sapphire89

HI Freb! Could you let me know where you got the sofa and how much did it cost? Many thanks! Love how your home is turning out!

Hi bykaraanne! Love the theme you've got and look forward to more updates! Where did you get the gold cutlery? They look awesome against the backdrop!

Hello there! Hopefully you get inspired to do a blog too!

Hi ifp! Thanks for the encouragement! I'm looking forward to sharing the progress as well Hope you enjoy reading!

God morgen! (Good morning ~ Norwegian) Cool autumn morning in Norway~ This one's from my personal collection. The lake behind our hostel called Sognsvann Lake which we did jogs and walks around preventing fats from accumulating when we cooked big fat dinners~ I've totally forgotten to add yesterday that I will not be doing any ceiling works for my place. This is to maintain the height of the ceiling so that the place remains big and airy. Also I hate creepy crawlies! Given our sensitive noses and my fear of anything with 6 to 8 legs (and bonus to them if they have wings), which ceilings like these attract with a vengeance, we've given big NOs to anyone that tells us we should do concealment works with a false ceiling. How we'll be overcoming this design wise, we still have to confer with our professional ID but we are happy to have track lights installed and also hopefully, we will be able to achieve clean black lines that will tie in with the aluminium frames of the glass partitions and enhance the design element. *prays hard* Have any of you got innovative ideas with how to route piping to minimise the design impact? As for the master bedroom, we had 2 main considerations whilst I was initially doing the space planning. 1. The wardrobe area needed to be partially enclosed so that I could do my makeup and change without waking my hubz 2. Tons of wardrobe space so that I can keep my bags, and accessories all out of sight and take them out only when I needed them I tend to be an early riser as it's become a habit for me to arrive in the office on the free trains. Good thing about it is that I don't have to squeeze with the rush hour crowd and also I get to clear out my work before the office comes to life. It's now become even more of an incentive cause I can spend part of the mornings updating this blog! The fiance is a light sleeper and he's especially sensitive to light in his surroundings. As such, inspired by the following photo, I suggested we use the wardrobe to partition the area. We wanted to buy PAX units from IKEA but they didn't reach the top of the ceiling thus we could only do built ins to fulfill the purpose intended. I had a light bulb moment when I thought of this and I was like, instead of wasting the back side of the closet facing the bed area, why not make the wardrobe 2 sided? The initial idea was to expand the wardrobe in width and make both sides of the same wardrobe accessible via sliding doors. However, the IDs actually recommended building 2 wardrobes and putting them back to back given the standard sizing of the hangers and drawer mechanisms etc. After much consideration, they said the space given made it feasible and thus the both of us now have got wardrobe space the worth the envy of any female! The design of the wardrobe that I've envisioned looks very much like the following... Look at the understated use of the wooden door handles to accent the white laminate. Then we have the vanity area which hopefully looks at awesome as this! Instead of the chair and the rod though I've actually made my first "splurge" and bought this PS 2014 to use as my vanity ledge for my make up, skincare products and to hang my day to day jewelry. Our original intention was to build a ledge there but it would have cost like 5 times the cost with no enhancement to the design aesthetics at all. I'm glad I found this piece! It was love at first sight. Finally, we're looking at bedframes that have some under bed storage and and also a headboard that might save us the need to by bedside tables. BRIMNES from IKEA is something we're leaning to at the moment but I've heard the odd size of IKEA beds make it difficult to buy bedlinen. Is that true? XOXO, Sapphira

