According to [the nest], I Have a Grownup Bedroom

I was thoroughly amused by the time I got to the end of the "10 Signs Your Bedroom Needs To Grow Up" Slideshow on [the nest]. I started reading expecting to go "Ohh I'll need to do this and add that and do that..." but instead it was "Ohh, I have this and I've done this and that too..."

Then I did a childish "Yeah, I'm a grown up" dance at the end. Oxymoron, I know.
So here they are - the signs that a bedroom needs to grow up.


1. You Only Have Mismatched Bedding

"A complete bedding set including sheets, pillowcases and a duvet will pull the room together in a more sophisticated way. Look for a high thread count and mature colours, like cream, gray & blue"

Grays and blues - check! How about some brown, too!

2. You Don't Have A Headboard

Headboard? Check! Customized, no less.

Bedding set, headboard and bedside tables...check!

3. You Don't Have Bedside Tables

"Time to replace the milk crates with proper bedside tables - two of them! For someone who needs her phone, books, a glass of water ad a hundred other things, a sturdy wooden style with drawers or a cabinet will fit the bill"

I could have sworn this article was about me cos I'm that girl who needs her water, phone, keys, books, magazine and glasses (cos I wear them) by the bedside each night. And befittingly I do indeed have the sturdy wooden style bedside table with drawers - two of them too!



4. Your Beside Accessories Are Lacking

Well, my husband has a nice enough alarm clock on his side of the bed and that's all he actually needs on the side table. So the rest was up to me to style with a simple painting and a "wu-lou".

On my side of the bed, the white tray is the most functional item used to corral my phone, keys and glasses each night. Books and magazine go in the shelf under the drawer. 

5. You Don't Have Curtains

"Curtains can change the feel of the bedroom, so take down those cheap, broken blinds and choose a window treatment that speaks to your style."

Seeing that the 'windows' in the room are sliding glass doors leading out to the balcony, I have a curtain box in the ceiling and floor length curtains complete with sheers too. Necessary to maintain privacy and block out the sun on the occasional mornings I get to sleep in!

6. You Have No Art

"Here's a chance for you and your guy to really showcase your personal style. Black-and-white photos say you're a sophisticated and cosmopolitan couple, while those with more traditional taste might hang classic oils on their walls"

Hmm...so here's where I feel a little..young at heart? So we've got art picked out for the bedroom. And no, they're not black-and-white photos or classic oils. A set of fun prints which are going to go above the bed. Only thing is I just haven't gotten around to framing them and hanging them up yet. Its the thought that counts right?



7. Your Furniture Clashes

"We love eclectic furniture that works together, but if you really want to change the feel of your bedroom, splurge on a set that traditionally includes the bedframe and headboard, side tables and dressers or armoires."

Clashing furniture? Maybe someday. For now, I have a set so coordinated, even the closet doors match.

Matching closet doors!

8. Your Only Lighting Is Overhead

"Nothing sets the mood in your bedroom like good lighting. Coordinating table lamps, floor lamps or wall scones will spruce up your digs in a flash"

Why yes, I do have coordinating table lamps on my coordinating bedside tables! Gosh, I'm starting to sound boring!



9. Your Floors Are Bare

"Center your space with a large area rug or decorate with smaller rugs in different spots of your room for a pulled-together look"

With all the coordinating furniture and table lamps, the last thing we needed was a coordinating rug. The oriental rug in the room was chosen to clash with the theme of the rest of the room, something to break up the monotony.

Yeah, right! The lies I tell myself. If only my decorating plans were so put together. Truth of the matter, the hubby and I went a little (maybe a lot) rug crazy when shopping for the new house. We have so many rugs and this large one we got just happened to fit size wise between the bed and the TV shelf. So there you have it, my decorating style called "making do with my impulsive buys"

10. Your Walls Are Lacking Colour

"Another way to make an impact is to create a color scheme for your walls. Grey is a sophisticated and trendy wall color, but as long as you avoid typically juvenile colors"

Grey it is, with an awesome feature wall too - colour and texture!

