New Feature - If we owned our flat...

Well the payday wishlist fizzled out pretty quickly (one month!), mainly because I didn't find them very interesting to write or read so figured you probably didn't either...if anyone has a burning desire to see them again let me know?? I also have been trying out a new posting schedule, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I found posting over the weekend a bit of a struggle as I need time to actually do the projects to write about them so trying out not doing the Sunday post.

So new regular post, 'If we owned our flat', often as a tenant you discover something about your place that makes you think 'If I could I'd change that'. Often you can't change it but it's fun to theorize about what you'd do if you could...

This month I've picked the hallway, we have our entrance hallway then our small dining room/other hallway. If we could I would knock down the wall between them and make it into one large room. It would mean getting a new front door that is a bit better insulated so it wouldn't get so cold in there but it would be soo much more flexible!

Currently the rooms are like this

And like this

But look when the door between the 2 rooms is open how long the space is

If you could open that space up it would make the place seem so much brighter and bigger, I'd maybe put in a front door with full length glass to let in more light as our entryway is pretty secluded, you can't see into it from the road. It would be more flexible as well, as we rarely use the entrance hall for much more than storage, drying washing and walking through so it would be nice to actually use the space rather than have it so separated from the main living area. In a basement flat it would also be good to open up the small rooms a bit to make it feel a bit more spacious.

Of course it might be a load bearing wall or something and this might all be impossible but I think every tenant dreams about the things they'd change...what are yours?

Office to Dining Room

OK dining room makes it sound grander than a hallway we use as a room but I switched around our office at the weekend, getting rid of the desk and trading it for a table.

I shared this in progress photo on Sunday

Sunday morning I managed to get the room completely empty and ready to reassemble. When reorganising a room like this I find that for me it works best to empty as much of it as possible and then piece it back together again, it helps you to rethink the layout. I also gave the floors a good clean while there was no furniture in here. I left the turtle tank in there as it's pretty heavy and bulky and I was doing this on my own (why do I choose weekends Tom's working to get productive??), I just put sofa throws underneath it so I could slide it around easily and without scratching the floor.

Can you spot all the furniture pushed into the hallway in this photo? I'll freecycle the desk and desk chair and if there's no takers they'll go to the tip (anyone interested let me know)

I had emptied the desk completely, the stuff on the shelves under the tank are the only things that were kept in the desk I thought we might still want access to like sellotape, pens, batteries, paper etc. The rest of the stuff from the desk like photos, installation CDs for various things, envelopes and stationary we rarely use went in a small ottoman on top of the wardrobe in the hallway (all 3 are now full after this kitchen reorganisation)

I had a suspicion that where we had the turtle tank wasn't the best place for it, as it was on a short wall but facing into the longest part of the room, if that makes sense? This room is pretty awkward as it's a small room with 4 doors into it and it's an irregular shape, with a random change in wall depth on the long wall (you can see it in the left of the photo above) and also the living room door juts out into the room, this photo is taken from the hallway door, the bedroom door is first on the left then the living room is actually a bit larger so the wall comes out into the room

So I set the table up where the desk had been and it looked like this

Not good. When the benches were both tucked right under they were just about out of the way of the bathroom door, but if someone was sitting at the table it would be in the way, and if you pulled it out to seat 2-4 people the door would be completely blocked. I'd had an inkling that the tank might be better in that inset part of the wall, as the wall with the bathroom door on is the narrowest part of the room so not the best place for a table.

I scooted the tank over and set the table up in the other corner and voilà, fits perfectly!

Sorry this room is so hard to get good photos of, there's little natural light an it is so small and awkward that I can never get a shot of the whole room! Anyway I hope you get the idea...

After refilling the tank and putting the room back together it now looks like this

The baskets under the tank are just for now, I want to get 4 matching storage boxes for these shelves to hold turtle food and the remaining stuff from the desk that I thought we would want easy access to. The cat litter went in the cupboard under the tank along with the tray liners, bin liners for emptying it etc. 

Our new little dining area, the table fits so well in that corner, like it was made for it!

Coasters, I made 6 of these last year, 4 are in the living room with actual words on and these are made from the excess tiles I had left over.

The benches tuck away underneath pretty well so when not in use can go out the way. I might even attempt a DIY sewing project (I cannot sew so it might be laughable) and do some seat cushions. You can see part of the old computer hidden away underneath the bench above. I dismantled it and the screen, printer, keyboard and mouse are all in the entrance hallway stored away but within easy access and the cables are all still plugged into the back of the computer so it can be easily set back up if needed, although I don't know how often that will be.

My idea is that when working on the laptop for short times I will just sit on a bench, but if I'm going to be working there for a while I can move the bench and sit on a dining chair instead. We have 4 stacked in the hallway and a chair with a back is more comfortable.

The litter tray is still in here as I couldn't find anywhere else to put it, but it can easily be scooted into the bathroom when we are eating (don't want to have to look at that during dinner!)

All in all I'm pretty pleased with in, well actually I am totally in love with it and am sat there writing this post now! We are yet to eat there because there were some bolts not included with the table that we need to attach one last part, the bit that goes between the 2 legs to keep it stable. It's still a bit wobbly without that but hoping to go and get some bolts and get that attached asap. 

A reminder of what it looked like before

There seems to be so much more space in here and it seems lighter without the tank in the corner, which is a bonus in a room with no windows!

Friday inspiration post tomorrow, I'm presenting an award at a ceremony tonight to the apprentice of the year in the category that I won last year and absolutely terrified of speaking in front of that many people so as you are reading this I'm probably pacing the flat practising, wish me luck!

Work in progress

Just a quick post today as I'm busy sorting out the office and doing a bit of work in the garden.

I'll share posts on them soon as they're looking very different than the last time I shared them.

This was a present from Toms mum and her partner Bob for our engagement, I hung it over the office door as we have the coat hanger on the other side that I could attach it to.

Thank you to everyone for all the presents and cards, the living room is covered in birthday and engagement cards and everyone has been so happy for us :)

I'm off to finish the office as I got to this stage yesterday before going to Dads for a barbecue

The desk is empty and ready to be dismantled so tasks for today are dismantle desk, empty the tank and push it back to the wall, refill it with water (they could do with a water change any way), clean and mop the floor where the desk and tank have been, find homes for all the displaced stuff from the desk and set up the table. Hoping it won't take too long and I can get out in the garden this afternoon as well!

Progress

We've been living in our flat 6 months now, so I thought it's a good time to look back and see what progress we've made (and what we still have left to do...which is plenty!)

Let's start with the kitchen, probably the room that's least changed

We've decluttered and added in some storage jars and storage solutions, also we've added in some finishing touches like the 'keep calm' sign. Still left to do in here are new mugs (thinking those DIY sharpie decorated ones that are all over Pinterest), new bread bin and mug tree, new canisters for tea coffee and sugar (thinking silver metallic) new recycling bin, maybe a rug or at least a doormat, new fruit bowl and possibly a window treatment. Also we still need to declutter some problem area like the top of the microwave.

You can see larger photos and more detail on the changes in the kitchen here, here and here.

Onto the living room

We got the new bookshelves and I changed the basket under the table for a larger one with a lid (It came with the ottomans from the bedroom), we also added in my DIY runner. Other than that the changes have been minor rearrangements of frames and CDs etc, I want to eventually get an ottoman or trunk to use as a coffee table, change the TV unit, add some art/photo frames on the fireplace (where we have been told we can put picture hooks, yay!), add more pillows to the sofa, maybe make a faux roman blind for the window (to go over the existing boring one) and generally add in a bit of colour as the room is a bit bland! Possibly thinking yellow to go with the Fender...

You can see more on the living room here and more on the DIY runner here.

The into the Office

We have some art on the tank and a mat under the cat litter tray, but the desk is now even more of a mess as we have 2 PC screens at the moment (anyone want to buy one?!). We are looking at the whole computer situation, as I have my new netbook (which came with one of those screens) so very rarely use the desktop, Tom uses it sometimes but if we had a laptop that did iTunes and Tom could play games on we could get rid the desktop, freeing up some space. This all costs money though so will be something we sort out gradually. We also want to get a new desk and new desk chair, and possibly a rug under the desk. The turtle tank will also need replacing at some point (see this post on the leak we had the other week!) but that's also something quite expensive that we will need to save up for.

