Indonesian Coconut Shell Carving

When R and I were in Bali we saw some carved coconut shell lights in the markets, most of the designs were fairly simple. But when we went on a sightseeing trip to a temple outside of Ubud, we found this old man who had been carving coconut shells for his whole life. His designs (in the photo above) are quite elaborate and magical. We zeroed in on one that was really cool with monkeys carved in it, he said we picked his favorite work and wouldn't sell it, but showed us another that was similar. ...

The design also has monkeys, if you look hard you can see their bodies and arms and tails. It sits on another carved shell base.

Sometimes these lights are lit by candle, but we put a electric bulb in ours when we got back to Malaysia. It looks pretty cool at night as our master bedroom is dark brown so the light makes the room very moody. I tried to search more on Indonesian coconut shell carving, not much out there on the web.

Wall Lighting in Living Room

The wall lighting for the Living Room was proving to be the hardest fixtures to buy. I really had been looking for something over the past few months because I was tired of seeing the dangling wires when we watched films on our TV. But, in Malaysia generally there are two types of wall sconces. The very dated frosted glass dome type lighting or weird designs with colors or ... I can't even explain them, but imagine some really ugly fixtures.

I contacted the Malaysian furniture store Linds Furniture via email back in April and asked about some wall fixtures on their website that I thought were passable, I didn't love them but at least they looked contemporary and white would blend into the wall, right?

Wrong. Here was the response from Linds: "The name of the Foscarini lights is Fields. They come in two different colours, White and Orange. Price is listed as below (stock as listed):

Fields 1: RM 4,400 (1 in orange)

Fields 2: RM 5,200 (1 in white)

Fields 3: RM 4,900 (1 in orange)

The big light in the middle (of the picture) is a combination of all three fields.

For those not in stock, we can order them, with a waiting period of not more than 3 months. Attached is a pdf document with details of the lights."

So if I wanted to buy the light in the middle it would cost 14,500 RM (approximately $4,833 USD) and I would have to wait up to 3 months to get it in white. I just wonder, who in their right mind would spend this much on this fixture? No thanks, I kept looking.

I had nearly given up, but finally found something useable from Avalon Light Fixtures in Senawang not far from Seremban. I liked the curved part and the contemporary look. I wasn't sure R would like them so I took a photo and shared it with him first. Surprisingly, he liked them. I was, at that point, prepared to spend some money on the fixtures, I mean not 14,000 RM, but more than I had initially wanted to as I figured they were in an important room of the house. But to my delight they were with discount only 40 RM each!

Master Bathroom Pendant Light and Stones

I had bought this pendant light for the Master Bathroom awhile back, now finally it has been installed with the other lighting. By the way, you'd think it would be easy, we could just call one lighting guy and he could install all the fixtures in the house that we needed done (this round was something close to 20 fixtures and even after this we still have something like 7 fixtures left to fully finish the house), but no, in order to get things done before Sweet Home magazine came to do the photoshoot I had to call a number of electricians. Of those who were available, I booked a few and some showed up, some didn't. For the ones that showed up, they would do some fixtures but not others for various reasons (no tall ladder, not their thing, etc, whatever) so I had multiple electricians doing work at the same time to get things done. This, I have found seems to be the best way to handle a situation when you need something to get done fast in Seremban. If you believe someone will come at the scheduled time or be able to do the work when the person gets to the house, you will be disappointed. Double/triple booking seems to be the only option.

For the shower area, we found, actually R found these greenish stones that we added around the wooden slats. They turn a lovely green like the photos above when they are wet.

And are a softer color when dry.

Guest Bedroom Lighting

As I worked to get the place ready for the Sweet Home magazine photoshoot, I found I had to make a trip to Ikea to get some things. Going to Ikea from Seremban is a half day event or longer, but there was some things I really needed. I picked up this Melodi ceiling lamp for the Guest Bedroom. It's not that great, but it works.

We had already bought the two small grey Ikea table lamps (not sure of the name) for the tables.

