Owner: The Home Rejuvenation Blog URL:www.homerejuvenation.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:22:21 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Don't renovate - Rejuvenate your home! Apart from highlighting the latest design trends around the world, the designers at KNQ Associates regularly provide inspiring ideas and thoughts on interior design + RE-design on this blog. Visit our official w Site statistics:Click here
ARE YOU A PERFECTIONIST? 2007-10-01 10:23:00 Sometimes you get so bored you'll gladly take one of those boringly long psychology tests just to while some time away. I did one yesterday, and guess what I found out?"According to this test, you have a touch of perfectionism. While this can be a healthy dose that keeps you trying your best, be careful that you don't neglect giving yourself a pat on the back for 'giving it your all'. There are certain limitations that need to be accepted, no matter the circumstances. Accomplishment and doing things well can feel good, as long as you don't make happiness and fulfillment contingent upon them."As the popular Wikipedia will tell you, "Perfectionism... in its pathological form... is a belief that anything less than perfect is unacceptable. At pathological levels, this is considered an unhealthy belief. " It's unflattering, isn't it?But I guess a designer can afford to be a perfectionist, right? At least that's what I think, ha...StanTags: designer, design
ATTACK OF THE MODERN KIDS' FURNITURE 2007-10-01 07:24:00 It used to be a luxury for a kid to be able to have his or her own room, complete with a bed shaped in the form of a vehicle and curtain congested with cartoon characters. But that was the past. These days, cheesy-looking furniture and furnishings are falling out of favor fast. To be able to impress upon children and parents nowadays, designers - amongst them the best in the industry - are coming out with creative solutions in kids homeware just as quickly.I myself have two very young girls at home, and I know what a headache it's like to look for furniture for your little ones to match that Le Corbusier chaise or Barcelona chair. We've just solved half of your problem here.1. Offecct's Pick Up is a chair, walking aid and storage all rolled into one. In my opinion, it's a fun toy to ride on too.2. Inspired by the Greek numerical prefix Tetra (meaning 4) and the popular computer game Tetris, Tetra1 is a 10 drawer unit comprising of four drawer sizes in a 5-row high, 2-drawer wide
SHORT TAKES 2007-09-30 01:37:00 This is going to make the late, great Thomas Edison extremely happy. For once, the lightbulb is at the center of attraction again.My, who is this eBay seller trying to kid? Do they even think for a moment that anyone in their right mind would pay US$80000.00 for this? It's sad to see the Eames being associated with it. Sigh... I'm going to give my latest blogger friend Patricia Gray's work a shout here. This past project of hers, situated in Vancouver, caught my eyes with its ultra-modern, minimalistic design. And what an amazing informal dining space with those Poltrona Frau chairs! Images courtesy of Patricia Gray Inc.StanTags: design, poltrona frau, lighting
HOT! FINDS 2007-09-27 02:39:00 KNQ Associates scours the net for beautiful objects for the home!1. We may not think much of one floppy piece of paper, but you'd be surprised what a stack of it can do. The stools, benches and loungers under the Paper Softseating line are made entirely from kraft paper with 50% recycled content and utilize a sturdy, flexible honeycomb structure which can be compressed like a book to be stored.2. Who could possibly miss those ring-shaped armrests and distinctive smock stitching of Patricia Urquiola's Smock for Moroso? Definitely not me. 3. Jean Nouvel brought his talent for sculptural innovation to Milan recently with this Skin sofa for Molteni. The 7-foot-wide piece features double-sided black leather with self-modeling geometric incisions, a tubular-steel frame, and a steel base. Masculine...4. Like a boulder by the sea, rounded and honed to a smooth sculptural form, Michiel van der Kley's Conco for Artifort looks cutesy, but 'brings aerodynamics' right into your living room. I
WHEN ARCHITECTS HAVE TO WORK LIKE WEB DESIGNERS 2007-09-26 10:19:00 Not that I'd really want to, but I find it hard for myself to be sarcastic to other people. I guess I just can't bring myself to do nasty things, ha. But until I read the following article, brought to you courtesy of Brisbane web design company Hello Media, I didn't know one can actually be sarcastic (to clients?) yet being witty and humorous at the same time.Perhaps it's time for me to learn."Dear Mr. Architect: Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one. Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct a
