Project Muji Home - of white, wood and chrome

[dietgalvon 14]

Fiance and I are finally back from our vacation and we can't wait to get started on building our home!

Of course, we dropped by Muji in Japan and we love what we see there! However, many of those we could not possibly bring back, and some wants are too harsh on our pockets. We would likely still get some PP storage drawers from Muji locally since they are too bulky to lug back.

The struggle is real when in a paradise of all things acrylic, PP and MDF (woody). I felt that if I didn't ask what we intend to use the items specifically, the fiance would have many impluse buys from Muji - this is SO rare! To save our pockets from bleeding, I told myself that (1) we should only buy the item if we know what we want to use it for and (2) while it is easy to find acrylic storage on taobao, it is harder to find quality woody ones. This is how we decided on woody feel for our study desk accessories!

MUJI JAPAN PURCHASES

(1) MDF STORAGE STAND (A5 SIZE)

Cost: ~SGD 19
Cost in Singapore: SGD 26

Being the 'admin controller' of the home, I sure would need this! 

(2) MDF 3 DRAWER UNIT

Cost: ~SGD 32
Cost in Singapore: SGD 49

Woops, this is actually quite costly. The shade is actually exactly the same as the book stand (not sure why it appears to be lighter in shade). We searched for taobao sellers and the price is cheaper than we purchase straight from Muji. But upon seeing the photo reviews (huge variance from what we saw in Muji), the fiance said that we should get this from Muji instead. This is for us to store our stationary. 

(3) TRIPLE HANGER

Cost: ~SGD 45
Cost in Singapore: Unavailable*
*Could not find it in the Muji Singapore website.

It was love at first sight with this wall hanger. I remember seeing a similar hanger in taobao and it's about half this price. It doesn't look as pleasing and the hooks are chrome instead of wood, tough. I love the feel and the mechanism of this! There is an indent at the top of it that could hold pictures. Simple, nice and functional. We find it rather pricey but for items in the MBR, we always close one eye, lol.

[dietgalvon 14]

Weekend updates again~

We had a total of about 80 to 90 defects, and HDB has cleared majority of them! I'm glad I refused to let even small scratches go because I am satisfied after seeing the rectified state. We found a few more defects but judging at their speed, I think they can get it done pretty soon!

We previously signed with Evorich for our flooring (HERF) and the liasion person was Kenneth. However, he informed that he is now working for The Floor Emporium and I was asked to choose my flooring there instead.

 

It wasn't a tough choice as there are only 12 types to choose from. We chose Ice Maple for the LR + 3 BRs and our MBR platform.

Thereafter, we went to meet with our contractor, J to finalise on carpentry works. We have also given him our choice of laminates for our 3D drawings.

We requested for 11 samples, and we used about 4 of them only. Will finalise after we see how the 3D turns out.

Scheduled work to start on 9 May 2017. Can't wait~

[dietgalvon 14]

We are taking it slow as there's still 3 weeks before our scheduled renovation works. It was a pleasant surprise to see some drawings in our inbox last night. I hope we get to see our 3D drawings soon. 

Living Room

It has always been my dream to have my own shoe cabinet!  

Dining Room

We wanted to have a bar top and keep some space for a dining table but the place is really too small; we used the whole dining area for our bar-top instead. We hope the hanging shelf when filled completely, will "hide" the pipe in the kitchen.

The original material of DB box doors seem hard to maintain and the fiance wants to change the doors. I feel that it's a waste of money. But we may change it to two-door instead, so I feel a little easier on my pocket since it is not going to look exactly the same as how it came (hahaha).

Kitchen

We initially have top cabinets as well, but there is one (OCD) issue that bothers me - the top cabinet would block part of window. Somehow by default kitchen consists of both top and bottom cabinets, but I just can't. The fiance made a brilliant suggestion to remove the top cabinets (so simple why can't I think of it) as he mentioned that his friend didn't use them even after they had a kid. We did some googling, and really like the openness. We decided to remove the top cabinets after doubting our utility of it in the future, but that solved the issue bothering me as well (yay)! The sewage and gas pipe would be visible though. We would be boxing up the gas pipe. I wouldn't mind having a tall unit to conceal the gas pipe but it's impossible to have one at that spot.

