Posts from — August 2008

Here’s a great little innovation and a clever piece of product design found at Crate & Barrel online store. It looks like a regular 30″ cabinet at it’s most compact but when extended, transforms into a small but adequate study/office table. The top and right panes can be lifted and extended to form the desktop and provide a gap to fit a chair. The online price (USD499) after conversion sure doesn’t favour us Malaysians. Furthermore, via the site, there’s no overseas shipping and you’d have to call a US number to set up a special arrangement to purchase it off Crate & Barrel. This just makes it totally cumbersome.

Nevertheless, the concept is intriguing and great for small spaces. As usual, simple ideas are always the most elegant. Throw your idea to your local contractor/carpenter and I’m sure they’d be able to whip up something similar, for a lot less. A great idea would be a to make a tinier version in bright colours for kids. The cabinet can store toys after they’re done playing in the day and extended to a little study table for when they’re doing their homework.

Imagesource: crateandbarrel.com

Here’s a good post shared by Kelly from RNcentral.com- 99 Ways to Make Your Home a Healthier Place. Click here to access the article.

Some of the tips in the article may not be entirely applicable to eastern homes (e.g. tips for pools, garages, carbon monoxide detectors) but there are plenty of other tips which have been categorised logically that offer plenty of information. What’s great about the article is that it’s provides links to other information sources for many of the tips listed there.

For the ‘Monica Gellers’, you’ll find the Organization and Production section very useful whilst weightwatchers will like the Diet section which provides useful information on how to live and eat healthy in the home. If you havent’ read enough, the good news is that tips 91-99 are links to other articles and guides to aid you in your traversal of cyberspace in search for more information

Kelly, thanks for the great post and thanks too for sharing it with me to share with the readers of How’sHouse.

Some weeks ago, YinLeng sent me this link on realestate.msn.com titled ‘17 Award Winning Innovations for Your Home‘. No prizes for guessing what the article is about here. These innovative designs are winning designs in the International Housewares Association’s 2008 Student Design Competition.

It’s really a great read. Click here to access the article. From my observation, many of these winning designs often are, SIMPLE! I guess it’s normal human nature to overcomplicate and overdo things- even in daily work- to outdo a nemesis, competitor or colleague. Taking a step back is often a good idea to let you see the bigger picture… and many of these students have done just that- identifying the problem, breaking it down and providing the simplest solution which will more often than not also be the most elegant. In the grueling corporate environment that some of us are in, perhaps it’s useful to really take a step back every now and then to see the bigger picture to not lose focus on the end goal.

On the topic of innovation, my project team at work is currently engaged in developing an innovative application and we’re in the initial stages of patenting the application. It’d be an interesting episode to understand and experience the whole process of patenting a novel innovation. Can’t tell you what it is but really, we’ve developed something to change how certain processes have been done traditionally, by simplifying it tremendously! It may not be award winning but I’m certain it’ll provide great value for our clients.

These are some of my favourites from the 17 winning designs- one’s that just seem to shout out ‘keepin it simple!!!’.

Elizabowl - pockets that blossom when accomodating fruits. When a piece of fruit goes bad, it doesnt instantly affect it’s neighbours through chemical contact. Looks a great piece of industrial design for a fruitbowl too. Click here for more details on the innovation that won 1st place.

BIN - mop, vacuum, bin. Click here for more details.

One handed rolling pin. Click here for more details.

Level- cooler with flexible rotating handle which will always keep it level, never spilling a drop even when two people are carrying it up a steep incline or stairs. Something so simple it makes you wonder ‘why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?’. Well, that’s innovation for ya. Click here for more details.

Imagesource: realestate.msn.com

Wanna put a lamp right smack in the middle of your coffee table but can’t figure out how hide the pesky wiring? Neoz, an Australian lighting company has a great offering of cordless lamps to suit your needs. These cordless lamps by Neoz use a rechargable lithium ion battery and comes with a battery charge indicator at the base. All controls such as the on/off switch and dimmer are also located at the base of the lamps, hence keeping them aesthetically pleasing from all angles. Strangely, it’s been a while but they haven’t responded to me on the pricing of their lamps – such as the ‘gem square‘ below

I’m hoping that they’ll be cheaper than LampLust. LampLust offers the Candela series cordless lamps which provide the effect of burning candles. A set of 4 of these (below) cost a handsome USD68.00. Thanks, but I’ll pass. I still prefer the natural flickering effect that candles provide. Click here if you’re interested to find out more about the Candela series cordless lamps.