MORE WORK TO DO, FOLKS... 2007-09-26 03:25:00 Our blogger friend Su Ling and I had an email discussion regarding our blog's poll for the '10 most influential design bloggers' last weekend, and we both felt that it'd be a pity if some of the new blogs we both -and I'm sure many others - love do not make it to that list. Well, at 544 votes so far and still counting, I can only reveal that the 'giants' continue to hog the limelight. At least for now.So, Su Ling is consolidating a list of design blogs that you, as a reader, think have been churning out consistently impressive posts in the short amount of time they have landed on blogland. To be more specific, she's calling out to you people to email her your choice of design blogs that have been blogging for less than a year to watch out for. Now, that's some kind of encouragement for someone starting out, isn't it?We'd be publishing her findings as one section of our post when we reveal the results for the '10 most influential design bloggers' poll sometime around the en
SHORT TAKES 2007-09-23 20:40:00 Just what kind of a world does we inhabit right now, really? A crazy one where houses are turned upside down and people stand on roofs? I can't bear to watch this anymore...Call this a celebration of bad design. Yes, you didn't hear me wrong. I really do mean BAD design. They even published a book on this topic. But ask yourself: how do you define what's a good design if there's no bad ones around to compare? So maybe bad is good.This tip seems more suitable for a home improvement blog, but I think talking about it here will put an end to my misery. 9 out of 10 of my clients like to ask me how to remove those tile grout stains in the bathrooms. I'm not sure if all designers are supposed to know how to answer that question, but I sure can't. Perhaps the people over at Charles and Hudson know much more...Frankly, the number of interior designers who truly inspire me can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And I consider Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz to be one of them. His stylish and
MUSING - INCREASE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC? 2007-09-21 10:45:00 A good friend of mine, RF, came to know about our ongoing poll for the 10 most influential design bloggers/ blogs and told me it's a good thing that I'm doing this (thank god!). He blogs too, and feels that there are, as a matter of fact, too many good bloggers out there who are not getting the attention they deserve (I have a feeling he's trying to say he's one of those, ha). He follows a few 'lesser-known' design blogs which he says 'offer content that are so much better and influential than the famous ones'. In fact, he hopes that this poll will uncover more of those little-known ones with a cult following rather than reaffirming the status of the 'big boys and gals' once again.Anyway, while on the topic of blogging, he pointed me to this traffic-building tool BlogRush, which you now see hovering in the right sidebar of this blog. It's basically a nifty widget to expose readers of a blog to more blogs with related content (that refreshes with every page load). I thought
HOT! FINDS 2007-09-20 08:40:00 KNQ Associates scours the net for beautiful objects for the home!1. This sofa, with its spiral shaped-slit design, reminds me of Marc Jacob's Wood Chair for Cappellini some years ago. But the twist here is that Velvet, designed by Andrea Fino and Samanta Snidaro, is upholstered in luxurious smooth velvet. We think it's not quite as comfy as other sofas around but this eye-catching piece should work as an interesting companion in a contemporary home setting.2. Call it deja vu - I'm thinking of the Wood Chair again when I see this. This fibre-glass lounge is sleek and minimalist. I don't like pink, but then again, it's available in 11 colours.3. We love this functional little table lamp Fiat Lux which doubles as a book holder. In fact, we love anything that is multi-purpose.4. Via a process of deconstruction and subsequent reconsturction, the Louis XXI coffee table is thus born. The thoughtfully-incorporated deep slits run randomly across the table top as part of the design, while
POETRY IN (SLOW) MOTION 2007-09-20 03:38:00 I call this 'poetry in motion'. Make it slow motion.What else can you do with a piece of fabric other than for window treatment or upholstery? Apparently Kvadrat has plenty of ideas, and this video is one of those. The Danish company recently launched a viral campaign on the internet, putting this clip on Youtube. Starring 200 meters of the Time 300 curtain fabric and an air compressor, Floating Curtains was shot in the harbour of Copenhagen using a Weisscam, a high-speed camera which is able to shoot 500 images per second (an ordinary camera shoots just 24). This makes it possible to play the shooting about 20 times slower than normal, while retaining the quality.Frankly, this campaign appears to be working - it's been viewed a total of 3111 times as of this post.Thea Hyltoft Svensson, PR-manager of Kvadrat, has this to say: "With this movie, we want to focus on the vast application possibilities of textiles and to challenge people to use textiles in new ways. We wish to make desig
LIME THAT SHINES 2007-09-20 02:08:00 I seldom see buildings in Singapore, or even elsewhere abroad, painted in lime green on the exterior (of course the same goes for the interiors). Most people I know shun it. They basically think that the color screams for attention. In a wrong way, that is.But I think I ought to defend the color - it's actually quite a 'happy' color. It may be a color that's commonly associated with kids, but don't you feel refreshed (I almost wanted to say 'cleansed') every time you see the color, whether you're an adult or a child? I'm not saying everyone should immediately go buy a can of ICI paint and bathe your whole house in lime. I just feel that this color needs to be used in a tactical manner, that's all. Use it wrongly, and what you get is a doll house.Therefore, I point you to this housing project by LA architect Lorcan O'Herlihy. Called Habitat 825, this building is built right next door to the Schindler House and deliberately designed so as to avoid casting shadows onto its hist
