Think paint, Japan, sumo wrestler - and you will know which brand we decided to entrust our home to. Yes, Nippon Paint! It has such a high brand recall that even the girls are familiar with the name after seeing all the ads. Being the largest paint manufacturer in Asia, I was thrilled to be able to work with Nippon Paint and things got really exciting as we started to think about what colours to choose for each of the rooms.
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Nippon Visualiser App
There must be hundreds of colours in the catalog so I must say that it got a little overwhelming and despite flipping through dozens of times, it was hard to come to a decision especially when we couldn't really picture how the final look would be.
So, after a meeting with the folks at Nippon Paint, I was introduced to this app called Nippon Visualiser which helped to put things in perspective and served as a guide in choosing the desired colours.
The app is straightforward to use and you can either make use of existing photos or photos in the gallery to help you visualise your choice of paint color. All you have to do is select the color from the palette, tap on the walls and viola - you can see how it turns out! Easy peasy!
I did realize that it was hard to change the colours in some pictures and it can get a little tricky if you were to take your own photo too as the lines might not be distinct enough. So, my advice is to pick a few pictures from the gallery and use these instead to aid in your visualisation. The images can also be saved to your phone so that you are able to show them to your family members or make comparisons easily.
It's so important to pick the right color and right shade, so do take your time to consider the options. Discuss with the spouse and kids, let everyone have a say and be involved, and make sure the whole family feels comfortable with the final decision.
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The Painting Process
Once you have decided on the colours, it's time to let the professionals do their job. Our paint job was completed in two days, which I must say was quite efficient and since we were short on time, that was something that I appreciated.
The first thing that the painters did was to spread plastic sheets on the floor, cover up doors, windows and furniture, as well as stick masking tape around sockets and across ledges.
This painstaking process took a couple of hours and the two workers did a fine job out of it all. Indeed, with an empty house and such a huge area to work on, they did the best they could and were as thorough as they could be. If I had to be critical, I will have to say that some parts of the windows, flooring and furniture were left unprotected which resulted in getting speckles of paint. So, we actually spent quite some time cleaning, mopping and scrubbing off these speckles. My in-laws also commented that corrugated cardboard should be used to cover the floor instead of plastic for better protection and to ensure that no paint can seep through.
Moving on, since our unit is a resale one and not entirely new, we realised that there were a few hairline cracks on the walls. After pointing them out to the painters, they kindly helped to repair the cracks as best as they could using cornice powder before applying the paint. Although they did say this was not a permanent solution and the cracks might appear again after some time, I was already very thankful because at least they were not quite visible for now.
I would like to give credit to firstly the uncle who was in his 70s and stayed back late to help us do some touching up. As we had no lights installed at that time, it was already getting dark but he kindly and patiently did what he needed to do without complaints. Secondly, thanks to Jen who was the project manager, we spotted a serious water seepage issue in our yard. She made the effort to retrieve the moisture meter and helped us to measure the moisture level. In areas where it exceeded and went off the chart, she allowed us to take pictures so that we could show them to the customer service office for quick follow up. Yes, this also meant that Nippon Paint had to go through the hassle of sending someone to do the painting in the yard after the water seepage issue was resolved and that was exactly what they did.
As for the paint, we used a Nippon Expresskote Sealer for the base coat, the Anti-Mould paint for the ceiling and the Odour-less All-in-1 for the walls. So, was it totally and completely odour-less? Considering that I had a baby with me and was sensitive to this sort of issue, it would be dishonest to say that there wasn't any smell at all but it definitely was very mild and you can say there was almost no odour. 
One problem we ran into was that the team who came the first time decided to mix some Matex (a form of emulsion) and Anti-Mould for the ceiling but did not leave behind any leftover mixture. So the worker who came to do the touching up after our lights and furniture were installed was not aware of it and we ended up with two different shades on the ceiling.
It took yet a third round of touching up and repainting before things were finally fixed and since we had already moved in at that time and all of our furniture and boxes had already arrived, I was so relieved when it was all done.
If you had noticed, we only used one color of the All-in-1 paint for our house - which was the Apple White color for the walls. Does that mean we had no color in any of the rooms? How can, right? Well, that's when we move onto the highlight of it all as we show you in detail how the kids rooms had a makeover using the stunningly impressive Nippon Momento Special Effect Paint.
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Nippon Momento Special Effect Paint
If you know me, you know that I like things which are creative and personalised. For the kids rooms, I did consider sticking on some wallpaper to make it more special but decided that it probably won't last long with three active kids in the house. When I first read about the Nippon Momento Special Effect Paint and how it allows you to create beautiful, unique finishes, I knew immediately that this was what I wanted.
