Decorating Baby Girl's Room Wall

Having conditioned the baby to sleep through, we managed to find time to decorate her room, but was on a tight budget. My wife was keen to make the room more lively and "girlish".

She found an elegant and economical way to create a theme wall for our girl's infant room, DIY decal style. It is a quiet forest theme with an owl, porcupine and squirrel.




Take a look at the finished product here. Stickers are reusable and of surprisingly high quality. So there was no worry about adjusting the picture arrangements to your preference.

Decorating Baby Girl's Bedroom economical DIY

There are other 2 choices which we found to be pleasant and suitable for baby girls, but without being too pinky



Also see
DIY- Changing cabinet knob
DIY- Decorating Glass Door with Decals
DIY- Decorating a boy's room

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303 (part 2 of 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1.

Insert Square headed bolt through bolt and slide catch into seat base assembly.

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- Bolt + catch on seat base (viewed inverted)

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- Bolt + catch on seat base slide in (viewed inverted)

 Repeat for other side.

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- Bolt + catch on seat base 2 sides (viewed inverted)

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- Bowl without seat and cover

 Insert 2 x transparent rubber spacers.

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- Insert 2 transparent spacers into 2 anchor holes on toilet bowl.

 Align bolts and insert into bowl anchor holes

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- align seat assembly's bolt to bowl's anchor holes

 The bolt needs to be secured with nuts from underneath. See below pics for a thousand words.

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- bowl without seat and cover elevation

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- nut and washer to secure inserted bolt from under the bowl.

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303- nut and washer to secure inserted bolt from under the bowl.

Repeat for other bolt.


Also see:
Feedback of water cabinet baron w303

Other Maintenance Postings:
Changing chair fabric
DIY home repair cabinet knob
Does a refrigator need plinth
Wet floor toilet design

Changing Toilet Bowl Seat Cover- Baron W303 (part 1 of 2)

After 4 years of use, we decided to replace the toilet seat in the master bedroom with a standard oval shaped cover-seat (aka non-original) which was commonly available costing SGD26.

It proved to be an unwise choice as

1. The seat and bowl shapes did not match. I guess it still works well, but we started questioning why the decision to get a designer toilet bowl in the first place.

2. Due to the incompatible dimensions between the bowl and our purchased seat, the sitting position became awkward, which required the user to lean forward. In short it did not work.

Without much options, we searched for original seats and had 3 quotes, ranging from SGD40 to SGD55 all before GST. Naturally the cheapest one was picked from Klisss.

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303 invoice

It came in a rather plan box for a designer product.

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303- simple box

 However, the box was clearly labelled as "SLOWLYFALL". See the video here to know what it means.

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303- Labelling

Supplied components included (clockwise in picture below) assembled cover-seat, 2 rectangular catch, 2 sets of plastic bolt + nut + washer and 2 transparent spacers.

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303- Supply components

 Plastic rectangular catch.

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303- Catch

 Complete assembly of the Catch + washer + nut + Bolt  assembly

HDB renovation DIY- change toilet seat cover Baron W303- Catch+ washer+nut+bolt assembly

See Part 2 here

Feedback of Water Cabinet Baron W303- 4 years

Initially, we provided a feedback after several weeks of usage and are not sure if we should be providing a 4-year feedback as it seemed like a pretty "unhygienic" topic to dig into so much detail. Since we have done the dirty job, we might as well save the readers the trouble of the same journey.

After 4 years of use, we observed the following:

1. The Baron W303 was the most economical designer bowl we could find in 2009. It added to the hotel-like toilet look we were after.

2. As a designer toilet bowl, the seat came with a "Slow fall" or silent falling function, which started to show that it is wearing out after approximately 2 years. At 4 years the cover was behaving like any normal cover, ie when released, you can hear the contact sound. Ironically, this made life easier as the new cover took more than 20 seconds to "fall slowly".

2. In addition, the toilet seat was less child friendly when compared to a standard oval shaped bowl, specifically:
a. The built-in resistance for the "fall slowly" cover poses a slight challenge for our 3 year old boy learning to pass urine on his own.
b. Baron W303 had a non-standard seat shape and curvature that was not compatible to some child-potty seats.

3. The dual flushing power was decent so far. There was no significant loss of flushing power over the period of use.

4. Seat cover surface started to deteriorate after 4 years of use by 2 adults. However, we have to admit that it is still functioning well except with a slight loss of contact comfort. Baron's original seat replacement was not commonly available and the cheapest quote was SGD40 before GST. In contrast, a conventional oval shaped seat-cover is readily available island wide for SGD 10 to SGD 26. See posting replacing the Baron W303 seat cover.

In conclusion for the above feedback, while the Baron W303 provided high aesthetic value at a decent price, the maintenance cost expectation should be kept at that of a designer bowl. Recommended for the Master Bedrooms but not for common toilets with heavy wear/tear and toddler use.