SHORT TAKES 2007-09-19 08:29:00 The trend-spotting Wallpaper* magazine informed us that the London Design Festival is currently on till the 25th this month. Wallpaper.com is covering this year’s LDF with fantastic galleries, blogs, newsletters and articles covering the shows, as well as interviews with top designers Tom Dixon, Giorgio Armani, Ross Lovegrove and Susy Hoodless. I can't remember the last time I actually felt excited walking into a new furniture shop. But that was what happened last Saturday when I visited iwannagohome at Great World City. I have heard a lot about them since they opened their doors a month or two back, but this is the first time I stepped into their store. Frankly, the store seems a little packed to the brim, but the stuff are absolute eye-candies. I suggest you make a trip to one of their shops (the other one is at VivoCity) if you have not yet done so.Talking about eye candies, I happened to pick up a very good coffee table book China Living this past weekend, and really like what
BACKLASH 2007-09-18 09:42:00 We do understand that polls and contests will occasionally be seen as 'unfair' in the eyes of some people...A couple of readers correctly brought up an issue regarding the solicitation of votes by some in the '10 most influential bloggers' poll we are currently running on Home Rejuvenation. Short of declaring this entire poll as meaningless just because of a few rare cases of self-promotion, I only have this to say - there's often a fine line between being influential and being popular. But I'm actually quite sure that someone who is not popular with his or her 'fans' will never ever be able to influence them, much less get them to vote for something they don't truthfully like. So, I trust readers nowadays are smart and rational enough to know what they are doing before clicking that 'send' button.Nevertheless, as if we cannot say enough, do vote with your heart, people. We're really relying on your utmost honesty in this. Think of this poll as a project we are all doing to
NOMINATE FOR THE 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL DESIGN BLOGGERS! 2007-09-14 23:38:00 After reading NorthxEast's 'Fifty Most Influential Bloggers', we felt so inspired to conduct a survey to find out the same for our design blogging world. Let's face it - there are too many design bloggers out there, each with their own distinctive style and voice. But we never know who, in most bloggers' and readers' hearts, the movers and shakers of the design blogging world are. Simply because nobody has ever bothered about finding out?While you may have certain standards of your own, I believe the most popular and influential bloggers always share one thing in common and that is to show a passion for what they are doing. Of course, sharing opinions and information in an unique and refreshing tone with the readers is a prerequisite, and will almost definitely keep the latter coming back for more. Also, when we are talking about something as subjective as design, we understand that the taste level of the blogger will certainly be under intense public scrutiny. Needless to say, i
SO, WHAT DO YA WANNA DO WITH IT? 2007-09-14 23:03:00 When you fixate a function to a piece of furniture, things can get boring. That's why Yoon-Zee Kim came up with his own definition of what functional furniture is all about. With this multi-purpose unit, it's entirely up to the user to decide what it can be used for. One can use it as a shelving system, sturdy worktop or seat. And I guess you can find many other uses for it if you'd just think a little bit harder! LinkKUSTags: design, furniture, decor
SQUARE BOOKCASE 2007-09-14 22:40:00 Designed by Anne Linde, the Square Bookcase is a handsome way to store the books and other stuff. Since the entire piece is mounted onto the wall, it's not going to take up much floor space, making it a perfect solution for those with limited space at home.KUSTags: design, furniture, decor, bookcase
SEX AND INTERIOR DESIGN 2007-09-09 02:59:00 We all know that surveys usually don't reveal anything that we didn't know of. So The Washington Post's report on whether women are indeed more interested in interior design than the other sex doesn't really offer any big surprise. It just suddenly made me think of this new client (read: male) who told me point blank the other day, "I'm not really interested in the look of the interior. My wife is...".Stan Tags: design
