Room Reveal: Masterbed and an awesome Ikea hack to luxe things up a bit

Drumroll! 3, 2, 1….and here’s yet another room reveal. This time around I find that I am sharing something a bit more personal as it’s the MASTER BEDROOM. I am so pleased and excited about the result so far and hope you will love it too the way I do.

Just a quick reminder of how it used to look like: Talking about neon green galore with that horrible patterned carpet to a more tasteful “Denim Drift Blue” and creams.

 

 

 

And here’s the result so far….

As mentioned before in one of my previous blog post I have been using the colour palette below as my guideline. I also pulled some colour inspiration from the “Gold Birch Trees” painting hanging above the bed which I used for the throw pillows and other brass accessories.

 

 

 

Top tip: If you are a bit overwhelmed with finding the right colour combination for a room you want to restyle, just pull colours from a picture or painting you would want to incorporate into the room and I can assure you that it is a no-fail solution to your colour scheme dilemma. 🙂

On both sides of the “Gold Birch Trees” painting, as I find currently it looks quite lonely on it’s own, I am planning to hang black and white pictures of my family in A4 format 2 sets on each side to give the room a more personal touch. I just haven’t come around to choosing the right pictures yet (plus I am waiting for baby girl’s arrival so I can add her picture to the set)

The IKEA Brimnes wardrobe hack:

The Master bedroom is not a massive bedroom so Christopher and I had to be clever with where we place our wardrobe and storage within the room. And also the last thing I want to happen is for the room to feel smaller and crowded. At first, Chris and I were thinking of buying the PAX wardrobe system from IKEA, but then we soon realised that those wardrobes are just too deep and wide and it would’ve just drowned the room. So we decided to opt for the much more compact BRIMNES wardrobe in white. It’s the same one as in Joseph’s bedroom:

We bought a 3-door with a mirror and a 2-door and placed them side by side on the right side of the room. I like the wardrobe, although not my first choice they definitely do the job and they’re pretty neutral. However, for my own personal space it disturbed me how they were just kind of “plainish” and boring. One evening whilst browsing through Pinterest I came across a picture of kitchen cupboards with chrome t-bar handles on them. It’s when I had one of those EUREKA moments of changing those “plainish” white handles of the wardrobe into gold/brass effect t-bar ones! And once I did it, it made all the difference. The wardrobes look more glam and pulled together and I also now feel they tie in nicely with the theme of the room! Woaho!

Here are pictures of other accessories I used in the room:

Isn’t this “Brass Capiz Shell” chandelier just gorgeous!? 😋 For those who would like to know, I got it from Dunelm during their last end of season sale!

I also love the pineapple shaped side table lamps and the lightweight, breezy curtains with it’s subtle grey trellis pattern which romantically frame our bedroom window.

So far this is how the master bedroom looks like. I am quite curious how in time it will change and grow with me a Chris. After all it’s his and my bedroom 😊.

Stay tuned if you are curious how baby girl’s nursery will turn out. Think: blush pink, creams, rose gold, turquoise and peonies! Absolutely girly! 😋 Here’s a little taster:

 

Room Reveal: Joseph’s bedroom – “Up, up and away!”

Finally, finally I get to do a room reveal! Yey! After the busy Christmas season and overcoming a sickness / flu bug that my family and I were knocked out with over the month of January this is definitely a well deserved treat.

As you all know we’ve finished decorating the upstairs bedrooms just before Christmas and giving each room that style and personality that one wants always takes time. It changes and somehow evolves organically too.

Remember how it used to look like? From scary orange to sky blue…..

And finally to this “Up, up and away hot air balloon fiesta!”

We are all so pleased with the result and I am especially happy that Joseph actually loves his room.  On top of that we really enjoy spending time in there too as a family.

Now let me tell you how I came up with the theme. As said many times before I want every room in the house to be light and airy. And with Joseph’s bedroom it was clear to me straight away that I want to incorporate the clouds and the sky and hot air balloon elements too it. I want it to be boyish and that the room can grow with him and that most especially we will be able to showcase Joseph’s personality and the  things he likes and enjoy in his very own personal space.

