Other People's Homes

I don't know why but I always find other people's homes more beautiful than my own. I walked into JS' HDB apartment and thought to myself "Wow! How much did they pay the interior designer?" And then JS revealed that she and her husband designed everything.

How do people do it? How do people put furnishings together with impeccable taste and an eye for understated elegance?

JS took down walls and replaced them with string curtains. Sunlight stole through the string curtains into the best organised walk-in wardrobe I had ever seen. There was a bright cream-coloured study space with not a hint of a mess.

Petunia's workspace is littered with stuff... scotch tape, scissors, paper clips, research papers... and a layer of dust decorates the laptop screen. At her busiest, the mess of papers and books spill helter skelter onto the floor. And then once in a while, Petunia goes into a I-wanna-be-neat frenzy and cleans everything up. By next day, all is back to messy.

We had artichoke tea, yam cookies and coffee cream paus on the pink-tiled patio. A spotless mirror reflected the green spaces outside the apartment and the dark wood floor inside the apartment. It very much reminded me of those 2nd storey sitting rooms in the old bungalows, which had dark wood plank floors and French windows opening onto fruit trees with masses of glossy leaves.

Gee... I so wish I had an eye for furnishings too.