Stairway Light Fixture and Window Panels

Another thing we had put off for a long time was choosing the light fixture for the stairway. There was a long electric cord hanging there since we bought the house. We were looking for a large fixture because the stairway is pretty big. There is of course a wide variety of really gaudy fixtures available here in Malaysia. The long crystal ones like the chandeliers shown on the TSEN website here seem to be quite popular, but too 'fancy' for our taste especially since there are already a lot of elements going on in the stairway.

We were thinking about the Howell style Chandelier (inspired by the 2097 Chandelier by Gino Sarfatti) at Timeless here. But I have been seeing this chandelier used in houses around the world a bit too much lately and think we will get tired of it. So we opted for a simple round Asian Lantern style fixture. The electric cord and cover at the top are from an Ikea Melodi lamp (28myr) where I took the shade off and replaced it with a Lantern I bought in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown.

As for the two windows. One is made of glass blocks so you can't see through it, but the other window is overlooking the side of our neighbors house. The window itself is something like 250cm+ long, so it was hard to find something that would fit the window. Our neighbors have had a custom piece of fabric installed, which doesn't look that great. When I saw that the Ikea panels for the Kvartal panel track were 300cm long, and two panels side to side would cover the width of the window, I chose to use it. We had to have a person install the Kavartal and panels because it required a tall ladder. It took them a few hours and I could hear them complaining about the process (had read online that these are not easy to install). Well, glad it is done, we have light and privacy!!!!

Library Complete

The largest area we had to work on before Sweet Home magazine came to our house was the 'family room'. R and I are calling it the Library or a lounging space. You might remember back awhile ago when I was thinking about what to do with this space in my post here. I had wanted something low to the ground for lounging. Ultimately, I decided not to go with the Ikea mattresses because the grey covers were not made to be used as upholstery so the cushions would get worn and need to be replaced too fast. I did look in Malaysia for other low to the ground type furniture, but found nothing except bean bags. I had seen a cool photo of a few bean bags here and thought that they might work for the space and create the lounging effect R and I were looking for for reading and relaxing.

I was able to find three dark brown nearly black perfect colored bean bags from Jusco in Seremban 2 and bought them up with some matching pillows. The center rug is from our Bali trip. We wanted something playful and colorful to go with the colors of the books and items on the bookshelves. The small rug in the corner is a Persian rug from R's mom on her recent visit.

I had wanted to place these two Expedit Ikea shelf units straight on the ground for a low effect so it would be at the level of the bean bags, but R and I decided on legs at the store because the shelves just looked toooo low. Even with the legs, they are fairly low and go nicely with the seating area across the room.

The other thing we desperately needed in the Library space was some kind of Curtains for the large windows. I wanted something that you couldn't see directly through, but still could make out the green and sky behind. The curtains we were hoping would cool the room down because it gets so much sun in the afternoon it is super hot there. We bought another one of those long cables to hang the curtains on with clips from Ikea and 8 panels of white curtains (forget the name of these). The photo above was right after the installation. I have since hemmed them so they flow to the floor and don't bunch at the bottom. And I also removed the clips and used those old fashion curtain pleat clips and attached the curtains higher so there is no gap showing light through where the clips used to be, also, the curtains look more 'pleated' which is the look I was going for.

A couple Persian metal mirror holders (left) and a covered metal container sit on the table base with our Kindle. By the way, Kindles still aren't easy to get in Malaysia. When we bought ours a few months back, Amazon in the US wasn't shipping US manufactured Kindles to Malaysia. We had to have someone send it to us. The few Kindles that were available in KL stores were of questionable origin (meaning possibly knock offs or the models made and distributed in countries where the product is not the same as the better US models ... I don't know R knows more about this ... ) Hopefully, they will start to sell them in Malaysia before the next model comes out. We love this one so much we can't wait to get the next version.

A few old Persian photo albums.

Lighting Around the House

Recently we were contacted by Sweet Home magazine, a magazine that features homes in Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asia locations. They wanted to interview R and I as foreigners living in Malaysia and also do a photoshoot of the house for the magazine. We said yes, but the house wasn't ready for a photoshoot!!!! We had under a week to get as much done as possible before they came. One of the things most noticeable (well besides the totally empty 'family room' on the second floor) was the light fixture wiring all over the house. For the past year we have been looking for the perfect fixtures, and when we would find one, we would buy it. But, now we needed to finish so I went searching all over Seremban for lighting.

