Tag Archive | New Home

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.

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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.

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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.

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Day 6 – Banned

Jan26

The flat is being glossed today so I was not allowed in through fear of sticking to a newly glossed door or smudging a painted skirting board. The decorators banned me which is pretty much fair game as I am incredibly prone to falling over my own feet and genuinely cannot be trusted. That’s ok though because I had a very successful trip to IKEA and the Range in Reading instead. I demonstrated the exact reason why I was banned when we went to IKEA and mother trod on the back of my shoe and I stacked it going up the escalator. It is a good thing I am used to these moments.

I did pop back to the flat afterwards though as I bought a doormat. So under the pretence of “dropping off the new doormat” I snuck to the flat. Anyone who knows me personally will know that I am a bit of a hedgehog. Prickly on the outside (in personality, not physical appearance thank you very much), prone to frequent hibernation and runs away to curl up into a small spiky ball when scared. However once you get past that grumpy spiky appearance (or I have had a cup of coffee / it is past 8am in the morning) I am the craziest but friendliest person you will ever meet.

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Got this little creation from the Range. So if you ever come to visit me you’ll know I’m the flat with the bonkers doormat. Dad hates it though so I have been warned there is a very high chance of a little bit of paint falling its way onto it. He wouldn’t dare I’m sure…

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Day 5 -A Hole in the Ceiling

Jan25

Rather mixed day today. The painting is done and looks fabulous. Turns out I underestimated the amount of paint needed by about 10 litres resulting in a dash to B&Q early this morning. I’m really happy with my plum feature wall and now I can see the living room nearly done I’m definitely happy with yesterday’s choice of carpet. However there is a small issue of a hole in the ceiling. There was what looked like an old water stain on the ceiling in the bedroom upstairs and when we rolled the new paint on it has dampened and weakened a rather awful attempt of a repair. Luckily we have tested it for damp and there was no moisture reading so the ceiling is completely dry and obviously just old which is good, just a shame that I now have a hole in my newly painted ceiling! Seems like we will be sending dad up into the rafters later on this week strengthen and replace the shoddy work previously done. I’m contemplating sending him up with a load of loft insulation while he’s up there and he can distribute it out like a little rodent. Anything to reduce the electric bill right?

However in better news the plum wall is done and I love it!

Tomorrow is glossing day so I am sadly banned from the flat until at least 5pm in order to let it all dry. I don’t appear to be trusted not to stick to a door or smudge a skirting board. Even the painters know my clumsiness well it seems!

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!

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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 😦

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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!

Day 3 – Paint

Jan24

We have paint on walls! Not finished yet but it is definitely a start. Base coats are more or less on and some rooms are looking nearly finished! However I’m assured we are no where near finished but to me it’s looking pretty good already. The kids wallpaper is definitely gone in the second bedroom and where the feature wall was in the living room has been filled and is now looking a lot better.

Currently having the big debate which colour carpet to have. I know I want a fairly neutral tone so that I can choose to redecorate in the future without having to turf my carpet up! I know I am an indecisive human being but this is taking the biscuit.

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The White Mist I chose for the walls has a grey tone to it rather than a peachy or beige tone so I am leaning more to the grey end of the spectrum to compliment it. I have never had to choose a carpet before so I have no idea what angle to tackle this from but I am rather tempted by stripey carpet up the stairs!

Day 2 – More Destruction

Jan23

Due to a lack of internet Day 2 is actually being posted on day three. Day number 2 and my lovely little flat is even more destroyed! However I am sure the end result will be 100% worth it! Thanks to the lovely Chris and Victor the ceilings are now nearly all painted. My lovely brother visited today and chipped in by removing the carpet from the stairs so now all the carpet is gone. I spent the day helping remove laminate flooring which we had finished turfing up and scraping an underlay off the floor so I guess you could say I was helping! We decided to put my car into the garage (I have a garage!) to make some more space to park the van. Turns out I have a garage which is too small to fit my car in! My car is a tiny little Vauxhall Adam so I didn’t think I’d have a problem, I just assumed the garage would be big enough. When I went to view the flat I never thought of asking to test the garage to see if the car would fit! Lesson’s learnt I guess. However on the flip side we have discovered that there is a pizza place a 3 minute walk away which makes amazing pizza! You win some and you loose some!

So still not much change apart from the fact we have even less flooring and slightly more painted ceilings! The walls have all been filled and rubbed down so when the paint goes on it should look pretty perfect! Only a few more days until we should start seeing results 🙂

Day 1 – Destruction

Jan21

I have had the keys for 24 hours now and the first full day of work is done! We have had a very productive day of filling, destroying a laminate floor and removing a carpet!

Click here to see what it looked like only 24 hours ago!

Little bit of destruction happening here huh?

All will be worth it in the long run! We were a little bit confused as to why the laminate floor in the lounge felt a bit squishy and it turns out there was a whole layer of carpet under there! I quite enjoyed turfing up the laminate floor and scraping the underlay off of the floor, I may be banned from actually constructing or painting anything but I can destroy well!

Shall see what day 2 brings tomorrow! However as it is a Sunday I think it will be quite a quiet one, don’t want to irritate the neighbors too much after the noise and chaos we have created today!

SOLD

Jan21

I got the keys and went to the flat for the first time last night! Couldn’t go over until the evening but when I got there was presently surprised as I was expecting to find it really creepy with no furniture in it but it didn’t actually look that cold or creepy. My “SOLD subject to contract” sign was still there marking my territory 😀

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Thought I’d take some photos so I can compare how it looked when I moved in to how it looks when I’ve made it my own.

So it has been left pretty blank for me to do what I want with, got the decorators coming round today and the next couple of days to put that lovely White Mist paint on the walls and redo the ceilings so they are not as shiny. Also very tempted to get a carpet laid in the living room but I think that might be a bit of a stretch to the budget! We shall see 🙂

Can’t wait to be able to move in all the furniture and for it to start looking like home. I timed my commute home from work at it 10 mins! Currently thinking of all the extra sleep I’m going to get…

I’m off to go paint a wall, thank you for reading my blog and feel free to come grab a paint brush!