I am loving this barren look of the kitchen - more so because we won't have anything on the opposite side of the kitchen as well. We would be adding some shelvings instead.

MBR

That's our platform bed behind our wardrobe; no storage below it because that would double the cost of having a platform bed. Decided to give up some storage space (above the dresser) so that the space would not feel too cramped. Our wardrobe is rather long, it is the most expensive item in the home LOL.

MBR Toilet

A very conventional toilet design. I was so upset I can't have an extended mirror (above the WC) and having a mirror cabinet would make the toilet appear cramped. Hence, we decided to do a mirror ledge instead. Contractor said the vanity area is too small, if we do drawers we won't have much space left for storage, so have to suck thumb and give that up also. :'(

We would likely go for kompacplus for our vanity top because the fiance doesn't like the choices we have for $120 pfr iQuartz series (for kitchen). Our vanity top is only ~2.5ft, so we have to use the same top to save cost. Hope all goes well for the toilet because we have to pick our own floor and wall tiles as well. 

Edited April 17, 2017 by dietgalvon

[77suns 0]

On 3/25/2017 at 8:57 PM, matchalatte said:

OMG then how? could i just let the tube out into the kitchen while i use it? afterall my kitchen entrance will have a door so even if its really hot the hot air wouldnt come out into the living room. 

i think thats what the angmos do, if u google laundry area for small homes they normally put it in an enclosed cabinet. i like that if you dont stack it you can have a counter top above the washer, some will put an ironing board there. because im converting my service yard into a wet area (with my sink & stove) i will have to shift the washer inside. not sure whether the washer can use the existing point meant for the sink? might have to shift the points here & there but since my kitchen is vvvvv small (2.4m only) there shouldnt be an issue. i think.

20

Release the hot air into/behind the kitchen cabinet will be especially good below the sink area as it dries up the moisture there which is very common in the built-in base kitchen unit. The Washer can discharge into the existing sink outlet.

[77suns 0]

On 3/24/2017 at 1:32 AM, dietgalvon said:

MBR Toilet; I am a little upset that I can't have a big mirror because of the placement of the window, but things just got worse when I saw that the window is SO huge. 

 

 

Just have a 5" deep top storage cabinet with 2 mirror doors one over the sink, the other over the WC, covering the lower window only (don't think You will use it anyway but can open the mirror door if need to) and customized a deeper base cabinet all into one.

With a bigger mirror, a bright ceiling and lighting below the top cabinet, the whole area will appear brighter and not tight. You can save the hacking of the wall tile if the color of the cabinet you choose is very light color.

[dietgalvon 14]

On 4/18/2017 at 6:24 PM, 77suns said:

Just have a 5" deep top storage cabinet with 2 mirror doors one over the sink, the other over the WC, covering the lower window only (don't think You will use it anyway but can open the mirror door if need to) and customized a deeper base cabinet all into one.

With a bigger mirror, a bright ceiling and lighting below the top cabinet, the whole area will appear brighter and not tight. You can save the hacking of the wall tile if the color of the cabinet you choose is very light color.

Hi 77suns, your suggestion got me thinking! I did think of doing carpentry works over the window but was advised against it. 

[dietgalvon 14]

It had been some time; we like that things are slow... and moving at the same time. 

Last week, we went to Audio House and IKEA to buy some items as vouchers are expiring.

PURCHASES - PART III

(1) ARISTON 20L SLIM STORAGE HEATER

Place of purchase: Audio House
Cost: $289 ($249 after $40 in vouchers)

The only reason why we chose this is because the fiance says it looks like an aircon; much nicer than the conventional storage heater (lol).

(2) VARIERA CUTLERY TRAY

Place of purchase: IKEA
Cost: $34.90

(3) RIMFORSA RAIL (80CM) & HOOKS

Place of purchase: IKEA
Cost: $12.90 & $2.90

I had a $50 voucher, so we bought the Rimforsa rail & hooks first. Would need to find a condiment stand that fits this flat rail - we love the sleek look of it compared to the usual poles - but might make do with the bamboo condiment stand from the Rimforsa series if we can't find any. The one from Rimforsa series is not upright and that bothers the OCD me. :X

[dietgalvon 14]

Current updates!

