Home decoration: Wall art

If you are like me and always looking for ways to spice up the boring white walls of your house, then a site called Photofiddle might interest you. What they do is transform your favourite photos into wall art. So, if you like a splash of colour and Warhol pop art style pictures suit your taste, you can turn your picture or your kid’s picture into just that. You can even have it printed on oil canvas like a painting! Who doesn’t like their picture in oil on canvas eh? There is such an old world glamour to an oil painting. Check out the site at www.photofiddle.com. I’m positively fascinated!

What mailbox defines your home?

A drawback about staying in a condominium is that you are subject to having your mail put into commercial mailboxes. The ones that come in banks of stainless steel with a flap and your unit number on it. It looks so impersonal and well, commercial. I guess it cant be helped because of the number of people staying in a condominium block.

Previously when I was staying in a house, we had our mailboxes in the gate pillar and so did everyone else in the area. There was just a slot outside for the postman to put our mail into and most times if it was a bulky envelope the lazy postman would not even bother to put it in the whole way resulting in our mail getting sopping wet if it rained.

I was just wondering why we did not get those nice residential mailboxes as they do in the USA. You know those that are stand alone with a little flag on it that the postman raises if you have mail. I’ve wanted one of those ever since I saw it in the Charlie Brown comic book I used to have as a kid. Its too bad that we have fences and gates here and there’s no way I can get one of this in the condo where I stay.

Throw Cushions brighten up a home

There’s been a really good pre-renovation sale in town recently, for home furniture. I went to take a look and boy! Is it a haven for those furnishing new or renovated homes, or what?! Prices were marked down between 50% to 90%. It was very tempting to buy something new for the home. I settled for throw cushions instead which were only RM6.90 each. These brightly coloured cushions will definitely cheer up my couch and my living room.

Here’s my Ikea Detolf glass cabinet

I finally got my Ikea Detolf glass door cabinet all fixed up! Here’s what it looks like all done up, cleaned and with some decorative items in it.

It is recommended that 2 people handle this due to the glass. Not only does it mean its fragile, its also very heavy! I found it hard to lift one panel by myself.

Fixing it up is a breeze. Just make sure you follow the instructions to the letter. Pay attention to the metal frame and where the side bits face - in or out. We made a mistake with cabinet #2 because of over confidence and ended up having to dismantle the whole thing.

Actually, I’d personally recommend that 3 people handle this if possible. I had dad and bro with me which was useful. There will be times when you need one person holding the glass already fixed, one person holding in place the glass to be fixed and one more putting it in place at the bottom. Its not going to be so easy with only 2 people handling it.

Also, looking at it, like all Ikea items, it looks sturdy but only when you have to fix it up do you know how flimsy it really is. That said, the 2 wooden pieces are very heavy and are what is really holding the cabinet in its place.

The only tool you’ll need is a phillips head (x head) screwdriver. Nothing else, which is great! I love simple fix-ups like that.

The only thing I don’t like is that although there is a hole for a spotlight to be fixed (All the pictures and display units come with the Non spotlight retailing at RM55) when you really want to fix the Non spotlight, you’ll find:

• the hole is too small for the spotlight to fit though. Its likely only for the wires.
• there is no hole for the screws holding the spotlight in place. You’ll have to drill the holes in.

I’d have preferred that the top panel come with little holes for the screws so I can just fix up the spotlight without having to drill extra holes. This is especially because I don’t have a drill and will now have to wait till my Dad’s free to help me out.

So, Ikea, do take note of this! The black-brown wooden panels are a new design. It used to be beech. Otherwise, its a display cabinet that’s value for money. At RM199 for tempered glass all round, its a steal!