Bachelorette Pad

[sarah833 3]

yes they were busy doodling while the older boys were having fun with the hammock cum yoga swing. My brother even asked if he can draw on the laminate floor and let the kids play the aeroplan game ( 跳飞机).

I bought the pendant lights from a shop at geylang. didnt think much of it when the guy showed the silver light with ordinary bulb to me and my main contractor until he mentioned that he can spray paint it black and change the ordinary bulb into Tungsten/vintage edison bulb.

you can get it much cheaply from Amazon, and here (I think, this place is frequent by IDs and contractors)

http://www.catalogue.com.sg/

Did the double doors to make my mbrm appear bigger. They are made of solid wood and cost $480 each, $100+ more than the laminate wood door. love the effect!

Edited April 21, 2013 by sarah833

[June 13]

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 .

[Makanology 29]

Your pipe is nicely boxed up - looks good!

[June 13]

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..!

[juxstapose 2]

So which wardrobe laminates did you choose in the end? I sort of decided on wood tiles for the rooms too... and thinking what wardrobe laminates to choose.. n also whether the wood tile is too dark..

[June 13]

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!

[juxstapose 2]

Very pretty white rooms & classy black kitchen!

I've more or less selected my tiles too, realised most of the flooring is dark (rooms, toilets n kitchen), this means I probably can only take lighter coloured cabinet laminates.

Share your laminates selection when you've decided, I'm excitied for u too!

[sarah833 3]

Hi June

Where do you plan to place the eight door wardrobe? We have the exact same layout and I find it a little suffocating to have a tall wardrobe opposite the bed, and it makes the room a little darker with the wardrobe blocking part of the window.

I moved the four door scanteak wardrobe to the other spare bedroom after I moved in and bought a second hand small vintage wardrobe from the Shophouse , and been sitting on the idea of building a custom make storage solution in the mbrm until last week. Making a 250cm long x120cm tall cabinet with wood like frame and white doors. Plan to put some posters/paintings and decorative stuff on top of the cabinet.

If I need more storage space in my bedroom, I will explore building a cabinet under the window. I am a big fan of Scandinavian design and love how my friends decorate the space under the windows in their sweden flat/house.

[June 13]

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!

[sarah833 3]

Hi June

I am sure your room will turn out lovely after months of pondering and working with a contractor who is resourceful and good in executing the ideas! I too pondered for months on how to achieve the resuts I want with a small budget. I am happy with the decision I made to double the size of the bedroom entrance over shifting the entrance (the cost I saved on sealing up the old entrance will pay for the new solid door, or most part of it).

[June 13]

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!

[bleucheeze 1]

Love the crate-like laminate! where is this from?

[June 13]

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!"

[June 13]

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.

[June 13]

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