Path to a HDB Tai-tai: Craftstones

My Goddess has been wanting to get some brick looking/ wood planks looking wall for her place. Doesn't have to be real bricks/wood - can be tiles or wallpaper as real bricks take up too much space, are ex and tough to maintain. So she first searched around for wallpaper - a less space consuming alternative. Went to Goodrich and Asro. Goodrich have a lot of nice brick designs! Totally what my Goddess was looking for. But it also comes with a hefty price!

Asro on the other hand is so much cheaper! Like half the price. But they didn't carry any 'authentic' brick design that my Goddess was looking for. And their wood has glitter, and comes with one big piece without 'panel lines' which makes it seem so unreal.

One day while she was at Balestier buying switches for her place, she passed by a stretch of shops that sells tiles. So she decided to go in and have a look. There were really a lot of variety!

Technically these are called craft stones, and used as feature walls instead of on the floor like tiles.

Then there's wood tiles, really beautiful and looks quite real with the texture. But becuase of the length, it can't be placed on the wall, otherwise the joints are visible and it will look quite weird.

My Goddess' father-in-law then brought them to one supplier as he was going to purchase tiles for his own house too. Ended up they bought a rugged craft stone for their balcony instead of bricks for the living room.

The craft stones came in odd shapes. So it's like jigsaw puzzle to piece them together.

Lucky for my Goddess, her father is a subcon, so his workers knew about tiling and painting, and he got his workers down to help put up the balcony feature wall.

First, little holes are knocked off the wall such that the cement will stick to the walls better.

Pokka Dotted balcony

Then using cement (I think) each piece is stuck up.

To ensure that the tiles are stuck in line, the worker cleverly used a piece of wood to tie down a string.

Then the string is tied to a toothpick!

Overall, i think the job is very well done. See, the powerpoint potion is cased in nicely.

To ensure a consistent look to the wall, the sides are tiled up too.

And this was done using white cement so that the joint lines is less obvious.

And tadah! This is how the whole balcony looks like now!

It's like the cosiest place in the house now!

Latest update: my father's worker who is good at such tiling works has retired, and so he has ceased to provide such service anymore! Apologies to all unreplied email enquires!