Another Commercial Project Completed - Insurance Agency

This time it was an insurance agency in Bandar Baru Bangi. Despite the project start prior to Hari Raya, the project was completed within schedule. The agency was given a corporate and professional approach eventhough its location is at an upstairs shoplot. The office is complete with an office for its manager, management meeting room, a corporate lounge, reception, training room, surau and even a cafe-like pantry with a serving counter.

Here are the proposed design drawings:

Proposed layout plan of the floor area - making room for all the amenities in the 1,400 sq ft space.



Top view of the main reception area... and the custom design of the reception counter tailor-made to suit the client's corporate image.



Columns and partitions designate the different areas and room functions, yet keeping the areas spacious.



Proposed customised pantry for a cafe-look and an atmostphere for informal networking among the agents and their clients.



The completed works:

The entrance with wall cladding outside providing a corporate look and relief from the dark stairways coming upstairs to the agency.



The reception counter.
The 3-D Rendering:-



The Actual:-



View to the training room, pantry and agent meeting area.
The 3-D Rendering:-



The Actual...





View to the manager's office, manager's lounge and meeting room.
The 3-D Rendering:-



The Actual:-



The manager's meeting room, enhanced with mirrors, existing from the prior tenant.



Hallway to the training room, surau and restrooms. Frosted glass provide light and space to the rooms and corridor.



Inside the training room.





Another design creation turned into reality and the joy of supporting yet another successful business venture.

Dynamics of Color

Color is one of the most important element which can contribute to the life and vitality of a home. With the use of color, we can make a small space look larger, and vice versa, warm up a cold room, cool down a sunny wall and create the desired ambience for that room.

Although the use of color does require confidence, it also requires caution, because choosing the 'wrong' colors can be quite disastrous, as I have seen in many instances. Using color is also the cheapest way to transform a room, an ideal solution for those with budget constraints. But, if we are to be successful with color, we must learn how color works, harness its powers and use it in an educated manner. The understanding of color enables us to transform our surroundings, creating an atmostphere most unique to each of us. Let us do away with the "I like this color and let us paint our walls with it" attitude.

First of all, we need to understand that there is more to color than just the different colors itself. Many of us go to a paint shop, look at the color patches in the little booklet offered by a particular brand and choose the one we like.

It is not that simple. We must take into consideration many other factors; for example, the aspects of the room we are painting.

Take into consideration the size of the room, shape, height of ceiling, its function - what the room is used for; bedroom, dining, etc. and light source - any windows facing the sun, light fixtures, also types and color of existing flooring - will they be changed to fit the color scheme? laminated wood floors?

Now for the color. We need to know things like tones, hues, the use of an accent color. We can choose just one color for our scheme and by using its varying strengths of tones, we create a finished room of great visual interest. If not, we end up with a flat and uninteresting room that does not create any impact.

Here, we see different tones of one chosen color is chosen to create depth and yet catch the sunlight that comes into the room. Without the darker tones, the room would look too bright and flat.

Below, again the use of tone... with the floors being a focal feature of the room and a 'canvass' to showcase the furniture.

Here, we see the use of an accent to bring out the vibrancy of a room and enhance a neutral color scheme.

Choose colors carefully taking into consideration the ambience and mood we want to create.

For more information and help in finding the right colors for your living or working environment, contact us at Faizah Zainal Lifestyle Design.

Thinking of painting for Raya? Here are some tips.

Be it the walls of a particular room in the house, the exterior of your house, or even 'ye olde' rusty swing in the garden, here are ten top tips for a great paint job.

#1. Always prepare the surfaces of what you want to paint thoroughly. Clean and sand them first. Scrap any excess old paint away.

#2. Use the correct paint; acrylic paints versus oil based paints, satin finish or matt finish. Ask a professional or your local handyman at the paint shop.

#3. Buy the best quality brushes and rollers you can afford for satisfactory results. Low quality brushes leave their bristles behind as you paint.

#4. Stir the paint well before use to 'pull' the pigment up from the bottom to the top.

#5. Check with your local paint shop to see if you need additives to make the paint flow better. There are many brands out there where you can use straight from the can.

#6. Always cut-in (paint around the edges) before rolling a wall or ceiling.

#7. Always work from top to bottom.

#8. Never paint when the temperature is falling, or on wet rainy days.

#9. Seal patched areas before painting and paint over the filled holes to help seal the filler.

#10. Allow adequate drying time between coats of paint.

Here's another tip:-

Forget about cleaning your brushes whenever you take a break from painting. Instead stick them in a plastic bag and tie a rubber-band around it to keep the paint brush from drying out making it easy to use later when you resume painting.

And another one:-

If you don't want to take the door off the hinges to paint the bottom edges, simply use a scrap of carpet as a brush to paint the bottom edge.


Happy painting!


Reference: Reader's Digest, "10 001 Time Saving Ideas"

A Traditional Touch to a Modern Home in Bandar Baru Bangi

Our next project was further upgrading of a 20 year old double storey terrace house. After we had done their dining room and living room about 2 years ago, the couple came back to us to redo their kitchen, their bathrooms and especially to redo the facade of the house.

The objective was to continue the original concept or theme of the interior which we previously had proposed to resonate throughout. Since the couple's three children are now adults and had left home, it was time to further transform the house to a sanctuary that would be comfortable for retirement providing a beautiful yet peaceful environment to enjoy and to receive guests and grandchildren.

