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.

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.

Furniture Hunting

We've made another stop to our favorite shop again Kedai Kaki Lelong (www.kkltrading.com).  We love going there now and then to see what new stuff they have.  

If you are looking for 2nd hand furniture, visit the one in Ara Damansara.  If you are looking for kitchen ware such as plates or bowls, visit the one in Section 19, PJ.

This time we went there to look for a pedestal for our daughter's room.  However, we left with more than a pedestal, we bought not only the pedestal but a table leg, wooden shelves, plates, decorative girll and a decorative wooden organiser.

Heaps of wooden organisers, good for TV remote controls
Bought : 1 piece

Heaps of wooden shelves
Bought : 3 pieces

Office desk, thought of getting it for my craft room
Did not buy

Beautiful blue and white bowl, orange sauces and Chinese plate
Bought

Tile for decorative purpose or for hot plate
Bought : 1 piece

Tile for decorative purpose
Bought : 3 pieces

The decorative organiser, washed and cleaned

Metal pedestal for our daughter's room

The decorative grill that will be used for our patio
Bought : 2 pieces

The metal pedestal and leg from Kedai Kaki Lelong
Table top is made by Hubby
Our daughter's study table

The wooden shelves from Kedai Kaki Lelong
Put up in our kitchen

All Things Old

We love all things old. If they are still usable and have sentimental value, even better.

I have inherited a few old furniture from my Granny. A GE Electric oven and stove, a book cupboard, a metal egg basket, a abacus set with instructions on how to use it, to name a few.  Funny that at one time, nobody wanted it but once it was displayed or used in our home, it was admired and comments such as "can I have it", "we should have taken it", "do you have anymore" are uttered.

This GE electric oven holds a lot of memories for me. I spent many year-end school holidays with my Granny making tarts and fruit cake for Christmas using this oven.  Story is that my father's brothers found this oven in the jungle during WWII and had to carry it back piece by piece and assemble it.  It took 4 people to carry this oven when we shifted our home as it is made from enamel.

This egg basket belonged to my maternal Grandmother.  I remember her using it to collect her eggs from the hens in her back yard.  After she died, it as sitting in my mother's store room for the longest time.  I asked my mother if I could have it and she said 'YES'

Now I am using this egg basket to store my eggs.

What furniture or sentimental items have you inherited from your loved ones? I would love to hear them.

 

Baby Rocking Chair

I found another Chair! ... rather I picked up another chair that somebody threw away. Hmm ... note to self, I may have a weakness for Chairs, besides Bags and Fabric.

Anyhow, it's a Baby Rocking Chair made out of rattan.  My little CinaBoy just loves it, he sits on it like a little man.  Of course, this chair would need some repairing, why else would someone throw it out.  Not to worry when I have Mr Hubby as my handyman.

Who would have thought that fixing this little chair would take almost one whole day. Hubby had to restring the chair together with rattan strips as well as nail them together. I am rather keen on spray painting the chair to a blue or teal color.  Hubby thinks that I should leave it as it is ... maybe I should check with my CinaBoy what color he wants ...

The Baby Rocking Chair

Different view of the Baby Rocking Chair

Needs repairing

More repairing needed

To use the rattan strip to tie and nail

Love the color, I think would look great on the Baby Rocking Chair

Missing Links ...

It's been 7 months since we've moved into our new home.  We are still in the settling down mode.  Some items are still in their boxes, so many stuff to clear and get rid off.  So many projects lining up:-

1. Fix knobs on all room doors
2. Varnish all room doors
3. Make study table for daughter's room
4. Clear Mezzanine floor
5. Put up photos & picture frames
6. Make back splash for kitchen
7. Refurbish a few furnitures
8. Re decorate master bedroom
9. Put up curtain rails  
10. Sew curtains
11. Build patio
12. Sofa hunting

And the list goes on and on ...

One item on this list that we are taking our time is the sofa, we are taking our time as we do not want to rush and end up buying something that we are not happy with.  We do know roughly what we want but we have to look around at other retailers.  The EKTORP three seater sofa from Ikea is one that we are considering.

EKTORP three seater sofa in White - RM999.00

EKTORP three seater sofa in Risane Beige - RM1,499.00

Right now, we are temporary using a Teak two seater chair that is meant for the patio.  We purchased this Teak two seater chair from Kedai Kaki Lelong in Ara Damansara.

The Teak two seater chair in our Hall

Another picture of the same Teak two seater chair

Recycled and Reused Dining Bench

The two Dining Benches for our Dining table is another project that Hubby did.  The bench is made out of Kempas Wood and the legs are made out of two single 2ft louver.  The bench itself is about 7ft long and can easily sit 3 adults.  So our Dining table has two chairs on each end and the two dining benches on the left and right.

These louvers are from old colonial bungalows which was built circa 1880s.  It would therefore make these louvers about 100+ years old.  Kudos to Hubby who comes up with these creative and innovative ideas.  Who would have thought of  making louvers as bench legs.

You can read more about the louvers that we made as an air-conditioning compressor cover in my other blog post here

Like all other wood projects, we had to clean, scrape and sand down the wood.  Once all this is done, these woods were given a chemical treatment.  We would normally varnish our woods but for these benches, we have decided to leave it with it's natural wood color.

One of the four 2ft louvers that we bought

A close up of the louver with it's before clean up condition

Another one of the four louvers

Child labour? Nah ... they just love scraping the old paint out!

Left : A 'clean-up' louver
Right : Paint scraped out and waiting to sand down

Fixing the louvers to the bench

A close up of the wood and the louvers

For extra support and for decorative purpose,
we used the Ikea bracket for shelves 

Completed : The dining bench with louvers as it's legs

The Dining Bench in use!