Updated Lanterns

While I am currently a little obsessed with lights, here is a pretty picture of the hanging lights/lanterns in a Chinese restaurant near my work.

They are like an updated version of the Chinese lantern with thin wood strips wrapped round the lantern.

The grouping of the lights is also very dramatic and effective in creating a mood and image that would entice diners into the venue.

I too, want a lantern in my house.

Lights, Camera, Action!

We are doing home improvements after the decluttering. We installed a hat rack in the store room so that G can hang his shirts up and we were planning to hang my handbags in there and the top shelf can hold some light boxes.

We also changed the mirror in the guest bathroom, hanging a wooden box-like mirror, the bottom ledge acting like a shelf as well for little toiletries. It instantly lifted the bathroom we think.

The next thing on the list is to change some of the light fittings. We are leaving the alcove lights as is but the ceiling lights will be replaced. We have narrowed the choices for our bedroom to:-

a. artichoke lamp: hard to find the right size

b. George Nelson bubble lamp (criss-cross): very expensive

c. Aero lamp (pictured): have not come across in Singapore but available online from Australia

As such we are going to live with the current bedroom lights for now until we find the right lamp. But we will get the kitchen and guest bedroom lights changed this weekend.

Slowly but surely, we are moving towards making the house more into a home.

Home Remedies For Your Vintage Furniture

To my horror when I lifted up this Japanese ceramic vase from the sideboard, there was a big round dirty stain. It was a greyish-blue chalky residue at the base of the vase. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where that residue came from. The vase was empty, but yet after I cleaned off the chalky residue, there was a whitish water stain on the wooden sideboard. Perhaps when the vase was filled with water (with the flower) and left on the sideboard, the damage was done.

I like that sideboard very much, it was purchased at an auction for a song because probably it was wrongly priced, with the reserve set too low and with not much competition for it. We have since seen the same sideboard at vintage shops selling for 5 times what was paid for it! In any case, it travelled back with us from Australia and fitted right into the living room against the wall for the TV. It was almost like it was custom-made for the space.

So I turned to the internet to look for what would fix that water stain. Suggested methods included the more mainstream like using beeswax and most others were really strange and far-out solutions like mayonnaise, toothpaste, olive oil, cigar/wood ash and oil mixed into a paste. Just because I have beeswax which I bought to restore the teak furniture, I used that first. It didn't make any difference. So next I tried toothpaste and rubbed a good dollop of Colgate into the stain. I massaged it lovingly and prayed that it was take to the wood. Also didn't work. So I resorted to olive oil and rubbed that into the wood and left it overnight.

The next morning, the oil has seeped into the wood and turned the whitish mark dark. In fact darker than the original colour. So now instead of a whitish big round spot, I have a darkish big round spot. I am not sure which is better - or worse. Well actually, to be honest, the dark spot is probably better than the whitish spot. I think if I spend some time polishing the whole wooden surface with the beeswax, it might even out the colour. Worst case scenario, I could polish the whole top with olive oil. So there you go, some home remedies are even more effective than the professional cure. And cheaper too!