Undoubtedly, Verner Panton is one of the century’s most famous designers. Born in Denmark in 1926, Panton’s futuristic designs were way ahead of his time. Panton designed many of his works from his old Volkswagen van and toured Europe looking for manufacturers to buy his work. It was not uncommon for designers to do this in the ’50s.

Many of Panton’s works are still pretty much in fashion these days as they were several decades ago. A mark of a master designer- longevity. Many of you would have come across his works at some point but probably just do not notice that they are Panton’s designs. In fact, you’ve probably sat in some of the chairs he’s designed

Here’s a look at some of his more famous works in the area of seating…

1. The Wire Chair - Has a very unique yet industrial design. You’ve probably seen this in some offices, perhaps even some homes you’ve visited. Sturdy and extremely durable as it’s made of steel.

panton wire chair

2. The C1 Chair - Designed after the moon landing. Steel shell with fabric cover and foam cushioning. Great to fill up small corners of the home.

panton c1 chair

3. Panton Chair - the most famous of all his designs. Also probably the most widely reproduced. Made of moulded plastic, extremely durable, and never boring. These chairs can be widely seen in many places. In fact, even the mini pantry area in my office as a set up with these Panton Chairs.

panton chair

Click here to see my previous post on the Iconic Panton Chair.

Other cool chair related posts:

• The Obelisk - One Cool Patio Set
• Flexible Love Chair
• More Chair Ware
• Wall Art That’s Also a Chair

*Many of these contemporary chair designs can be found at G.D.O. and HomeLife

Image source (from top): selectism.com, bonluxat.com

Polypropylene pendant lights are very popular in contemporary modern day homes. Unfortunately, for anything designer, you’d have to fork out a handsome amount of money to procure it. Despite most local lighting stores constantly putting up banners that sale ‘SALE! Discount up to 70%‘, pendant lights usually cost several hundred dollars even after discount.

Really, these pendant lights are just made out of sheet plastic. For RM129.90, you can get the KNAPPA pendant light from IKEA, which is probably one of the more reasonably priced lamps of its kind. Still, I can’t quite get beyond paying that amount for sheet plastic.

Puremodern.com sells the Asbury Pendant Light for USD120.00. Personally, I think this design is rather cool. Perhaps because it reminds me of a local thorny fruit that’s banned in all 5-star hotels here!

For a little less, Exclusivelyhome.com has the more intricate Cerebro pendant light to offer. There’s no denying that pendant lights are becoming quite the craze. Most modern showrooms often have pendant lights as their lamp of choice in living rooms and hallways. Click here to view the cerebro lamp on exclusivelyhome.com

If you’re unwilling to part with that much money for a plastic lamp, then here’s the perfect answer- an invaluable instructable. Thanks to Dan, you now have a great tutorial and an avenue to create a super cost-efficient pendant light.

Click here to go to Dan’s Pendant Light instructable.

Alternatively, here’s another great source for teaching you how to create pendant lights - Steve Lambert’s Bright Idea Shade.

Watch the video Here

Imagesource (from top): IKEA, puremodern.com, exclusivelyhome.com, instructables.com

Shoji lamps are basically light boxes which house the bulb(s) in an encasement made of bamboo and rice paper coverings. The rice paper diffuses the light hence throws a calm/serene lighting effect on its surroundings. Some Shoji lamps can get extremely pricey as they are carefully hand constructed with intricate bamboo designs and high quality handmade papers which when lit can show of the paper grain’s complex patterns.

I found a great instructable on how to make a Shoji style table lamp using wooden chopsticks for dirt cheap. Click here to read Atarax’s instructable and save you heaps of $$$ by DIY-ing this.

Too simple? Try this - a more complex instructable by PKM. This instructable was awarded 2nd prize in the ‘Let it Glow’ contest and 4th prize for the ‘Green Science Fair’ contest. The instructable is extremely detailed and well written so there should be no problems following it from start to end. Click here to read the instructable.

Don’t like Shoji lamps? Fancy a Sun Jar instead? Click here to read my post on HowTo: Make a Sun Jar

Quite a few people have asked me about contractors and how to get a good one. Here a some tips I’ve compiled which hopefully will provide you with a bit of a heads up looking for a contractor and handling him afterwards.

