My Favourite 'Room', Part VIII - Balcony

I saved the best for last. This is the main reason why I bought the apartment. I daresay nowhere else in KL will you find an apartment with a balcony like this. Not only is it spacious, my balcony overlooks the pool but is shaded by palm trees. I spent many wonderful afternoons relaxing and sipping a glass of cold lemonade or G&T.

Before:
Kind of bare but still had potential.

After:

I started by painting the ceiling a bright fuschia (can't see it from my photos, unfortunately). Then I got some plants. Started with some lotus and guppies in the salted egg jar. The water feature is really very calming. Then, I transported the blue pot all the way from Kuantan. Finally, found the perfect banana palm after visiting 10 nurseries. For furniture, I chose a pair of rattan chairs from a specialist shop somewhere near Subang Airport (thanks to Fiona for pointing out this place).

In case you missed it, the lamp shade is modified from a bubu (a fish trap) that I found in Kuching.

Bit by Bit, Part VII - Kitchen

Finally home after being away for a week in India. Chan Wai - here is the kitchen. It's a good size room. I wasn't crazy about the cupboards but they were all in good condition so no point wasting.

Before I go into the details of the makeover, India was rather fabulous for textiles shopping. I managed to get some lovely fabrics starting with
1) lovely cotton sari material in modern colours which I am planning to make into pencil skirts
2) light cotton for curtains at only 20 rupees a metre (RM1.40)
3) great shop called Fabindia which has an eclectic collection of homeware, textiles, clothes and accessories. Every item only comes in a few pieces and although there are stores all over India, it would be highly unlikely for there to be repeat products in different stores. That's why I snapped up all four pieces of a set of cotton print curtains to complement cotton mentioned above.

Before:
The original kitchen held up surprisingly well for a 10-year-old apartment, possibly because of the floor to ceiling tiling. It wasn't the prettiest kitchen but I didn't hate it. I only replaced the brown MDF worktop with a 'China Corian' surface. The made-in-China version was much cheaper and I couldn't tell the difference. I also changed the lighting to these great Ikea basics.

After:

Changing Rooms, Part VI - Study

Before:
I wanted a lot of shelf space for my books so I made one of the rooms into a book room. I brightened the room with a sunshine yellow feature wall and removed the blinds. Another wall is lined with Ikea Billy bookcases. I didn't use the backing that came with the bookcases because I wanted a contrast between the grey of the bookcases and white wall at the back. To add stability, I had the bookcases anchored to the wall and to each other.

After:

The next item to include would have been a long table against the yellow wall. There was minimal work done here. Other than stripping the parquet and the yellow wall, I also had the skirting painted white to accentuate the feature wall and increase the height of the room.

Home Economy, Part V - Guest Bathroom

Before:
One of the odd things about the apartment was that the guest bathroom was bigger and nicer than the master bathroom. I toyed with the idea of ripping everything out but decided against it as it would cost me quite a bit. In the end, I just replaced the toilet ceramics with new white ones. Also put in a larger mirror. Low cost and effective.

After:

In Living Colour, Part IV - Guest Room

Before:
The second bedroom was used for storage by the previous owner but I turned it back into a guest room. Other than the sunshine feature wall, I removed the blinds to reveal the lovely bow-shaped window pane. This also brought the outdoors into the room without sacrificing privacy as the palm canopy provided adequate cover. The floors were stripped and skirting boards painted white.

After:

No Place Like Home, Part III - Master Bathroom

Before:
I hated this room the most when I first got the apartment. You get an idea from the photo below. The sink was built into a massive hanging concrete top tiled with marble. The toilet was grey, had a large tank and disgusting whitish, brownish stains. Ditto the bathtub. The mirror was stingy and small. There was also a wide towel rack on the wall facing the toilet which jutted at least a foot into the already narrow space. The wall tiles were crappy, as were the cheap grey tiles on the floor.

After: I ripped out everything to build a brand new bathroom.

 

I installed a hidden water heater so that I didn't have to worry that the heater tank would collapse on my head while using the loo. The bathroom is tiled up to the ceiling with white Italian mosaic from a speciality mosaic shop on Jalan Ipoh. The floor is laid with black volcanic slate that cost next to nothing but were wonderfully natural.

The bathtub area was converted into a shower with tempered glass wall and door. I also installed a cabinet under the sink to keep toiletries and things like toilet paper and washing liquids out of sight.

Almost all my metal fittings were by Japanese brand Toto. I love their design and quality. Toto is rather expensive in KL so I smuggled mine back from Jakarta (Toto has factories in Indonesia). The sink is from Orin, a brand distributed by Niro Granite.

The toilet is a simple Johnson Suisse model which I got from Hanlim. If you haven't heard of Hanlim, it is THE PLACE to go to get the best bathroom fitting deals. It's off Jalan 222 in PJ.

Home Improvement, Part II - Master Bedroom

Before:

It was hard to capture many good shots of my bedroom but the point I want to make is that even simple changes can improve a room. I will limit my comments to the basics since I still did not find a bed I liked after living here for more than a year.

After:

 

This room is quite dark because of the smallish window so I left most of the room white but painted two walls in emerald green. The green is highlighted by a pair Macanese medicine cabinets which I used to keep jewellery and trinkets.

To brighten the room, I stripped the dark polish off the parquet and varnished it with a layer of natural matt finish instead.

The main window was restored by replacing the rotting wooden frame but to save cost, I reused the original panes. Heavy wooden blinds were also removed and replaced with a simple bamboo curtain frame that I brought back from Hanoi. The 'curtain' is actually a white sarong printed with blue floral outlines that I found in Pekan Rabu in Alor Setar. Curtain tie is the same Filipino tribal belt as used in the living room.

Finally, I placed a full-length mirror on the wall opposite the window so as to reflect light to darker areas of the room.

Before and After, Part I - Living Room

Sorry, people. A bit of lapse since my last posting cause I have a job now and have to limit my magazine browsing to lunch hours and bedtime reading. But thanks to this New Year holiday, I finally found the time to put together some 'before and after' photos of my old apartment. Happy looking and Happy New Year.

Before:
These photos were taken when the real estate agent arranged the first viewing. Every room was ghastly white. There was a dirty-looking Indian lamp shade in the direct line of sight as you enter through the front door and just above the dining area, there was a cheap tube shade.

After: Still a WIP but...

The biggest challenge in decorating this room was to find a colour that worked i.e. not make the room too dark or is too difficult to match with other furniture pieces. I was inspired to go with this bright peacock blue after seeing how Vietnam Airlines used it in their logo in combination with gold. So, I too made gold silk cushions and laid the bright olive-based sarong on the back of the sofa.

The marble floor was polished to restore shine. I had the curtain rods were lowered and painted black. Then I put in voile curtains to reduce glare while leaving the room light and airy.

Ceiling lamps and the old ticking fan were also replaced. I put in ball lamps made of some kind of high-end plastic instead of paper lamps so that the lamps would not billow about when the fan is on.

To break the monotony of the walls, I put up framed posters and paintings. I also used a lot of textiles I collected from my travels as drapery. For instance, on the back of the couch is a Sumatran sarong. The black/white/red cloth on the dining table is a Shan longyi. Instead of boring curtain ties, I pulled back the see-through voile layers with a red/black tribal belt that I found in the Philippines. The dining area lamp shade is made of brilliant Vietnamese silk and in the living area, I laid out my precious Persian rug.