Malaysia’s Interior Design Blog

Everyone always gets excited about moving in to a new home. Up until it really is time to move that is. Why? Simply because the thought of having to pack, move, unpack and reorganize your furniture and other household items  is overwhelming.

Most Malaysians today still opt to do a mover’s job all on their own to save cost. Usually, the monetary cost savings do not outweigh the time and effort costs involved. The most efficient manner of moving is for the owner to plan and pack the household items logically so that the movers can then move the packages to the right areas of the new home.

With the advent of online shopping in Malaysia, you can now locate great deals on services to engage professional movers at a fraction of the normal cost? Many people think of online deal shopping as product discounts only but this I can tell you is untrue because online deals include services as well. It really is worthwhile to browse through these deals as you never know what other home related services you could get on the cheap apart from just movers alone.

There are deals that engage interior designers for home consulting and planning, DIY home equipment, home and garden products and services as well as having your own groceries being delivered to your doorstep to be restocked. My advise if for you to try out the larger and more established deal sites as they offer better buyer protection and are more meticulous with their vetting of deals so you know you’ll be getting exactly what you’ll be paying for.

It is really difficult to get your child to shift in his own bed. However it becomes easy if your child proactively chooses his bed where he would like to sleep by himself.It is necessary that you involve your child in the decision of choosing a new bed. That would help him gain self confidence and he would love sleeping in his own bed without any kind of hassles.

Nowadays, Kids have their own special preferences and wants which they would like to have fulfilled. Thus when it comes to choosing their bed, it is good allowing them to choose the same. Purr-o-lux Beds is the best example which allows kids to chose their own beds with comfort. It also helps to grow a sense of responsibility within them.

Kids love cartoon characters

Kids love to sleep in beds which will comprise of their favorite cartoon characters. They also love bunk beds or storage beds where they can store their favorite piece of toy or their favorite apparel. They also help in choosing the perfect color of the bed in contrast to the rooms. Also parents sometimes cannot choose the correct kind of bed that a child would like to have. Taking the child’s opinion would help to a big deal. There are varieties of children’s beds which are available consisting of angels, Disney cartoons, theme beds, floral prints and superheroes. Talk it out with your child and see which one he loves best.

Choosing their own bed will help the child feel secure

Allow your child to choose their own beds. Get him involved and take interest in what he is trying to say. He will like it when he sees that he is being given importance. This will in the long run help him to sleep alone without any kind of fear. Talking to you about his bed will also decrease the fear within him of sleeping alone.

Gives them a feeling that they are important

Choosing their own beds gives children a sense of significance and attention. If a child is occupied in the procedure it augments to the bedtime period and makes sleeping a joy. Involve your child in choosing the color of his bed, the theme and the character. Choose from a few themes and then narrow it out in your child’s decision.

Ask your child to choose the bedding

Take ideas from your child while choosing the bedding or his bed. There are a number if styles as well as designs which your child can choose from. Generally children choose themes which they are usually familiar to like their favorite cartoon character or his favorite games in sports. Boys and girls have different options. Boys like heroes and girls like dolls and flowers. Letting your child choose his own bed will definitely help you too.

Your child will have a number of choices and preferences while choosing their beds. They want something which is durable, long lasting, comfortable and good looking. Thus get your child involved while choosing his own bed and they will be happy and thrilled!

Home is the ideal place where people like to spend their maximum time, thus it is important that one takes good care of the health and hygiene inside the home. This includes cleanliness and free from dirt, pure and fresh air and an ambiance which is soothing. The quality of air is very important for people residing in it- and when it is concerned with small kids and patients who are suffering from lung and heart problems. Impure air causes various kinds of harmful diseases that are very injurious for one’s health in the long run, causing lung problems, various kinds o allergic reactions lie sneezing and wheezing, upper tract infection and many more.

Cleanliness begins at home, so it is very important that one keeps the home clean before anything else. There are number of air purifiers and room fresheners in the market, however the best way is to make use of natural things which are user friendly and cost effective.

Following are 5 ways discussed by Opus-4 Group in which the quality of air in the home can be improved.

1. Make use of eco friendly and green products

Try planting some green plants and flowers in your porch or your balcony. Plants, as everyone knows is a good source of oxygen and helps to keep air clean. Also, try using baking powder and vinegar for cleaning indoors like your freezers and cupboards and kitchens. These components help to absorb any kind of bad odor, keeping your rooms feeling fresh. They are eco friendly, cheap and very effective.

1. Keep your rooms clean

Try dusting your rooms regularly. If you feel that dust keeps on recurring try using a vacuum cleaners for absorbing the dusts and just after a clean try closing the windows at least for some time so that dust does not settle again, but open the windows after some time for ventilation. Dust helps one to get rid of allergies and skin rashes. If you have a carpet at home make sure to dust it regularly as carpets have a tendency to catch dust. Also regularly clean all the basins and the bathrooms in a daily basis so that too much dust does not accumulate.

1. Safety in the kitchen

While cooking in the kitchen, make sure that you use the chimney to get rid of the odor and unwanted smoke. People who do not have chimneys can use the exhaust fan for the same. One not using any of these will observe a thin film of oil, dirt and grease accumulating on the walls over the years, which is injurious for health. Also after using the microwave make sure to keep the doors open until all the hot air escapes. Make sure to maintain them on a regular basis.

1. Safety in the bathroom

After shower- especially with hot water, make sure that you keep the doors of the bathrooms open and allow the heat to escape. The heat inside gives rises to humidity, bad odor and fungus and moulds. Make sure that you mop your bathroom after every shower and try keeping it dry. A wet base gives rise to mildews and fungus, causing bad odor.

1. Use good quality Air conditioners and heaters

Try using good quality Air conditioners and room heaters with good filters that would help in removing minute dust particles, smoke, and pollen. Also use eco friendly furniture’s for your rooms which are free from any kind of chemicals. Make use of non toxic paints for your rooms.

These are some inexpensive but effective ways in which one can keep his home odor free from the polluted air. These would help the air inside your home to improve.

We have previously debated the use of a spare room in the house to either be converted into a study or to be turned into the children’s playroom. Needless to say, the children won that debate. Perhaps for the better too, considering the large amount of books and toys that they have lying around the house.

This Christmas, we decided to let them plan and furnish their own playroom. We wanted to get them engaged in working on small projects like this, which require some thought, some teamwork and some elbow grease.

We provided some guidance to let them know that they needed a desk, some chairs, a bookcase and a shelf for storing their toys. We also figured that the best place to get all these items was at IKEA simply because it allowed the children to be able to envision the assembled products via the display floor. IKEA is especially wonderful during Christmas as they have their traditional holiday offerings

Desk and Chair

The older boy immediately selected the Mammut series chair and desk as his new writing/drawing table. I assume he’s attracted to the Mammut series because it gives off a more cartoonish feel with rounded edges and the accentuated backrest. Assembling this was pretty easy – all that was needed was to push the separate components in until they lock (one way irreversible joints).

There has been a whole lot of reading, drawing, writing done on this set since it was installed and I reckon we’ll definitely be getting our money’s worth for it if the children continue to use it.

Mammut chair. RM49

Mammut table. RM119

The Bookcase

Next, we needed a bookcase to house all the children’s books. A white Billy Bookcase was selected. Dimensions for this bookcase are 202cm x 80cm x 28cm. Assembling it took a little over half an hour and was pretty straightforward. We then organized their books but within several days, it ended up looking like this – but mind you, it’s ‘organized’ chaos!

Billy bookcase (white). RM169

The Toy Shelf

Now this we had a lot of fun setting up. Unlike his daddy, this little boy reads the product manual first before attempting to assemble the shelf.

We took over an hour fixing this shelf up but most of the time spent was really to allow the boy to make himself useful in the process of assembling with his trusty ‘Handy Manny’ toolset. Giving children the ownership of setting up their own room, in hindsight, has been a great idea – they now stack items where they’re supposed to and we’ve been able to manage clutter better.

