little late than planned, they kept us informed on status. Thumbs up!

The chairs. 2 padded (with fabric! I just couldn't resist!) for Mr and Mrs of the table (so we can sit comfortably during meals hihi)

View of complete set. We mixed and matched. Perhaps what enticed me most is the table legs. Something different.

However, one if the seat had defect. A little chip that would go a long way to annoy me. Lodge a report and photos were taken by the installer. Oh ya, the table needed assembly whereas the chairs came in as-is.

And the process of getting its replacement - one thumb down. We have agreed on such date and time and suddenly Macy called-up saying they would only send later, on the same date. Because they had to deliver this here, that there. Err.. like I care? Told them I already book such date and time and it is for them to comply to that regardless if you need to go tu Subang or Shah Alam or where-ever. I mean, shouldn't them took that into consideration already before giving slots?

After a mini lecture on 'provider is not always right' - they finally made it on the time agreed earlier. Maybe a little late but I can still be reasonable with 15 or 30 minutes delay. Hah, boleh pun kan. Well, I may be mean at times but when you are in business, please be serious about providing good customer service. Especially when it is not a monopoly. Because that would be you differentiation. I especially hate it when one person name A says 'owh, itu saya tau tau, itu orang lain'. Super annoying okay.

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