I found this simple spotlight that looked nice. Bought two for 'family room' one for the ceiling and one for the wall.

Installed on the ceiling it has a rainbow effect on the wall, which I guess works ok with our color scheme for the 'family room' or what we are calling the library.

Also decided to add one of these white spots to the dining room so it is complete. Once I get the art, I may change the lighting, but it won't be for awhile.

The Blue Room Lanterns and Ikat Curtain

The Blue Room is finished! Well, almost. The five Ikea lanterns I bought were installed. I think they look pretty close to what I wanted to do. I'm using energy saving bulbs from Ikea, the light seems a bit bright so I searched around for some basic low wattage light blubs. No light store in Seremban carries them!!!! but finally found 25 watt blubs at a small old hardware store near the house, they looked liked they had been sitting there for ages, but I didn't care. I came home and put them in hoping it would create a dimmer effect, but no they are exactly the same brightness as the energy savers, so I guess I'll have a dimmer installed sometime. The single platform bed is KONSMO Ikea in dark blue. Very simple and without a headboard which makes it more like a daybed in the small room. Rug on the floor is an Persian carpet R's sister sent from the middle east that is black and red with some navy blue, it fits perfectly in the space. I added a few pillows I had brought from the middle east to the bed as well, although I should search for something better. Instead of a dresser we did end up putting a small TV table, forgot to take a photo of it.

The Ikat Curtain we picked up in Bali on our recent trip. It's one large panel. I think the woman told us it is a 'king blanket'. Works great for the large windows in the room.

Light Fixture in Office Bathroom

I'm getting ready for B to make the mirror over the sink/vanity in the Office Bathroom as the Ikea mirror selection didn't have a mirror that would work here. In my recent post here, I shared the photo above which shows the weird yellow fixture over the sink/vanity that doesn't go with the bathoom or the other light fixture over the jacuzzi.

Close up of the yellow light fixture

So I looked around for some cream colored acrylic paint to try and paint the back part of the fixure, I didn't find the cream color I wanted, but found some pearl off-white paint with a bit of metallic in it. So I thought I would give it a try. Using my finger to rub the paint over the fixture, I didn't want it to look to solid. I wanted the paint to be slightly translucent, so that the color underneath was still present. Just wanted to downplay the brightness of the yellow color.

Here is a shot of the fixture after painting. It looks better and blends into the wall much better. But it's still an ugly fixture. For now, we use this and when we spot a nice fixture for over the sink/vanity and a vertical fixture to compliment it for near the jacuzzi, we can change them.

Home Office Bathroom

Now that the mirror in the mainfloor bathroom is up, I have to start looking for a mirror for the Home Office Bathroom. At first, I wanted a large plain mirror to cover the area, but I am having a hard time finding a company to get it from. I saw a mirror at Ikea in natural wood frame that might work. For now, I keep looking.

This is the light fixture that is above the bathroom vanity. It is pretty ugly and doesn't match the other fixture near the jacuzzi. I should look for another one that would look better, or figure out how to change the yellow color of the glass to beige. I dont really want to have to install another fixture because it means more holes in the wall, and we just don't know where the pipes run in the walls.

The Dining Room

After searching for the perfect rectangular wood table and chairs to seat 8 and not finding any viable options, we found this round table with brown glass top and chrome legs that seats 6. We decided on the smaller table because we didn't mind it, it was less expensive and given the shape of the room (kind of a weird octagon-ish shape when you factor in the bay windows on one side) we thought that this table fit in the room better. So we bought it.

We had looked at a lot of chandeliers and light fixtures in general for the house and recently happened upon this fixture which is made of mirror and chrome (I think). It has two rows of reflective squares forming a circular shape, but also looking a bit octagonal. We thought the shape of the chandelier went nicely with the shape of the bay windows and the cut out design pattern on the chandelier compliments the grill and window square shapes. So yesterday they came and installed the chandelier! The hook for the fan had to be cut off which took the installers over an hour. I really didnt want to cut it, because I thought we or someone might want to use the hook for a fan there in the future, but the fixture we bought has a small cover at the top and the hook was too big. So we said goodbye forever to putting a ceiling fan in the dining room (this is very common practice in Malaysia, to keep the room cool but we have the AC already there and I guess I am one of those people who thinks a dining room without some kind of hanging light as its focus is not really a dining room).

