House warming present

When we moved back into our flat 3 weeks ago we had a 99% complete bathroom (minus the glass shelf above the sink), and a 50% complete kitchen.  That is, we had cabinets in place, but no worktop and therefore no sink or stovetop...  We faced it bravely for a few days, and after living in a friend's sharehouse for 2 months we were just glad to be home.  So we washed our dishes in the bathroom sink and cooked our toast on the bare top of the built in fridge but it wasn't pretty. Toast crumbs are now caught in areas of our appliances that should never have seen the light of day. 

Luckily, our builder knew this would be a nightmare of proportions Epiales himself would aspire to.  And so when he came around a couple of days later to do a few touch ups, he gifted us this beauty as a housewarming present:

It all works, including the dishwasher!  Unfortunately without cabinet handles, everything is tres difficult to open now, but I can certainly deal with that.  He made it from a scrap worktop and the cheapest sink money can buy.  Its all absolutely brilliant, and a testament to what a great guy he was to work with.

I'm so itching to rip that protective blue stuff off, its killing me every time I look at it.  I showed the photo to a colleague who commented on my bold colour choice.


Those lamp shades were originally destined for the dining table. We both had brave looks in our eyes as we pulled them out of the box, but deep in our hearts we knew they were way too small to meet the criteria of 'whopping great big lamps' that we had spoken of for so long.  And since GG was always scared of my idea to have '3 burning suns' (aka globes without shades) hanging over the worktop, we decided to keep them and put them up in the kitchen instead. I'm pretty happy with them now they're up. More pics soon of the new dining table lights.


Here's a close up of our new tap:, by Paini. Choosing a tap is hard.  So many types, and most of them look really ugly in isolation, but then you probably wouldn't even notice them once installed. But then you have to choose it in isolation. Tough job, but this is what we came up with.

He's looking a bit wonky there, because the sink that our builder bought (bless him) ain't the strongest and the tap is probably not yet bolted down as much as such a manly tap would need.


The last part of the kitchen is 'Bo', so named because he was inspired by an over-priced similarly functioned piece we saw in  BoConcept. You can see something similar here - its that tall drink of water on the right hand side.  Ours is the Ikea hacker's version - 2 stacked over-counter cabinets and a couple of side panels. I'm quite pleased with him and frankly while I wasn't having any overhead cupboards, we needed more space than the 1 under counter cupboard we ended up with.

In any case, I didn't realise how far we'd come, until I looked back over a few photos from the day we packed everything up for the builders to start.  I'm all for the industrial look boviously, but t looks so much better with all the pipework painted white, and without that fugly extractor fan.  We had the gas pipe in the far corner moved through the wall and it now runs down the bedroom wall. Frankly I just couldn't deal with having a hole in my stainless steel worktop for it to run through.

Still a lot of work to be done, our friend Rob is making the stainless steel top and then we need to tile the backsplash (white non-bevelled subways, same as in the bathroom).  

Rob's in the trade and has access to a full workshop full of industrial tools, but unfortunately they can't work with steel more than 2.5m in length.  This was a bit of a conundrum for a while, and we considered having it made somewhere else, but eventually came up with a great solution - split the worktop with a feature wood section. On an angle. More details to follow soon, GG is in the midst of concocting a sketchup for it...

Hallelujah

We're back.  But its been an up and down couple of weeks. And we're still dealing with the aftermath as you can see below, hence the absence of updates - despite there being SO MUCH to blog about...

Within 2 hours of the builder's call to say the painters were done, we were back in (but steering clear of the walls).  It was all awesome for about 15 minutes, until we realised the boiler was broken.  The first shower in my long-awaited sparkling new bathroom involved a kettleful of boiling water and the new plastic bin from under the kitchen sink, temporarily seconded for the fondly nick-named 'bucket shower'.  

Now its 2 weeks later, and we've had our last bucket shower.  Boiler was replaced on Tuesday.  Budget was looking ok until we had to add that bad boy on to the bottom line.  It was ridiculously expensive, even at the mates-rates we managed to get by hiring a friend (£1300).  But I'd forgotten all about that by the time I'd turned myself into a prune having my first extended and super hot shower under that shiny new chrome head.