For the living room, the walls were originally pink. We were able to keep to the client's preferences by toning down the pink to a more brown hued color which looked pink but was actually not. Two shades gave the interior some character as well as provided the 'shadows' at the right places to make the room spacious whilst enabling the existing furniture to perfectly fit into the traditional concept that already existed. A polish of the old floor terrazo tiles to bring out its original beauty was the finishing touch.





The dining room was originally the kitchen with a window to the backyard. After converting the backyard into a kitchen, the existing window became the perfect opening for a 'bar-type' serving area; a great place to sit and chat with the 'cook' over coffee and snacks. It also serves as a serving area to the dining room. We chose dark floorboards to complement the existing dark coloured wood glass top dining table. For a modern, yet keeping to a traditional concept, we opted for white cabinetry for the new built-ins flanking the serving counter. The old side cabinets were repainted white to match.

Old furniture..., new floors...



Given a new lease in life...



The new serving counter to the dining room completed...



That was two years ago.

The couple wanted the concept to continue throughout, all the way out, in fact. The exterior was where we would need to focus on. The facade faded in comparison to the new extension the neighbour had constructed. The couple wanted to beautify their facade, but not 'overpower' their neighbours; in terms of view, structure and air flow.

Here's the original facade...



Here's what we proposed...

The sketch....




The 3-D computer rendered version...



The work...













Meanwhile... inside the kitchen...

This...



Became this...



And this...



Became this...



After two months of hard work; monitoring the details, the contractors, choosing the materials, buying the accessories, finally...







The joy of helping to create another lifestyle continues...

Creating a People-Friendly Kitchen

Kitchens are popularly known as the heart of a home. This is because it usually is the center of the home; where meals are prepared to nourish family members, thus giving life and energy to the family. It is also the place where the traditional homemaker spends most of the time. It used to be that stay-at-home moms would prepare wonderful and nourishing meals for the family, catering to many special moments like birthdays, and such. It would also be the place where cuts were healed with home remedies and tears were wiped away from growing children and where stories along with juicy gossip were shared with a hot cup of soothing tea at the kitchen table.

In today's home, the kitchen is merely for cooking when family members are able to get together during weekends or holidays. Kitchens are rarely the center of activity these days as family members are all involved in outside work, school or other activities. When the 'cook' of the family does use the kitchen, he or she usually is alone preparing the meals whilst the other family members are watching television or in their own private sanctuaries, i.e. their rooms.

It is therefore much more important for the kitchen to be connected to the other living areas in order to maintain contact with family members. What with the 'cook' also working full-time, making the kitchen a place for interaction will enable family members to connect with each other during the short moments at home, especially during the prepration of meals, which take a considerable amount of time in itself.

An island, a bar counter or an opening from the kitchen will allow the 'cook' to prepare meals and hold conversations with the rest of the family watching television nearby, yet hide the mess behind higher level counters.

Having a bench, or stools at an island table or counter allows family members or guests to chat with you while you cook. It also doubles up as convenient area for speedy meals, where you can have quick early morning breakfast and meet each other before departure to individual destinations. It can also be a place to catch-up with an after-school snack with younger children, or a place for them to do homework whilst still being supervised by the 'cook'.

A peninsular, or island type dining table, accessible to the kitchen makes an excellent area to get together to enjoy coffee or snacks whilst the main meal is being prepared...



An opening to the cooking area serves also as a counter where family members or guests can watch or sit and chat.

Living the Life at Seri Maya Condominiums

An exclusive and happening location for anyone who needs to be near Kuala Lumpur and yet accessible to the highways through the Duke or good old fashion Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak, that is when the traffic permits.

No matter, the condo is just the right hideaway from the hustle and bustle of the outside world and the fast pace of work. A great place to come home to at the end of a hard day's work.

That was the objective we were aiming for when we got the job to transform the premise from an ordinary looking living space to an exclusive and comfortable home for a busy gentleman.

Look at the previous cabinetry...




Unappealing, ordinary, and without character,...

We decided for a clean look with clean lines, choosing the colours of walnut, and dark wood for the cabinetry, blinds and floors. The walls to be off-white with a feature wall that would complement the surroundings and create a background for the 42" flat screen tv in the living room. The guest room would be the only room with some color to offset the no-nonsense of the rest of the living areas.

After the breaking down of some walls to create a bigger master bedroom and direct access to the bathrooms from the guest room, and access to the kitchen from the living room, we were ready for the floors.

Take a look at the transformation one on one...

The Kitchen:-

This...



was changed to this...



To make it larger, functional, modern and open, we broke down the existing wall that contained the existing kitchen.

To enable this to happen...















Making it also possible to add modern features such as these....







The Master Bedroom:-

Old wardrobe to new wardrobe







to having a completely large, new bedroom...




The Guest Room:-

The transformation...









The Living Room and Balcony (now an annex):-

What was just a normal living room with a normal balcony, is now an extended living space to relax, have friends over and enjoy the fresh air without compromising on privacy.







The final result; A place to call home...



If you would like a makeover or advise on how to change the look of your living space, give us a call at Faizah Zainal Lifestyle Design 017.372.1522.