Once this was set up, we slid it to the corner of the room just under the 3 panel window. Our initial choice was to get the Trofast shelf but we decided against it simply because the expedit looked better and had the flexibility to be placed horizontally or vertically.

Expedit shelf. RM249

His and Hers Chairs

We bought these chairs for both Ryan and Lauren and allowed them to put stickers on them for a personal touch. We then added a touch of personalization ourselves by sticking individual names on each chair.

Additional Toy Storage Boxes

More storage boxes for additional clutter control. These boxes work great because they’ve got tiny plastic castors underneath. The children quite like using it as a mode of transport as well.

Vessla storage crate with castors. RM29.90

An Easel for the Artsy

Our children seem to have a penchant for art but from this picture, I’m not sure I can categorize them as talented. But what do I know about art anyway? This Mala series easel cost RM79 but has definitely been well worth the money – we’ve painted on it, drawn on it, used it as a blackboard to teach the children letters and numbers and concepts. The build quality isn’t top notch but then again, you wouldn’t expect that from an easel at this price point. It certainly has been good value in my books.

And here’s a little hack we’re proud of. With a few binder clips and a container to store stationery such as markers and crayons. Yet another useful item to have to control clutter.

Mala easel. RM79

A Snille Chair for Dad

Now this is a chair I quite like because the legs are angled outwards and provided additional stability. The base and back is moulded pretty perfectly to my liking. I do spend quite a bit of time on this chair and have come to like it quite a bit. The red variety was the only one that did it for me but IKEA does offer them in 5 different shades – pink being one of them if you’re brave enough.

Snille visitor’s chair. RM45

It was just so much fun having the children help out with the unboxing, some assembling work, arranging furniture in their new playroom and filling the shelves up with books and toys. Now that the mess is contained behind the playroom door, the rest of the house looks a lot neater. Getting the children involved with planning their room and selecting their own furnishing was a great idea. I’m hoping that their daddy’s passion for home and interior design will now rub off on them.

An introduction into what interior design is?

Interior design is an architecture related term that relates to the layout, construction and also the overall appeal of interior spaces – this can range from the living room right through to offices, and everything in between.  Professional interior designers have the skill to be able to blend both technical elements and aesthetic elements to create a whole look and feel to a room.

The way this works is the use of artistic touches such as colour or lighting alongside structural things like wall placement or ceiling sloping, which together can create some of the greatest rooms possible.

Over the years, especially in the UK and America, interior design has become more apparent in our homes.  With simplicity becoming the key – colours and boldness are two things that are largely taken into account with the outlook of maximising all spaces.

Ikea’s role on revolutionising interior design

The Swedish based superstore ‘Ikea’ has really had a huge effect on interior design across the World – none more so than in the UK. Their hugely successful idea was to take the Scandinavian idea of daylight and space being centre of any room.

Ikea’s idea is simple, to make clean, simple straight lines accustom with the idea of being able to brighten up while maximising the space within. Due to the simplicity of Ikea’s interior design we see furniture and also interior combined in ways like never before. This has led to a whole new evolution in developing spaces – We now notice more and more abstract rooms, with colours being a huge factor.

Changes that are evident

Look to the past in the UK and we see furniture and interiors in the home being mostly natural colours – browns and wood effects were something that were used in just about every room. This is completely different to what you will expect to see now when stepping into a modern home.

One of the main rooms in the home that has taken on this idea of interior design is the modern kitchen. It is easy to see that kitchen design and styling has been taken to the limits in terms of maximisation and use of space. We know have things like hidden drawers, stylish handles, and use of gloss or metallic surfaces to emphasise the style of a kitchen. The use of bright inviting colours is now something that is popular with people being able to do just about anything to set the theme they are looking for.

