Wall light in parallel universe

They say parallel universe derived from the many different paths we take from each decision we  make.  If that is true, there will be a million universes emerging when after this project is over.  

Many decisions have to be made and many great ideas have to be forsaken. Many things I wish I have done, but already too late in the game at this stage in time. 

One of which is the usage of wall lights. Wall lights obviously are wall mounted lights usually with embedded wiring.  They have to be planned from the get-go and installed before the walls are closed off. 

Wall lights are great for setting the moo and are usually not that expensive. Even a simple and basic one can instantly gives a warm and soft touch to the room. 

Some examples here.

This is a simplistic, modern and very economical wall light we used for our first project in Prince's Terrace. You can find them everywhere in HK. 

I have been wanting to have two of these mounted to the bedside. They are industrial looking, which gives a great contrast to a soft bedroom setting. 

These will be great for hallways.

One alternative is to have open wire wall lights such as these. There is no rules against visible wiring anymore.    

My Woodz

After many back and forth, I have decided to have two dressers as side tables. I think it would be cool and practical.

My woodz is a on-line furniture store ran by a nice lady Caroline van der Heijden. I read that her concept was to have a piece of Chinese influenced furniture expats can bring home one day. I am not a big fan of Chinese furniture, simply because I was mentally scared from growing up in a flat bombarded with full on Chinese furniture. But I don’t find her products too Chinese at all. What I love most is her choice of color. My favorite is Mild Taupe and China Blue.

You can visit her pop-up shop in Aberdeen here.

MY WOODZ
Unit 4, 12 Floor, Sungib Industrial Centre, 53 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong (in collaboration with Attic Lifestyle)
+852 9522 6384  +852 9522 6384  www.mywoodz.com

Some of her products here.

Middle Stage Revision

My favorite moment in the weekend is of course inspecting the progress of our new home. Instead of posting raw photos of the site, I have amended the moodboard to record the changes we have made so far. 

Living Room

This room has the most changes. See this new & improved mood board Vs my original one. 

1. The TV cabinet is shaping up nicely. Next week they will install the white cabinet door on top and hopefully paint the platform in concrete. I'm loving it. 

2. Picked a light grey curtain for the living room/rest of the flat. 

3. Still the same painting. 

4. Since the living room now looks overly mono tone. I am thinking of adding some color to it via a lounge chair. It can be yellow, to go with the dinning room, or something else. 

5. Light grey L shape sofa from Tree. Done.

6. Round wood coffee table with white legs. We picked a round table so the kids wont hurt themselves running into it, otherwise I much prefer square ones.

7. Ikea black and white rug. 

8. Floor lamp from Flos in black

Dinning Room

The dinning room has been loyal to the original design. 

1. Bought these pendant from Manks

2. This is the lovely cabinet in laminate. This turns out really well. I highly recommend this from Formica.

3. Bought 6 yellow Eames chairs with wood legs from Tree

4. Tree dinning table. Done.

5. This is a photo of the entrance. The shoe cabinet is also almost done. 

Study Room

1. Window has been installed. You can have a glimpse of the bookcase on the right. The color I picked was sensational. Padding myself on the back now. The sliding doors look amazing as well but you can't see it from here unfortunately. 

2. Will perhaps use this old black/white/gray Muji rug we have instead. It has been rolled up since Lola was 6 months old. I hope we won't open to see a bunch of mushroom growing in it.

3. I saw this light from Ikea for less than 200 bucks. Ikea is pretty amazing. 

4. Still haven't decided what to do with the re-upholstery. Looks like a project for my maternity leave. 

Master Bedroom

The major change here is that we have cancelled the mirror cabinet. 

1. Closet were being built. I picked a grey-ish color with a hint of lavender. Trust me it wasn't easy picking such complicated color out of a million similar yet confusing choices from the deck. I'm glad it turns out well so far.

2. Will try to sneak in the chandelier here. Steve will most certainly complain that it makes the room girly.

3. Have my eye on a Taupe drawer from Mywoodz. This isn't exactly the one I want but close enough. Love the color and so does Steve, for a change.

4. Found this print from Etsy with a perfect color palette. Steve already didn't like it.

5. Also want to put up some sort of industrial wall light or table lamp as reading light. These are from OneFourtyThree. 

Lola's Room

1. Bought this origami light from Snow Puppe.

2. Thinking of getting 3-4 of these animal prints from Sharon Montrose. They have lots of animal photos. I even tried to ask Lola to pick her favorite but she was quite useless. 

Piper's Room

Well, no chnage here whatsoever. Haven't even thought much about it either. Sorry my unborn child. Apparently the window was done wrong so we will have to wait for next week to see it. 

 Kitchen

Due to the leakage crisis, not much progress in the kitchen. The workers will install the cabinet next week and we are in for a whole new look after that. 

There is a wall here waiting to decorate. I am thinking of some sort of typography. 

Bathrooms

Bathrooms are all about the fixtures. The two tubs were already put it. This one is the guest bathroom. I still don't have much additional ideas. Let's wait another week. 

Hallway

I have always love this hallway. 