1. I am not a licensed contractor. License? What license? Who’s a licensed contractor anyway? So really, how do you know if you’ve gotten a good contractor? Your best bet is to get recommendations from friends or colleagues who themselves have used the contractor and are personally happy with his work. I’d recommend that you visit your friend’s or colleague’s place to get a feel of the quality of the workmanship of the contractor. If all’s to your liking, arrange a meet up with the contractor for a quick chat to size him up.

2. Please sign on the dotted line. Contract? What contract? You don’t sign legally binding contracts with your contractor. No local contractor would ever agree to that. This is why it’s important to engage contractors with a good historical record and is highly recommended by those you know.

3. My prices are already the best in town. Never believe your contractor if he says that. There are only several factors in which they can really cut down on the price quotation - number of resources/workers, quality of materials used, how pushy the customer is in asking for a discount. You are in control of the third factor! And to some extent, the second factor. Make sure you push for discounts - never settle on the initial quote.

4. I work as hard even when you’re not looking. Most of the time, the contractor isn’t around to supervise works at your place. He usually tells the workers what needs to be done and they get their hands dirty doing it. Occasionally, there are miscommunications or even the occasionaly (frequent) ‘curi tulang’ (cutting corners) tactics used by the workers to minimise their efforts in completing a job, which could end up compromising the final delivery or output. If it’s possible, take some leave to supervise them or have sporadic spot checks on them during the work day to make sure they don’t cut corners. Remember, it’s you who has to live with their mistakes, every day.

5. I accept installment paybacks. I’d be somewhat wary if a contractor accepts installment paybacks. Most contractors which are reputable or have a good constant flow of business don’t usually offer this option. Why would they when they can get cash up front instead of forking out the money to buy raw materials, pay the workers and wait half a year to a year before you pay them back completely? Unless, they’re desperate for your business or they’re just not very good at their day job. Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule.

6. I respect timelines- my timelines. Get fussy and pushy… else, expect delays and rework. Don’t feel bad about pushing your contractor or his workers. Make sure they get their jobs done or push them to work extra time. If you keep a close eye on them, you will minimise any need for rework.

Imagesource: library.drexel.edu

Welcome to part2 of the Lampshade Makeover series. If you missed part 1, click here to read the article. Moving along, we’re going to higher difficulty makeovers now.

The first one comes from the creative and environmental friendly crafting blog, NU2U - displaying steps on how to create silhouettes in your lampshade using transparencies. Click here to read NU2U’s article. Unfortunately, the folks at NU2U did not post any images on the before or after but I’m pretty interested to try this one out someday.

Curbly.com shows you how to get a dirt cheap DIY lampshade makeover done. The article uses the IKEA GRUNDTAL lamp base and a SKIMRA shade and some simple creative cutting techniques to transform a simple lamp owned by thousands the world over to one that’s totally unique. Here’s what your end product could look like:

If you like sewing and lace, then check out Threadbanger’s YouTube video on how to create a DIY lace lampshade below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1kDlRpmawM]

Let’s face it. Lampshades aren’t cheap. And most of us are unwilling to fork out the money to buy something that looks like it costs nothing to make. This got me thinking on how we could save money when our lampshades look old, drab and weary one day. Naturally, I scoured the net… and found these useful useful tips.

Apartment Therapy’s Lampshade Makeover - features a great (and very pictorial) DIY on how you can transform your old lampshades to look like a designer lampshade. For several dollars, you could have your lampshade looking like this:

Too much work? Brilliant Asylum has the perfect answer for a lampshade makeover - a simple and elegant tutorial on using ribbons to frame the top and bottom of your lampshade to add more character to it, getting it to look like…

to looking like this:

Steven & Chris’s lampshade makeover article covers four ways that you can makeover any drum-shaped lampshade. Of the four DIY tutorials, these are my favoured two - the first, using ribbons and the latter, using wallpaper for motifs.

More lampshade makeovers tomorrow…

Imagesource (from top): Apartment Therapy, Brilliant Asylum, Steven & Chris

Good news for fans of Heckler Design’s OneLessDesk (read about my original post on the OneLessDesk here)! Dean Heckler recently emailed me to inform me of his latest release - aptly named the ‘New OneLessDesk’.

Wait a minute… how is this different from the original OneLessDesk (which has now been given a status promotion to the ‘Limited Edition OneLessDesk’)? FIrst off, the New OneLessDesk comes in a choice of 2 colours- white or silver/grey and best of all, it is now half the price of its predecessor (originally USD1,199), now USD649. In case you’re wondering, the cost is inclusive of intercontinental shipping charges.

