An English Cottage in Puchong

Would you believe there's a small English cottage on the outskirts of Puchong? I could almost imagine smoke coming out from the chimney!

The owners built this weekend resort home for family members and invited friends to unwind on weekends.





Notice the snooker and game area built beside the main cottage.



This tiny "cottage" is built beside the main building. It's the Coffee Room - complete with a set of sofa for guests to relax in after a heavy dinner.






A large pond overlooks the main entrance to the cottage.



Lim accompanying Desmond during touch up on accessories.


This small kitchen is designed with Milano Oak Burnt White series to keep up with the English theme. Made with imported solid oak wood, the beautiful natural oak grain is tinted with an almost white paint finish, allowing the grain to be seen yet not too obvious. This set is our most popular rustic country style series.


This Milano Solid Oak set inclusive of imported American Corian top costs RM25,108.00
The Ariston electrical appliances cost RM7,645.00

This SGO leaded glass folding doors open up to the Prayer Room.

I just love this clock! It completes the whole country feel of the kitchen.

The lady owner of this house has spent many hours looking for loose furnitures and soft furnishings that complete the last touches of this lovely cottage.

My 2 days of work being based in this house during the kitchen installation was really a joy. While the installers were going about their work, I continued my paperwork overlooking the large serene pond with chirping birds all around. That's serenity!

This plaque summarizes what a home is all about : " A HOUSE IS MADE OF BRICKS AND BEAMS. A HOME IS MADE OF LOVE AND DREAMS ".

Timeless Kitchens and Homes

Today I'm going to present some kitchen styles that will withstand the test of time. I like writing about kitchens. Whether your renovation budget is big or small, every home needs a kitchen. Even though people below 40 probably do not like the country style kitchen look, but it really can withstand changes in trends.

And because I'm a serious cook, I understand the importance of the work triangle-how it works to smoothen your food preparation right up to the actual cooking stage. Many people I come across want to extend their kitchen to make it bigger. But do you know that a longer and bigger kitchen does not mean the space is being properly utilized? If not properly planned, it will work to your detriment (assuming you cook very often) because if your work triangle is too large, you'll have to walk more than a few steps to get anything during food preparation. Suddenly, you're actually wasting time because all your utensils are located far away!

If you're a modern household, you'll need to rethink about locating a lone cooking stove in a small area isolated away from the dry kitchen. In our modern lifestyle where we are striving to save precious time by multi-tasking, you'll waste time if you have to walk between wet and dry kitchens to get stuff. In multi-tasking, several work is done at the same time - while the curry or soup is boiling, the fish is in the steamer and you are chopping vegetables! In this health conscious age, we don't use as much oil in our cooking (unlike in previous generations) so there is considerably lesser mess in today's kitchen. Hence the lesser need to separate wet and dry.

However, my statements above do not apply if the people who actually use the kitchen are senior folks (old habits die hard, so cooking is still oily and messy!) or maids.

The last few days before the Chinese New Year break I had been working on this country kitchen and western inspired living hall with a fireplace! The owner loves western style homes - dreamy and cozy and timeless!

Just before the holidays, we had sucessfully delivered dry and wet kitchens, a wardrobe and powder room and family activity area to an American style villa located in the Bangi golf club- the photos of which are not ready yet as the owner had not properly decorated her home. I'll post them next time around.

Listed here is another country kitchen done all in white (location Subang Jaya) - the lady owner's favourite colour. Well... the owner seems to like it , otherwise she would not have invited us to her home parties every year for the last 2 years! :)