June

I actually thought you are Ms Freakerz when you mentioned wedding DIY projects! I didnt know you are the GROOM! Oops...! Your bride is very lucky! All the best! Hope you find your burlap soon!

Hi Makanology, hope Alan will step up the reno this week and fulfill his promise to you! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Finally after a long wait, the busy carpenter completed my cupboards. Part of the wardrobe was installed today. I love my black inner laminate! I think it looks so classy. Couldn't stop smiling when my ID/contractor sms-ed me this pix. Im sure he and the workers were extra stressed about installing my carpentry bcos of the black inner laminates. Any tiny scratch will be extra visible. The kitchen cabinets and the tv console will be installed on Wednesday. This is part of my full-height kitchen cabinet, with black woody laminate. This is my tiny 'clip-shape' tv console that will go round the tv wall. Im using a black lava-slate laminate for this one. Thats all the carpentry I have for the house..since im using my old furniture for the two common bedrooms. Can't wait for Thursday when I will go down to inspect the workmanship.

Hi Sara, I thought of Bangkok too but simply no time to travel during this period. So I thought I will just do the most basic first and add on later when I could shop in Bangkok. Anyway, there is satisfaction in DIY projects, despite the costs and lack of materials in spore. So when can I see photos of your IKEA hack?? Hurry, hurry! By the way, I saw this fabric from spotlight which I thought you might be interested .

Hello Freakerz, thanks for your suggestions! I explored both jute and burlap but found that they were too coarse and rugged for my liking. While they look nice as wedding projects, I'm not sure how they will look as blinds across a long stretch of windows. Burlap that is processed to be used for sewing is very expensive in spore too... I found one that is selling for around $26 per meter and i would need many meters! On amazon, the material is cheaper but shipping came up close to 70US! Linen that resembles burlap is soft to touch but expensive too .... Fabric is just so costly in spore! :(

Very unusual to use wood tiles for wall tiles! It does create a warm, cosy feeling...I think you need a fireplace to match it!

One set of black curtain rods was up today - thanks to my ID/contractor who kindly installed it. We installed one set to see how it will look and i think it's quite nice! it looks like a water pipe from far, which will match my industrial-looking tv console. Now the ball is in my court - i need to sew the rustic, industrial looking blinds! Found a fabric in IKEA which looks like guny sack, but its smoother to touch. Will likely use this material for the blinds. My ID/contractor suggested spray painting the rustic designs on the fabric to give it a more aged, natural look, rather than using iron-ons which I had planned. I think its a superb idea..Really can't wait to start on this DIY project...Fingers crossed!

Added more stuff to my shortlist..hopefully the prices will be discounted during GSS, which is happening real soon. The colours of this bar table from CB2 go really well with my kitchen..

Nothing's much happening bcos im still waiting for carpentry and I have hit a snag in my search for materials for curtains to match my industrial scandi theme. Ive been to places like IKEA and Spotlight to search for materials that look like guny sack but have smoother surface but without much success. The closest I found are these: Quite far from the effect of real guny sack: My contractor/ID suggested that I use pieces from a real guny sack and sew into a big patchwork piece. I think he probably thought i have superb sewing skills! Hahaha... Anyway, this is how the tv wall laminate will look in a bigger piece. I like that it has a rustic, aged look. So I really need to spend more effort to search for the right materials to sew matching curtains! Will be using the laminate to wrap around the tv wall (ie. The pillar near the window)

Yup, I do have a slight sunk-in area. I'm not that bothered by it..Im thinking of painting it in a dark grey shade or pasting wall paper.

on a side note, I'm not sure if anyone with wood laminates or wood tiles have this problem, but when I look at my flooring, I have this urge to plonk myself on the floor rather than on a chair. The wood floor just looks so inviting! These wood tiles don't have the cold feeling, contrary to what many people said. I thought the tiles feel quite warm on a hot day. Anyway I expect to spend a lot of time sitting on the floor reading magazines and looking at my plants in the balcony (where the pebble wash is)

Hello, where are the tarts from? They look really pretty! Sorry I should be focusing on decor, but was really distracted by the food.

Makanology - The first one is my favorite! you can never go wrong with nautical theme..it's timeless... Sarah - I'm taking my own sweet time to do up my place too. One of the curtains vendors couldn't understand why I need to consider. To him it's a simple choice of whether I want blinds or curtains and what colours. To make things worse, he asked me 'what is so nice about your trees outside your balcony? Cover with curtains better!".. I was really speechless! Anyway, those images I posted earlier aren't exactly what I'm looking for, though they are pretty to look at. I need something to match the tv feature wall and console..which are turning out to be quite rustic industrial. Normal blinds or curtains would look so odd with the theme. I want something which is rustic, vintage and a bit feminine to balance off the masculinity of the tv console and tv wall. I spent some time thinking about it last night and decided I should attempt to DIY my blinds. I'm looking at burlap fabric, or what people call gunny sack material. There are several shades of brown and there are some which are rather soft and meant for art and craft. Here are some samples of burlap curtains/blinds To make it really rustic and vintage looking, I will need some iron ons: To execute my ideas, I think its going to take some time, given my work schedule. But I believe decoration of a home should be a slow and enjoyable process. So Sarah, good luck to your IKEA project! Wish my frens could be easily bribed with wine and pizza too! Share your pix when it's done!

Adding more stuff to my "good-to-have" list..

There's a lull in reno now because Im waiting for the carpentry to be done. So what better way to spend time than to shop online? Im looking for nice blinds for my balcony and living room windows. I have met up with two curtains/blinds vendors so far but i feel that what they have isnt what im looking for. So let's hope I get lucky in the next few weeks. Found some nice designs online.