Absolutely everything is covered in a thick layer of dust despite the dust covers, which were admittedly a bit haphazard.  The floor is stil filthy, and our feet turn black walking on it.  I've just spent tonight (yes, Saturday night) cleaning the bedroom, continuing to file our clothes into the Great Wall of Wardrobes, and washing the floor.  But given that I haven't been able to do the lounge room for all the stuff everywhere, it probably won't make much difference.


But despite this, the absolute highlight of the last 24 hours at least, has been sending the dishwasher off on her maiden voyage (on the eco-setting of course). Oh how I'd dreamt of this moment.  It was almost everything I'd imagined, except that the Ikea Whirlpool quality isn't quite as good as it could be... but I guess it was bottom of the range, and we did get 3 appliances for the price of 2 (we also bought the under counter fridge and freezer).  The sliding mechanism of the top drawer means it sometimes misses the connection with the top spray hose at the back, and then the door won't shut.  


Anyway, here's a sneak peek or two, with more detailed posts and much better photos to follow at a later point when we've tidied up and found the camera...
Wardrobes. No more suitcases, at least on the weekends.  Unfortunately still travelling for work every week.

Kitchen lighting, shelves, and some Orla Kiely ceramic containers with wooden lids for tea from our Mums (luckily enought to get both for my birthday this year).  Stainless steel shelves still have the protective wrapping on in this pic.

More soon!
Happy weekend.


 

Progress

Wow, its amazing how much progress can be made, when you have 6 guys crawling your flat with brushes, electric tile saws and wirecutters... Then again, its amazing how much progress can be made when its 45 degrees and you're just a lone ranger in your underpants.

Anyway, lets put the discussion of time and DIY talent shortfalls aside, and move onto talking about paint. White paint to be exact.  I have to say, I didn't look at a single colour swatch in order to choose the colour white.  Some may say that's madness. I say I'm not enough of an connoisseur to tell the difference.  GG and I talk in the most technical of terms.  Brightness.  GG: "Do you think its too bright?"  Me: "Nah, I think it should have been even brighter."  And then silence for a while before moving onto look at something else.

So, in chronological order we have plastering complete and first lick of paint applied.  Again, sorry for the photo quality, the camera is buried in the bedroom somewhere...

The painting continued and the place really started to take shape:

My favourite photo shows the difference between old and new paint behind where the kitchen cabinets will go:

We've decided to paint the radiators as well, a suggestion made by the decorators.  Hard to tell here, but they look decidedly crappy next to the white walls.

And in the last couple of days the kitchen has started to take shape...  that funny cabinet on the wall will be our pantry/extra storage, since by the time we jammed in a sink, dishwasher, fridge, freezer and oven, there was only space for 1 set of drawers.  And I've previously ranted about my aversion to overhead cupboards.  However, we were daydreaming in BoConcept one day and I spotted this vertical single wall cabinet which floats on the wall and I loved it.  Ours will have 4 handleless doors and is made of 2 stacked wall cabinets from Ikea.  It looks quite large in this photo but I'm hoping once the white doors are revealed and the rest of the furniture is in the room you won't notice it too much.

Here is GG inspecting the new oven. Finally! We we will soon be able to cook baked goods. If only I knew how to bake.  Since we never hooked up the electrics for our old standalone cooker, we've been surviving solely on stove top culinary delights for 18 months now.  Oh, and of course our portable grill, "George".  

And the beast itself.  We splurged a little on the visible appliances in the kitchen.  Since we ended up going with Ikea cabinets and hidden appliances, thought it might be nice to up the ante on the hob and oven.  Both have glass rather than stainless steel surfaces. I can't wait to try them out!  Might just need to invest in a new kettle, since the old one might find his self esteem a little shaken as he stares down at his chipped reflection all day...

Here is the matching hob, the photo isn't that great unfortunately but that didn't stop us basing our purchasing decision for both the oven and hob solely on the one crappy picture below.  Slightly scary buying some of the biggest ticket items without having clapped eyes on them in person, but that's pretty much been the theme of our approach to both flat-hunting (stepped inside a total of 7 flats, 1 of which was just for funsies pre-deposit) and reno fitout.  Ah, the intertubes, how we love you.

 

All in all, everything starting to look good there!

Later this week, an update on the bathroom, which is nearly done! We even think we might have moved back in next week...

Kitchen: Before and After

Lets start at the very beginning. Want to see a nightmare?  Check this out, the day after we moved in.  

Only half of what you see is ours.  The rest we inherited from the previous tennants. A flatful of free junk.  It was like they got halfway through moving, before deciding that they didn't need to go back for the last load of jeans, shoes, books, piles of bank statements, kitchen equipment...  Or to clean.  There were half full rubbish bags and piles of swept up dust all over the floor. 
You'll also see the ingenious and rather becoming solution the previous owner had taken towards window treatements, upon realising that a standard £5 blind from the budget DIY store wouldn't measure up so to speak... That's right, a wooden pelmet, screwed right into the wall.  It was a happy day when those travesties came down. Although the weather is just turning really cold here now, and I'm hoping we won't miss pulling down those nasty plastic blinds for extra insulation.
But back to the kitchen. The previous rental tennants had tried to create a 'kitchen room' in the back corner by placing the freestanding bench out in the middle of nowhere and using the Expedit bookshelf for the other 'wall'. Crazy stuff. There was also a disgusting grease covered open wire shelving unit, which from a distance I thought I could clean up and paint to be kind of cool.  Up close I realised the best home for it was at the tip. Or the local chippie.
But we did score a free Expedit bookcase! I don't know what they used to cook in here but I spent about 3 hours with industrial strength cleaner removing dust glued onto it with grease. We also kept a few other things like a brand new fancy corksrew, still in the box, a fridge, freezer, a thermos and some saucepans in good nick. 

The first thing we did was push the bookcase against the wall, and move the freestanding worktop alongside it to open up the space.  And that's pretty much how it's remained since.  Despite my protests of "I'm not living with this kitchen for more than a month!", we've now been here 10 months.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago - isn't that extractor pipe just lovely? It runs through our bedroom as well! 

So much better.  But why doesn't my makeshift kitchen look as good as this one?! Possibly because I can't be bothered buying those nice looking wooden crates.

Photo courtesy of Remodelista via The New York Times

So, now to the 'after'.  Ok, so its not my 'after'.  Yet. Make-shift kitchen aside, we're in a bit of turmoil about the new kitchen as well.  The advice to live in your own house before renovating cannot be underestimated. There are some decisions that are undisputable, made even before we moved in.  And there are others that, had we gone ahead with them in the early days, would have been a disaster.  For example, we originally loved the rustic-y style with subway tiles, and GG was even sold on having a butler's sink:

These days we're thinking that ultra-modern is the way to go - it fits better with our mid-century furniture obsession, and will sit nicer in this old building, rather than trying to match or mix eras.  I want the simplicity of the kitchen to mean it fades into the background allowing the industrial features stand out more.
So I've started looking for inspiration on ultra-modern kitchens... and luckily they are a-plenty. But it seems that splashbacks are a bit passe these days, which throws the subway tiles into question. This is a little unsettling, as they have been my one constant throughout these rollercoaster months of indecision.
Would you believe it took 6 months to agree finally that white cupboards would be best?

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

This next kitchen is by Henry Built, which I suspect is the US version of European kitchen companies such as Bulthaup. Which we visited once.  They went up a notch in my book for not sneering at us even though it was blatantly obvious we were not able to afford any of their stuff, and the sales lady even gave us a hardcover book - I mean catalogue - as a souvenir.

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

Swedish log cabin. Love the wood walls, and as soon as it gets cold enough in London to ski to work from the front door I'm installing them.  Also love the gunmetal-coloured cupboards.

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

As much as I hate overhead cupboards, if I had to have them, they would look like this - right to the ceiling and totally sleek.  Nice use of brickwork as a splashback.  Unfortunately our brick wall is next to the kitchen, not behind it.

Photo courtesy of The Kitchen Vote

 But I'd much prefer to try and get away with just this little guy.

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

Or better yet, this.  This picture also makes me want to rip out the floorboards and polish up the concrete.   If I didn't think it might hurt the resale value on this place I'd do it in an instant.