First, I had to select my choice of color and to get inspiration, you can browse through the lookbook, view the collection or go through the catalog. While you can easily access the online catalogue, do note that the screen colours differ on computers and what you see might not be the actual color too. My advice is to choose the colour, type the color code and name and search for real life past projects that had been carried out and are featured on the web. This will give you the best way to visualise how it will turn out in your home eventually.
For the boy's room, which now functions as a playroom since he sleeps with me, I decided to use Nautical Breeze ME026 from the Elegant series. I love that it is a beautiful shade of blue and that the name suits a sailor's son perfectly. And you know what? It turned out to be even more awesome than I had imagined.
Touted as the Momento expert, Jen was the one who worked tirelessly on all the feature walls in our house. I was amazed by how she skillfully handled the dainty, specially designed Momento paintbrush and how she managed to make the brush strokes all come together so naturally. She had to fight against time because she couldn't let the paint dry up in order to add in the stroke effects, so you could see that she was totally focused once the painting began and it took her only slightly over 30 minutes for a feature wall.
Not only were there different shades of blue, there were also white 'beads' in the paint and once Jen scraped it with the spatula, which comes with the DIY kit, you can see that it forms some sort of a snow effect and that was really beautiful. Here's a closer look at how our blue feature wall was done!
So impressed by how our feature wall was done up in just half an hour! Nippon Momento Special Effects Paint allows you to add rich textures to your wall or enhance existing wall colours, take a look at how it is created here! P.S. I chose this color in the Elegant series, aptly called Nautica Breeze, for the boy and it turned out to be perfect. Loving it! @nipponpaintsg #ahappymumhome #ahappymum #nippon #nipponpaint #sponsored #homerenovation #nipponmomentoA video posted by Summer Goh 🌞 (@ahappymum) on Dec 10, 2016 at 10:44pm PST
Good things come in pairs. We are thankful to have two kids room and to be fair, I had to make sure that the other room had a feature wall too. Since this would be the girls' room, we decided on the color pink but I let them pick what they would like from the Momento series. They decided on Rose Gems MS117 from the Sparkle series, which sounded perfect for my two princesses.
This wall, according to Jen, was the more difficult one as she had to exert strength for every stroke in order to achieve that dabbing effect. Once again, you also had to work through the wall fast and not let the paint dry up as you go along.
The sparkles are more obvious when light shines on the wall, otherwise you might not really notice that glimmering effect. Nonetheless, we love the effect and the girly, wavy brush strokes are just so fitting for my princesses. Here's a closer look at how our pink wall was done!
A sweet, sparkly pink feature wall for the sisters! P.S. They chose this color themselves, I know they will love it when they see the final result! @nipponpaintsg #ahappymum #ahappymumhome #nipponpaint #nipponmomento #nippon #sponsored #homerenovationA video posted by Summer Goh 🌞 (@ahappymum) on Dec 11, 2016 at 1:01am PST
So, I ended up loving Nippon Momento so much that I decided that we needed one in our master bedroom too. Yes, it's the wall that many of you saw on social media and said that it's very beautiful! I wanted a gray theme for our room and chose Granite Glint MS149. Here's a sneak peek at how it looks, I'll be sharing more pictures in the tour of the master bedroom which will come soon!
Lastly, I've always wanted a brick wall effect in my house because I think it makes a great backdrop for photoshoots. After some hiccups while trying to do up a craftstone wall in the new house, I was so, so relieved when Nippon Paint came to my rescue and helped me to create this beautiful Travertino wall that many of you have already seen. I'll be sharing more of this special effect wall in a separate post because it truly deserves a write-up of its own.
A home wouldn't be a home without walls, right? I'm so grateful and relieved that we chose to outsource the painting and Nippon Paint Professional Service has been of invaluable help in helping us to create our dream home with not only multi-coloured, but unique and beautiful textured walls that make you feel happy just to be within.******
This post is part of the "A Happy Home" series where I share all about our new Scandinavian-themed house, the renovation process and some tips and thoughts. Moving is never easy but it comes with an indescribable sense of joy in building up the house of your dreams. Remember, home is where the heart is and nothing is more important than being able to build memories with the people you love.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored collaboration between Nippon Paint and A Happy Mum. Both of the kids rooms received a complimentary makeover, including the feature walls with the Nippon Momento Special Effect Paint, in return for this review. All opinions are my own.
