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The dining area is usually where families, busy as they are, come together for meals. It is a place where families converse about the events of the day, happenings at work, discussions about school, and perhaps the occasional (perhaps frequent) banter about one of the Premier League’s top four clubs.

Many yearn to have the dining hall separate from the living area and this is usually achieved in medium to large sized landed properties rather than small to medium sized apartments. However, even in apartments, I’ve seen folks convert an unused bedroom into the dining area to great effect. Done well, it can create a wonderful sense of privacy, a very cozy feel coupled with possibly a great view. If you’re planning to convert a room into a dining space, consider using large wall mirrors to provide additional spatial sense thus making the dining feel larger than it actually is. Large horizontally stretched mirrors, ideally not much longer than the length of the dining table is ideal. However, if space becomes a constraint, a mirror hung vertically can create a desired effect as well. A classy cutlery cabinet is always a nice addition and makes preparation a lot more convenient too.

Finding the right dining set

Before wading through seas of furniture, you need to be able to identify with the theme of your dining room. As with anything in life, decision making is less complicated when you know WHAT it is you want – in this case, having a rough inkling of that helps to greatly narrow down your options when you step into furniture outlets. The dining hall is a place where families and their guests get together to eat, drink and be merry hence it is critical that the furniture you choose for it reflects your personality which in turn connects with a theme you might have in your head. For a classy look, cherry or dark wood finishing with a tempered glass top is always going to work in most any home. If your dining hall is generally painted or littered with items of a dark shade of colour, a light coloured dining table will draw attention to it.

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I’ve got Daren to thank for these amazing images which he forwarded to me from a forwarded mail he received. There are children’s bedrooms and there are children’s bedrooms… I’m certain you will be amazed with the following images of children’s bedrooms all done up in various themes.

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The folks at OTOTO have one of the most refreshing websites I’ve seen in a while. Constantly playful, fun and enigmatic is what I’d deem their website to be. The main page features pencil drawings of scattered planets with a black star-filled background. Clicking on each planet will allow you to traverse to different sections of their site.

So what exactly is OTOTO? NO, it’s not a distant cousin of Berjaya’s Sportstoto number forecasting agency. In short, Studio OTOTO is a product and industrial design house started in 2002 by Ori Saidi and Daniel Gassner. Situated in Tel Aviv, these folks are constantly at it when it comes to creating new products to be sold in designer stores throughout the world. Read more about them in detail at the official OTOTO site.

Here’s a highlight of some of their uber funky products:

The TeaSub

I’d like to think that this crazy clever idea was inspired by the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. A tea diffuser shaped like a submarine with an opening at the front of the sub to stuff your tea leaves is just pure design genius. ‘We all live in a Yellow Submarine, a Yellow Submarine…’

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Giovannoni Stefano of Alessi worked together with the National Palace Museum of Taiwan to come up with a concept called ‘The Family of Mr. Chin’ where each character represented a household function. The one that really stands out is the Mr. and Mrs. Chin salt and pepper shaker set.

I’ve seen this unique Italian designed, Chinese inspired set available for retail at Robinsons Departmental Store for RM250. A pretty steep price to pay for a salt and pepper shaker, but when it comes with the Alessi name stamped on it, you know you’re paying good money for quality

Imagesource: alessi

Looking for art for the home? Here’s an avenue: