Safe Materials: Kitchen Renovation in Malaysia, and A Chat with Christine Lim, E&Q Kitchens Sdn Bhd
Updated 23 July 2024
the kitchen was priority numero uno When we embarked on our own renovations for a healthy home. Fast forward to now — 2020 has put a big spotlight on being indoors at home. We’ve never done so much cooking and eating, hanging out and chores. It’s been a real “test” on how our kitchen choices are working for us and affecting our daily routines. I’m glad to finally share this chat and documentation here.
Our previous kitchens fell to every wear-and-tear issue you could think of: mold and leaks, wonky cabinetry, poor organisation and tight cramped spaces, bug infestations, no/poor ventilation, as well as being sited near external cell antennaes...
Not only are these visual reminders of how your kitchen is not working, they can have serious health consequences too. (You can read about that here.)
Priorities for a new kitchen
In the new home, we wanted the kitchen to hold up to our daily use and support us health-wise, as much as the food prepared in it is.
The kitchen is a high-traffic area, where we cook, hang out, and enjoy chores and all sorts of family activities. We wanted to eliminate as much as possible of the angst and potential worries that plague kitchens.
Out of the materials we considered, we decided on aluminium and glass cabinetry, MgO board, and Silestone countertops. These materials are water-proof and mold-proof, which would eliminate a lot of the common kitchen issues.
The natural smooth surfaces of the materials also provided lots of gentle light reflection, bringing in a sense of openness and to the space.
Christine Hew, Marketing Manager at E & Q Cabinet Sdn Bhd, took on all our questions from the get-go and gave us a little tour of the factory. The entire process was eye-opening; they’re one of the few kitchen cabinet makers in Malaysia working with aluminium for the past decade.
As a relatively new material, aluminium has some controversial pros and cons. Not least its high embodied energy and possible exposure concerns. But in the end, its durability and zero potential for water and termite problems won out. We discussed aluminium and other interesting facts about magnesium oxide board. These alternative materials for kitchens eliminate health concerns from kitchen wear and tear. Here’s my conversation with Christine below.
Clean food for a safe kitchen
Tiiu Ounila was also with us during this period and shared why healthy clean food is more than just diet. (My kitchen’s best moments are still Tiiu’s testing and refining her allergen-free recipes for her book. We tested these on ourselves and the little one, and they are delicious.)
Tiiu has a whole lifetime of experience, including supporting others in their health journeys, and her own incredible health turnaround is direct knowledge and an inspiration for any of us trying to overcome persistent allergies and sensitivities. I highly recommend you contact Tiiu to get to the bottom of the toxins in your food/
In this video, I share why choosing the right materials for your home is so important, and our own experiences why biological building principles helped us create spaces where we feel better — thank you so much for the conversation, Christine!
An exciting day video documentating the kitchen, as Tiiu Ounila (in blue) explains what ‘clean and healthy’ food really means.
M: How was it like being one of the first kitchen cabinet makers to use aluminium and MgO boards for the kitchens?
C: To build an aluminium kitchen, we needed to get into (assessing) a lot of other things. We needed to buy other competitors' cabinets to see how they do it, how to be better, how do we be more durable, etc.
At the same time we had to assess cost too because it's not cheap. It can be quite expensive. For instance, we offered MgO (magnesium oxide) board, while others use plywood. We were the first one to offer it.
Not many people knew about or even heard about MgO board. It took a lot of explaining, and slowly more people understand it, but still, not many people even know about it today.
M: So why did you bring in the MgO board? And also, why did you choose to diversify into aluminium for kitchen?
C: I get a lot of clients questions and I share about the aluminium material . Compared to almost any other material right now (commonly used in for kitchen cabinetry) -- melamine, plywood -- aluminium is the most durable.
The main issues for kitchens is always termites and whether it can be water proofed. None of the other materials can promise that. Plywood would definitely get moldy. That's why I pushed for aluminium (as a material) because it was easy to prove this benefit.
The service is really important; we don't want to be selling a kitchen to clients and have to be answering, three to four months later, hey, why is my cabinets expanding or warping already? Or that it's getting moldy and there's black stuff on it. If you're looking only from a budget standpoint, then there's no choice except for the other two materials like plywood. But if you want a durable kitchen that gives results that you pay for, aluminium really works.
M: What made you decide to bring in MgO board even though no other company was doing this?
C: I didn't want to sell only what others were selling. If everyone is the same, there's nothing special about your cabinet. There are quite a number of aluminium makers in Malaysia, maybe twenty to thirty. One could say maybe half of them are selling "fake" aluminium, or composite aluminium. They want to cover the market with a cheaper price. Only 20 to 30% are really offering quality materials. We need to change our perspective to have high quality materials for a higher-end clientele. Only the table top and the side panels can be changed to other materials.
With Christine Lim, E & Q Kitchens Sdn Bhd
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