Bachelorette Pad

[Makanology 29]

Nice 'good-to-have' list... It is very tempting right? BTW, I like the curtains in the first pix!

[sarah833 3]

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!

Haha yes, I dont have the luxury of money to hire an ID and splurging on reno but it helps that I have the luxury of time to do my research and feasting my eyes with the beautiful images from magazines and online sites for months before I started the reno.

I like your curtain choices! I am still sitting on the window solution for the balcony (used an old inidian table cloth to block out the sun as a temp solution for now).

It will be my next project after I do up the storage solution in my bedroom, and this

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/04/artav-by-atelier-45.html#more

A friend will help me with the execution in exchange for pizza and wine :-)

Edited May 5, 2013 by sarah833

[June 13]

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!

[June 13]

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)

[sarah833 3]

June I am a floor person too lol. At my old walkup I often sit on the laminate floor when I watch tele or using the computer on the big coffeetable , often in a yoga position with the body facing not directly at the tele to get some twist on the waist area (good for massaging the internal organs) . now I still sit on the laminate floor alot and sometimes on a wooden yoga block (to lift the spine and not to worry about slouching)

Your wood tiles look very inviting and I love your idea with the DIY blind using gunny sack material and irons on. I found an upholstery material at spotslight with effiel tower prints , bought about 2.5m of it to use as curtain to match the red and white theme for my mbrm, and was planning to get more for the balcony but it was sold out and the shop has no plan to replenish in the near future. bummer lol

My contractor gave up on questioning my strange requests or saying 不可以 after working with me for a while

Edited May 5, 2013 by sarah833

[sarah833 3]

Hey June

does your mdrm has a sunk-in area on the shorter end of the wall space? Did you box it up?

This is one area I pondered a lot trying to figure out how to place the bed in the middle of the wall without boxing it up coz I dont like to spend my limited budget on sth like this lol. I liked this idea a lot when I saw it on a magazine

but didnt use it due to practical reasons. I dont fancy climbing on my bed to clean the shelves, and I prefer to have a headboard or sth to lean on when I am reading or surfing on my bed.

Had it boxed up reluctantly in the end :-)

Edited May 5, 2013 by sarah833

[June 13]

Hey June

does your mdrm has a sunk-in area on the shorter end of the wall space? Did you box it up?

This is one area I pondered a lot trying to figure out how to place the bed in the middle of the wall without boxing it up coz I dont like to spend my limited budget on sth like this lol. I liked this idea a lot when I saw it on a magazine

but didnt use it due to practical reasons. I dont fancy climbing on my bed to clean the shelves, and I prefer to have a headboard or sth to lean on when I am reading or surfing on my bed.

Had it boxed up reluctantly in the end :-)

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.

[June 13]

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)

[June 13]

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..

[June 13]

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!

[Freakerz 5]

Hey June,

You should go to people parks market to source for fabrics.Plenty of materials to choose from.For a gunny sack look like,you got to find jute(very hard to source in SG).For more pleasing aesthetic wise go for linen. Theres plenty of cotton,cotton mix or linen that has gunny sack or the correct word burlap look.Burlap has many version the ones i got for my wedding project is really the gunny sack kind.Cotton calico is a good cheap material too.

[June 13]

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! :(

[sarah833 3]

Hej June,

Have you considerred going for a home shopping holiday abroad?

Everything is so overpriced in Singapore nowadays! I think Bangkok might have what you are looking for and you can get it sewed professionally at a much cheaper rate. A few of my local and swedish friends tailor made their pants and suits in Bangkok. I was amazed at the choice of fabric at a tailor shop in Bangkok when I went there last year with my friend. Read from this link that linen only cosr 70 baht a meter, quite a steal!

http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/thailand/2011/09/23/fabric-shopping-in-bangkok/

My good friend travels to Bangkok for work a lot , I might join her again to save on accomodation for my home shopping trip.

Edited May 18, 2013 by sarah833

[June 13]

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 .

[sarah833 3]

Hi June,

>So when can I see photos of your IKEA hack?? Hurry, hurry!

Soon, soon! My handyman will be back from his business trip next week, he will hack it before he goes away for two months work + holiday in europe this June. The Tarva chest of drawer is not exactly cheap at $199, but I like that the creator of this hack is able to transform it into an interesting wall mount display shelf without taking away or adding parts.

Thanks for the head up for the fabrics at spotslight, will check it out