Hi v4xystar! Thanks for the encouragement! Glad to know more people with the love for the theme! Hopefully you stay tuned to the reno! The design direction was something I had been working on for quite a couple of months before we decided to start searching for interior designers. This helped us a lot as we were able to look at the quotations provided and decide which were absolute necessities that we required, what items could be compromised to bring the price down to our budget and what items we absolutely didn't want or need. We've actually signed our ID last weekend and had some fun picking the colour of our laminates and walls and we are now waiting on them to put up their first draft of the 3D images. I'm sooo looking forward to that! Thanks for the advice on the TV brand! I hadn't thought of it from that perspective before. I think we're so bombarded by images of intensely vibrant colours that we forget totally about the fact that the colours may not actually look realistic. I think 55 inches was what my ID said would be the max I could put in my living room given the space allowed for the dining area. Hi Desmond! Thanks for the advice. I was also leaning towards LG or Samsung or Sony since my family's used these brands for quite a number of years now. I'm so terrible with electronics I think I break them by standing near them. Or actually on a side note all phones break (their screens go crazy) just under 2 years (not long enough till my plans are eligible for recontracting) when I use them all except Apple that's how I became an iPhone user. Laptops don't last with me too. But I digress. I don't watch a lot of TV and mostly just use them to stream something from online. So I'm not sure whether UHD was overkill or not. But I agree with you UHD is future proof and will probably last longer before they become obsolete. Will keep it in mind! Thanks for the support as well!! Will you be doing a reno blog too?

Good morning peeps! Rise and shine for another day! Seems like I only have time to do short updates like this in the mornings~ Good stretch on my fingers to keep me going for the day! I've finished updating on the kitchen so moving on to the living area~ There's really nothing much that we're doing for the living area.The idea is to keep the living area bright, light, and airy so we're not including built in. Following with the Scandinavian design, we're looking into "building" a brick wall and filling the recess with it. Thereafter, we will buy a TV console and place a 40 - 50 inch TV on it. Right here is there any suggestions on which brand of TVs we should get?? What about UHD TVs? Are they worth the buck? We're going for a ceiling fan in the area as well. I've heard KDK's good and FANCO and also the one I love most for the bamboo blades (sounds like an anime) THE Haiku! Think this is going to be the only ceiling fan in the house so we'd like to invest in something good. Personally, I love air conditioning but I can live with the living area being fan cooled! Me and the fiance are big on saving electricity on normal days. You mean there are abnormal days?? Did you see the haze this week? Couldn't see MBS from my office window on Monday. And also if we have guests over for dinner parties we'll probably have the living room aircon on while we enjoy steamboat~ Here's some inspiration photos for the go~ Look at the lovely craftstone brick wall here. I've got this off Pinterest but I do think it belongs to one of the owners here on Renotalk T-blog. Big SHOUT OUT to you!! I'm so envious you've got it!! Thanks for becoming an inspiration for my place too. I love the rustic colour that still keeps the main base white but I think I have more or less settled on doing a STUCCO brick wall instead. That way it keeps the dusting to the minimum and I can also prevent mold from growing which I heard craftstone may sometimes be prone to if the place is too humid. The grooves and porousness of the craftstone also makes it so easy to trap dust. We've both got sensitive noses so dust is a big no no! No built-ins for us and we're going so a simple console to hold the TV. No mounting too I don't want any holes in my TO BE Gorgeous wall. I like the standing lamp there and I might find a similar one too but now I'm toying with the idea of placing a birch colour 2 by 4 KALLAX unit next or backed against the wall of the household shelter. Either that or I keep the standing lamp there and put in a comfy, to sink into chair right in that corner for my/the fiance's reading pleasure. And just look at this sofa below here! The clean lines, the soft grey complimented by the soft peach colours. I'm wishing I can find something like this! Anyone has any ideas where I can get something like this? Otherwise, I'll have to fall back on the Cody Modular Sofa from Castlery. Also that geometric copper mirror pattern on the wall. It so pulls in the pink and peaches in the room. I think IKEA sells the geometric mirrors but how do I copper-fy it? Any advice? Just like in the picture, I'm going to place my dining area right behind the sofa so it takes up the area that was meant by HDB for us to use as a study. A big wooden table it is! Finally I'm going to do a ledge to place photos/prints/canvases of different sizes on the wall right where the dining area is. It will be like below but for the whole length of the wall. I'm starting to think I should have hired a contractor and manage this whole thing myself... (>.<) Till next time! Adios! XOXO, Sapphira (I love reading fiction and adventure novels, love this nick reminds me of my birthstone and the fictional world of dragons *wink*)