The bed:

We chose the IKEA Hemnes day bed which can be extended to a double bed. It’s absolutely perfect for when we are reading bedtime stories together as a family and also it features a lot of storage space for beddings and bed linens. So it’s definitely a multi-purpose piece of furniture!

Minimalist furniture:

We didn’t necessarily want to purchase nursery furniture for this bedroom as my little man is growing up so quickly. So we decided to get neutral “grown-up” wardrobe and bookcase, both from IKEA. (Brimnes wardrobe with mirror and Expedit bookcase -old). They kept the room somehow neutral and allowed us to display Joseph’s books and Lego collection.

To be honest I was a bit hesitant about having too much toy display because of clutter, but what the heck it’s a kid’s room and it should have colour, fun and clutter.

Finally another super simple feature that I love – Round paper lamp, glow in the dark moon, and stars. (Sorry about the bad picture)

So the ball paper lamp is suppose to represent the sun and when the sun goes down at night time the moon and the stars start to glow. Joseph absolutely loves this!

And in case you wonder where we got the hot air balloon wall stickers – we purchased them from Amazon from a company called “Decowall”. It’s got super good quality and can be easily peeled off without ruining the paint on your wall.

That’s that for now. Let me know what you think of the makeover! I am always open for new ideas and improvements.😉

Ciao

Freshly decorated bedrooms are the best!

Woaho! finally after months of preparations and waiting, we can finally use our upstairs bedrooms. It is still an on-going project but it is such a good feeling to know that the only thing we need to do now with the rooms is to make them truly our own. It has been such a journey so far and there were literally days in which I was so close to losing my sanity because of the amount of chaos and dust. And with Christopher being such a perfectionist, every little detail got to be spot on which made the works take a bit longer than anticipated.

At least now we can reap some of the fruits of our hard labour, patience and perseverance; – especially that of my husband’s.

Here’s to remind you of the colour palettes I absolutely love and from which I have taken inspiration and applied similar colours on the feature wall of each room:

Here are some before and after pictures:

MASTERBED:

BEFORE – Who fancies neon green and nasty carpet!? No one right!?

After the room was stripped off the neon green painted wallpaper, the ceilings were plastered and the walls sanded back and whitewashed before the final paint was applied (this lengthy prepping procedure was applied on every room before the actual final paint). Parallel to that Chris was working on updating our bed as well……

AFTER: Voila! Here’s the final finish:

Our room is the only room without a feature lighting at the moment. I am planning to put this Capiz brass chandelier. When I saw the chandelier it reminded me of old colonial houses in the Philippines where they used Capiz for their sliding windows. Capiz reflects natural light so beautifully and yet it provided the privacy that was needed for those windows. AND IT IS CLASSY AND TIMELESS! -Don’t you think this will go beautifully with the Denim Drift Blue of our room!?

 

JOSEPH’S BEDROOM:

BEFORE: Scary orange! YIKES!

AFTER: Ahhh finally bring on the fresh whites and sky blues and we are planning to  add clouds and hot air balloons too.

 

BABY GIRL’S ROOM:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I decided to go girly in this room but not over the top girly. I was thinking of colours like blush pink, grey and creams. Well, pink is traditionally a girly girl colour but when combined with greys and creams it is somehow more subtle and classy.

The feature wall is on the left side of the picture. We used Dulux Blush pink on it. When Chris opened the paint tin for the first time he exclaimed how it reminded him of the McDonald’s strawberry milkshake and how he was so tempted to drink it because it looked so yummy! YIKES!

Well, luckily he didn’t!

We have just over a week to go before Christmas and before the Magpantay clan arrive from Germany to visit us over the Christmas period. We can slightly breathe easy that the rooms will be ready for my family’s use during their stay! PUH!

An EXCITING announcement and other updates

I know it’s been over 2 months since my last blog update and a  lot of people have been asking why the long halt. Well, my lovelies there’s a good reason for that and we have exciting news! druuuummm roll!

We are delighted to announce that come April 2018 we will no longer be a family of 3, WE WILL BE A FAMILY OF 4! We are super excited especially Joseph who is super eager to be a big brother and we all truly feel very blessed.

 

Hence I have not been updating my blog as unfortunately with this pregnancy I was having really bad morning sickness which included regular bouts of heartburn and acid reflux…..Absolutely horrid stuff. As soon as I hit my second trimester I got diagnosed with pregnancy induced sciatica which is no fun either. I have been such a hot mess and sometimes I found myself wishing why the heck I am not one of those women who just bloom beautifully during pregnancy. So yeah it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride trying to save my leftover energy to look after my boy, our home whilst trying to be able to go to work at the same time. But hey, the baby is growing and kicking and that’s the most important thing.

We have not been idle with our house makeover either (well I have, Christopher has been doing most of the manual hard work. – but I am still in charge of Style and Design! ha!)

In my last blog post (Summer’s over and we are back on track with full steam ahead), I mentioned about the work being done in Joseph’s bedroom. As soon as Christopher finished prepping and painting Joseph’s room we moved on to doing up the master bedroom and the third bedroom which will be the nursery.

Master bedroom:

Christopher and I decided that we want a feature wall in our bedroom and we definitely wanted to go bold! And currently, I am such a sucker for blues, specially blue-grey colour hues in combination with whites and dash of pinks. (and add here and there brass and woods).  So when I found out about Dulux’ 2017 colour of the year I felt like the luckiest girl as it is exactly the colour I have been looking for! And I got doubly lucky when Christopher said that he loves the colour too.

Dulux – Denim Drift and some inspiration pictures:

 

 

 

Here’s my lovely husband who unfailingly works so hard to make all my design vision come true. Every time I see how much hard work he is putting into making our house a home I really can’t help but think what I did to deserve such an amazing husband. (ha! sorry cheesy galore alert!)

 

I also managed to convince Chris to paint our old IKEA Hemnes pine bed in light grey to give it a fresher look and also to match it better with the feature wall. We used Dulux Polished Pebble grey. The grey is so subtle and soft I absolutely love it:

 

Nursery:

As for the nursery, it has been painted in Dulux Timeless white, the same colour as the living areas downstairs as we currently do not know the gender of the baby. Once we know it will be easy to accessorize and to add some pops of colours into the room.  The 20 weeks scan is this Friday so we can’t wait to find out whether the baby will be a girl or a boy. What do you guys think!? A BOY? or A GIRL?

 

 

 

Summer’s over and we are back on track with full steam ahead

I haven’t posted anything for a while but that is because my family and I decided to have a bit summer fun to rest and also to reward ourselves after all the craziness and hard work that involves in buying a house and doing it up. And it was very much needed to tank up enough energy again to tackle the next stages of doing up our home.

And as the summer days are over it is back to work….

Now just a little recap, remember how we started prepping the hallway and ripping off those horrid blue wallpapers!? Well, we finally managed to have the storage, the sealing and the door we blocked up plastered! Woaho! Thanks to the hard work of Chris and his brother-in-law, Dave, the sealing and walls are now as smooth as a baby’s bum! And NO MORE HORRID blue sealings and walls:

Although it still looks rough and ready I am super glad that the dirty work is almost over. Chris and I decided not to finish the hallway and landing yet as the finished works are just likely to get ruined if we need to go through the hallway/landing whilst doing up the upstairs rooms. And so we decided to do up Joseph’s bedroom first. The little man got so excited when we told him that we will make his room look nice and new. Bless him, he actually keeps on asking his daddy when his room is finally going to get done. I seriously can’t wait to see the finish product just to see the reaction of my precious boy! I hope it to be like this: (sorry just had to seek in these photos, he’s so cute! 😄)

Joseph’s bedroom BEFORE (and yes it was covered in this orange wallpaper):

There’s no escaping it. Yet again we had to strip the wallpaper off, the sealing plastered, prep and decorate:

Here are some photos while prepping the room:

1. After the wallpapers have been stripped…

2. Plastered sealings (done by magnificent Dave and Chris helped out too)

4. Sanding down and white washing

As for theme of the room, think of a reading corner, blue skies, hot air balloons and airplanes and the rest I will leave to your imagination until the reveal.

Until next time my lovelies 😘

A baby blessing, a wedding and the cities of my childhood and youth

My family and I are currently visiting my parents in Munich, Germany and how quickly time went by as tomorrow we will be flying back to England again.

