Tag Archive | Karli

Days 9&10 – Lights!

So much to do before Friday! I think once we get the carpet in the whole flat will suddenly come together and start to feel homely. Maybe then I can finally move in without walking dust around constantly.

My lovely little spider lights from B&Q have been put up and I think they look pretty good. Managed to get the one in the living room to be dimmable even if I did make the mistake of buying awful light bulbs from the Range. Can be replaced later though so won’t worry too much now.

I googled the Karli lights just out of curiosity to see if they did any other similar lights or accessories. Out of some stroke of luck I stumbled across these lovely little bedside lamps! I was going to go for purple lamps but when I saw these it just had to be done. I think this has pleased my parents as I was going to take the lamps from my old room at their house as they were the perfect lamps and exactly what I had in mind. However they now get to keep those and I will not be branded a lamp thief!

The room is so much lighter now than it was when I moved in. This could have something to do with the fact I now have 22 light bulbs in the room instead of just 2! Could you call that a little bit excessive? At least no one can say my room is too dark and I don’t need to use all 22 at the same time I suppose! Very thankful for my IKEA bulbs! On the subject of IKEA I went to put up my light for the hallway today.

I was very naively expecting to unpack a nice spherical light out of that box but looking at the size of the box in relation to the size of the light I really should have known better. IKEA hanging pendant light is currently in about 8493625 different pieces. I decided that the light could go back into the box and be tackled another day. When that day will be I am not too sure.

Today was mainly about odd jobs. I helped build the furniture for the downstairs bedroom. We got this furniture online as a lot consisting of 2 bedside tables, a dressing table, chest of drawers and a wardrobe and its really good stuff! Sadly couldn’t get any pics of the rest as most of the furniture for the flat has been moved into this room ready for the carpet to be laid and I can barely move in there at the moment but the dressing table is stunning! I just need to get a chair for the dressing table and we are all done in here. Such a contrast from the kids room it was just over a week ago.

The shelves also got put up today and now the living room is starting to really come together. I’m looking at a few coffee tables at the moment but am leaning towards a nest of tables instead for space saving purposes. I have a coffee table in my rented flat at the moment which made me think that I needed one, but my parents have a nest of tables which gets used a hell of a lot more than the coffee table does and they are pretty cute! I dragged the dining room table to the flat tonight just to try and figure out where everything will go and I think I have a plan in my head now so hurry up carpet so I can have a functional living room!

As we are getting the internet and TV installed tomorrow I had to decide really quickly where everything was going as I don’t want to be moving cables around once they are installed at one end of the room. Fingers crossed it was the right choice! I have accidentally managed to order myself two lots of internet and TV though so I really hope they only turn up with one! Most importantly only charge me for one!

Today’s Trip to IKEA

Jan26

Over the past couple of months I have collected 99% of the furniture I need so my trip to IKEA today was mainly to get a couple of lights and a few little bits to make the flat more personal and homely. This was only the second time I have ever been to IKEA and I found myself spending 3 and a half hours there. I originally had one of those yellow shopping bags as I was not expecting to get that much but once I had got to the kitchen section I had to swap this for a trolley. I loved looking round all of the rooms for ideas and inspiration. It demonstrates so well that you do not need a big space in order to make it look amazing.

hallway-lamp

I got this hanging pendant light for the hallway. You can pull the string to open or close the light in order to brighten or dim the room. Not my normal style but I do love it. I got the one pictured which is white with silver inside but there is also a gold one. There are others which are not metal and these are either green or orange inside.

boja

Also got this lovely little Boja table lamp for the living room. It looks so beautiful when lit up and each one is slightly different due to the bamboo. The best thing about buying a light from IKEA is how they have them all displayed so you can see what they look like when switched on. They also have the recommended bulbs (All LED, great for the environment and your electric bill!) next to the lamps so you can buy both together and make sure you have the correct bulb for that light.

Continue reading →

Day 4 – More Paint & A Carpet

Jan24

I made a decision! Finally I am an indecisive human no more! I took my samples of carpet round the flat today and put them with the paint to get a better idea of how the carpet would look in the finished room. Once we put the carpet with the wall it was obvious that a grey tone was definitely the right way to go. I had already decided I was going to with a Victoria Carpets Freedom carpet as it is bleach cleanable, fade resistant and most importantly looks and feels lovely! I found myself stuck between two very similar shades of grey. I checked the names of the two grey carpets and found that one of them was called Dawn Mist and that made my decision for me as my walls are painted in White Mist. I do love it when fate takes the decisions out of my hands by making them so blindingly obvious for me!

Ta-Dah!

Dawn Mist and Grape which is going to go up the stairs. I fell for the lure of a different carpet to go up the stairs. Nice little bit of purple in there and the grey from the Dawn Mist too, definitely not a wasted trip. Hopefully the carpet will be laid next week so I now have a very tight schedule to get everything in and ready.

And here’s my second purchase of the day from B&Q, Karli 8 Spiral Chrome Ceiling Light. The flat at the moment is a little bit dark so hopefully this will light up the living room. I bought three of these as I found it quite difficult to find a unique and nice looking light for my bedroom as the ceilings are quite low. A lot of them I would find myself smacking my head on but these are perfect! Only down side is that I have now realised that I have to buy 24 light bulbs! Also got my eye on a lovely little hanging star light for the hallway but it seems to always be out of stock 😦

So here are the pics of Day 4! The bedrooms are now painted which is fabulous as I am not changing the flooring in these so should be able to start moving stuff into these soon while the living room and hallway are finished. There is no sign at all of the kids wallpaper that covered the second bedroom when I moved in, I think Chris and Victor have done a really good job here. Should all be done by Thursday they tell me, which means they have filled, rubbed down, painted and glossed an entire flat in 6 days which is pretty good going!