 

And there you have it.The 10 signs, according to [the nest] that my bedroom is grown up! View the original slideshow from [the nest] here.

My Favourite Nook

My favourite nook in the house came to be rather unintentionally. For a compulsive planner like me, ‘unplanned’ only gave it so much more charm and character.

I wanted to have a reading corner in the study but the end result was entirely different from what I had originally had in mind. My initial plan was to have 2 walls lined with white Ikea BILLY bookcases and a 2-seater sofa, something very similar to a pin I found shared in my earlier post "Finding Inspiration".

But here's how my cozier-than-expected nook turned out.


The beautiful open shelf that houses our collection of books and magazines was one we came across by chance. It was on sale and the hubby and I decided to pick it up instead of the Ikea shelf we originally had our sights on.

The lazy chair was not even a piece I picked out. It was my husband who spent a small fortune on it, intended for him to watch television on in the living room.

The two little piggies which were intended for the rustic-country-ish kitchen were used as makeshift bookends when the kitchen turned out with a contemporary.  

The LOVE carving I had originally bought for the bedroom too winded up as a stray on the bookshelf having not fit the rest of the bedroom décor.

The framed jigsaw puzzles were little treasures we'd recovered from the store room when we moved. There's finally space to display the things I completed over a decade ago!



The clock from Ikea I hoarded for no apparent reason other than ‘it was cheap’ and the penny-farthing motif plate randomly pick out on a shopping excursion with Ink were the few other pieces that just ended up on the shelf.

So there we go. Actual space in my home that wasn't painstakingly planned out.
And I love it!

Gallery Wall: Children's Art Prints

In the Mac & Ink households, blank walls have definitely been a staple. But when Ink and I moved to our new places, gallery walls were on the top of our must have lists.

I've got a couple of them in mind for my place - and here's the first one:

Children’s Art Prints

Designing my daughter’s room, I wanted it to be bright and cheery, a happy and inviting place for the little girl to play and sleep in. While hunting for décor that fit the theme of the room, I found these adorable prints from Trafalgar’s Square on Etsy.  These animal prints are so cute they make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Buying the prints was easy but actually framing them and getting them hung up was a bit (actually a lot) of a pain. A lot of effort went into getting end result I wanted.

Perfect fit or with a profile?

I wanted to have borders for these as I thought it would add some interest to the overall picture. 

Store bought or custom framed?

My first thought was to get them custom framed but  was a bit apprehensive about which framer to go to having a not so good experience with the framer a few years back. I also thought it would cost more. 

So on one of our Ikea runs, Ink convinced me to get ready-made frames and mount them myself. Unfortunately, the Ikea frames only came with a profile for A4 sized art but my prints were 8R and that put in an extra run to the stationary store and a solid hour of ‘crafting’.

In retrospect, it would have been much less effort and only a tad more expensive to have had them custom framed as I eventually found a reliable and reasonably priced framer.

Arrangement?

Having the framing out of the way, the next step was to decide on the layout of the gallery wall and its placement on the wall.  I planned how I wanted the layout of the gallery wall to look like by first trying out the arrangement on the floor. 

Satisfied with the arrangement, I measured the spacing of the frames and then transferred the measurements onto the wall by cutting out the shapes on pieces of tracing paper and sticking them on the wall first. This may look like wasted effort but I'm really glad I did because it made it all so easy for the hubby to measure the location of the nail. 

Make a hole in the wall?

The hubby and I agonised a little over this. No one wants holes in their walls, but in the end we decided safety came first and opted to go with nails as it would give us some peace of mind that the framed pictures would not fall, break and cause any injury to the little girl.

Finally…..

Here are the prints all framed up. Worth every bit of effort don’t you think?

Tiny Budget, Big Ideas

So, back in November, I picked a quote about just plucking up the courage to do the things you want.

And then I went and did just that. 

So, amongst other exciting things this new year, I've got a new space to decorate! Yay!

