Blog In Blue

This Blog is where we share more about the team's thoughts on design, ecommerce, and things in general. Visit our site at www.BoxInBlue.com.

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iPhone Cases for the True Apple Fans

Fellow Apple-tons, it's time to face the truth! The iPhone is no longer the dominent phone choice for Singaporeans anymore. Each time you meet your friends, you realize someone has switched to an Android phone. With the new Windows Phone 8 models coming up, we can expect to see even less iPhones and iPhone 5s going around in Singapore.

So why are some of us still buying iPhones? For us, it is mostly about the design of the phone - the anodized finishing on the back and sides of the phone, the beautiful white/black bezels around the screen, the simple 1 button operation.

With such an intricate design, we have always opposed the use of iPhone cases since they typically modify the original look, and advocated the use of iPhone Sleeves. But now, we have finally found another solution that allows 24/7 protection for your precious iPhone 5s.

The guys at Kuhvuh has come up with 2 iPhone cases with Apple's simplicity as the key motivation - the EpiCase and the SoftFlip. The EpiCase has a frosted translucent back and a clear side to ensure visibility of the original iPhone design, while the SoftFlip is designed to emulate the functions of the Apple Smart Cover for the iPad, which is not available for the iPhone.

While the popularity of iPhones have certainly declined in Singapore, us Purists must remember why we fell in love with the iPhone in the first place, and proudly show them off once more!

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Choosing a Color Theme for your home

Most of us have a favorite color and when the time comes to paint your new house or repaint your old one, you may be inclined to just paint the whole house with it.

But do you know that the color you choose actually affects our minds and how we act in our homes? The guys are DesignRulz came up with a full list of what each color represents and where within your home are they most suited for.

For example, green is a good color for your bedroom as it symbolizes health. And white is actually perfect for the bathroom as it represents purity and spaciousness!

Check out the full article on DesignRulz. Also check out our suite of colorful home decor items!

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Saying Thank You to your Helpers

We have the best customers...... They enjoy our products, they give constructive feedback, and they are always open in sharing with us on how the products they bought made a difference in their lives.

During a recent conversation, a customer told us she wanted to thank her bridesmaids and friends for helping her out during her wedding preparations. As there were about 10 people she wanted to thank, buying a gift for each of them seemed to require too much work and was way over her budget.

She then decided that a thank you card was the best way to show her gratitude. She felt that by thanking each helper for the specific things they have done, it lets them know that they have each played an important role during the wedding.

Of course, she wanted the cards to be special, and classy, which is why she eventually went with letterpress thank you cards.

We wanted to share this story because we realized that many people in Singapore don't tend to express their feelings, and may find it awkward to out-rightly acknowledge the work that others put in. So if you don't feel comfortable saying it out, write it in a card, or buy a present... the most important thing is to show your appreciation!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

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Renovating your house: Interior Designers or Contractors?

Getting the keys to your new home is one of the most exciting things you will ever experience, but with great joy comes huge responsibilities. After the adrenaline rush subsides, the "Now What?" moment happens. Now, you turn this empty space, into the home of your dreams......

In Singapore, there are pre-dominantly 3 groups of people you can engage to do up your home - interior design firms, renovation firms or independent sub-contractors. The cost of renovation is typical highest when engaging an ID, and lowest when you hire sub-contractors to handle each component of your renovation.

Interior Design Firms These firms tend to handle all aspects of your renovation works from design consultation, space planning, 3D drawings and project management. Many of them even go shopping with you for furniture and fittings, while making recommendations on which items fit better with your decor.

There are probably hundreds of such firms, and you can easily speak with tens of them within a day when you visit the regular home fairs at the Singapore Expo, or go to districts like Balestier where many of these firms set up shop. Home & Decor Magazines are also filled with advertisements with pictures of projects they have previously worked on.

Our advice when looking for an ID firm, or even contractors for that matter, is to seek for recommendations from peers who have had worked done and are happy with their ID. Take note though that you should get recommendations of the designer/contractor, not the firm they work for. 

Large ID firms employ tens of designers, and it is fair to say that not all of them are the best of class. This is evident from the contrasting reviews you can find from forums such as Renotalk, where the same firm can get opposing feedback from home owners.

If you are solely selecting your vendor based on the brand name of the firm, there is just a chance that you may get the best or worst designer of the firm (most likely the worst, because the best would already be too busy with all the referrals he/she is getting), and all is dependent on fate. 

Contractors These renovation firms are typically more executioners rather than advisors to your project. They tend to be cheaper than IDs because they don't spend as much time going through designs and plans with you, but instead do whatever they are told. So unless you have a clear idea of the look you are going for, contractors may not be the best way forward.

The benefit of using a contractor over sub-contractors, is that you have 1 person who is in-charge of all the works, and your co-ordination is much simpler, and if something does go wrong, you will just have 1 'neck to strangle'.