Photo courtesy of Apartment Diet

In reality we'll have to have some form of open shelving, maybe something along these lines.

Photo courtesy of The Kitchen Vote

And then I saw this! Could it be? Stainless steel worktop with white cupboards and subway tiles in a modern setting!

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

Complete with built in sink.  In the end it all seems so obvious and... boring. Not in the way it looks but in the way it sounds when I try to describe it. But, having had 1 or 2 conversations with builders recently, the simpler the better when it comes to describing what you want.

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

But the biggest pain is actually working out the details once you've figured our roughly how it looks.  I just wish there weren't so many practicalities to consider. Like whether you can survive with just an integrated under-counter fridge/freezer, or whether it would be better to have a full size one. With Tescos and Waitrose right next door I'm tempted to just treat them as my personal fridge and pantry... pretty much as I do now.

welcome

I've been thinking about creating this blog since my boyfriend GG and I bought our first flat in December last year.  The flat itself is in need of a bit of work, and given that I get so much enjoyment out of following other home improvement and design blogs, I figured someone else might enjoy reading about ours... Luckily for you, its 5 months in and we've not yet made any significant improvements :)


But first, some context... We are both Australian, and have been in London for 4 years.  We both work in fairly uncreative jobs in the software and business sectors, and find ourselves craving the creative outside of working hours... I have a passion for good design be it for style or function... I love modernist furniture and architecture, recycled homewares and old buildings... In all cases I like to honour the time and effort that went into making something the first time around by using it again.  


I'm hoping to explore the amateur end of the architecture and design spectrum, and hope to move from mere appreciation to contribution - at least in our own domain as we go about the process of putting our style stamp on the 62sqm of London that is ours (in the mortgaged leasehold sense anyway).


Combine the unfulfilled inner artist with a love of industrial architecture, and it is no surprise that we wanted to live out the 1980's NYC artist's dream of living in a 'loft' (although that word doesn't have quite the same meaning in the UK as every terrace house in the country has or is in the process of converting the roof space into usable rooms - the 'loft conversion').  Anyway, we of course searched out a flat in a converted warehouse, and after some ups and downs managed to find a great flat in an old Brewery in our favourite suburb of Clerkenwell. Here is the exterior:

Our flat is 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 living area with open plan kitchen.  Here is the floorplan:

Room layout was a critical factor for me (much less so for GG!), and there were a few key selling points here: 

1. Bathroom right next to bedroom; I personally hate curtains and blinds and love using the fact that we are above street level to get away without them. What I would hate is having to run past my curtain-less windows in my towel to get back to the bedroom every time I take a shower.
2. Bathroom not ensuite; in a 1 bedroom flat, unless you have visitors every day this is not a huge issue, but I do think its nice for visitors to be able to get to the loo without seeing that I haven't made my bed.
3. Washing machine not in the kitchen; nothing spoils the calm of a living area like the sound of a spin cycle. Its not in the bathroom either which is also a bonus; it has its very own cupboard in the hallway.
4. Wide entrance hall; halls might be wasted space, but in a country like this where you actually have a need for winter coats I am beginning to appreciate this odd little room.

But layout aside, the flat has some great original features; 11ft ceilings with concrete beams, huge crittal-style factory windows, and a cast iron supporting pillar in the living room.  


Here are some interior photos taken in the first 2 weeks of moving in:

The current state of the flat is quite liveable, depending on your point of view.  There isn't a built in kitchen at the moment, just what was already here when we moved in: a freestanding kitchen sink and a freestanding cabinet, both from Ikea.  The remainder of our bench space comes from the under-counter fridge and freezer (that currently have no over-counter).


The bathroom is a bit of a layout and style travesty, its so small you can barely swing the door open, it has zero positive style elements and recently has become less than functional (broken mixer tap means the water comes out scalding hot and we are resorting to baths instead):

So, as you can guess there is a long list of improvements to be made, with bathroom fast rising to the top of the priority list, followed by kitchen and then decorating... Now that we have been living here for a while the momentum is building to start doing some of the major work.  We have lots of exciting ideas, ulitmately the budget will make the final decision but I'm looking forward to sharing some of the pipe dreams and the realities with you over the next few months :)