The biggest thing I'd love to do with my space is to keep it as empty as I can.

Let's face it - I'm a messy person. And I need to have space for that mess to unfurl from my neatly packed moving boxes. Having way too much furniture is just going to make me feel really hemmed in. 

So here are my top 3 inspirations for planning my place:

1. As usual, Pinterest! 

Here's my board, called "the big move" where I'm constantly looking for creative ways to both fit all the stuff I have, and still feel like I've got a big airy space (when what I really have is the size of a closet).

Follow Ink's board .the big move. on Pinterest.

2. Ikea

I've been there so many times in the past couple of months, I think I've finally answered the question everyone I know has been asking for years - why the heck are there so many people there every freaking weekend?

But seriously, though. I've turned into one of those people who walk around with tape measure, and, well my phone instead of the cute little pencil and paper. Waaaay easier to keep track of all the ideas I get from walking around.

3. YouTube

Yeah so you knew to look there without me even telling you.

But anyways, me being me, I ended up watching most of the tutorials for fun instead of any actual instruction. Here were my favourites that just got me all pumped up about decorating my space.
Disclaimer: some of these videos are by Ikea as well.

Walk in closet - who doesn't need more space for clothes?

I've always fancied myself more of a lazy, clothes all over the place sort of person. But still, love this idea.

I really really love challenging the typical furniture up against the walls, TV on the opposite wall to the couch sort of living room arrangements. So this was a fun one to watch, although I don't think it'll come to this for me.

I've also always thought about all the different ways I could divide up my space. And after like a dozen "how to use a Billy bookcase to create a partition" videos (*blah*), this was really, really fun!

And just because I get distracted easily and end up watching stuff for fun

Moodboard: Modern Rustic Guest Room

After having so much fun creating the baby room moodboard, I just had to make one for the new guest room too.

For this design, I decided to set myself a little challenge - minimum cost and maximum reuse of furnishings and decor I already own. That included set of Mum's old curtains she insisted I use. A  once-over of the apartment and I quickly identified the items I had to reuse:

1. Mum's set of beige curtains (notice how this is the first item on the list)
2. White chest of drawers
3. Bluish-white queen size bed
4. White side table
5. The Ikea rug we bought real cheap a long time back but still sitting in the storeroom wrapped in its original packaging.

So, the task was to design the room by reusing all these items. Put together, I was left with a beige, gray and blue colour scheme and quite a predicament.  I hadn't the faintest idea how I was going to tie those colours together. Naturally, I looked to Pinterest for inspiration - and then browsed around for something I could get my hands on locally.

Surprisingly, it was Ikea that came to my rescue. They have a set of quilt covers which is primarily brown-beige and gray with turquoise accents. 

image source

That would instantly pull together the beige and grays I was struggling to match and also dictate the accent colour of the room - turquoise! Incidentally, I have a pair of turquoise owls in my stash of decor and bang, I had my fundamental room design!

To add a little interest I'll be looking to add a few accent pieces....a turquoise chair, mirror with metal frame (not sure if I'll be able to find a similar one) and a rattan laundry basket. Finally, I included the set of paintings and a wooden based table lamp, also from my existing stash. Out of the 12 items on the moodboard, I already have 8 of them.

Taa-daa... mission to design a guest room with minimum cost and maximum reuse accomplished!

Moodboard: Light & Cheery Girl's Room

After lots and lots of delay, the renovations on the kitchen are finally underway at the new house. It's been months of negotiations, paperwork for extension approvals, insurances, building permits....i.e. stress and headache. We're not nearly done, after building there will come more paperwork, inspections and I don't know what else. The unpleasant side of renovation. Sigh...

Last week I decided I needed a break form the tiring renovation stuff and skipped ahead to a bit of fun. I stated planning out my daughter Kitty's bedroom. Kitty's still too young to choose so mummy gets to make all the decorating decisions for now!