Sub-contractors This is where you engage the individual specialists to work on specific areas of the job, i.e. engaging a plumber to work on the plumbing, the door vendor to fix up the doors, the carpenters to build the shelves and so on.

As some areas may sometime overlap, for example a shelf that may require the water pipes to run through, this may not be as easy as it sounds. You can probably save some serious bucks here, but please only attempt this if you have the time for it, and if your design is fairly simple to execute on.

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Ultimately, which way you decide to go will depend on your budget, whether you have a good idea of how you want your house to look like, and how much time you have to be involved in the project.

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HDB Sale of Balance Flats Process 2012 (Final Part)

The purpose of this series of blog posts is to provide additional information for home seekers who are looking at the possibility of purchasing flats from such exercises. By doing so, we hope to make your road to finding your dream home slightly easier. Also check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.

In the last article, we looked at the first appointment with HDB in greater detail, and we are now going to go through the second/final appointment with HDB where you settle the paperwork and get the keys to your new flat.

Due to the backlog that HDB has been dealing with, the second appointment is typically arranged to be between 3-4 months from the first. However, if you are in urgent need of the flat, you can make an appeal to the customer service manager assigned to your file, to expedite the process to about 1-2 months.

On the date of the appointment, before meeting the HDB officer, you are required to head to the 2nd floor to purchase a mandatory fire insurance policy. At that counter, you will be offered the option to buy policies that provide additional coverage, and these are completely optional.

After purchasing your fire insurance, you can get your queue number to meet with the HDB officer. At the meeting, they will first check your documentations (based on what they asked you to bring).

If you are taking up the HDB mortgage loan, they will verify with you the amount you have left in your CPF account and use that entire amount to pay off a portion of the cost of your new flat. They will then advise you on how much you need to pay monthly to service the loan.

Upon completion of the paperwork, the keys will then be finally be handed over to you. Subsequently, you will be required to pay your conservancy fees at the payment counter on the 3rd floor, and if you would like to activate your water and electricity, you can do so on the second floor where the SP Services office is located.

Voila! You are now the proud owner of a HDB flat. Indeed, the entire process of buying a flat may seem long and tedious, but at the end of it, it will still be extremely worth the wait as they remain the cheapest way to own your home in beautiful Singapore.

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Latest Rain Design mStand Review!

The mStand laptop stand from Rain Design has been in high demand for many years now, but many people are just starting to discover this incredibly well designed laptop stand. Here's a quick video review from the guys at JailBreakNation: 

The mStand is currently out of stock and we are definitely looking to restock soon. Meanwhile, check out the other great product from Rain Design - the iRest iPad Lap Stand!

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HDB Sale of Balance Flats Process 2012 (Part 2)

The purpose of this series of blog posts is to provide additional information for home seekers who are looking at the possibility of purchasing flats from such exercises. By doing so, we hope to make your road to finding your dream home slightly easier.

As mentioned in our previous article on the HDB Sale of Balance Flats Process, you are required to go through two appointments with HDB before you are able to successfully own a flat. In this article, we are going to look at the first appointment specifically, and also some misconceptions about the HDB Sale of Balance Flat process.

The core purpose of the first appointment really is to verify your eligibility for a HDB flat, select your preferred unit, and also to pay your option-to-purchase fee (typically S$1,000 or S$2,000 depending on the type of unit).

Before the Appointment Work begins for the buyer even before the appointment. As units are grabbed up everyday, you will be required to check the HDB website on which are the units available by the time of your appointment. It is then best practice to physically check out the flats available to understand the surroundings and whether the amenities are to your liking. You should then rank a few options so that in the event that your preferred unit gets taken up just before your appointment, you will have a couple of choices to fallback on.  

During the Appointment Based on the your employment status, you will be given a list of documents to bring and as long as your documentation is in order, the whole checking process should easily take less than half an hour.

For purchasing balance flats, there is typically only 1 type of grant that is available pending your eligibility, which is the Additional CPF Housing Grant for lower income families. Some may wonder about the frequently talked about S$30,000 first-time buyer subsidy and additional S$10,000 for living near parents/married child, but these are schemes available only for resale apartments, DBSS and ECs.

By selecting a balance flat near your parents/married child, you are effectively just getting more ballots in the balloting exercise and hence have a higher chance of getting a favorable queue number.

After the Appointment The appointment typically ends with an application for HLE (HDB Loan Eligibility) if you are looking to get a loan from HDB. Otherwise, if you are looking to get a loan from the bank, you will have to make your own applications before the second appointment, which is now about 3-4 months from the date of the first. You will receive a letter to inform you of your second appointment date/time separately.

