References

1. Cambridge Dictionaries. (n.d.). Retrieved from 
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/diy

2. Introduction to DIY/Counterculture (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.permanentculturenow.com/introduction-to-diy-counterculture/ 

3. It's "Wine", Not Dark Red-Here Are The Correct Names Of All Color Shades (n.d.). Retrieved from http://digitalsynopsis.com/design/color-thesaurus-correct-names-of-shades

4. McCauley, M. (n.d.). Color Meanings. Retrieved from
http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/color/color-meanings-pictures

5. Mihai. (2015). Room Color And How It Affects Your Mood. Retrieved from http://freshome.com/room-color-and-how-it-affects-your-mood/

6. Furniture Fashion In Our Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://furniturefashion.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/role-of-furniture-in-interior-design/

7. Anderson, T. (n.d.). Importance of Lighting In Interior Design. Retrieved from https://furniturefashion.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/role-of-furniture-in-interior-design/

8. Interior Design Themes. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/5091402/thumbs/in

9. List of Countries In Europe. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/countries-of-europe.html

10.  Dream Home Source. (2011). European Style Home Plans. Retrieved from
http://www.dreamhomesource.com/house-plans/dhs/styles/european-house-plans.html

11. List of Countries In Asia. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://wwww.countries-ofthe-world.com/countries-of-asia.html

12. 9 Elements of Asian Style. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/177162/list/9-elements-of-asian-style

13. Bungalow Style Architecture (n.d.). Retrieved from 

http://www.antiquehome.org/Architectural-Style/bungalow.html

14.Urban Edge (n.d.).What Is A Penthouse Apartment? Retrieved from
http://www.urbanedgeny.com/apartment-guide/apartment-size-type/penthouse-apartment

15. Apartment vs. Condo: What's The Differences? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://enlightenme.com/apartment-vs-condo/

16. STProperty. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://m.stproperty.sg/property-questions-answers/what-is-the-difference-between-landed-terrace-house-landed-detached-and-landedsemi-detached-also/3607

17. Merriam Webster. (n.d.). Definition of Hallway. Retrieved from
 http ://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallway

18. Definition of Attic In English. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/attic

19. DIYlover (2014). DIY Room Decor Cheap and Cute Projects Low Cost Ideas. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBzm2HoQtww

20. 

Home Decorations DIY

Home decorations are additional details of a house's interior design. They are sort of like tiny little details that fills up all the empty and dull spaces and make those spaces look beautiful and complete. Home decorations can also cover up the weaknesses of certain ugly spaces. They function well at concealing weak spots. The best thing about them is that they are cheap, simple and time-saving. You don't need to spend a lot of money and your valuable time to make home decorations. It is a quick process. Here are some creative and mind-blowing ideas of how to make home decorations.

Wine glasses as candle holders 

Paper Rose 

Kitchen DIY

The kitchen is one of the spaces at home for you to prepare meals so kitchen is the place that most likely will be the most messy part of your house. It is bad to think how people tend to neglect the cleanliness and the looks of their kitchen. I think we should make our cooking experiences more enjoyable. Since the  kitchen is crammed with a lot of stuffs, I think it is a great idea for me to post about the kitchen DIYs focusing on storage and how to keep your kitchen always well-organized. So, below are a few kitchen ideas that might come in handy.

The spice containers are made from two ends of bottles

Jar containers

Bedroom DIY

So, we finally reach the bedroom DIY section. Talking about bedrooms makes me feel sleepy. Bedroom is all about your privacy and relaxation so you have to make your bedrooms look 'dreamy'. Since your bedroom is all yours, try customizing the entire space. Beautiful bedrooms bring out better mood and makes you are feel good. There are many styles of bedroom decorations that you could try to get the kind of bedroom you always dreamed off. For now, I'll only show you some of the simple and easy bedroom DIYs.

(19)

Storage

Some houses have store rooms for you to store your items but remember you can't just throw everything inside. Even the store room needs to be organized too. Remember, the store room is a part of your home. Shelves are essential for effective storage we need shelves to organize things. Shelves are usually placed in almost every rooms in the house so that things can organized. However, shelves alone are not enough.  Containers are important too. Containers come in various sizes from small to large. Unlike shelves, containers can be moved easily. Containers can be made from recyclable things. I will show you guys some tips and tricks of home improvement in the next few entries.