A great pat on the back for Dean who has managed to continue to manufacture a thing of beauty and bring down the cost to half the price of the original OneLessDesk. Really, you can’t help but love this table for it’s clean, sleek and elegant design. It certainly is great and functional for small living spaces. I’m so tempted now…

Imagesource: hecklerdesign.com

I should’ve noticed this on unclutterer.com to add into yesterday’s post (Staircase Storage Solutions). It’s called the StairCase by Danny Kuo. The Staircase is currently in prototype phase but it sure excites me with the fact that it is built as a very tall shelving system which ingeniously utilises the bottom 3 shelves to double as a pull out stepladder to access the top shelves. Click here to read more about this at unclutterer.com.

For those of you who are planning to build custom cabinets/shelving systems, this sure is an uber cool concept you could try to get your local contractors to get done. Else, you’ll have to wait to see if Danny ever gets the beyond the prototype phase and mass produces the StairCase to market.

Now this has to be one of the coolest ideas ever… another one of those ‘why didn’t I think of it’ designs - a storage solution which utilises the underside of your stairs! I stumbled upon this on Unclutterer - a brilliant website which is totally anal about staying organised.

For those of you who might be doing major renoworks which could involve relocating or rebuilding your stairs, this would certainly charm your guests and allow you extra storage space. For the woman with too many shoes, this solution could be ideal. In our home, I am only given the bottom tier of our taller-than-me shoe rack. Click here to read about the under stair storage solution on Unclutterer

Now here’s another under stair storage alternative from Freshome - something a little more robust to allow more flexibility in configuring your drawer and shelf size to fit items taller than 6″ vertically. Click here to read more about Freshome’s alternative under stair storage solution

Imagesource (from top): Unclutterer.com, Freshome.com

One of the areas which most people pay attention to when it comes to kitchens is the countertop. This is the area where food is prepared to be cooked and served so it has to be durable enough to withstand scratches, able to withstand extreme heat from woks and pans, and not be a bacteria haven.

At some point, wood was fashionable but it didn’t last long as it was not the most hygienic- imagine an old chopping board on a much larger scale! Formica surfaces soon took over and are still pretty popular these days due to the fact that it’s easy to clean, rather hygienic and extremely reasonable pricing. Tiles are also used very much (more so in wet kitchens) as they are extremely durable and extremely affordable. With tiles, you can spray the surface down with water and there’ll be no worry of rotting. However, the key problem with tiles is that the spaces in between tiles, covered with plaster is porous and if not cleaned regularly and properly, promotes bacterial growth.

More recently, almost every modern showroom you walk into has kitchen countertops that are made from solid surface. Solid surface is great because it’s cut to size to fit your kitchen. The advantage of this is that it comes in one piece and therefore there are no joints, hence eradicating avenues for bacterial growth. It is also extremely durable- almost always heat and scratch resistant. Cleaning is also a breeze when it comes to solid surfaces. The downside of it however is the cost- ranging from RM160 per foot run (that’s about approx 1×2ft) to RM300, depending on the brand (local generic brand or LG/Samsung/DuPont). I’d recommend solid surface if you have the budget for it as it not only looks elegant but is hygienic as well (for the kitchen, i definitely rate hygiene over looks).

We use an off white solid surface for our dry kitchen as well. Contemplated a black countertop but that would’ve made the kitchen a lot duller and not let the Spanish wall tiles stand out so much. Fortunately for us, the dry kitchen isn’t very large so we could afford to integrate a solid surface countertop. So far so good- though we’re not exactly hardcore when it comes to cooking so the countertop isn’t really subjected to extreme wear and tear yet.

Here are some examples from Aino Kitchen:

The picture above is taken from their display kitchen at the Zenia@Desa Parkcity showhouse

A great place to check out kitchen ideas is at ‘Better Living @Ipmuda‘ which is located in Section14, near opposite the DUMC church. They have a great range of display kitchens but their prices are pretty steep.

Commonly used solid surface brands:

• Dupont Solid Surface
• LG Solid Surface
• Samsung Solid Surface

If you decide to use tiles instead, I’d suggest Apex Ceramics City in Jalan Ipoh. Click here to go to their official website.