Turning off those strong downlights during dinner last night was fantastic, finally some ambiance in the room! Actually when just the chandelier is on, light reflects on the ceiling and the walls... R wasn't too into it, he thinks it looks like a children's bedroom. But I don't mind it because it takes some of the starkness away. At least until we can properly finish off the Dining Room with a big piece of artwork on the wall and a buffet table under it or in front of the bay window which will give the room some more character.

Home Office Update

Our Home Office gets the afternoon sun and so we have been searching what is the best option for blinds in the room. Originally we planned to use Malaysia made Wooden Slat Blinds like the blinds we used in our Master Bedroom only using natural/light wood instead of the dark wood color. But after the Master Bedroom blinds were installed and we started using them, it became apparent that they are very touchy... they hardly close when we pull the slats at night and lifting the entire blind up to open the windows is a difficult task and seems like it might cause the blind to break.

Dark Wood Blinds in Master Bedroom (hard to photo as they are dark and walls are dark)

So I was thinking about how I plan to open and close the five windows in the Home Office throughout out the day. We need something that opens and closes easily and totally blocks out the sun when needed. We looked again at metal blinds, which seemed really cheaply made and we didn’t think traditional rod curtains would look good in an office. Then I saw some Roller Blinds with a cord on the side to pull them up and down. These are better than the old roller blinds I had in the US. So we were planning on getting a Seremban company to custom make some roller blinds (they are expensive and limited in colors to beige, white and grayish colors, still we thought they were our best option). Then when we were at Ikea buying the metal handles for the Kitchen Cabinets we saw the Tupplur Roller Shades in Black and figured out we could work with the sizes they came in by cutting the two small window blinds down in size to fit into the Bay window.

I am not a fan of Ikea, in fact, I didn’t like the products in the US at all, but in Malaysia there is such a limited selection of furnishings/houseware items that we find ourselves buying Ikea products (such as the art desk we also bought on our recent trip). The best part of the Tupplur Roller Shades is that they cost half the price of the Malaysian Roller Blinds and seem to be better quality. The drawback was that we would have to install the blinds ourselves (something I hate to do, but R seems pretty OK with). Cutting the two small blinds down and sawing off the metal tubes was like performing surgery and installing them in the odd sized space was very difficult and time consuming. But the blinds are up (except we have to screw the white ball cords to the wall which should be easy).

Office at 9am... the afternoon sun is much more blinding

So now our Home Office is finally looking better. Remember this used to be the Master Bedroom when we bought the house. Awhile back we painted the gross sea-breeze-green-ish color on the walls to Nippon 145 White in Spotless. The two desks are Ikea (Vika Moliden Stainless Steel legs and Birch Effect Amon Table Tops) as well as the Leather Verner Chairs. The chairs are a bit ugly, but they were the only affordable AND comfortable chairs we could find. Some people told us not to buy leather because it is so hot in Malaysia that your back sweats if you are using a leather chair. So we bought a mesh back chair to use when we were living at the Condo and it was so uncomfortable and the mesh back started to rip... this chair is now placed in front of my art desk, but I don’t know if I will use it.

my new art desk

The new wooden Leksvik Ikea Desk which extends with leafs to a length of 230cm long, was listed on sale for 699myr for solid wood (regularly 995myr). We had been planning to have B our Kitchen contractor make me a custom desk out of some kind of low cost laminate, but we figured that his price would be around 700myr anyway and we thought that this table was better. B had told us he would have used panels of laminate all around the base of the desk for strength, which we thought wasn’t as nice as open legs like this Ikea desk.

The sconce Light fixture in the Office was here when we moved in. We added a dimmer to the light socket and for now we are keeping it, but we are thinking about getting a lamp that exends from the wall and hangs over our computer desks (will try and find the image on the TSEN Lighting website and post it here soon).