Storeroom

Different Parts In A House

As we all know there are different parts of the house. The house itself consists of the living room, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, balcony, hallway, attic and basement.To me, the living room is the place for us to build strong bonding with our family members and the place for us to entertain and interact with guests. Generally, it is a place where communication occurs. The bathroom is a place to bathe and relax, the place is not just for us to 'settle our businesses'. The kitchen is the warmest place I ever knew. It's the place for you to be an amateur chef. The bedroom is the place for resting and privacy. The balcony is the place where you could enjoy the view outside the house. A hallway is an entrance hall or a corridor(17). Attic is a space or room inside or partly inside the roof of a building. Basement is a story of a house of a building, partly or wholly underground(18).

Add caption

Types of Homes (Part 2)

Let's move on to condominiums and apartments. They are both kinda similar but different. The similarities between condominiums and apartments is that they are a fraction of a multi-storied building. However, there are differences between those two. A condo is a unit that is owned individually but apartment isn't. Condos are expensive and luxurious but apartments are cheaper and more affordable. Condos have better maintenance than apartments(15).

Condominiums 

Terraces and Semi-Ds. Both of these homes are usually built at residential areas. They are both categorized as landed houses. Terraces are more affordable while some Semi-Ds are quite expensive. Semi-Ds are pair of houses that which shares common walls but terraces don't share walls(16).

Semi-D

Types of Homes

I'm going to talk about different types of homes today. Let's start with one of my faves. Bungalows!

Bungalow 

Bungalows are known as medium or large-spaced homes. In Malaysia, bungalows are one of the most expensive houses one can buy. Bungalows range from one-story, two-stories or three-stories bungalow. This type of house is usually situated in a rather isolated areas of like on the top of the hills or near the beach. The general characteristics of bungalows are low-pitched roof, open floor plan and built-in cabinets(13).

Next is about penthouses. Penthouse is another type of luxury home. It is the top part of the  building that sits higher on top of the condominium floors. Penthouses are huge and they have private, locked elevator entrance. They have higher vaulted ceilings, jacuzzis, balconies, over-sized windows and swimming pools(14).

Penthouse

International House Design Concepts

We're going to dive deeper into the concepts of interior design. Maybe you've noticed that I use the words 'theme' and 'concept' interchangeably. To be honest, I'm not sure if those terms are similar. Huhu.

I divided the scope of the concepts into two main concepts of interior design:

1. The European concept 
2. The Asian concept 

Europe consists of a large group of western countries which consists of 51 countries like France, Monaco and Russia(9). European homes are illustrated with classic touch and the houses are either Medieval-inspired, Renaissance-inspired castles to Alpine chalets. The common feature of the house plans are typically steep, complex rooflines and facades of brick, stone or stucco(10).

Asia consists of a large group of eastern countries which consists of 50 countries like Japan, Korea and Malaysia(11). Asian home are usually decorated in an assymmetrical order. Some Asian homes have altar-like alcoves which originates from Japan. Asian style has reference to nature and uses natural materials. Most of all Asian style homes emphasize peace and simplicity(12).

Basics of Interior Design (Part 2)

In this entry, you will be exposed to concepts and themes of interior design. Theme in interior design means the ideas for the house. There are a list of common themes for interior design. Below is the list of popular house themes

• Country 
• Rustic 
• Minimalist 
• Contemporary 
• Asian
• Victorian  
• Cassical 
• Traditional 
• Beachy
• European(8) 

There are many more themes for all of you to discover. It is very important to choose the theme that you desire the most in order to achieve your house goals. However, count the costs accurately and stay in the budget. You should take the space of the house too. This is to avoid the problems of having excessive furniture and material. 

Minimalist Theme 

Basics of Interior Design

A house is not complete without furniture and lighting. These can be considered as the main needs in our life. These elements of interior design are based on comfort and convenience. There are factors that you have to consider when choosing furniture and lighting for your houses. The aftermath can either be a reward or some type of punishment. You should think of what you want to have using your imagination and creativity. Furniture reflects your individual characteristics. Don't forget that the materials used for making  the furniture should have some quality too(6). The major role of lighting is functionality. It is because of illumination. Lighting can cast the illusion of space. More lights make your house look bigger(7). 

