The Great Divide-r

The quest for home deco continues on...

The search for that elusive room divider with that Zen-like dark wood finishing led us to the most unlikely of places.

Picket & Rails came to Wifey's mind and surfing online for their branches on this island has led us to their biggest showroom of 30,000 feet at Mandai Estate, off Woodlands Road. That was near the Singapore Zoological Garden... which I would rather go.

Then again, the long journey on a bus service 960 from Tampines Interchange to Woodlands Road would a long but pleasant ride... if we had left earlier. Instead, we took the expensive route in a cab that cost S$14.00 to my surprise.

A run-down 1960's dilapidated building with a saving grace of a Picket & Rail banner on it. What! Are we at the right address?

The place was so quiet almost mistook it as a deserted warehouse even though it was near the busy Woodlands main road. I felt as if I was in a movie scene trafficking guns or drugs, or something.

Wifey was equally shocked. "Scary" was her sole word upon reaching the parking lot.

I thought somebody might have forgotten to update their website, until I saw a small flickering light coming off a zen-like water feature in front of its showroom entrance at the staircase. With it, was some yellowish, weather-beaten promo pamphlets that greeted us as we alighted the cab.


Most of the furnitures were as dated like the building itself. It irked me for making such a long and expensive trip, to find a room divider that could be mistaken for a 1950's coffee shop partition.

Maybe just because the style was not to our taste.

The out of the way was not surprising when we were the only customers there. The only nice thing about the place was the sales people. Warm, friendly, informative and very helpful.

We left the place in less than 10 minutes and got a cab as we reached the main road. Harvey Norman at Millenia Walk was our next attempt.

Fortunately, casual talks with the cab driver about furniture hunting led him to introduced us back to the area early into the journey to Sungei Kadut Drive. There, 8 to 9 large warehouse furnishing stores were within walking distance between each other.

We went to all except 2 that had closed for the day. Visited Zen Tradition and found the room divider made of birch wood that suited our deco... but it was just too darn expensive.

Still not satisfied, we had to visit and exhaust all the other furnishing stores in the island before we settle for that one which cost S$720.00 before a 5% discount at best.

I would have closed the deal for the Solomon Divider with lava motif at Barang Barang when we visited it last weekend. Though it S$620.00, I find it simple and clean-cut, but Wifey thinks it is too plain and bulky.

We came back tired and empty-handed yet again. The search continues tomorrow....

Tomorrow?! Comex PC Show will end tomorrow! It is the Mecca for Techno-Men, a quarterly pilgrim that must be fulfilled with a journey to visit... and splurge and be in Techno-heaven for weeks with the new toy! Did I say toy?

Oh, alright... I just read Barbara's comment from Trying To Catch Up and I think she makes lots of sense in this Techie-home connect versus Zen-home deco household here.

Well, there will always be another PC show 3 months from now anyway. So, get the compass out, let us track that elusive room divider... Sigh.