Photos of the apartment grounds

New pictures of the bedrooms

New pictures of the living room

Paris memories

Dali wall decals

Etsy's Dali decals are addictive. Maybe I should get this for the blue bedroom. Or in the future haha, for the little bedroom.


I love this though it'd be a wait for a fireplace!



We do have a grass patch though, with a deck chair. Maybe we should get a birdhouse!

Wanted: A House with a Hallway for these....

Balestier be damned. And Space be damned too. And KARE and all the other brands. Of course lights can be classic, sexy and comforting, at the same time. Restoration Hardware shows us how.

I'm clearly...still...on a beige wall kick.

Sale on eucalyptus and chocolate bedding

It's the recession sale season in the US, apparently. I'm looking for some seaglass blue bedlinen to go with the set we have.

I guess eventually I'll have to buy another set off Overstock.com but we've been fortunate in that the colours of the spare and master bedroom are very Restoration Hardware and Martha Stewart Living colours, so there are actually lots of sets we could buy pieces of. One day I'll probably re-paint the master bedroom tan or stone colour!

Picked up a blue-tipped set of shams and the box stiched quilted shams in blue. I love the chenille quilted blanket (and it would go with the spare room perfectly too) but I think they are sold out!

The towels are wonderful but we'll have to wait till we visit the US to ship some back. Funny, I guess Z and I are both fall people, given the earthy sort of colours we veer toward. (He does have an awful penchant for yellow and purple though).

A beautiful kitchen picture

Similar looks for less

Apart from the lights from Crate and Barrel and Restoration Hardware that are well, for want of a better word, design-copy, there are many other places you can turn for deals in your "look" for the house.

Look at these lights for example, one is the iconic Miss K hanging light made for FLOR by Philippe Stark. The other is a KARE design light manufactured in Germany. Probably about 1/5th the price.

The third is a Crate and Barrel light (table version) that is sold in the US and probably made in China. It's more a copy of again, some designer lights and a less ridiculous riff of one of the iconic Moooi chandeliers.

Porta Romana and some bedside table lamps

I feel like shopping! What a dangerous, worrisome feeling.

I attribute this to having seen some gorgeous, beyond sexy Porta Romana bedside lights in an apartment yesterday. They are divine but they cost a cool 500 pounds each! Yikes!



These are another few of their beautiful, clean designs. I visited Vanilla Home today, where I saw them for $330-500 each. That was before I realized I was only looking at the prices for the lampshades! The lamps themselves were $2900-3900. They work with glass and steel, but also coloured glass as shown below.


It'll be awhile before I can afford that level of luxury but luckily Crate and Barrel and Restoration Hardware make some beautiful if not as glorious comparisons. These are the Haley bedside lamps ($219USD) that I think we will get in the end. The lower tiny picture is the light when lit.


I guess I also saw the seaglass blue sheets and white embroidered coverlet in the masterbedroom for the first time this week and felt like the room needed a bit more of a lift. I think it needs something brighter, shinier and more curvaceous. These are some other lights we'll consider, the Jack and the Marlene, funnily enough, they look like Porta Romana lights don't they? But at $179 and $279 each, they look a lot better to me!


I figure to get Z's approval, I have to stay away from overtly urn-like shapes! And for my own sake, given the darkwood furniture, I want to stay away from more wood. These are some more hotel-esque lights like the Mica, Logan and Jerry lights.


My other top choice would be the the Wilshire lamp from the Restoration Hardware collection ($289USD) or the Grace lamp ($229USD) which resembles the Jerry lamp ($249USD)and one of the Porta Romana lamps.



The best that Singapore can do, is a KARE design lamp from Haier Design (on Amoy Street). Going for $330SGD, it's hardly a steal and the silly thing is, they refuse to change the lampshade! What daft customer service. So you wind up having to pay for a replacement, which they won't help you find. A silk shade from Restoration Hardware would cost $35-40USD, or you could go to Ikea.


I am truly a horrible lighting fiend. It is my favourite form of furniture (closely followed by dining tables, my second great love). Years before I was capable of owning any place to put them, I had started to buy lights and lamps worthy of a double-barreled glass house. Quite a disease, no?