PI-02-05-03

People always remark that doing over houses is fun, choosing colour combinations, working with a particular slate, and for the most part, I agree. It's a luxurious use of time. However, there does always come a time when you hit the wall and I'm definitely there. I've definitely hit the wall in uninspired-ness. It's kinda sad and I need to work to get over it.

In the meantime, check out these Allegra Hicks chairs from West Elm. I love West Elm's aesthetic, their cool maplewood chairs, their oversize dark metallic framed glass doors and their beautiful use of washed out colours like pale grey, blue and mustard yellows in thick linen and twill. These are on sale for $330SGD each and even with a massive premium on shipping, they are $1300 for a pair. The same palm pattern, embroidered onto cushions, is on sale for SGD$27. Do you know how much this kind of thing would sell for here?

Today, I revisited Lush, which used to be known, less aesthetically, as lush-lush. They specialise in repro retro copies and are neither the most expensive (that honour goes to American-import turned repro business Picket and Rail) nor the cheapest (Comfort Design funiture). The repro elbow and wishbone chairs in their studio were $360 each on a large discount (just regular chairs, not armchairs) and their leather swivel winged armchair was $2600. Their regular armchairs, which were done in really uncomfortable, warm and linty boucle wool fabric, were in the region of $900-1300. A side table was $550.

If you're already hitting the wall, it can be slightly depressing. I left thinking, I would just buy a bed from the mattress company (yes, that bad). Of the large-ish furniture, there was literally, nothing less than $1000 in the store. I also dropped by Hock Siong, which is a resale 5-star hotel furniture place that I have an unhealthy, almost unholy addiction to. It's like the third place that I should never shop at because I unnecessarily spend money, after paper stores and farmers markets. There, I picked up some beautiful celadon vases and bedside lamps for $15-60. There were some beautiful porcelain ones on display, with a delicate blue and vermillion china pattern, that unfortunately were already sold. I also picked up two large watercolour art prints for $40, fully if heavily gilt-framed and saw a set of dark chairs (two with arms and two without) for $40-50 each. I liked them because of their modern, spindly structure, they have a stylish, mildly art deco shape, with a two fabric oval upholstery pieces, one as the seat and one in the back. They're regular chairs though, not armchairs and definitely not American-sized armchairs.

The problem is, at $50 a chair, with a $50 reupholstery charge and a $50 revarnishing charge, these simple chairs will wind up costing $600 for the set of 4. It's a sad day when the US is better value than even the junkyards in Singapore.