Chenggal Shelf

We purchased a piece of Chenggal wood from a scrap yard in Sg Buloh when we were renovating our home. This was an impulse purchase as we did not have any idea on where or how we would want to use it.

To us, when we buy any wood pieces, we look for wood grain, eyes, uneven lines, dents, holes as all these bring characters to the wood piece. You do not want a piece that is 'clean' or straight as it would look like any other piece of wood.

This is what happens sometimes when you buy wood pieces, you will fall in love with it, you will find that the piece is speaking to you. 

Someone offered to buy this piece of wood when we used it as a shelf during one of our bazaar sales.  However, this piece was not leaving us!  Overtime, we changed our minds several times on what this piece of wood would be used for, from making it into a bed-end stool to making it into a table for display and finally after 5 years, we finally decided to use this in our loft for my art studio as a shelf.

The Chenggal wood measures 147cm (length) x 29cm (width) and it fitted nicely onto a wall sandwiched by two windows. P/S : Don't mind the air-conditioning hose!

So handyman Hubby fixed it. He made his own shelf holder as the Chenggal wood was very heavy. Needless to say, I am loving how it turned out. It now holds some of my favourite quotes, my plants and some of my craft items.

Let us know what you think, leave us a comment below. You can also follow us on our IG @urbanwood17

Completed Project : DIY Coffee Table

If you have read our blog post about our DIY Coffee Table which we made from scratch, you will know that we have finished this project.  If you have not, you can read about it here.

So, after two months of finishing this project, we finally put the coffee table where it belongs! We managed in getting around to doing up our patio area.  Just in time for Christmas.

We are loving this cozy little spot and enjoying it too.

Let us know what you think, or what we could have done differently.  All ideas are most welcome.

Thinking Out of the Box

Sometimes when you are working on a project, measurements may go haywire due to the materials that does not measure up or for ANY particular reason.  So you have to make amends and think out of the box.  You have to be creative.  You have to see BEYOND the project, beyond what the material or project can offer.

For our latest project, the DIY Bathroom Counter Top (you can read about it here), that was what happen.  

We bought the Ikea Freden series cabinets which are for bathroom storage. We used the cabinet for the sink but because our counter top was long and over lapped over the cabinet, and we did not want to cut the beautiful Chenggal wood, there was an empty space below the counter top.

So we decided to cut the Ikea Freden shelve.  By cutting the shelve, we got one cabinet and one side table.  The cabinet was inserted into the empty space and the shelve will be used for another project.

Hopefully the pictures below will give you a visual understanding ... 

The counter top that over lapped from the cabinet.
Hence, there was an empty space at the right.

The Ikea Freden shelve which was cut into half.
Used only the cabinet.

The cabinet fits nicely into the empty space as you can see on the right.

DIY Bathroom Counter Top

After 2.5 years of moving into our new home, we finally got around to install the counter top and cabinet in our master bathroom.  We purchased the Freden series cabinets at the discount corner in Ikea before we moved in.  The counter top is recycled Chenggal wood which we bought from our local lumber yard.  Plumbing was done by Hubby himself.

Here are the pictures of our master bathroom.

Before : Our bathroom, plain and simple.

After : The counter top and cabinet installed!

For now, this will be the decoration ...
intend to add more color later

In progress : Adding the counter top.  

So much storage now!

A look at the plumbing and how we manage to
incorporate it with the cabinet

Another look of the plumbing and cabinet

DIY Coffee Table

This is another completed DIY project that we did, a coffee table.  It is a mixture of wood and metal. We think the wood is from a mahogany family.  Hubby and a neighbor found the tree which was chopped down by the local municipal council by the road side.  Apparently someone has slice the tree already but was not able to transport it.

This project took about only two weeks to complete.  Here are some pictures on the chronicles of the coffee table.

This is where the wood was found.

The wood was a little too thick for a coffee table.

Our neighbour helped us to slice the wood
with his chainsaw. 

The wood is in the process of being sliced.

Done! Sliced!

A close-up of the wood slice.

Hubby used a sander to smoothen the wood.

Getting the wood ready to be treated.

The wood has been treated so that no bugs
will attack the wood in the future.

We used metal for the coffee table legs.
We did not use wood as we did not
want to take the beauty away from
the coffee table top.

Legs from the other side of the coffee table.

Close up of the wood texture. Beautiful!

Bracket being fixed onto the metal leg.
Mini shelf will be fixed later.

