IKEA spree

In anticipation of the upcoming completion of our new place, I did an IKEA run to our nearest store - three hours north in Sydney. My friend Julz and I went on a day trip and returned with a very full car and very empty wallets. We bought so much that we had to go through the checkouts once with two full trolleys, fill the car, then go back in for another lap around the store to get the rest!

My first project in the new house is going to be the study. I already have a four drawer dark wood filing cabinet I got a few years ago at Office Works and I bought most of the rest of what I want at IKEA.

LINNMON tabletop/desk:

This is going to be my desk, it's 2.0 metres long so will be a nice big working space.

I bought different legs then pictured though, opting for chrome coloured extendable legs so the desk can be set from 70 centimetres to 1.10 metres high.

LACK wall shelf:

 

I bought three of these shleves to go above the desk. One 1.1 metre shelf (to go low over the desk leaving room at one end for the computer screen) and two 1.9 metre shelves. They only hold up 15 kilograms though so I'll have to limit the amount of textbooks I pile on them!



SPONTAN magnetic board:

I'm going to hang the magnetic board above the desk and use it to clip current bills and other things 'to-do' on it. In the picture here they've used four together, mine will just be the one for now. I bought some cute, coloured, clippy magnets as well to go with it.

 

 

KVITTRA, SNIKA & KVARNVIK boxes:

 

And of course, to fill (and decorate) the shelves, I bought a variety of bright and colourful boxes and tubs to fill with all my stationary, media/photography and craft supplies.



KVART work lamp:

For only $10.00 I bought this little desk lamp too.

I'm going to get some of IKEA's ALGOT storage system for the wardrobe to make storage space for all our board games etc. and we'll also have our fold-out bed opposite the office set-up so the room can double up as our guest bedroom.

 

 

 

I bought a couple of bits and pieces for other ongoing room projects - the rumpus room, the hallway niche and some other decorations to use throughout the house.

 

LACK side table and coffee table:

 

These two pieces are for the rumpus room, or, as Ben calls it, the 'library'.

We're setting it up to be a multi-purpose room with one full length wall-to-wall bookshelves, room to play board games or just sit and hang out.

This will be a rather long winded project as we'll have to save up for another couch, the bookshelves, track lighting and lamps and some canvas prints.



I got a couple of PAPJA plant pots in the taupe/beige colour, and some FEJKA artificial plants - to put in them to make it look like I can take care of plants and add some effort-free greenery to different areas throughout the house.

I also picked up a few of the RIBBA frames to use on the niche shelves inside the front door. They're a cool aluminium frame, I want to get some more on my next IKEA run. They'll fit in so well with my colour scheme. Now I just need to buy the floating shelves for the niche to put them on.

 



External painting

The external painting is almost complete. The eaves and downpipes are done and the front door just needs another coat of Bristol's 'burnt toffee'.

  

Internal painting

The painters have been in all week. I didn't realise how much just a coat of white paint, Dulux's 'natural white' to be exact, can make so much difference. The place looks brighter and cleaner and more 'homey' already.

Part of our package allowed one 'feature' wall, painted a different colour. I chose the longest wall in the house, from the front door through the hall up to the living areas, and went with Taubmans' 'quarry' to continue my taupe/beige-grey colour theme. Eventually I want to get a whole bunch of canvas prints of our professional wedding pictures to put along this wall.

 

With the painting completed in the wet areas (bathroom, en suite and laundry) they are basically complete, just waiting on shower screens, electrical and finishing touches like taps and door handles. Still needs a good clean too as you can see!

    

Picture update: main bathroom

Tiling continues

The tiling continues this week with, my long anticipated pride and joy, the mosaic kitchen splashback. And I was not disappointed, as you can see, it looks amazing! Definitely worth all the overtime hours I worked to pay for it, and much more interesting than your run of the mill tiling or glass splashback. I'm so impressed with the result, after laying just a strip, two squares wide, of the same kind of mosaic tiling in our renovated kitchen where we live now, I can vouch for how hard and fiddly it is to get it just right!

The bathroom tiling - walls, flooring and niches, have been completed and just needing to be cleaned up a bit.

   

The laundry tub has been installed...

...as well as the rain water tank.

Sinks, benchtops and tiling

The Ceasarstone benchtops have been installed!

 

They're still covered in plastic wrap, but they look good! They were included in both the kitchen and bathroom in a few select colours as part of our Supplier's Bonus package. We opted for 'Osprey' - an off-white colour with a speckle through it. It was the closest to white we could get (without having to pay a fortune for a non-standard colour).

 

 

The sinks in the bathrooms and kitchen ahve also been installed...

 

 

...and the tiling has been started in the bathrooms.

 

  

Ktichen and bathroom cabinets

Things are getting exciting this week! The kitchen and bathroom cabinets have been installed and look awesome! Obviously the bench tops, appliances and sink are yet to come.

The tilers were also on site, about to start the en suite and bathroom.

Kitchen:

 

I can't wait for the mosaic tiling to go in across the entire splashback - its got tiles of stainless steel throughout it that will match the other appliances.

 

I love the size of the pantry. I added a variation of additional shelving to make sure I could use up as much space as possible. This will help allow room for a lot of our small appliances that will have to go on the bottom shelves since the kitchen storage space is a bit less than what we have at the moment.



Bathroom and en suite: