Main Floor Bathroom Pebbles and Wooden Slats

For Blue main floor bathroom, still my least favorite bathroom in the house, I removed the shower curtain I had put up when we first moved in and added some wood slats to the base of the shower area then filled with asian pebbles in grey. I think it looks better than the shower curtain.

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.

Red Ginger Plants Planted

R and I have just returned from a trip to Indonesia. What a great break. I'll post more on Bali sometime soon. Before we left, I planted four Red Ginger Plants (Alpinia Purpurata) in the space between our house and our neighbor's near our front patio. I planted them nearly two weeks before leaving. There was rain while we were gone, but when we returned some of the leaves have turned yellow and I'm not sure if they didn't get enough water. Even with the yellow leaves, I think the plants will eventually take.

White Stones Under the Stairway

We Recently bought 11 bags of these medium size white pebbles for the space under the Stairway in the entryway (we had tested smaller grey asian pebbles shown here).

I like the larger size pebbles and the white looks pretty nice and neutral. I was planning to make (or have B make) a piece of wood to paint white that could be inserted at the front to 'hold back' the pebbles and make them look enclosed. But R likes the way they are loose on the floor. He thinks they are more stylish this way. I'm not sure, but will leave it as is for now and see over time.

Inspiration for Under Stairway

So after we finished painting the Entryway, my mind immediately started thinking about the useless space under the stairway (okay I was thinking about this before painting too). I don't know who designed this house, but they could have done a better job with the layout in places. The entryway near the stairs is a good example. The space is totally wasted. You can't really put furniture in there because of the angle or hang art. You wouldn't want to close it up as a closet either. So what to do?

Awhile ago, I saw a photo online of a staircase with Asian pebbles near it and thought this might be an option. So I researched online and was initally thinking about adding some plants in the space too. But it doesn't get that much natural light there and plants would require upkeep. Since we are going for contemporary minimalist, and since we are in Asia, R and I thought why not put some asian pebbles in the space? Just simply the stones.

So I get my box of unused pebbles leftover from the landscape design stage (the pebbles I placed in the photo above are not the same darker blueish grey we used outside the house. These are a lighter grey). But after putting them down, R thinks that the pebbles look too small and I think they look too much like the pebbles we have outside the house. I'm going to go to the Rock Garden in Seremban sometime soon and see what else they have. I'd like to get the entryway moving along.

Inspiration photos I found:

Asian water bowls

Today's an exciting day... R has said he will come to look at some water feature bowls at the local landscape center in Seremban after lunch today!!!! I want to show him the 'bowls' I'm not sure what they are actually called. But they are planters that don't have holes in the bottom and are glazed inside so that you can put various water plants in them. I plan to put water lilies!!!! I'm thinking about placing a big water bowl 32" round and possibly a 24" round and 18" round as a group of three on the tile section at the front of the house that is currently empty (see above). But maybe just one big one and planters of plants instead, I don't know.

These are the biggest and best I could find in Seremban (photo above 32" round). I would prefer plainer, but maybe the black ones are ok. Will get R's opinion on the matter.

Inside the 24" water bowl.

24" water bowl

Below are some photos I collected of water plants inside bowls. I have seen other, better images but can't find them right now. Oh, and the local ones I see around are even more beautiful. They look best when it looks like they have been there awhile.

Landscape Planters in Malaysia

We have been looking for planters for around our property. I haven't really found any large black pots in square shapes (which I would prefer) in Seremban. Actually, I haven't found anything perfect yet in Malaysia but I haven't been to many garden stores in Selangor where there is a better selection. But, of what I did see, the delivery costs (as the items are fragile) seem to be high and the selection isnt that much better. I think it's best to pick something from Seremban. So I was at the garden center near my house where I happened to find some nice dark grey /nearly black matte pots which aren't bad. And at 6Rm each, they are cheap. But the problem is they only had 6 and the pots themselves are a small. I figured I'd buy them to get some plants going in the yard and can move these to the back of the house if/when I find something better. So I bought a few plants to put in the two pots at the front of the car park and planted them.

A shot of the pots at the Seremban garden center

AAI places 4 pots along the wall by the front door and am now looking to see what kind of plants I can buy for them as it is low light in that section under the front patio. I will be looking for other pots/water bowls for the front section of the house that is tiled (will post soon on that).

Landscaping complete (finally)!

We had the landscaping completed before the guests arrived too! It is great to see grass instead of weeds and dirt. It really makes the house look better. We went with Nilai Landscape Sdn Bhd because they seemed the most professional and because their price wasn’t bad at all. We did go with cow grass in the end and it cut the price down significantly. We are happy we chose cow grass because it is much easier to maintain.

We used grey pebbles around the front and side of the house which took 140 20kg bags. After filling the space, we think we just barely had enough. We could buy some more to make it look better, but for now it is ok. We also used grey construction pebbles on the right side of the house behind the patio area, as it is not really a used area. It would have taken 50 more bags to fill that area. The construction pebbles aren’t bad at all, they look ok and blend with the asian grey pebbles where they meet. Someday, we can change them to the grey pebbles if we feel like it. Overall price was just over 6,000myr which isn’t bad for a yard as big as ours. Price included the grass, pebbles and the minimal landscaping at the front as well as the numerous Bougainvillea plants for the planters along the wall on the left side of the house.

Landscaping Pebbles

We had a landscape company out to the house to give us their thoughts on our plan. They said that the small pebbles are too small to use as they will spread even with a plastic barrier between the grass and rock.

So we bought a few larger rock samples. These cost 15myr per 20kg bag.

We are thinking of going with this darker color rock for the front and left side of the house.

They estimated that we need roughly 92 square meters of rocks! Which adds up in cost. So the landscaper suggested we use 'construction stones' (pictured above which are 60myr per bulldozer 'scoop' making them much cheaper). But we don't like the whitish grey color or the weird shaped rocks as much as the curved stones. Nevertheless, as we are on a tight budget, we might use these rocks at the back right side of the house behind the patio area where there is little sun and mainly just space for a pathway to the back of the house. We'll see what the landscapers overall qoute on the Cow Grass, Pebbles and plants for the planters on the long wall comes out to. If it is not too high we can use the nice rocks everywhere (provided we can get the 180-200 bags we need).

Above is the revised layout for the rocks in front. It starts by the tile instead of up farther by the driveway, and I widened the rock coverage in front of the patio area in case we want to put some chairs or lounge chairs out on the rocks (this is instead of building an expensive additional cover to extend the patio as most of the neighbors have done or to add flat wood decking which would be flush up to the patio tiles. Both options are too costly for us right now but maybe in the future).

Contemporary Landscape Inspiration

Here are some examples of Contemporary Landscaping which I have collected as inspiration; many use the ‘pebbles’ we are thinking of using around the house (these photos have been collected from magazines, Contemporist and other sites).