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Design Hunter Singapore - HDB Apartment at Bishan

After a long hiatus, we are pleased to bring back another installment of our Design Hunter Series, and this week will be visiting a HDB flat in Bishan. This 5-room flat has been around for more than 20 years but the owners of the flat made sure that it wasn't an excuse to slack off on the interior design.

As we enter the flat, the first thing we can observe is a beautiful art-piece that is created by thumbprints of people who have attended the owner's wedding ceremony. The cemented floor has been purposefully left untiled to enhance the rustic feel of the home.

Wood finishings are on most of the furnitures and feature wall. The door to the master bedroom has also been purposefully camouflaged with the feature wall.

The kitchen and study room walls were knocked off and replaced with glass and carpentry to make the living room appear more spacious.

The study is kept simple, with shelves and tables all built-in as part of the design of the room.

What we really love about this apartment is its simple design, enhanced with several key pieces of furniture and art-work, and not 'over-decorated' with accessories and decór items.

For more great ideas on home decór, be sure to check-out our unique selection.

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The story of the "We Can Do It" poster

The "We Can Do It!" poster has become a symbol of feminism and positivity in modern culture, and was even used in the US presidential election campaigns by candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin!

Because the poster was created during World War II, many assumed that this poster was created by the US government to encourage women workers to join the war effort. Instead, this poster was actually created by a company called Westinghouse Electric to encourage their workers internally to work harder.

Produced by artist J. Howard Miller, this poster has frequently been misidentified with another iconic graphic called Rosie the Riveter. In actual fact, the poster was based on a factory worker called Geraldine Hoff who passed away just 2 years ago.

Own a piece of history today and also check out our other Vintage Posters on BoxInBlue.com.

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HDB Sale of Balance Flats Process 2012 (Part 1)

The Singaporean government has taken significant measures, on both the demand and supply side of the equation, to try to cool down the red-hot housing market.

On the demand side, taxes and levies were imposed on certain groups of buyers to make property investments seem less attractive. And on the supply side, they have released unprecedented numbers of HDB public housing through their BTO (new developments) launches and sale of balance flats exercises.

While the practice of launching balance flats and new developments have been a standard practice in Singapore for many years, due to the overwhelming number of flats available, the timelines that Singaporeans were used to when selecting flats have changed significantly, as HDB struggles to keep up with the administration involved in this spike of transactions.

In this article, we are going to go through just the overview of the timeline and process in the application of a 'Balance Flat'. In particular, we would like to share our experience of going through the March 2012 exercise.

1) Sale of Balance Flats typically are only released twice a year - an exercise in March and another in September. Due to the admin backlog, HDB has been launching the exercises on the last day of the promised months (i.e. 31st March, 30th Sept).

2) Once the exercise begins, you will be able to fill in an application online, or do the same physically at HDB hub. After the exercise ends, it will now take about 1 month before HDB sends you an email and letter, informing you of your queue number.

3) Based on where you applied for, you will be sent an appointment date and time which can range from another 1-4 months from the time you received the queue number. This appointment will be for flat selection, checking your eligibility, and subsequently getting your option to purchase (OTP).

4) After your first appointment and paying your option fee, you now then have to wait another 1-3 months for your second appointment, when you settle the rest of your administration and get the keys to the apartment.

While getting a balance flat from HDB used to be about luck during the ballots, it seems that it is just as much about patience now, as the entire process can take about 6 months at least. If you add another 2 months for renovation (which can be quite significant as some of these flats are really old), you are really looking at about at least 8 months before you can move into the flat from the point of application.

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Sharing the love we got!

Since the very beginning of BoxInBlue.com, we've had the great pleasure of receiving a lot of awesome feedback from our customers. We are so proud of them that we want to share them with the world. So, we've selected a bunch of testimonials and featured them on a new section in the website.

We have always been grateful for the love we've gotten from our customers, and part of the reason why we organised this Mid-Year Sale, was to thank you for all your support!

We hope to add a lot more great reviews from our customers, so keep them coming!

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Gift Recommendations for Father's Day

Off the back of Mother's Day a few weeks ago, we are now approaching Father's Day. Yap, Father's Day this year will be on the 17th of June, just about a week from today.

Some may find it more tricky to buy things for Dads because they tend to want items that are more practical, so we've come up with 5 recommendations that may just be what you are looking for. As a bonus, because we are having our Mid-Year Sale right now, you can get them at amazing prices!

High quality wool felt Laptop Bag

Beautiful and simple watch

Multi Purpose Handy Tool

Meaning Thank You Card

Elegant charging station for his mobile devices

Of course, one of the most important things to do, is to complement your gift by saying a huge THANK YOU to your dad, and remind them that you truly appreciate them for being a part of your lives.

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Will you pay US$15,000 for a Shower Fixture?

Yap you read it right, US$15,000 for a shower fixture, that's what Graff, a manufacturer of bathroom and kitchen fixtures have priced the steel rain shower from their latest collection - Ametis.