You can see more on the office here and here

Then into the bathroom

This room, like the kitchen, hasn't really changed a great deal it has mostly just been decluttered and I'm trying to not buy more than one bottle of something at a time (you know when your shampoo is on offer so you buy 5 bottles...yeah I'm trying not to do that). I want to get some more art or something in here as it's a bit bland, I'm thinking on the back of the toilet as I like the lilies there in this post. Also I think we need a new bath mat as our has goe a bit off white, new towels probably soonish as well as I bought really cheap ones and they're starting to go a bit off colour (they also looked great in our last bathroom but I'd prefer black or white ones here).

You can read more on the bathroom here and here

The bedroom, it was gross before!

We've gotten rid of the 2 armchairs that were in there, reorganised my shoes, moved the trunk in from the hallway, got new wardrobes, got ottomans for storage on top of the wardrobes, rationalised the stuff under the bed and moved a lot of it out to the wardrobe in the hallway, brought the canvas in from the office, got new paperwork storage and generally tidied up! To be honest it still has a long way to go, I want to get a new bed, get bedside tables, rearrange the furniture so the chest of drawers isn't in front of the window (makes it hard to open the window), add some art or photos to the chimney breast (again this is where we've been told we can put picture hooks) get new bedding and a mirror, get some bedside lamps and bring a bit of a cohesive colour scheme in (so far we have about 10 different wood tones and 5 different textiles in here and it looks a bit crazy). It all seems to hinge on the new bed I so once we have that we can do the rest.

You can see more on the bedroom here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then onto the entrance hall way, probably the most transformed room so far!

I reorganised in here a few times before getting our lovely big wardrobe to put all our junk in, it's a room that isn't really used by us except to walk through when we come in and out of the flat and for storage, so really I want to give this space a use other than drying clothes. As we don't spend any time in here more often than not it's full of clothes airers with washing drying on them, so you come in the door and it looks like this

Not exactly a warm welcome. So our aim in here is to maximise space so we could actually spend time in here, I'm thinking a reading nook as all the bookshelves are in here.

You can see more on the entrance hall and how we got to this point here, here and here

Onto the outside space, really we have just planted some things and are waiting to see how they do but it looks better already in the back garden

We're just waiting for seeds to grow and plants to fill in, then we might get a few more pots and some pretty garden things but we will build it up over time. There's not been any change in the front of the flat, not a lot we can change really!

You can see more on the garden here, and here.

There's the last 6 months of projects and changes, it's nice to look back and what you've achieved sometimes and see how much progress you've made even though there is plenty left to do!

Leaks

I was changing the cat litter tray the other day when I noticed this

Water behind the turtle tank. Damn.Well actually at the time I think I said some words rather more explicit than 'damn'

This looks a bit odd that I just took a photo of the spreading puddle, the thing is I can't move the tank on my own (it's heavy) so had to wait for Tom to get home, and had already got the turtles out and started draining the water with the syphon at this point! Also I turned off the extension cord at the wall as soon as I noticed it sat in a puddle.

So the turtles got an unscheduled trip into the bath, Tom got a panicky phone call from me that went something along the lines of 'when will you be home...ok no rush but the tank's leaking water everywhere', and then we spent Friday night sorting it out. It seems the tank itself is fine no leaks from the joins or anything, but the filter was leaking. It sits in the cupboard in the stand and the water was going out the back so we hadn't noticed until the puddle got quite large.

We dismantled it, cleaned it out and put it back together carefully, so far it seems to be ok (We think maybe we didn't put it back together properly last time), but we might need to get a new one sooner rather than later as it's starting to show it's age and is meant for fish not turtles. The stand has also gotten quite damp from standing in the water, so it's looking a bit gross. We got the dehumidifier in to try and dry it out (and obviously cleaned up all the water) but it might be time for a more modern one sooner that we thought.

New Art

I liked the look of this canvas on top of the tank in the office

But because it was hand painted and not sealed or wipeable I was worried it would get a bit damp on top of the warm tank (you can see in the picture above the water steaming up the tank a bit) so I took it off and was looking out for something to replace it.

I then got Groupon email a few weeks later with an offer to get a large world map art canvas for £35 (rrp £160) from here

I love maps, especially in an office space as they look very grand but I didn't want anything too dark as this is a small room with no natural light, so these were perfect as they are art prints of world maps in text, paint splatters, words, music notes etc all in the shape of the world map. I've not ordered self assemble canvasses before but this was actually very easy to put together, I just laid it all out on the bed stuck the bars down as instructed and then cut the corners. The hardest part was rolling the bars in to tighten the canvas as I would roll one and the one opposite would unroll but I was doing this on my own so I think it would be pretty straightforward with 2 people.