Interior design in the office space

The office space of twenty years ago was somewhere which was tightly cramped and not the happiest of places for employees.  Fast-forward to today and we see companies like Google leading office interiors to a whole new level, with plenty of companies looking to follow suit to make their office space a friendlier place to work.

Interior design has seen an increased use of bright colours to create different working zones within one office – giving an air of fun to the office space. The old and bare necessities still remain so employees can still do all their work, but the next level of interior design has really grasped offices all over the world.

Bold enjoyable colours are used in offices everywhere nowadays, with the intention of creating a more open, free creative space to get the best out of employees.  Interior design is seen, not only to maximise the space, but also to maximise enjoyment – visually and mentally – to all who are witnesses of it.

How the internet has played a huge part in interior design

Little do people realise in the modern era how much of an effect the internet has on interior design. Ideas, products and designs from other continents have seen interior design evolve all over the Globe.

The internet allows us to share our interior design creations, and allowed interior designers to adapt their skills to ones seen in other parts of the world.  Simply searching interior design in America, would allow somebody else in the world to grasp the American view on it, and in essence create their very own Americanised interior design room.

A good example of interior design concepts that are now more evident around the World but based entirely on one countries ideas is the use Feng Shui.  This Chinese system of geomancy and orientation of a room is used around the World by interior designers to create a natural wellbeing by making sure the furniture of a room face the right directions – a simple search on the internet now enables home owners and professionals alike to research the best way to implement this in their home.

This article was put together by Ryan Hirst who writes helpful home related guides for  eurofitdirect.co.uk

Ask yourself this – what is essential in creating your own wall-o-memories?  Photos of course!

Sure we all have eleventy-billion digital photos saved somewhere in our hard drive.  But who’s going to be able to view those?  The first step is to print them out.  What?  No time to go to the photo shop to get the prints developed?  Not a problem!  I have just the solution for you – Greeco Venture

Greeco Venture promises quality prints on FujiColor Crystal Archive Photographic Paper. Fujifilm is consistently a leader in the imaging world, and now the Digital Minilab Frontier represents a crystallization of Fujifilm’s imaging technology. Used in conjunction with Fujifilm processing chemicals and original colour paper, Frontier processing ensures beautiful prints.

FDI (Fuji Digital Imaging) is a system that allows FDI photo shop that have invested in fuji film digital technology to produce amazing photographs from any digital media or conventional film. FDI retail shops are equipped with the latest digital picture printing technology allowing you to produce outstanding quality prints from almost any form of digital media.

Because Fujifilm knows pictures, it is able to offer sophisticated digital image-processing technology. Image Intelligence ™ is Fujifilm’s original digital image processing and correction technology. It automatically analyzes scenes and subjects and performs optimum image correction.

What’s different about Greeco Venture is that it offers prints in various sizes – including the usual 4R (4″x6″) as well as 4D photos.

What?  Don’t know what 4D photos are?

Well… generally, digital cameras take photos in an aspect ratio of 4:3. This means that some portion of the photo will be cropped out when printed in 4R size.

And grandma may end up very unhappy that she appears headless in the photo on your wall:

Alternatively, if you choose to keep grandma’s head on, you may choose to print with a white border on the either side, which would end up looking like this:

Not exactly appealing, is it?

And so… *ta dahh!* This is where 4D photos come in.  Its size matches the aspect ratio of 4:3 perfectly so you don’t lose anything from the original picture.

Impressed, are you?  Well, hang on to your hats… there’s more to come!

Greeco Venture offers an extremely easy-to-use software, which incidentally downloads very quickly.  Uploading photos online is easy with their photoprint software.  And they have a step by step guide on their website.

After downloading their software, browse the folder where your photos are stored.  Select what you want to print using ‘drag and drop’ or the ‘add’ functions.  You can toggle between your photos until you’re happy with your selection.

If your photos have a low pixel count, the software will prompt you with a ‘low quality image’ warning.

Once you’ve added your selected photos, these will appear in the 3rd column for order processing.