Hi bleucheeze, I'm not sure where this is from...it's one of those lobangs that my contractor/ID had. He just showed me a small piece of sample and I immediately said 'i want this!"

I think we have the luxury of time and thats why we could take so long to think about each and every detail. For me, im also fickle-minded and i like so many designs! How i wish i have the money to do up each room in a different design!

hi Sarah, thanks for the caution about the lighting and the size of wardrobe! In fact, I had the same reservations as you ! But after much pondering (in fact, months of consideration), I think it should be fine to have an 8 door wardrobe in my bedroom that blocks part of the window. My room gets a lot of sunlight, especially in the morning when the sun will be shining directly into the room. As I usually work the night shift, I would still be sleeping late morning or even noon time. so I actually need my room to be dim during the morning. As for the wardrobe, I was also concerned about having a big chunk of wood directly facing my bed. So I decided to choose an ivory laminate with fabric print, instead of wood grain print. That should make the wardrobe less 'suffocating'. Here's my wardrobe laminate And this is my kitchen laminate And we are using this rustic crate-like laminate (in the middle) for my tv wall. I just came back from a 4-and-a-half hour discussion with my contractor. We finalized the configuration for wardrobe and kitchen cabinets, and spent a long time brainstorming ideas for the tv feature wall. I always thought I have a lot of stamina for long meetings but now I really got to hand it to my contractor. He came up with several good ideas and carefully weighed the pros and cons of each option. He really has so much pride in his work and so many creative ideas. During the last hour of the meeting, I was really exhausted and hungry and about to faint, but he was still going strong and scrutinizing every corner of my wall. Hahahaha!

Hi juxtapose, I was initially worried about the wood tiles being too dark too. But they turn out ok. Now with the walls painted white, Im sure the tiles dont look dark. I haven't seen the flat yet bcos of the bad weather these few days. Hopefully I can snap some pix for you by mid next year after the acid wash is done. I'm going for dark laminates and black countertop in my kitchen, which my contractor cum ID agreed will go with my theme. So it will be something like this ( minus the wall tiles): As for the MBR wardrobe, my contractor is keen to use dark laminates but I'm concerned that it will turn out like a huge chunk of black wood bcos my wardrobe has 8 doors. I'm inclined to use white laminate so that the room will look clean and bright and for contrast, I will have a wall painted black or dark grey or have some dark coloured furniture. Here are some shots of white bedroom: Will be meeting my contractor on Monday morning to do a final round of brainstorming on design and colours. Since our first meeting in January (before collection of keys), we have had so many discussions on the design and I'm really thankful that he is super patient and very creative. So many ideas have been explored and shot down and I hope the finished product is well worth it. Fingers crossed!

Had a very pleasant surprise this afternoon when contractor sms-ed me pictures of my place after the base coat was done. I could hardly recognise my own flat! Its so clean and snowy white! View from the entrance and balcony From the dining room..looking towards the living room The living room...on the left is my master bedroom My dining room and kitchen..now one extended space Looking at the balcony from the kitchen The workers will remove the floor covers when they are done.. Can't wait to see the walls and floor together..!

Nothing much happening this week, except patching of cornices and painting. Carpentry was delayed bcos carpenter was busy. And so I have more time to choose my laminates. I realized that my wood tiles really restrict the kind of laminates that I can use. All the wood grain laminates are out bcos they are either too similar to my tiles or will look too woody. Also got the window grilles guy to come for a second measurement. I found his contact in renotalk and his rates were very competitive. But what surprised me was his honesty. I told him I didn't like window grilles but decided to install them in my bedrooms bcos of safety reasons. He told me he lived on the second floor but didn't have any grilles. He said it's unlikely that anyone will want to take the risk of climbing into my flat, though it's possible to do so. I told him if every low-floor homeowner thinks like him, he won't have any business! Hahaha! Anyway, he will install grilles in my bedrooms first and I will take my time to consider whether to install grilles in my kitchen. He will make a second trip to install the grilles in kitchen, if need be. The ugly pipe in my kitchen has been concealed. It looks better than what I had imagined. Painting starts on Friday and hopefully, the place will be brighter and cleaner .

This tile thing happened to me a few weeks ago. Felt like someone dropped a bombshell on me! My Reno costs went up by more than 10k bcos of the flooring. To save cost, you can do laminate. If you are using tiles, most important thing is to select tiles that you really like..then you won't feel so heart pain. Good luck!

Got it! Your nieces and nephew were really have fun doodling on the board! I love your white bedroom doors. Must have cost a lot? I'm thinking of buying the same black pendant lights for kitchen . Where did you get yours ?

Wow, hammock and chalkboard! But I can't see anything in the pix. I had wanted to remove the balcony windows too but decided against it bcos it's such a waste. As for my trees, I think one of these days I will pay my MP a visit.. Hahaha!

Hello Sarah, I love the greenery too. in fact I paid a premium COV for the trees (and the flat)! But I discovered recently that the seller agent was not honest with me. There was a plan to redevelop the surroundings of my estate to create a recreational park and according to my new neighbours, the trees will be pulled down!! That's really bad news bcos the trees shield my block from the multistorey car park opposite!! So I'm really quite upset about it. Shouldnt they be keeping the trees if they plan to build a recreational park for residents? Anyway I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the eventual plan will be revised over time and the trees will stay. I didnt want to level my balcony with the living room bcos I want to segregate the two areas. I Intend to move my potted plants to the balcony after the Reno. I think it's quite hard to find old units with balcony nowadays bcos homeowners like to level the balcony to enlarge their living space. Are you renovating your flat too?