Our DIY Shoe Cabinet - Part 1

Living in a home with 5 people, of which 3 are growing up children, there are bound to be lots of shoes lying around!  Shoes for school, shoes for going out, shoes for sports, shoes for work, shoes for walking and the list goes on ... 

So handyman Daddy made us a shoe cabinet.  One that can keep all our shoes.  It will come with a short bench so that we can sit to put our shoes on and a tall cabinet to put our laundry hangers and pegs and maybe some gardening tools.

The materials used for this cabinet are recycled wood from old kampung (village) houses such as the walls and window frames.  The type of wood are Balau and Chenggal, I don't know what are the English names for these woods.

We will leave you with some photos and will update more when the final project is completed.

The green drawers is where we currently keep our shoes,
one drawer for each family member.

The frame is put in place to confirm the length we want.

One of the cabinet doors in the making.

The skeleton frame of the cabinet.

The side and top of the cabinet is put in place.

The cabinet doors are being fixed.

Furniture Refurbishment ~ We found more Chairs

CRAZY US!

We found more rattan chairs and of course we had to have it! Someone had thrown away six white color rattan chairs.  We took only one as the others were rotting.  

Funny how I have always wanted white rattan chairs and now that I found them, I want to spray them bright lemon yellow, and that is just what I did.  This rattan chair will be used in my craft room.

Brought home two rattan chairs but only one was in good condition.
After spray paint ~ the bright lemon  yellow.

The rattan chair in the midst of being spray painted.

Furniture Refurbishment

We recently brought home two rattan chairs that were thrown away.  I see these chairs every time on my way to work, but because they were thrown in the shrubs, I could not take them myself.  So finally, on one Saturday, I dragged Hubby along and we went to get the chairs.  One was in good condition and the other not so.

These chairs will go nicely into the children's room for their study table.  We brought them home, gave it a good wash and Hubby sanded it down.  Next step will be to spray paint it to the color of our children's liking and buy a cushion for these chairs.  The girl wants her chair to be Mint color while the boy wants his chair to be Silver or Gold color.

This will be our 5th Chair Refurbishment. We also refurbished a baby rocking chair and you can read about it here and here.  We also refurbished other rattan chairs which we picked up from road sides and dumpsters.  You can read about these chairs here. 

This is where we found the rattan chairs

We had to wash the chairs as fungus was growing on the rattan chairs

Left : After sanding down
Right : Before sanding down

Before being spray painted

After spray painted and I sewed the cushion cover

Our DIY Bed

If you have read our blog post about the Chronicles of our DIY Bed Frame (link), well, here is the final picture of the bed.  We just love this bed, you just want to lie in bed the whole day and do nothing ... that is how we feel ...

Our DIY bed ~ finally completed.  We love it!

Chronicles of our DIY Bed Frame

We recently upgrade our Queen size mattress to a King size mattress, hence we had get a new bed frame.  Instead of going to a furniture shop, Hubby said that he will make one. Of course my initial reaction was "Hmm ... how long will we have to wait for that now?".  Not doubting his craftsmanship anymore since he built our main door (you can read about it here).

So, we already had the bed legs from our recycled playground Chenggal wood stash.  All Hubby had to purchased was the wood for the head, leg and side frame.  It took him about two months to complete the bed frame from sanding down to chiseling to varnishing and assembling.  He used tenon joint to assemble the wood.

The bed frame is a mixture of Chenggal and Balau wood. The side frame was formerly a window frame.  I think the bed frame easily weights 200 kgs ...  

So below we leave you with some pictures of the making of our bed frame.

The recycled Chenggal wood from a play ground.

The side frame before it was sanded down and varnished.

Another view of the side frame with the
window hinge still intact.

Another view of the side frame.

The two side frame.

After chiseling, checking the tenon joint.

The chiseling work for the tenon joint.

This is how the pieces will be joint together.

Making sure that all the pieces fit.

More pictures of the pieces being joint together.

Two of the four bed legs being treated and varnished.

Upper portion has been treated and varnished
while lower portion has not yet.

Before and after treatment and varnish.

Treatment and varnishing in progress.

The pile of wood for the bed frame.

All the wood pieces before assembly.

A close up of the Chenggal wood grain.

The head board being assembled.

The wood pieces is being secured by a screw and bolt.

Side by side, the head board and leg board.

Side by side, the head board and leg board.

All assembled and fixed, just left for the lower bed frame.