Furniture Find from Hock Siong

It's true what they say that once you own a home, you never really stop fixing it up. My husband and I have been renters for the longest time (9 years) and only just recently moved into our own apartment. During this time we were content with buying stuff from IKEA or sourcing secondhand gems from craigslist, balking at paying huge sums of money for items we wouldn't be able to bring with us to the next place we would be renting. I liked the pieces we found for our home but never really loved any of them, never really had that little bit of heartache you have when forced to give up something that no longer served a purpose in your life.

Now that we had an apartment of our own, we could finally choose the pieces we wanted, pieces that weren't just functional but were also beautiful and said something about the kind of people we were and wanted to be. 

For example, I've always wanted a more structured yet still comfortable sofa. The tufted blue one below is a peg I've kept when I was looking for sofas for the living room. 

My husband and I eventually found this grey structured sofa. The sofa back hidden by the pillows are also tufted. I love it because it looks a bit serious but it's still comfortable and inviting. The kids climb all over the sofa and sometimes take out the cushion seats to make them into makeshift forts. They couldn't do that previously with our old one-piece sofa as the cushion seat was too big to be moved around. The seat back cushion is also removable and there's a ledge that's big enough for a child to walk on, which is sometimes what the kids do.   

We've found a couple of pieces we love like our sofa pictured above and our dining set. But I'm still looking for other pieces for the home. For example, I was, until recently been longing to find ball lamps here in Singapore. I saw them previously featured in the home of one of my favorite Filipino celebrity personalities, Daphne Osena Paez and resolved to find one for myself as well. 

Ball lamp image taken from pinterest

Lo and behold I found them being advertised on the facebook page of Hock Siong which is a popular secondhand store here in Singapore. They cost SGD150 which may be a bit expensive for a secondhand store but given that it's an item I've always wanted, I think it's worth it.

 Ball lamp image taken from Hock Siong Facebook page  

Let me tell you though that it is worth every penny. The weight alone is unbelievable. My husband could probably use them as weights on the side. The crystal balls and the metal base = HEAVY. My husband jokes about what would happen if he accidentally caused my ball lamp to fall on the floor. Um, he would probably end up in hospital and that's not even a joke, if it fell on his foot it's likely to be technically true.

Don't worry, ball lamp, I'm sure he's just kidding. But in case he isn't, well you know what to do.

Our lovely new ball lamp sitting elegantly on my bedside table