Sleeping lofts!

I've been meaning to tell you - we're not crazy!  A while back I shared our hair-brained idea for a shallow mezzanine above the bathroom.   Although I found a few pictures here and there on the interwebs showing these kind of spaces, there was not much around.  And it is the kind of idea that is hard to know if it will work until you (1) have a milimetre accurate sketchup drawn and even better (2) have seen it in person.. and at that stage... BOOM! You realise that its freaking brilliant.

While we stopped short of sticking GG's parents up there (its still a little precarious with the A-frame ladder we're temporarily using), his brother and sister had the joys of sleeping up there at different times. Great views out the window and of the flat, and a homely little space to get a good kip.  Small issue of the bright lights in the morning, but we'll fix that soon with a blind up there.

And a few weeks ago I found this post on Remodelista about built in sleeping lofts, which shows that many others have put the same idea into practice:

Also serves as good inspiration on the ladder front, we're not quite sure what to do there yet...

3 months in 30 seconds

Oh, has it really been that long?!? I vageuly remember posting about how proud I was to have kept it up for a year, and how GG and I were launching a new look to celebrate.  Got you all excited and then... nada.


No excuses, really although I could try plenty on.  But we do have some progress to share, so get your cuppa ready, its going to be a whirlwind tour of the last 3 months in shitpoor resolution/lighting/framed blackberry photos... 


April: Berlin for GG's birthday, Paris with my friend Louise from university in Perth, now contently blogging all the way from Montreal.


Highlights were (1) the Friedrichshain flea market:

Lampy!!

(2) Mies van der Rohe Niunationale Gallerie, spectacular architecture, and stocking a few from my fav artist Franz Marc:

And (3) currywurst and beers in the park:

 Paris. Wine. Cheese. Tasty bits.

 And this view from our little studio apartment.

May. Enjoying new shoes from Paris. Walks around the neighbourhood admiring the local architecture. Flying back and forth to Spain for work and enjoying the local cuisine.

June. Finalise builder selection. Confirm start date. BEGIN RENOVATION. Yes, you read correctly, we started!


So, in photos, here is the progress so far. Stage 1: Teardown. There used to be a bathroom there! Toilet's a little exposed at this stage, but functional nonetheless.  In this photo you can see where the builders have ripped the floor out to extend the bathroom by about 70cm beyond the original wall.  Sounds like a lot of fuss for not much gain, but actually 70cm + layout change = a bathroom big enough for 2!

Stage 2, construction begins. We ummed and ahhed about whether we should go ahead with our hairbrained psuedo-mezzanine/loft idea, and in the end we thought, bugger it lets just put our crazy-assed stamp on this place for good. And here it is, in frame form:

If you're thinking its not a lot of space up there, then you'd be both wrong and right, since its about the size of our bedroom, but with the headroom of a bunk bed.  Which is how we'll use it; its a sleeping nook and storage area, and we're going to stick our guests up there.  As long as they're not afraid of heights. Not sure how they'll get up there yet.

On the left you can see the new hallway with lower ceiling, I love how it really feels like the room really opens out when you emerge from the other side. And look how fugly that toilet is! After scouring the internet for days looking for the perfect poocatcher, I'm unfortunately very well versed in every curve, feature and style of ye olde toilettes,


Next came the internal cladding and plumbing. Minor setback as we decided to add an additional showerhead on a hose as well as the fixed showerhead, but our fantastic builder took it all in his stride and accommodated us with no complaints.
The internal view of the bathroom - the walk in shower is at the far end, the width of the room.  You can see the 2 built in shelves for shampoos.  The bathroom cabinets are actually 2 x 2-door flatpack units from Ikea, but are the perfect size and saved the builder a heap of work.

And that's how it stands right now.  Shower tray poised for installation (that's a bit of a nightmare story for another time), tiler and plasterer due onsite tomorrow. Kitchen appliances and cabinets on site. All systems go.


Sorry for the marathon post. But you're all up to speed now! I'll post a little more next week about the fittings, appliances and tiles we've picked.  I'llbe back more regularly now we actually have solid progress to write home about.

Pods, pods, pods

Ah, I can't sleep because I'm thinking about pods.  My latest idea in the renovation sweepstakes is to knock down every wall in the flat (none of which are load bearing since its inside an old warehouse) and create a bedroom/bathroom/kitchen pod. A room-within-a-room.  

Like this, designed by Jade Jagger for the renovation of 16W 19th st in NYC (but without the chav shiny outer skin):

Photo courtesy of gliving.com

Now, before we go too far, this idea is as unachievable as it is awesome.  Contrary to what I first thought, there are no off the shelf pods on the market; it would need to be designed from scratch, and then built by more reliable tradesmen than I'm willing to bet we can afford. 

I know I haven't shared with you our actual renovation plans yet, and there is a good chance you'll now be disappointed when you see them, but there will hopefully still be some interesting design features in there, and in all likelihood it will hold more appeal for the infinitely conservative London buyer and/or buy-to-let market when we go to sell... And so as long as we make our money on this place, one day I'll have a pod. Just maybe not here.

For instance, this little puppy cost 200,000 Euro, and was designed by Graft (check out their website, it is uber-cool):

Photos courtesy of thecoolhunter.com.au

I love the wood panelling and the futuristic shapes.  

Here is another I found yesterday, although its a bit smaller and includes bathroom and storage only:

Photos courtesy of ducotedechezvous.com

I then discovered a company called Atelier that makes outdoor rooms that you can put in your backyard. I contacted them to see if they would be interested in designing a similar room for indoor but alas they appear to have crossed over from innovation to commercialism, such that their 'bespoke' service only involves putting together the same components in different combinations.  They look pretty cool though, and if one day I have a backyard and am in need of extra space, these are the guys I'll call.

I think I'd like to design it myself anyway.  Well frankly I've already designed it in my head, but the tools are the main problem - I need a better free 3D design programme - any recommendations? I've been using SweetHome3D which is super easy to use, but has 3 major drawbacks: (1) in 2D it shows a picture of the furniture within the outline, not the outline of the furniture item itself which looks incomprehensibly stupid, (2) the range of decorating options is so severely limited that even when I create the perfect layout the resulting 3D vision is... mediocre, and (3) its a stupid name and I just don't think I can be taken seriously using it.  But I'm just too cheap to buy good 3D software with an appropriately polished brand and logo, and I'm not talented enough to use Google Sketchup, although I feel comforted that there is significant time and effort involved in creating a good sketchup after reading Morgan's post about it on The Brick House.  And eventually I'd like to be able to draw something half as good as this. 

In my dreams I can open up both sides of my bedroom with these great big beautiful barn doors and have a studio for day, and a cosy-walled-up-sound-proofed-sleep-haven/theatre room by night.  Ah sound proofing. So we don't have to listen to the 20yo raver upstairs having parties that start at 11pm, finish at 2am and start again at 6am.  Or clomping around on her wooden floors in her stiletto heels all day. Back and forth. Back and forth.  

Here is a quick mock up on SweetHome. The kitchen moves out of the main living area down the side to become a galley kitchen. That green thing is a bed.

I've not figured out a way to deal with the fact that the kitchen is too long for this wall, or exactly where I would build in the wardrobes yet, but this is the basic concept. Key criteria: can walk around all sides, has big sliding doors, doesn't make the main room feel too small, and is do-able for the same price as a normal reno. Hah.


Anyway, back to reality. I think it will be standard bathroom and kitchen remodel here at ec1v.

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 :)