Antique double door (a.k.a. pintu kupu tarung)

At that time we understood very well that we wanted to have antique double door (pintu kupu tarung) in our Naim Project. We believed that the antique door will give a rustic feeling to exterior of the house. Based on our 'research', the colonial-style building used wooden double door painted in white/cream/yellow with NO (or very minimum) hand-carved ornaments. So, we looked for a set of antique double door that had simple yet unique design.

Before

The original condition

And the size was just right!

We believe that the antique double door has added different character to the house. The door is actually an access to the innercourt.

After

Stair railing

The inspiration

We observed that many colonial buildings had the stair/balcony railing decorated by a set of steel bars with classic ornaments in the middle (Note: the ornament is made from tin, instead of steel). In Semarang's Kota Lama area, we noticed that such evidence is everywhere. Once we saw the distinctive colonial design for railing, we immediately agreed to bring the idea to our Naim Project.
We were then advised by our contractor that if we asked the wrought iron worker to 'copy' the design, we will not get the same details as those of the original ones (not even close!). I was not sure the reason for not being able to reproduce the colonial design for stair railing, but I suspect that the wrought iron worker will have difficulty to make the special 'mould' for making the requested design.
It was best if we just got the antique or dismatled steel railing from old houses.
So the hunt was started quite early to find the antique steel bars.

The raw material

And luckily we can get the antique steel bars which were once attached to staircase of someone's house:) They may look 'ugly' and raw, but once we saw them on the antique dealers, we felt assured that our staircase will turned out to be as classic as the original colonial buildings.

Classic colonial-style staircase, but the steel bars could not be dismantled
as the staircase was sold in 'as is' condition :p

It was 'ready stock'!! Meaning that the steel bars were already dismantled
from the old staircase.

The result
The final result is classic and beautiful staircase in our family house.....

In total we used almost 100 pieces of antique steel bars......  

A tapas restaurant in our neighborhood

Wall ornament

The ceiling was set up with wooden beam and covered with wooden ceiling

Flamenco dancers photos are hung on the wall

Simple yet classic furnitures

The outdoor sitting area brings the Spanish theme

My fave tapas menu!!!

A new Tapas restaurnat is recently open in our neighborhood. The name is Movida.
The food selection is just right. It was not a vast selection of tapas menu, but it brings the famous recipe to its small restaurant.

The premises was used to be a French pancake house named Praline which has been closed down. And I have to say that the restaurant layout did not change much from that Praline's period.

What I like about this restaurant (beside the yummy food) is the fact that they applied wooden beam as weel as wooden ceiling to decorate the restaurant. The wooden decoration brings instant warm atmosphere upon entering the restaurant.

Movida Tapas
Jl. Cipete Raya
Jakarta

And finally we ordered these .......

During our order processing, the factory sent us the mock-up or computer design like above pictures.

More Tegel Kunci.......

These are more photos of Tegel Kunci tiles that I took during my visit last year to its factory in Yogyakarta.
I was having a very very difficult time to choose the perfect tiles for our Naim Project lol. The selection was simply to many hahaha

And it took some time before I and my DH can agree on the patterns and colours ;)

Restaurant Pesta Keboen's wall is painted in refreshing moss green

Not too long ago, we went to Semarang city to get more inspiration on Javanese Colonial style buildings. Semarang is famours for its legendary Kota Lama and has been a great source of inspiration in making our Naim Project.

A trip to Semarang without a culinary adventure would be so wasted. And we made a stop at this place called restaurant Pesta Keboen for a dinner.

I am not going to talk about their food here, as I forgot already how they looked like or tasted like :p
Instead, I want to post their building design. To be honet, I do not know whether their buidling style is true Javanese Colonial style. I doubt it. There have been a major variation from the classical Javanese Colonial style. But they still maintain some critical attributes on it.

Few things that I like about this budiling

• The GREEN wall combined with white windows is really really refreshing for the eyes
• The big glass window with its special shutter windows. This gives a strong feeling on Colonial style design
• Half round canopy which is 'framed' with wall profiles in great details
• From the main street, the restaurant is covered by leafy plants and some big trees

Cafe Moka's great selection of beautiful cakes

These photos were taken during our weeken getaway to Bali in June. Upon arrival in Bali in the morning, we headed directly to Cafe Mocca in Seminyak area for having a full blown breakfast.
The display of their beautiful cakes is truly eye candy.

Definitely I will go back to this place for next Bali visit (I hope the visit is any sooner).

Cafe Moka
Jl. Raya Seminyak
Bali
Telp. 0361 731424