On the other hand, wallpaper is optional. Wallpaper helps to make your house look better.

Decorations or ornaments is an addition to your house. They help beautify your house.

Lighting

Furniture 

The Colour Effect

Did you know that colours can affect your mood? Yes, they can. If you wanna try raising the room's energetic level and increase excitement especially at night, then go for red. Red can raise blood pressure, speed respiration and heart rate. Yellow brings joy and happiness. Blue is the opposite of red because it can decrease blood pressure, slow down respiration and heart rate. This can encourage relaxation. The green colour has a calming effect. Dark purple screams the characteristics of being dramatic, rich and sophisticated but light purple has the similar effect as blue colour. Orange is an energetic colour and it promotes excitement and enthusiasm. Neutrals consists of black, white and grey. The function of neutrals is to calm things down. Crimson, which is a shade of red, can cause some people to feel irritable as it invokes feelings of rage and hostility(5).

Colours and emotions

Colour Splash (Part 2)

Colours have meanings too. As mentioned earlier, colours have auras and meanings. Green is the colour of nature. Therefore, green means life. It symbolizes newness and naivete. The colour, orange, is warming, uplifting and it is symbolic as end of life. Representing the water and sea, blue is fresh and vital. It can also bring calming effect to people. White, which is heavenly, is pure and clean. Purple is powerful. It means royalty, psychic and headstrong. Yellow symbolizes the sun that carries the meaning of happiness and intellectualism. Red is passionate but also means anger. Gold represents wealth and luxury. Pink emphasize garishness, gentleness and femininity. Grey means wisdom and longevity. Turquoise is vibrant and spirited. Brown is security and contentment(4).

Colour Splash (Part 1)

Let’s get ‘colourful’ today! :)

The elements of colour is the basic of interior design. Colours add more cheerfulness in life, aren’t they? We all need colours to brighten up and bring some aura to our homes. Remember houses have ‘souls’ too. Tones and shades of colours develop from basic colours which are yellow, pink, purple, green, red and blue. If we mix the basic colour schemes together, we can create different tones and shades of colour. Rather than just giving such long writings about colours, I’ll show you more pictures of tones and shades of colour together with their names.

(3)The similar shades of black

The earthy shades of brown

The solemn shades of grey

The natural shades of green

The majestic shades of purple

The calm shades of blue

The fiery shades of red

The sweet shades of pink

DIY: It’s Something Cool

Hey, there!

I think that it is rather improper to start a blog without telling my readers about the purpose of this particular blog and the advantages that comes together with it all wrapped in a nice package.

The purpose of me writing this blog is to inspire all of you with unique ideas of home storage and decor. I would also love to show you how you can modify and organize your homes so well that you don’t need an expert coming into the house. I also want to show you the tips and tricks to make your home look better and neater.

There are many advantages of practicing home improvement DIY. Since, DIY doesn’t require the help of experts, DIY is cheap and very cost-saving. Also, DIYs are easy to make as they don’t require complicated processes. When you do DIY you are indirectly becoming more eco friendly as some DIYs use recyclable things that can be found around the house. 

A Simple Beginning

To my fellow readers,

Hi! I’m still at the beginner level of posting and creating a blog page of my own so I hope all of you would go slightly easy on me. It takes a lot of sweat to complete a proper blog. However, I did all the best I can to make this blog interesting and unique. Enjoy! (^-^)

Before we explore deeper into the realms of “DIY Home Improvement” you might wanna know the amazing history behind DIY or best known as do-it-yourself. DIY works when you make, modify or repair things by your own(1). You don’t even need to call the experts and pay them for it. Isn’t it cost-saving? Well, money always counts.

Did you know that punk and DIY are related? The word DIY is more of a UK term. The origins of DIY are from anti-establishment punk DIY movement and the free festival movement in 1960’s and 1970’s. Its climax was on 1990, where the raves anti criminal justice demonstrations, anti road protests and anti-capitalist movement existed(2).