Home Decoration: Visually Appealing

There are three entrances to the house, this one is through the front garden which takes visitors to the pool directly. Notice the long private wall which shields the house from view, coupled with the cluster of bamboo which adds an oriental ambience to the place.

An L-shaped home built beside a pool

A thick greyish white stone wall blocks the two-and-a-half storey house from view. It is a deliberate move on the part of the architects, to create the wow! Factor later on. Walk past the wall. An abundance of water features and bamboo clusters usher the visitor into the glass foyer area. Here a traditional Thai percussion instrument from Phuket gives a foretaste of what is to come.

An eclectic mix of oriental and tropical design, this home in Damansara Indah Resort Homes is among 64 plots of land in the PJ locality.

The house is four years old. The owner bought the vacant bungalow land and had two architects help him design the place. His brief was simple: bring in lots of light, cross ventilation and give it an ageless dimension.

Combining this request with other more visually visible elements, the wow! Factor hits the visitor the moment he enters the living area.

The living and the adjacent dining area are awash in sunlight from all directions. A series of glass and resak timber windows from floor to ceiling frame the long turquoise pool. And on both sides of the pool, the landscape architect cleverly combined palms and a variety of large greens in varying heights and proportions. All this is against the backdrop of the Seri Selangor golf course.

Airy and cheerily lit, the picturesque atmosphere is evident throughout the ground floor of this home, built in the shape of a letter reversed 'L' with the pool running the entire length of the longer portion of the house.

The living room occupies the shorter stem, while the casual dining area and games room fit snugly

into the longer stem. That afternoon, the children were studying in the dining room. Its folding glass and timber doors open out to the pool is accompanied by an abundance of light and a slight breeze.

"Most of our meals are served here. It is pleasant enough," says the hostess. The games room is just beyond the casual dining area, with a lovely view of the garden and the Seri Selangor golf course.

When entertaining, and they do a lot of this, the centre of activity moves to a more formal dining area, located at the corner of the letter L

With its abundance of windows and doors, the pool and the outdoors are the focal point. "While you use the main entrance into the living area, there is also a garden entrance to the house. Here, the visitors move from the garden to the pool and into the house while a third entrance moves from the car porch direct to the wet kitchen area and into the house. This is more utilitarian," says the owner.

The main entrance via the glass foyer forks at a certain point. While one leads to the main house, a

shorter route takes one to the guest room with a bathroom adjacent to it.

"Sometimes, we also have guests staying in. So we have made the guest room with its own private

garden and bathroom. This gives our guests a lot of privacy. They have access to the house and the

pool but are away from the main structure and the timber glass door open to a private garden which only they would have access."

Three of the family's private rooms are on the first floor. The master bedroom with an attached master lounge and walk-in wardrobe and bathroom occupy about half of the first floor with a balcony opening out to the golf course and garden below.

A sturdy spiral flight of stairs, more of a functional showpiece than a utilitarian one, takes one to the room in the attic. Made of thick resak timber, it resembles a Lego block which spirals upwards.

The atmosphere on the first floor lounge is cosy with its massive hardwood table.

"We imported the table from Indonesia. My husband liked it because the tabletop is one single piece with no joints. To create the same effect, we custom-made a longish-looking day bed to complete the letter L," says the owner.

Most of the furnishings in the house are custom-made. The same goes for the formal glass and timber dining table that seats 12 comfortably. There is a lot of charm in the place, created in part by the custom-made furnishings and lighting.

Specially-made lights in ancient birdcage motifs hang over the formal dining area, each painted in a deliberate distressed finish that succeeds in making them look decades old.

A view of the house from one end of the pool with palms on one side and other ornamental plants on the other side. At the end of the pool is the living area while the games rooms looks out to pool and back garden. The master bedroom is right on top overlooking pool and golf course.