Here it is, I like that the background is white so it's a splash of colour in here but not too overbearing. I was torn between this and this other one but wanted to keep the background as light as possible. 

We have put the candles and photo frame back up on the tank in front of it that are on the desk below, we can still open the lid to the tank enough to feed the turtles with the canvas and the candles etc on there and just have to take it all off to clean the tank.

Some details, it looks pretty cool in person and as it's a print we're hoping it will be able to be wiped down (So far when I do the dusting I just run a cloth over the bottom of it) but if it does show any signs of getting a bit damp I think I could seal it with some spray sealer.

That's our new addition in the office, hoping to sort out a new desk at some point but it's pretty far down the list (After all the bedroom furniture). I'm leaning toward getting a table that we can use as a desk and also to eat at, as since I got my laptop I don't use the desk so much but it would be nice to still have one and we miss having a dining table.

Friday Inspiration

A collection of inspiring things I've seen this week, more on my pinterest

I've been thinking about DIYing something like this for ages, and I'd love to make some freestanding large art that doesn't need to be hung on the wall

I wanted to do this at the start of this year and forgot! It's a lovely idea though

I'm debating hanging something above our bed, suspended between the 2 wardrobes, after seeing this

I've started thinking about our outside spaces recently, and window boxes and planters

I'd love a chair like this for the office

Contemporary Dining Room design by Montreal Interior Designer Lux Decor

Have great weekends everyone, I'm going out for a meal tonight with work and also tomorrow night with Toms family :)

Office Additions

There were 2 small changes in the office recently, this canvas migrated into here from the living room

In our first ever post you can see it's just leant on the back of the sofa, but it kept getting knocked and we were having our housewarming party the evening after taking these pictures so I moved it out of the way. This is also temporary really as I think it will get damp on top of the warm tank.

I made this myself, I would do a how to post but I didn't take pictures back when I made it and to be honest it's so simple I can do it in 2 sentences. Stick wooden letters to canvas and paint over everything in your chosen colour to make the 3D word, or words depending on your quote. Write on the rest of the words using a narrow tip marker, I used a stencil and did it in pencil first because my handwriting is awful but you could freehand it if yours isn't.

Also I put our old bath mat under the litter tray becasue it had a hole in it (the mat not the tray, it's in the middle so hidden by the litter tray but made it useless as a bathroom mat), and I've wanted to have a mat to put under this for a while to catch bits of litter so it's not strewn all over the floor. Now if only I could train them to wipe their paws on it...

This room will have some more changes made to it eventually like:

• A new desk, larger than our current one, maybe a corner desk to maximise space.
• A new desk chair - probably without wheels as it's not great on the wooden flooring
• A new computer - This one was a hand me down and it works ok but it's massive (In the picture above see how the chair cannot fit under the desk because there is a monster sized computer there, also the desk is tiny) and OLD, seriously it's over 10 years old and until last year had never been connected to the internet, but it's keeping up just about. I'd like to get a laptop or netbook.
• Depending on the desk we buy (Hoping to get one with it built in) some office storage like a small filing cabinet, so we won't have to keep the paperwork under the bed.
• Some different art to go on top of the tank - As I like the look of the canvas there, but I think it needs to be something that won't be affected by the warm water underneath (Like in a sealed frame which I might DIY)

Although this room isn't a big priority as the stuff we have in here is functional and we have lots of other things to sort out first, so this will probably all be further down the line. Although you know I won't leave a room completely alone for long so there will be small upgrades along the way...

Friday Inspiration

I spend a ridiculous amount of time browsing Pinterest and the internet for inpsiration, so I though I'd round up some of the things I spot each week into a post.

This is exactly what I want our office to look like, from here. I also love the bed in the same post, it would go so well with our new wardrobes which I'll share photos of soon, in fact this is pretty much how I want our whole flat to look.

I would love to have a 'reading nook' somewhere in my house, can't you just imagine spending a few hours here? From here

Or I'd love to recreate something like this in our entrance hall, from here

I'm going to make one of these for all my glasses one day - From here 

I love this white and grey bedroom - From here

This quote is so true :) - From here

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

I'll be reorganising the bathroom and trying to clean up our new (New to us they're actually quite old) wardrobes a little.

xxx