My vision was an all white room with pops of colour, not too pink princess but still feminine. All movable furniture, nothing built-in and nothing too expensive so that when Kitty grows up decides she want to make decorating decisions of her own, the entire room can be easily changed.

Putting the board together has made my upcoming shopping trip easy. I now already have an accurate estimate of the cost. More importantly, having seen everything placed together, I won't have to second guess myself when actually going out to buy the furniture and choosing textiles for the room.


The satisfaction of completing my very first moodboard for the house (albeit some struggle with Adobe Photoshop and all) was very rewarding. It was a great decision to take a break from the heavy stuff and work on something dear I love and enjoy. Now I'm itching to put together a moodboard for the guest bedroom too.

This little project just brought back my enthusiasm to get the house done. Hurray!

Falling in love with Interior Design - Inspiration by Abigail Ahern

I came to read about Abigal Ahern by chance really.

She was featured in the March 2013 issue of Australian Home Beautiful which I happened to pick up at that time. I loved the article but didn't think much about it until seeing a picture of her loft again online.

Image from deardesigner.co.uk

I knew I had seen that aesthetic somewhere before. A little more digging after that led me to her website and on to her blog. Then on, I just fell in love.

Maybe it is her easy to read and candid style of writing or the stunning and unique photos but it all just seemed to resonate with me. Full of ideas and inspiration, Abigail's blog is a gem. Most importantly, she offers fantastic tips and honest advice on interior decoration (the Abigail Ahern way).

Her interiors are extraordinary - at the borderline of over the top, quirky and on the "dark side" (as she puts it) but undoubtedly captivating . I know it's not the definition of my decorating style but all the same Abigail's little tips resound in my head...

"Don't be afraid to play with scale"

"Add texture"

"Experiment, play with colours"

"Forget the rules"

"Baby steps"

"It will turn out well, I promise"


Abigail has really inspired me to be much bolder than I'd ever though I'd be when working on the new house. Just last week, I convinced my husband to buy this over sized wall sconce for the stairway leading to our rooftop patio. Something I know I would never have done otherwise.

My husband and I took a leap of faith and painted all the bedroom doors dark grey (instead of keeping them white). Baby steps........the doors turned out fantastic and we absolutely love, love, love them.

I'm now working on a very bold look for the foyer and I just know it will turn out well.

Make It Yourself (and in this case...Myself)

There is no doubt that "picky" is my middle name. Strange as it sounds, I've just been unable to find the perfect throw pillows for my living sofa. All I wanted were two pairs of throw pillows with geometric patterns in a soothing neutral colour. They would have to be cotton of course, soft and comfortable enough to hug and put my face on. But it has just been one thing of another, wrong design/pattern, wrong size, wrong material, wrong colour, wrong price...oh don't even get me started on the price...70+ Ringgit for a throw pillow? I think not!

Photo & design by Ink

I ended up making my own. It was a bit a an accident really....I chanced upon this great light brown upholstery grade cotton fabric (love the fabric) with the simple chequered pattern I wanted, bought a meter of the fabric and went to work making my own pillow. It turned out surprisingly well and I bought more fabric in a different pattern, this time the octagons, and made more.
 

 Here they are on my sofa. A simple layered neutral look for the apartment living room.

 

Then mum saw the pillows and requested for them in red. I was glad they turned out nice as well. She particularly loves the octagons. I know what pillows I'll be having on my sofa next Chinese New Year!

Finding Inspiration

Its been months since we got the keys to the new house. I remember walking around for the first time excitedly...it was finally ours!!! (well, technically it belongs to the bank but lets ignore that tiny detail). The next big challenge is to turn the bare, dusty, cobweb filled space into a home.

Since then I have spent all my spare time (whatever little of it) scouring through magazines, books, catalogues, interior design websites and blogs and Pinterest (of course!) looking for ideas, inspiration, expert tips and advice for the house. So many stunning interiors, so many interesting pieces of furniture, so many styles...I want to have them all in the house.

Here are some gorgeous images from Pinterest that have become inspirations for the new house...