Peranakan Print

I love scouring for vintage items in Malacca. Even with the Singaporeans buying up everything, once in a while, some gems turn up. I found this old print from a café. According to Peranakan researcher Khoo Joo Ee, this picture of a Chinese bride dates back to the turn of the 20th century.

Steaming Disaster

Ran into a small problem with the table: DON'T USE A STEAM IRON ON TOP OF A WOODEN TABLE! I did this on my teak coffee table and ended up with awful white patches all over the surface. Something about the steam reacting with the varnish. But if you made this stupid mistake as I did, there is a pretty effective low-cost solution. Don't bother asking the shops - they will tell you to get the varnish stripped and repainted again.

This is the internet solution: Put a dry cotton cloth over the table and heat with a dry iron. Keep the iron moving and not stationary at any patch for too long so that you don't melt the varnish and cause other problems. Slowly the white patches will disappear like MAGIC! Swear it works.

Something for Coffee

It was not an easy task finding a coffee table that fit with the rest of my eclectic furniture but I knew that Malacca wouldn't disappoint. Brought home this teak colonial art deco table, perfect match with my Penang reading chair (L).

Abigail Ahern

The hottest, absolutely, the hottest interior designer in London is Abigail Ahern. She has a fabulous eye for combining smoky greys and deep jewelled tones with bright accents (e.g. orange). And the result is always luxurious even if she has to work with a small budget. Unusually, she strongly encourages (with good reason) the use of monochromatic dark tones for all walls, even floor and ceiling. Another of her design tricks is to fix up vintage pieces even if they are odd pieces like cuckoo clocks or animal trophies.

I haven't yet developed her discerning eye for different shades of grey but I'm getting my mum to dig out her old cuckoo clock. See her look in her blog, her book or her ATELIER Abigail Ahern in London.

Gimme Some Light

Shopping for lights is just about the second most tedious task after shopping for fixtures. Price ranges are so wide that a recessed spotlight can cost anything between RM3 for a China version to RM75 for a German one. But like most things, you pay for what you get. China versions have the tendency to yellow and heat up quickly which is bad not only for aesthetics but also power consumption.

A good one-stop shop is LC Lighting in PJ. They don't give discounts but you get quality and service. I especially like their design repros. Wish I have use for a hurricane lamp.

Hurricane Lamp (L), Tiered Lamp (R)

Ball Lamp (L), Desk Lamp (R)

Le Feature

By popular demand of one (you, Terri!), this blog is officially resumed. Since my last posting, a few things happened. I got a coffee table, my Bose speakers broke down, then got fixed, and three bathroom tiles cracked. But otherwise, the apartment's a rather comfy place for one. It even got featured in The Edge's monthly interiors magazine, Haven.

Javanese Wedding Dolls

My hoard of old objects grows with a pair of antique Javanese wedding dolls (patung perkahwinan) that I found in Jakarta's Jalan Surabaya Antiques Market. Wedding dolls are supposed to symbolise peace in a marriage and come in various designs depending on the particular region of Java that they originate. Mine are typical of the Central Javan region.

Example of a Jogja couple.