RECTIFICATION OF DEFECTS (II)

It's almost 2 weeks and HDB has not fixed most of the 7 defects (including an uneven wall tile).  I just told them that we are planning to start renovation and hope that they get back to me soon. Cement were in the kitchen already, getting ready to be screed. 

We also found out that someone tore open the plastic concealing the WC! HDB mentioned that their workers would not do that. My only guess is the sub-contractor/workers who's supposed to do the cement screed, arghhh!

MEETUP WITH CONTRACTOR, E

We brought a list of questions to ask E (hahaha) and yet again his answers make us feel that our money is in safe hands, lol.

Picked our Kompacplus tops; Boston Cherry for Kitchen, Kanas Maple for MBR toilet. This is not the final one, we will look at the 3D drawings first. 

We actually went down to Hafary before we met E today, and shortlisted a few that fits into the $3.50psf range (stated in the quotation). I do not like glossy or overly textured tiles so it wasn't that tough to shortlist 2 for the wall tiles. We did not shortlist the floor tiles as we would be picking the woody ones; the cheapest we saw was from China, but still >$3.50psf. The fiance was a little sad that he couldn't have the Italy tiles (the kind of woody vibes we like) for the floor because I said it's not worth it to top up. At the worst, we would top up a little and get the China floor tiles.

After we met with E, he brought us to exactly to the sport where we wanted to get the woody floor tiles! We were overjoyed when he said we could pick the Italy floor tiles which were $4.80 psf! He gave inputs on considerations to take note and what could be done to ensure that the lines match when overlaying, etc. He also recommended to get sister/brother tiles if we want to do different tiles for the wall.

Option 1 (E recommended this series) 

Our favourite! Love the colour, love the texture and love the uniform variations! 

Option 2

Option 3 

The wall tiles samples here was what we shortlisted the day before we met E. Seems like they are too similar.

Yay. We would be meeting with the electrician on 6 May. Simply can't wait!

[madingip 0]

Hi! Nice blog this. Could you please share with me the contact for J&E pls? Many thanks.

[dietgalvon 14]

5 hours ago, madingip said:

Hi! Nice blog this. Could you please share with me the contact for J&E pls? Many thanks.

PM sent!

[dietgalvon 14]

I carted out about $1.5k worth of purchases yesterday, the last day of ezbuy's Free Agent Fee promotion for the month of April. I feel sooooo liberated because I had been shopping diligently the past 2 weeks! I would shortlist a few items and then get the fiance to decide because I can never decide.  Doesn't help that I am super anal - shape of track lights also must be pleasing to my eyes - that I think I gave the fiance lots of headache by having to decide, and re-decide on the items for our home.

*Crossing fingers that all orders would go through smoothly without hiccups.*

TAOBAO ORDER – PART I

A.           LIGHTS

1.            Tracks, track lights (7W) and connectors

These will be placed in the living room, main entrance, passageway and MBR wardrobe area. We got 3 tone lights for the living and neutral light for the rest.

2.            Dining pendant lights and strip disc

Got these from separate sellers as the seller of the lights does not sell the strip disc.

3.            LED strips (warm white)

This will be placed in the concealed pipe area in both the MBR and common toilets. Will be using T5 instead.

4.            Service Yard (E27 bulb, 7W)

5.            MBR entrance (E27 bulb, 5W, warm light)

6.            MBR bed area (24W, neutral light)

7.            Kitchen (36W, white light)

8.            Household Shelter (15W, white light)

9.            Common bedrooms (30W)

White light for the study room, and neutral light for the spare bedroom.

B.           LIVING ROOM

1.            Coffee table

2.            Door stopper (brushed nickel)

3.            Iron Mesh, heart wooden clips and fairy lights

These will be hung at the empty wall behind the dining ledge; using these for my upcoming wedding also (lol).

4.            Side table

5.            TV Console (1.8m)

Wanted to get the full set but it's too long for our wall.

C.           KITCHEN

1.            Toilet roll holder

A kitchen needs a toilet roll, but I didn’t like how the toilet roll looks so out of place in my current home kitchen, so I carted this out in case I forgot to buy, haha.

2.            Kitchen Sink (single bowl, 55cm)

After reading up on ceramic sinks (it’s so pretty!), it seems that utility wise, one can’t go wrong with stainless steel sinks. Hence, we decided on stainless steel. We initially wanted to buy from Singapore as my mum say that a quality kitchen sink is important. But the sinks that we saw ain't that impressive, already cost about $250! I was prepared to get one off amazon (quality seems better, ~ $170) but the shape bothers (the OCD) me.

Hence, I returned to Taobao. This costs $80, with pretty decent reviews. If this fails me, I will just buy one from Singapore.

3.            Kitchen tap with pull out sprayer

I chose this tap because having helped my mum wash the dishes and sink a couple of times, I lament to myself how useful if I could have a pull down sprayer!

4.            Pull out condiment tray (200mm)

Got a 200mm one because our bottom kitchen cabinet is L-shaped, and it’s best we leave more space for the corner cabinet.

D.           BATHROOMS

1.            Memory Foam Bathmat

D1.         COMMON TOILET

1.            PVC bathroom vanity set

We prefer to get stainless steel instead of PVC, but since we could not find any in Prime, we got a PVC one. It does not fit to our theme of white/chrome, so we decided to just play with monochrome for the common toilet. Seller did not dispatched the item! 

2.            Bathroom robe hook

I just had to buy this though I am not sure if it fits at where I envisioned it to be.

3.            Bathroom basket (30cm)

4.            Toilet roll holder

Got one with cover as there would be no shower screen installed in the common toilet.

5.            Towel bar

There is a towel bar which I liked, but I decided against it after considering the utility of the common toilet. That's $18 saved, hehe.

D2.         MBR TOILET

1.            Waterfall tap

The same tap in silver costs about 10 bucks less (why like that!) but we love the matte look. We think that this is a nice twist from the usual water taps. We almost got the one with a slanted stand because the water fall looks more substantial but when we saw this we couldn’t resist!

2.            Ceramic basin and pipe

3.            Rainshower

Have not purchased anything else for the MBR toilet because I ain't sure of what accessories to get and if I want to buy them off taobao. Anything to do with MBR and MBR toilet cannot be compromised, hence I shall take more time to consider hahaha.

My house is going to look like a warehouse until I move these stuff to the new home. 

Edited June 11, 2017 by dietgalvon

[Yune Ki 0]

I'll be doing close to Muji theme too. Do you mind to share the colour of the laminates for your kitchen cabinet. Thanks

[fifteenmay 40]

On 01/05/2017 at 5:05 PM, dietgalvon said:

I carted out about $1.5k worth of purchases yesterday, the last day of ezbuy's Free Agent Fee promotion for the month of April. I feel sooooo liberated because I had been shopping diligently the past 2 weeks! I would shortlist a few items and then get the fiance to decide because I can never decide.  Doesn't help that I am super anal - shape of track lights also must be pleasing to my eyes - that I think I gave the fiance lots of headache by having to decide, and re-decide on the items for our home.

*Crossing fingers that all orders would go through smoothly without hiccups.*

TAOBAO ORDER – PART I

A.           LIGHTS

1.            Tracks, track lights (7W) and connectors

These will be placed in the living room, main entrance, passageway and MBR wardrobe area. We got 3 tone lights for the living and neutral light for the rest.

2.            Dining pendant lights and strip disc

Got these from separate sellers as the seller of the lights does not sell the strip disc.

3.            LED strips (warm white)

This will be placed in the concealed pipe area in both the MBR and common toilets.

4.            Service Yard (E27 bulb, 7W)

5.            MBR entrance (E27 bulb, 5W, warm light)

6.            MBR bed area (24W, neutral light)

7.            Kitchen (36W, white light)

8.            Household Shelter (15W, white light)

9.            Common bedrooms (30W)

White light for the study room, and neutral light for the spare bedroom.

B.           LIVING ROOM

1.            Coffee table

2.            Door stopper (brushed nickel)

3.            Iron Mesh, heart wooden clips and fairy lights

These will be hung at the empty wall behind the dining ledge; using these for my upcoming wedding also (lol).