A red ‘REMOVE‘ button appears if your photo does not have sufficient resolution.  This is your second warning since the first appeared at the point of adding the said photos (refer above).  Of course you can choose to proceed despite the warning, but this might result in quality loss being suffered.

The ‘CROP’ button become ‘RED’ when your photo do not match with the selected print size.

You can then click on the ‘Price List’ to double check the pricing before finalising your order.

You can make payment via Maybank2U or credit card.

As for shipping, you can opt for the photos to be shipped to your doorstep or you can opt to pick up from their store in Penang.

Alternatively, if you are located in Penang, you can also choose to upload your photos offline (which is to bring a CD/DVD/thumbdrive to their physical store).

Greeco Venture is currently having a print promotion of only RM0.29 per 4R print.  That’s certainly a lot of savings considering the amount of time and petrol you save from having to drive out to a photo shop, look for parking, pay for parking, etc.

Right now, you can also sign up for free membership to get 20 free prints (10x4R and 10x4D).  Don’t miss out on that!

For more information, hop on over to their website today!

An amazing technological breakthrough in wire mesh screen technology is now available to residential home owners. Soon, gone will be the days where you worry about your child crashing through the glass sliding door  or worry about insects invading your home on a hot humid night when you need to leave the sliding door or windows open for some fresh air.

Majestec’s wire mesh technology has super tensile strength, provides clear views, and allows great ventilation and air circulation within the home. This application is especially useful in hot humid countries sitting near the equator like Malaysia where many homes often have to install a separate layer of insect screens in order to open up the windows or sliding doors for ventilation without letting the mosquitoes in on a feeding frenzy.

Majestec offers these screens in multiple door and window designs which you can choose from.

For more information, you can visit the local showroom situated at Kota Damansara:

Meshtec Security Screens (M) Sdn. Bhd
7 Jalan Teknologi 3/3A
Surian Technology Park
Kota Damansara  47810
Selangor, Malaysia

Contact details:

mobile  0164536756
toll free 1300 88 MESH (6374)
info.mssm@meshtec.com

This clever shower head which incorporates a mirror to allow you to shave while showering is simply ingenius. The folks at Reflect Shower definitely have a winner here. It’s the sort of item that has the potential to be an iconic must have in every home! You’re probably thinking that mirrors fog up in the shower and would render this shower head as a mere gimmick. Thankfully, that issue has been covered by the manufacturers by incorporating a special technology that uses heat within the mirror to keep it from fogging up.

Imagine all the time you busy professionals will save by being able to shower and shave at the same time!

What do we all Malaysians love? A great SALE of course! And it’s that time of the season again – the IKEA Sale begins 5th July!

With lots of specials on offer that you wouldn’t want to miss out on, now is the perfect time to get that IKEA Family card to enjoy extra benefits from your favourite Swedish outlet!

What’s IKEA Family?

IKEA is going all warm and fuzzy and catering to the entire family. First there was the Smales launch and now this – a membership that enables shoppers the following benefits:

• Lifetime membership (upon spending RM200 in the first year)
• Bonus points for store vouchers
• Member price specials on selected products
• Invitation to members-only events
• 3 newsletters per year
• 3x bonus point when you shop during your birthday month
• Free drinks and discounted family meals

It’s really easy to join as well – just head over to the FAMILY boothslocated at the store and sign up. And oh, yeah, it’s completely FREE to sign up! What’s holding you back? Sign up today and start enjoying the 5 July specials for IKEA family members and start earning valuable bonus points with all other purchases.

Find out more about IKEA family at the official IKEA site

The vision toaster is the world’s first see-through toaster to provide you with a more visual element to the browning of your bread for breakfast. It’s appealing design with double insulated glass windows now comes in cream, red, black or a full brushed metal look. It’s definitely a breakaway from the traditional toasters you’re accustomed.

It’s designers have definitely given this product some thought and not just created a gimmicky toaster. With quartz elements for consistent browning and simple to use buttons, Magimix has kept operations simple. All you need to do is enjoy the visual feast of your bread gradually browning consistently.