The shower fixture has a round shower head which allows for different modes of spray, from the typical "rain" mode to the more concentrated "waterfall" mode.

Interestingly, they also have sprays along the shaft leading to the shower head that acts as body sprays if you so desire.

To add to the bells and whistles of this decadent fixture, there is an LED lighting (Red or Green) within the shower head ring that enhances to the mood of your shower.

If you are in the market for unique pieces to decorate your house, but $15 grand seems out of your price range, do check out these equally unique items from Artori Design.

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How your home can make you happier

In a previous post, we talked about how removing clutter is one of the easiest ways to achieve happiness in life. We recently came across an article by online magazine Stylist Home, that listed 7 other interesting ways that can make your life better and happier, by changing things, or your habits, at home. 

Here are the 7 tips, and why we think they make sense.

1) Have flowers at home. Most flowers bring color to the place and brightens the mood. Flowers also require maintenance and watering plants can be great way to relax your minds.

2) Light candles. Aromatic candles are one of the best way to soothe your soul and reduce stress levels.

3) Use dinner knives. The article says you will eat in smaller pieces, digest better and live healthier.

4) Hide junk food. We will add to that and say "Expose more fruits"! With junk food out of sight and fruits in close proximity, snack time will be more vitamin loading than fats intake!

5) Eat at the dinner table. More family time and communication is always better for your relationships, so avoid eating in front of the TV! 

6) Drink from a straw. This one is unique as well as the article say you tend to drink faster and drink more when you sip from a straw. More water means healthier life.

7) Organize your closet and put your gym clothes at the top. This will serve as a reminder that its time to hit the treadmill soon!

Hope these little tips can make your home a happier place to live in!

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Cardboard... Bed Frame?

I'm sure many of you would have heard the famous Posturepedic beds from Sealy, but have you even heard of the Paper-pedic bed?? Yap you've heard it right!

No kidding, this bed made from 100% recyclable cardboard, was created by the Karton Group and is currently selling for $188.

The design of the bed is actually quite ingenious, in that you can build it to as big as you want - single, queen or even king size! There are also extra storage compartments below the bed that you can build in.

While you may think that cardboard doesn't seem too steady, and you may not want to risk hurt your back when the frame collapses, the manufacturer has actually claimed that the load capacity of this bed is close to a ton!

Here is the instructional video on how you set up the paperpedic bed!

Would you sleep on this bed?

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Letterpress Printing - Printing at its best!

Our fascination with letterpress printing has been no secret, and we first posted an interesting video back in February that featured a craftsman talking about the letterpress printing process.

Letterpress printing revolutionized the publishing industry when Johannes Gutenberg invented it in the mid-15th century. While it eventually got phased out in the 20th century, it has started its come back in the late 1990s when artists and hobbyists began 'craft' letterpress.

While the letterpress revival is already at its full swing in the US, it is still fairly uncommon in Singapore, with probably less than 5 print studios. These studios mostly create wedding invitations for the well-heeled, but some do produce custom business cards and stationary as well.

Do expect to pay a premium for letterpress items as they require a lot more work than conventional printing - typical letterpress machines can only print out 1 color at a time, and each batch of printing have to be limited to very small amounts.

Here at BoxInBlue.com, we wanted to carry letterpress products from the very first day we launched, but it took us a while to find the ideal studio to partner with. We had 3 criteria: 1) Deep understanding of design and typography to be able to bring out the full potential of letterpress art. 2) Ability to create great pieces while keeping costs affordable. 3) Uses environmentally friendly materials (recycled, or sustainable materials)

After months of searching, we have finally succeeded. Presenting to you, our initial product line of Letterpress Stationary.......

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Designing a conducive work space at home!

We came across a great article (link at the end of the article) on The Next Web that talks about how to create a positive home office space. We thought that it was so useful that had to share them with you guys. Here's a quick summary:

1) Make sure there is a good flow in the arrangement of furniture. The placement of each item should not become an obstacle when trying to access another item. E.g. Placing a work desk in the middle of a hallway, making it difficult for people to move around. There should be easy access to every item you need!

2) The space should inspire your work. This could be in form of the view at your work desk, or the color scheme of the space. The article elaborates on the effects of using different colors in the space.

3) Remove all clutter. Now that you've arranged your and created some inspiration, the last thing you want is to have lots of loose stationary and cables mess up the area, so plan out how you want to organise these loose items, through stationary cases or cable management tools.

4) Get a chair and desk that both look good, and are super comfortable. Makes perfect sense since you may be working on them for hours. It may even be worth investing in ergonomic furniture to improve your sitting posture.

5) Dimly lit spaces decreases blinking and increases the drying of the eyes, causing much discomfort. So light up the space well, and don't abuse your eyes.

Check out the full article if you are interested to go into the details!