HOT! FINDS 2007-09-07 19:53:00 KNQ Associates scours the net for beautiful objects for the home!1 & 2. Stylish high back chairs by master chef and artist JinR of Green T. House. Each chair is a whimsical reinterpretation of a classic Chinese design. I particularly like the 3m tall 'official's hat' version (middle).3. Inspired by a traditional log wood pillow of olden days, the Rock-a-bye bench mingles sculptural form with seating function. The good-looking bench is made of two pieces of fiberglass structure crafted skilfully together, enhanced by neatly coiled braided water hyacinth or silver leaved mosaic from its end to the center.4. Designed in 2004 by Thai designer Eggarat Wongcharit , this chair successfully translated 2D graphic illusion inspired by renowned Op artist Victor Vasarely into 3D via modern wood working techniques. Rubber wood panels are criss-crossed together, forming a curvaceous seating part at the top. The result is a sculptural piece that is as good to look at as to sit on.5. I guess you wo
INTERIOR CYBERTECTURE 2007-09-07 10:56:00 James Law of James Law Cybertecture (you heard it right: it's cybertecture, not architecture) is a designer who's constantly looking to the future for innovative solutions for contemporary living. By harnessing the power of technology, it is hoped that the quality of people's lives can be substantially improved. In his own 'smart home', Law shows effortlessly how the incorporation of hi-tech electronics in the home doesn't necessarily equate tech geek.The open-plan apartment is made very flexible by a series of animatronic walls which can be positioned to change the spatial layout. A 'cyber butler', which can be accessed by voice recognition technology and wireless web pads, remembers the user's favorite TV channels and turns down the TV volume when phone calls come in, among other features.We haven't even come to the highlight of the house, which has to be the layer of 'digital wallpaper' that turn into huge digital screens onto which a vast array of content can be project
THE WORLD'S FIRST SKYSCRAPERS 2007-09-06 09:29:00 Homes of the future will most likely be clustered or attached, smaller and more open due to a growing and aging population. In fact, if you take a look around the residential zones of Singapore, you'd notice this is already happening. And you can be sure we are not alone.Hence it is ironic when you realize that the people in the old walled city of Shibam, ‘the Manhattan of the desert’, already conceived the idea of building upwards some 500 years ago. Though for a different reason. They've built the world's first skyscrapers using mud-bricks (which need to be maintained regularly, even up till today, to combat erosion) on stone foundations after meticulous town planning, when the remaining available land of the city had to be reallocated with the disastrous flooding of the years 1298 (698) or 1532 (939). The consolidation of habitation upwards can truly be considered innovative at the time.The current population is a low 7000, and there is barely any traffic in sight due to the
MY PERFECT READING LAMP 2007-09-06 05:25:00 If my house is burning down (touch wood...) and I could only grab one thing to run with me, it will most definitely be the reading lamp. It's not because it's probably the lightest piece of furniture (if it can be considered one) around the house. It's more like I have an affinity to that good old illuminating device - they never fail to change the mood of a room when lit! Also, I love to read. Give me a book or a magazine, and I'm one happy man. Therefore, a reading lamp is almost a necessity for me.If, like me, you spend a lot of time on books, you want to ensure that there's sufficient illumination to provide comfort for your eyes, but yet not so much that you feel like you’re going through a dental surgery. Frankly, I had a hard time defining what a 'reading' lamp is. For one, the lighting industry officially identifies only four types of lighting: ambient, decorative, accent, and task. Also, it's a common notion that any lamp that is placed beside the armchair or bed c
A PIECE OF GOOD NEWS 2007-09-05 10:33:00 Kusnin and I are so happy that Singapore design is receiving international acclaim again.Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell of homegrown architecture firm Woha Architects recently received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for its 1 Moulmein Rise project. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, established in 1977 by the Aga Khan, recognises examples of architectural excellence that encompass contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, restoration, re-use, and area conservation, as well as landscaping and environmental issues. The 28-storey 1 Moulmein Rise boasts solutions to deal with high-rise living in the tropics such as the use of monsoon windows, which are special horizontal windows in each apartment to let in the breeze but keep out the rain, and designing the condominium to face the north-south so as to avoid direct sunlight.Both of us have been admirers of Woha's works for some time, and
CLIPPING 2007-09-03 08:51:00 Some projects that caught my eyes these past few days...Winka DubbeldamInterior Design ChinaSteven HollCass Calder SmithElenberg FraserStanTags: interior design, interior designer