1. Will use these Led lights instead of the chandelier. I think it will be more chic. 

2 & 3 are from my private collection.  

According to Ed, the following week we will see:

-continue to install windows, cabinet and bathroom fixtures such as basin & toilet

-kitchen cabinet installation and then measurement for the countertop

-balcony will be painted

-1st coat of wall paint

-install door knob

Can't wait for next week for more progress. 

Back in Action

Spent the majority of the week in crisis management mode. Now it is largely under control now (touch wood) and that we 'should' be able to move in as scheduled (more or less).

So finally I can refocus on the fun stuff again. Did a fair bit of shopping subsequently.

We bought two Cecilie Manz ceiling pendents from Manks in black. They are for the dinning room.

Ordered this origami lampshade in pink from Snow Puppe. Will hang this in Lola's room. Looking forward to receiving it in the mail.

Picked materials for curtains and blinds. 

This gray linen is for most of the roman blinds and curtains. 

This one is for the helper's room. 

Roller blinds for the study room.

 

Designing isn't just about designing

Home design isn't always glamourous. There are perhaps a great deal of frustration and stress a designer/home owner has to deal with behind the scene that others don't get to see.

2 weeks ago, we discovered there was water leakage from upstairs. So now the entire project has inevitably been delayed pending on agreement with upstairs.

Just 2 days ago Ed confirmed that we can move in on March 1. I was so confident and proud that we managed the project so well that it can wrap up in just 3 month. Now that is looking quite unlikely. Not only, if there is a delay, I have to extend the lease of this temporary flat which I hate, the fact that Piper is due on March 26 isn't really helping.

When did one become grown-up and has to deal with such grown-up matters. Now things like - "oh why didn't John like me" or "why is Roger not asking me out", seemed so tedious.

Sorry this post isn't about designing. Sometimes designing isn't just only about designing.

Rocker

When I had Lola, I was reading and following Gina Ford’s ‘Content Baby’ religiously. One of the rules she has was not to 'help' the baby fall asleep. This includes not to rock them, hold them, give them a pacifier, or even nurse them to sleep, as they must learn how to do it themselves on day 1!!

With that mental note, I forbid myself to buy a rocker of course.

After that experience, I can tell you that you will break all these rules, when you are desperately trying to get her to sleep 4am in the morning. You will rock, hold, sing, nurse her to sleep, and if begging works, you will do that too.

I reckon there is no perfect ‘solutions’ whatsoever. We gave her a pacifier and that worked wonders. She was also never addicted to it. When she was 6 months old we trained her to sleep and since then we have no problem. Now all we have to do is to tell her "Goodnight Moon!" Then she will walk to her bedroom willingly, kisses us good night and fall asleep on her own. All the stress was for nothing.

So the conclusion for the preparation of Piper's birth is that I might buy a rocker. I did some research on the internet and found many hip and gorgeous selection. They will serve its primary purpose as well as being a great addition to the furniture collection afterwards. If you are a first time mom, my advise to you is to get one with 'arms'. You will need it to support your own arms while nursing. In this case, the Eames rocker might not be the most comfortable choice, albeit being the most beautiful one.

(By the way, Gina Ford's book is still worth buying. I do like her being very precise. Personally, I like specific guidance. Most other books I came across were very general and therefore not much help. But you mustn't beat yourself up if your baby refused to take a rigid 7 minutes nap. She isn't a robot after all and no matter what you do, her body clock has a mind of its own.)

First Project - Prince's Terrace 太子台

In 2005, I bought a tiny shoe box in Prince's Terrace that was 300 square feet. It previously lived a family of 4! After I took over, the entire flat was gutted and turned upside down. It is now a comfortable one bedroom apartment currently leased to a young couple.

This turned out to be the best investment I have made in my life yet. The yield was very good and the property price has nearly double. The only headache is that the target audience tends to be young expats in their 20s. The term is never long for people in this stage in their life. Turnover is high.

I worked on this with my designer friend Tommy, under a pretty tight budget. If you are interested in his service, please leave me a message. I will drop you his contact. Kitchen cabinet was built and installed by Sieger.

在2005年，我在太子台上買了一個只有三百尺的單位。這裡卻曾經住上一家四口!交吉之後，我們張整個單位翻了過來，上下倒轉，移山填海。最後演變成一所一房的公寓。

這是我最精明的投資。租金回報高，而單位己經上升了一倍。為一不便，是這樣的房子，通常只吸引到二十幾歲的年青外國人，他們住一至二年便會搬家。


這是我跟友人Tommy的設計。

How to decorate with art

When I bought my first painting, my then designer wasn't very happy with my purchase and gave me a whole lesson on "how my new art work mess up his color palette".  Admittedly, it was a challenging piece to work with.

That was the first time I even have the faintest concept about color coordination between your art work and the rest of the color scheme.

I still don't go about buying my paintings based on its suitability. It is personal, without reasons, and most of the time impulsive and unplanned.

Having said that picking a color tone from your largest piece of wall art and matching it with small details is a straight forward yet effective way of home decoration.  It is easy to do and quick to impress.

Here are some examples of matching designs.