Also see:
Feedback on Baron W303 after 2 weeks of use

Concerned about maintenance cost: also see:
Advantages of installing ceiling fan
Lighting concept cost savings
Compare LED vs energy saving lighting

Compare LED vs Energy saving lighting

What are the benefits of using LED lights at home?

There is much hype about LED lights claiming to save significant wattage over the compact Flourescent Lights (CFL) and replacement cost. Is it really worth considering this for HDB dwellers?

Before that, lets start by some definition.
LED = Light Emitting Diode
It is a solid-state lighting technology that has been around for decades. The technology has only picked sufficiently for LED to be increasing reliable.

To be continued...

Ceiling Fan comparison Chart

This is a follow through article after research on the general considerations in choosing a ceiling fan. If you have not read it, the link is here (coming soon)

Unique to our needs, we have summarized our requirements as follows:
1. Size of fan in accordance to the room size.
2. Ceiling height about 2.3m. We cannot afford a low hanging fan.
3. High Aesthetics is important to satisfy my better half's requirement
4. Light kit is a must!

Guided by the above requirements we visited 7 showrooms over 2 weekends and shortlisted 5 options as follows:
1. Crestar Rainlite
2. Crestar Skylite
3. Fanco FF707
4. Acron Ventieulator 218
5. Vento Mela distributed by Amasco

You can probably guess our final choice from the photos below. For the benefit of the readers, we still want to share the selection process. Our 2 weeks of fact finding and comparison has been summarized into the following comparison chart.
Note that the Fanco FF707 specs are from our living room ceiling fan purchased in 2009. Read the review here (coming soon!)

Comparison Discussions with the sellers:

1. Crestar Fans offer great value with their Aluminium cased motors. Aluminium releases heat well and does not rust. One seller explained that Crestar used German Technology, built in Taiwan. I loved their functional appeal. Unfortunately, its aesthetics did not appeal to my better half.

HDB Renovation Ceiling Fan- Crestar Rainlite

HDB Renovation Ceiling Fan- Crestar Skylite

2. Fanco has a competitive price (at least in 2009 when we bought it)  This is a good choice for something decent looking but on a tight budget. The have very similar design to Amasco. Read our review on our Fanco FF707 here (coming soon)

HDB Renovation Ceiling Fan- Fanco FF707 WH

3. Although we have never heard of the Acorn brand, but we asked extensively about it as we found the unit on display elegant. The motor body is largely hidden by the light kit.  The seller explained that Taiwan makes the "best" ceiling fans. He explained that several ceiling fan marketing companies that have their products OEMed by the same few Taiwanese factory. Thus they have the same quality despite the different brands. Acorn is one of them.

HDB Renovation Ceiling Fan- Acorn Ventilateur 218

4. Vento's Mela really caught our hearts. See here to understand why. It remained our 1st choice until the last minute when we realized the price tag was sufficient to purchase 3 standard ceiling fans. There was also an unfounded doubt on the ease of maintenance and lifespan of the  blade rotation bearings.

HDB Renovation Ceiling Fan- Vento Amasco Mela

5. KDK is a household brand I grew up with. However we did not consider KDK as they did not provide much options with lighting kits. Perhaps another reason is our choice of showrooms did not promote KDK aggressively.


The most balanced choice was the Acorn.


Also see
Advantages of installing a Ceiling Fan
How to choose a Ceiling Fan
Installing a ceiling fan

How to choose a ceiling fan

How to Choose a Ceiling Fan

From our research, generally the key recommended considerations are the room size, ceiling height and lighting kits.

1.  Room size: 44” or 54” sized fans?

Firstly, the measurement of the fan sized we were told is NOT measured from the diameter of blade tip spinning path. It was rather complicated and we gave up trying to understand it. If anyone knows please let us know. As recommended by several sellers, for optimal performance:

For room size below 100 square feet 

(typical old HDB 4R common bedroom) - use size around 44”

For room size 100 to 200 square feet 

(typical old HDB 4R master bedroom) - use size around 50”

For room size 200 to 350 square feet 

(typical old HDB 4R living & dining room) - use at least 54”

2.   Ceiling Height

Standard HDB ceiling height are less than generous. Unless the ceiling fan is mounted above a non-walking path eg dining table or bed, the choices are pretty limited. For low ceilings there are a few low profile and flush mount fans available in the market. One of the smallest one we found is the KDK M11SU

3.   Light Kits

Some ceiling fans models come with light kits and most have optional add-on options. It is a good way to mount one more light in the room and saves the cost of an extra light point.

With this in mind, check out our

Ceiling fan comparison chart

Lighting Concepts
False ceiling and Lights

Also see:

Advantages of installing Ceiling Fans

Choosing an air-conditioner (coming soon)

Installing the ceiling fan (coming soon)