About Oak, again .. Written by : Reiki Sanctuary Date : Sunday, June 22, 2008

We have decided to drop off the idea of having oak wood for all the bedrooms floor.  After considering the yellowish-orangey matured colour change of oak, and most temperate woods such as ash and maple, we decided to go for a tropical wood Teak instead.

We do like oak cos it is real hard wood, nice and light.  We are in favour of wood of a lighter shade as it will make the bedrooms brighter and spacious. This is an important criteria, other than providing the bedrooms a wood cozy feeling which we both like, we do not want to turn the rooms dark.

Oak before it matures [if only it will stay this forever]:

Solid oak

As teak is a tropical wood mainly native to India, Burma, Thailand, Indochina and Indonesia, Chiauw feels that there will be consistency and non drastic in the colour change down the years.  It will not be as yellow-orange as compared to temperate woods.

The matured colour of oak under our local temperature - which is too much for us:

Oak Matured Colour 2

We will settle for teak.  Guess the next question will it be Indonesian or Burmese teak.  As opposed to lay the longer strip, we will opt for the shorter ones as to keep the smaller uniformity of the different teak shades and grains.  Teaks have different machined showing blotches and streaks of various shades with straight grain, sometimes wavy and texture coarse and uneven ring porous.

Therefore, the wide spectrum of teak with smaller stripes is evenly dispensed.  We intend to keep the floor semi matte.

A picture taken from a friend's place with semi-matte teak - short stripes:

Teak wood 1

[PS:  It is not so dark as we saw it.]

Though we feel that teak may be a little dark for our liking, it would be a better choice in the long run.  Guess, we can only hope for the best.

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The Renovation Educational Tour Written by : Reiki Sanctuary Date : Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I believe that once the renovation is completed, I would have learned a lot about interior design.  It is a good thing that we engage Chiauw and that she takes us in as her client. 

Through her vast architectural knowledge and a designer's know-how, she puts no limits to impart the knowledge to us.  It is her principle to educate all her clients to be well-rounded and well-informed.

I admire her principle - that, at end of any house renovation, her clients have a complete knowledge about renovation. Her clients are to be well informed of all the different markets, brands, prices and so on. She feels that each client is not short-changed after the handover.

Chiauw invites me to go along with her to Sungei Kadut to meet with a Product Manager from Formwell.  Basically, she wants me to be exposed with the high quality furniture decorative surface materials and fitting components for cabinet doors, wardrobe system and furniture door system.

Formwell Products:

Brochures for ColumnPlus - Lifestyle Display & Storage System and Frontali - Aluminium Frame Cabinet Door for hinge opening, sliding and folding application

Brochures for Frontali Series 6000 - sliding door for cupboard and wardrobe application; Frontali Series 7000 - tall sliding door big wardrobe and Frontali Series 8000 - sliding door system for passage and partition walk-in application.

After Formwell, we visit Kenwood Industries.  Chiauw wants me to see the bigger pieces of oak woodenware so that I can have a better picture of it.

Oak Wood

Next, she brings me to a church in Bukit Batok to show the matured effect of oak wood.  In this church, it uses alot of oak and I would be able to see the matured colour under our tropical heat.  Generally, all woods will undergo color change and it is important that I am comfortable with the effect.

What I see is not pleasant - somehow, it is too yellow and not to my liking.  This is how it looks like:

Matured oak colour

[The real colour is more yellowish - there is a tinge of orange]

Conclusion:

01.  Definitely, we will be using some of Formwell products.  I like the high gloss solid surfacing for the kitchen cabinet and the sliding wardrobe system.
02.  Oak is definitely out!  We might consider to lay teakwood as it is a tropical hardwood.  As such, the colour change is very minimal.

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