4.            Side table

5.            TV Console (1.8m)

Wanted to get the full set but it's too long for our wall.

C.           KITCHEN

1.            Toilet roll holder

A kitchen needs a toilet roll, but I didn’t like how the toilet roll looks so out of place in my current home kitchen, so I carted this out in case I forgot to buy, haha.

2.            Kitchen Sink (single bowl, 55cm)

After reading up on ceramic sinks (it’s so pretty!), it seems that utility wise, one can’t go wrong with stainless steel sinks. Hence, we decided on stainless steel. We initially wanted to buy from Singapore as my mum say that a quality kitchen sink is important. But the sinks that we saw ain't that impressive, already cost about $250! I was prepared to get one off amazon (quality seems better, ~ $170) but the shape bothers (the OCD) me.

Hence, I returned to Taobao. This costs $80, with pretty decent reviews. If this fails me, I will just buy one from Singapore.

3.            Kitchen tap with pull out sprayer

I chose this tap because having helped my mum wash the dishes and sink a couple of times, I lament to myself how useful if I could have a pull down sprayer!

4.            Pull out condiment tray (200mm)

Got a 200mm one because our bottom kitchen cabinet is L-shaped, and it’s best we leave more space for the corner cabinet.

D.           BATHROOMS

1.            Memory Foam Bathmat

D1.         COMMON TOILET

1.            PVC bathroom vanity set

We prefer to get stainless steel instead of PVC, but since we could not find any in Prime, we got a PVC one. It does not fit to our theme of white/chrome, so we decided to just play with monochrome for the common toilet.

2.            Bathroom robe hook

I just had to buy this though I am not sure if it fits at where I envisioned it to be.

3.            Bathroom basket (30cm)

4.            Toilet roll holder

Got one with cover as there would be no shower screen installed in the common toilet.

5.            Towel bar

There is a towel bar which I liked, but I decided against it after considering the utility of the common toilet. That's $18 saved, hehe.

D2.         MBR TOILET

1.            Waterfall tap

The same tap in silver costs about 10 bucks less (why like that!) but we love the matte look. We think that this is a nice twist from the usual water taps. We almost got the one with a slanted stand because the water fall looks more substantial but when we saw this we couldn’t resist!

2.            Ceramic basin and pipe

3.            Rainshower

4.            Laundry bag

Have not purchased anything else for the MBR toilet because I ain't sure of what accessories to get and if I want to buy them off taobao. Anything to do with MBR and MBR toilet cannot be compromised, hence I shall take more time to consider hahaha.

My house is going to look like a warehouse until I move these stuff to the new home. 

Great tb loots choices! I have e memory foam bathmats and they r great! V plush feel! Have e bathroom robe hooks too and e toilet bar..we have e same taste.

Are u using storage heater or instant heater? I bought a rainshower fr tb but in e end cannot use cos i was using instant heater. So something for u to take note..i cldnt buy a toilet vanity cabinet fr.ezbuy prime leh.. They din wan to take e risk of damage so i bought mine fr spore instead.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2017 by fifteenmay

[dietgalvon 14]

1 hour ago, fifteenmay said:

Great tb loots choices! I have e memory foam bathmats and they r great! V plush feel! Have e bathroom robe hooks too and e toilet bar..we have e same taste.

Are u using storage heater or instant heater? I bought a rainshower fr tb but in e end cannot use cos i was using instant heater. So something for u to take note..i cldnt buy a toilet vanity cabinet fr.ezbuy prime leh.. They din wan to take e risk of damage so i bought mine fr spore instead.

 

 

Hahaha high^5!

Thanks for the heads up - I'll be using a storage heater! Ohh wah the vanity was found in Prime page and I carted it out under Prime! They didn't proceed with your order in the end? What's the price range for vanity in Singapore? I saw that it's around $500 in Hoe Kee - and that's quite ex!

[dietgalvon 14]

5 hours ago, Yune Ki said:

I'll be doing close to Muji theme too. Do you mind to share the colour of the laminates for your kitchen cabinet. Thanks

@Yune Ki My current choice is WY1244D. But I will only finalise it after seeing the 3D drawings. Sorry, seems not much of a help yet. :x