Rather do it on your own? Here’s an instructable on how to create your own cordless lamp.

Whilst still on the topic of pesky cables, here’s an innovative method to manage cabling. Click here to find out more.

Totally hate cable clutter??? Here’s the perfect site for you- unclutterer.com. The folks at unclutterer strive to provide solutions to cable clutter.

Etsy is a great site where one can buy or sell all things handmade. It’s a community driven site in which one can find numerous unique art pieces created by amateurs as well as highly skilled artisans who put up their artwork and handywork for sale. Prices vary with each artpiece and depends on the selling price in which the owner is willing to let it go for.

The ‘art’ category is filled with novel and unique paintings, photography and prints. It’ll definitely take you a while to browse through the myriad variety on offer. Browsing could be improved with filters e.g. by price. Clicking on each individual offering will display details about the artwork e.g. size, material, shipping fees and the artist’s rationale of the artwork. It’s a great little place for anybody to really buy and sell artwork for a truly affordable price.

Here’s a look at the subcategories within ‘art’:

My personal favourite subcategory is ‘photography’. Here you can find lots of great pictures taken by amateur photographers. Some are stock image quality.

Etsy truly is great place on the net to go if you’re looking for decorative items for your home. Note of caution: you might end up spending hours scouring through their offering… but it’ll be worth it.

Here’s the second installment to the earlier post on my living space during uni- the Dakota South Apartments in Tenerife, Brisbane, Australia. Click here to read part 1 of this 2 part series.

Part 1 was all about the highlights and overview of Dakota South. Now I’ll take you into my room and the actual state of it on any given typical day. Welcome to unit 203.

My room is situated to the left of the door on an elevated platform from the living area, bordered by two sliding partitions which act as wall and door when i want privacy from my other roommates (Owen sleeps in the hall so I usually shut the partitions. He’d probably prefer it that way too I’m sure). I really like the idea of a movable wall as I have the option to limit my bedroom space or let it flow out and be one with the living room, giving it the perception of a studio unit.

View from inside the room. I made use of the partitions and extended my wardrobe to hang my most frequently used apparels here. I always thought this created somewhat a boutique feel to the place without compromising the homely effect. The little squares pasted on the walls are pictures of my loved ones back home.

Just another view – with the partitions semi opened. As you can see, we have nothing really in the living room. The only piece of furniture that isn’t Owen’s bed and portable wardrobe is our dining table and chairs. Daily routine when we’re all home: we cook, we eat, we clean up, we get the football out and have our daily kickabout session. All three of us are football fanatics… in fact, I found these two roommates on the field, through football! Talk about unity through sports.

Hmm.. I wore a lot of jeans back then. Today, I only have one pair hanging at any time (that’s probably because I live with someone with a huge wardrobe right now). The pictures on the left wall were stuck in that manner to form the shape of the cross. The churches in Australia aren’t usually as packed as the ones back home. However, it’s a whole different story when it comes to the exam period… one suddenly sees an ocean of international students flocking to attend mass! Exams or not, I do try to go, even alone, but admittedly, my attendance wasn’t as consistent as it should’ve been.

This is how my room looks on any given day. Bought my desk, mattress, tv off my pal Chee Hong who graduated and left, for AUS100. Quite a good deal I’d say. Back then, I was proud to sleep on a spring mattress instead of a foam mattress and did not know mattress technical terms like individual pocket springs, rebound latex comfort layer, turn-free, superior foam encasement, pillow plush top. Well, fortunately for YInLeng and I, our current mattress has all that (which is why I know bed jargon). Perhaps this is why it’s so much harder to wake up for work. Funny how this problem doesn’t quite happen on weekends.

On the walls, I have posters of my favourite football team, Manchester United and all time favourite player, Ryan Giggs. For my tv table, I used a box in which my computer speakers came packed in. To the left of the TV is my beloved PS2 which i used to play Winning Eleven (Lance… if you’re reading this, rematch this December at Lionel’s wedding) and watch tons of DVDs rented from Blockbuster. To the right of the TV is my almost full laundry basket- I do laundry twice a month- and my guitar behind it. It’s been 4 years since I last played the guitar.

Beside the laundry basket is my almost designer bookshelf, which looks like it’s precisely balanced by the dark green milk plastic milk crate beneath it. In actual fact, the left side of the shelf sits on the laundry basket hence providing stability whilst creating the illusion of it being wholly supported by the milk crate in the centre.