GET CLOSE TO YOUR TRUE NATURE 2007-09-02 21:34:00 Bathing must have been one of the most relaxing activities (alongside sleeping) which we engage in on a daily basis. So how else can we make it better? The answer lies outdoors, according to Danny Venlet and Viteo. As soon as you connect any garden hose to Shower and step onto the platform, the device starts sending sprinkles of water upwards, which is then brought down by gravity for a sensual two-way rinse. Winner of the recent Red Dot award, this thing is just perfect for summer.KUSTags: design, viteo, outdoor shower, red dot award
CHANGING CUPBOARD 2007-08-30 09:28:00 Front Design is at it again.I watched this video of the Changing Cupboard on Youtube a while back. Frankly, this is a little over the top for me (I'm not sure about you). But I still want to share it here with you people - it's quite a visual feast, ha.StanTags: design, front design, changing cupboard, designers
CAST YOUR VOTE 2007-10-10 08:24:00 Hey folks, our call for votes for 'The 10 most influential design bloggers' ends this coming Sunday. If you haven't voted, do drop us an email right now.We are officially counting down to Results day. Watch this space!P.S: Yes, we are still busy counting the votes. Bear with the lack of updates in the meantime...Stan & KUSTags: design, decor
SHORT TAKES 2007-10-04 11:18:00 We've been missing from the blogosphere these past few days for no other reason. We've began to tally up the votes for the '10 most influential design bloggers (blogs)' received from you readers (and bloggers) so far, and that proved to be no easy feat. Imagine ploughing over hundreds of emails and subsequently consolidating those votes into a spreadsheet for reference (can you hear me panting?). I've to thank those who have shown immense support for this poll, including those bloggers who have helped spread the word around. Voting has not ended yet, for your information. So, keep those votes coming till next Sunday (14th October).Every dog has its stay. Even Fifi is having her own stylish abode - nicely tucked away in yours. Link You don't need to go camping in order to stay in a tent. Link Star-gazing doesn't seem to be a common past-time among Singaporeans. But it's a different story in the U.S, where amateur astronomy is becoming increasingly popular. And what better spot
HOME REJUVENATION'S 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL DESIGN BLOGGERS 2007-10-19 03:45:00 The wait is over.In an attempt to find out which design blogs and bloggers influence the discerning readers and the rest of the blogging community, KUS and I have undertaken a month long call for votes on who are indeed the '10 most influential design bloggers'. 4931 votes later, we finally have the answer - at least from a statistical point of view. The poll proved to be a mammoth task, as it sapped away countless hours of our sleep in order to tally up the results. But it's definitely a worthwhile thing to do.While the final decision on which blogs and bloggers would make the cut was decided by you people, we at Home Rejuvenation also did some semi-scientific research of our own to 'validate' the findings. We referred to notable blog ranking sites like Technorati, The Truth Laid Bear and Alexa, and found that the amount of traffic and number of back links to a blog largely coincide with how influential that blog or blogger is. Many of the design blogs we've come to term 'the b
3 QUESTIONS THAT MATTER: PART 2 2007-10-23 11:10:00 Our blogging friends Harry Wakefield (HW) from MoCo Loco, Jean Aw (JA) from Notcot and Victoria Smith (VS) from Sfgirlbybay give their takes on blogging in this second installment of our interview sessions with the influential design bloggers.Home Rejuvenation: What made you decide to write a design blog back then?HW: Back in 2003 there was no contemporary design news website that was daily, brief and current. I just created the thing I wanted to read. JA: The blog started as an excuse for my friend to make me learn CSS... so i was learning around Movable Type, and naturally needed something to fill the pages with - I just started posting about all of the design inspiration i was already im-ing and emailing to everyone!VS: I didn't really decide to do anything. I was looking for a place to store photos, and didn't even quite know what a blog was, but thought blogspot.com was a fun way to store them. Once I started, I realized I really loved the whole process. It tied my three lov
3 QUESTIONS THAT MATTER: PART 1 2007-10-22 08:45:00 Over the past few days, we've had a blast gathering the views of several influential design bloggers on the topic of blogging. We posed them 3 questions over email. Yes, the 3 that really matters. We hate doing long interviews ourselves and don't expect our guests to go through any form of agony doing the same.The guests on this post are Tina Roth Eisenberg (TRE) from SwissMiss, Jo Walker (JW) from Desire To Inspire and Joy Deangdeelert Cho (JDC) from Oh Joy!.Home Rejuvenation: What made you decide to write a design blog back then?TRE: I started the blog as a visual archive of things 'that make me look'. I saw it as a tool for visually organizing my bookmarks. Arranging them in folders just didn't do it for me, as I probably wouldn't remember the name of a designer or product but would recognize it if I had a visual. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that so many people would tune in to my daily finds.My blog has in the meantime turned into a tool that conne
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