So that’s it- a glimpse into my abode during my uni days. I sure enjoyed living there. It helps when you have great housemates.

Coming soon: ‘The Chronicles of Nadia‘ (that’s the name of the neighbourhood in which we live now) in which I will detail things we’ve done to our place in turning it into a home.

It’s been a while since my last blog post about chairs. Many of today’s iconic contemporary furniture design are not always recent designs. In fact, they almost always aren’t! Take for example the Panton Chair, designed by Verner Panton in 1959. Verner Panton is one of Denmark’s most influential designers and has a knack for creating brightly coloured products made from plastic.

His most iconic work, the Panton Chair can be seen in many modern homes and even public places such as restaurants and hotels. I searched around and found that Inmod offered the best online deal- a set of 2 Panton chairs for USD$299. Click here to view more details on Inmod’s offering. IconicInteriors, a UK based site retails the Panton chair for £135!

These chairs are also available locally and thankfully, at more affordable prices too! Homelife, a local lifestyle furniture retail chain sells the chair, which they’ve renamed the Dulux chair, for RM399. I was at their Seputeh showroom and the salesman was unwilling to knock down the price at all.

The other place in which I know sells the Panton chair (and calls it that) is G.D.O. Their tag price for the chair is also RM399 but store manager, Frankie was willing to discount it up to RM349, hence cheaper by RM50.

Are you the kind who often misplaces your keys even in your own home? What you need is a key holder and cultivate a habit to use it. Here are two very unique designer key hangers I’ve found in online stores Generate and Blomus.

Generate offers the His & Hers Keyholder, ideal for couples. The key holder comes with a supplied key in which you’re supposed to fix to your current bunch of keys. To hang your keys, just insert the supplied key into the keyhole which happens to be rather strategically placed (intentional? I wouldn’t bet against it).

Click here to view the product page at Generate. At USD29.00 for a His OR Hers key holder or USD49.00 for a His AND Hers key holder, it’s really a rather steep price to pay. But then again, you’ll be getting a very unique key holder which will probably last you a loooonnng time- unless you lose your bunch of keys (twice).

Pros:

• unique design
• looks great
• love the concept of using a key to hang your keys on a key holder

Cons:

• very pricey
• only good for hanging a bunch of keys per key holder
• people (like my wife) will constantly ask you why you’d need to use a key to hang your keys. Isn’t a hook or basket adequate?

Over at Blomus, we have the Tewo Key Board- a key holder which does not use a hook and isn’t a basket. In fact, it’s a key slit. To hang your keys, simply slip one of the keys in key bunch into the slit. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why no one had thought of this before! Amazing.

Click here to view the Tewo Key Board product page (there are other Tewo Key Board related product offerings here too). The Key Board retails for USD28.10, which isn’t cheap either. Here’s my take on its pros and cons

Pros:

• Simplistic and elegant design
• Unique
• Will get your guests wondering what it is when there aren’t keys hanging in it
• Will get your guests wowing at it when there are keys hanging in it
• Can hang several bunches of keys (unlike the His & Hers Keyholder)

Cons:

• Very pricey (but compared to the His & Hers keyholder, it’s more value for money as it can accomodate several bunches of keys)
• Would not work with short length keys as minimal swaying could cause your keys to slip off the key slit

Imagesource (from top): Generate, Blomus

I found a most peculiar yet brilliant piece of product design via Metafficient today and I simply cannot resist sharing this with the rest of you. It’s called the Mealbox and it’s simply a Japanese style dining table + chairs that can be packed very neatly into a box.

See the Mealbox in action:

1. Before

2. During

3. After

This minimalist birch plywood dining table + chair set which promotes Japanese style seating does not originate from the east but surprisingly, from Norway via IglandDesign. Learn more about the Mealbox here.

Another unique point about this product is that the table is put together via jigsaw puzzle-like interlocking sections. I’m not sure which came first, but IglandDesign used the same interlocking technology on another one of their products, also a table, called the PingoLongo.

Image source: IglandDesign

Many of us dread the effort required in moving house, especially if you’re moving from your old place to a new one and not just moving out into your own place. I was fortunate to have experience the latter but I do remember moving with my family when I was six, from our small little rented home into a much larger place- one that we owned. I can recall watching how busy my parents were throughout the whole moving process- I can only guess it’s the same with most everyone.

To ease your pain, here are some tips on how to move house:

pic01

Decide on Logistics

This is the single most important decision in moving house.

Options:

1. hiring professional movers

2. getting your friends to help out

3. hiring a driver and truck to transport your belongings to the new house

Factors to consider

1. amount of time you have available/can allocate?

2. useful friends you might have that could help you by providing transportation (hence saving cost on movers)- anybody with a minivan, a lorry, a pickup truck?

3. how many reliable/close friends to provide extra hands to help you move (remember to reward them with drinks, meals, an after party)?

Click here for a list of movers in Malaysia should you decide to select option 1

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Packing

Ever had trouble packing for a 4D3N holiday? If you do, then say hello to a new nightmare. It is imperative that you plan to pack in one of the following two ways

1. pack your items into boxes and label them by rooms or spaces you would be placing them in your new home. That way, when you’re moving, you can immediately put these boxes in the right rooms to be unpacked later.
2. pack your items into boxes which are logically categorized e.g. kitchen utensils, bedding, shoes etc.

Personally I prefer option 1. For items which you are not able to decide which room for it to go to, have them placed in the ‘Miscellaneous’ category. Within ‘Misc’ you can have several subcategories as well such as ‘Misc- Ornaments’, ’Misc- Art/Books’. Personally, I would label a box ‘Important!’ for all essential items- at least I know this is the one box I must unpack if I’m too lazy to start unpacking after a long day of moving. Make sure you’re diligent in keeping track of your inventory in the checklist. The reason why a checklist is important is to avoid you having to go ‘now where did I put the remote controls?’ as well as to act as a simple audit to ensure all items have been moved from origin to destination

How’re you going to pack if you don’t have boxes? If you’re hiring movers then they’ll provide you with boxes but if you aren’t, you can always obtain boxes from appliance stores, furniture stores, If the store you approach is reluctant to give them away, then change your approach by suggesting to borrow it from them and return them in the same condition, for a small deposit fee. This saves you the trouble of having to take them to be recycled.

You don’t need as many boxes to fill EVERYTHING you want to move. Stuff clothes and other items into every cavity or orifice in your furniture, washing machine, storage solutions (e.g. cupboards) but be reasonable with the weight if your friends are going to be the ones helping you move. Fill up your luggage bags and your car. Fill up your friends’ cars too.

Get rid of unwanted and unnecessary items. Be firm, be decisive. Often it’s hard to throw things away because it’s so easy to build an emotional attachment with any item. However, ask yourself if you ‘need’ the item or what impact it would have on you if you didn’t have it. YinLeng and I moved in with only the bare essentials and we did just fine. It’s great to start your new home without clutter or items you will never use or need.

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Moving

Select a suitable time to move. By suitable time, I don’t mean a time where the height of the sun is exactly at a tangent to the moon but more so to select a suitable time such as off peak traffic periods and early in the day so you have more daylight hours to work with. However, I’m aware that some may be culturally inclined to select a predetermined exact time to start/end moving.

Perform a quick count on the number of boxes going out and have someone at the new house confirm your figures to ensure nothing is missed out, The checklist will be useful for individual items at a much later stage.

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Unpacking

First things first- you should clean the house before unpacking. Rid the dirt and dust.

Then unpack box labeled ‘Important’. Then start with unpacking items for your kitchen and bathrooms followed by your bedroom then living room before proceeding to other rooms. There’s really no hurry with unpacking because you’ll need time to plan where to put what if you haven’t already been anal enough to have done so beforehand. However, if your friends are around to help you, by all means squeeze a little more out of them- you’re already gonna give them a treat/reward later on anyway! (I work in a consulting company that has taught me this trait well).

Give yourself a break at the end of it all and treat yourself (and your partner(s)) to something nice- spa, hearty meal, wild night out, whatever tickles your fancy.

Congratulations to beginning a new an exciting chapter in your life. Lots more home furnishing to be done from here on so perhaps it’s good advice on my part to get you to continue reading my blog!

More resources to help with moving:

Help, I Am Moving- a site dedicated to everything on moving house

A comprehensive list of to-dos from 6 weeks before the move to the actual moving day (note: not all items are applicable as this is taken from a UK website)

Happy moving!

photos courtesy from:

pic01: funnyphotos.net.au

pic02: boxbundles.com

pic03: wheelersmovers.com

pic04: 1clickconveyancing.com