Last Sunday my family had the honour to witness and be part of the baby blessing of my nephew Kai Kristian Magpantay. There’s something very special about newborns. They’re such little angels that instantly bring joy into your heart and they smell like heaven too! It was such a wonderful family affair and we feel truly blessed. As me, my siblings and our families are scattered between Germany and the UK, reunions like this only happen once every blue moon and therefore we cherish every moment and memory we make together even more so. Here’s the Magpantay clan to date:

Here’s Joseph with his cousins. It’s such a delight to see that they all play so well together.

My siblings and I on a lunch date with a very good friend in Munich at the rustic elegant “Kuffler Spatenhaus an der Oper” – they serve the very best organic ice cream!

Last Thursday we embarked on a five hour roadtrip from Munich to Vienna, Austria to attend my cousin’s wedding. However, this was not your ordinary wedding, this was also the long awaited family reunion of my father’s side of the family. Aunts, uncles and cousins flew in from the USA, Canada and the UK to witness the Filipino-Austrian wedding of the year. My cousin and her groom looked absolutely happy, gorgeous and so in love with each other. From the bottom of my heart, I  wish them all the happiness and success. Also I love the fact that even though my family are scattered on every corner of the world (so it seems to me anyways) we all feel so happy and at home with each other. It was all about loud chats and laughter, selfies and pictures galore as it is typical of a big fat Filipino family reunion. And of course let us not forget the good food too! Oh how I love my family.

Whilst we were visiting Austria we also made sure to visit some of it’s famous landmarks and places. I am most especially happy that I was able to once again show and share my boys the beautiful city of Vienna. Whilst walking around the city centre childhood memories came flooding back. Funny how you appreciate and love a place even more after you’ve already left it and life’s destiny has taken you somewhere else….

Here are some of our few Viennese impressions. It is such an elegant and classy city:

Hallstatt, Austria – the absolute Austrian alpine paradise. This little town is not just beautiful but also so full of history that it is considered as a world heritage site by the UNESCO.

After a week of nostalgic, heart warming adventures with families and friends and being able to speak German again in the cities of my childhood and youth, we are once again homebound to good old Bristol, England.

Munich and Vienna you will always have special places in my heart. You will be missed. Auf Wiedersehen for now und bis Bald!

 

 

It’s time to tackle the hallway…yes work never stops

As mentioned in my previous post the living areas and kitchen are pretty much done so Christopher and I have been gradually prepping the hallway to ready  the sealing for re-plaster and eventually for decorating.

One afternoon when I was brainstorming for ideas of how we can maximise/utilise the spaces in our house in a very practical manner without sacrificing style, I came up with the idea of keeping the under stairs area open and convert it into Christopher’s work station (similar to the pictures below) . In that way the hallway will be airier and will seem bigger too (providing Chris keeps it all clean and tidy 😲). The area where it becomes  narrow at the bottom of the stairs I suggested that we build an “under stairs pull out shoe rack”. With that idea we will not have use the third bedroom as an office but instead use it as a spare bedroom (…and nursery in the future).

Chris was happy to implement the idea however, we had to call in the electrician again to install another double socket and lighting (yup, another additional expense!). We had the electrical wirings run into the wall and Chris had to plaster the wall to cover up the bare wirings.

There is a loooooot to do and part of me is not looking forward to peeling the wallpaper off the walls (the whole hallway is currently painted in this horrid blue colour with 2 LAYERS of wallpaper underneath! 😲) …..and then there’s the dirty job of plastering and sanding it down before the fun part of painting, YIKES! But hey it needs to be done.

These past few weeks has been Mediterranean weather here in England which is absolutely delightful but Christopher and I had to roll our sleeves up and get on with the work. Chris installed plasterboards in the cupboard opposite the under stairs area and also did a bit of plastering  while I removed the wallpaper off the walls. It was awfully tedious and it took ages to free the walls from those horrid paint and wallpaper! (And there’s still the landing to go! 😒)

I know some people love the feeling when the wallpaper is getting steamed and peeled off the walls but unfortunately it’s not been a fun experience for me…..and I have super valid reasons:

1. My hands and nails cracked and dried up again! I couldn’t wear gloves as I had to peel off the first layer of wallpaper before I could steam off the second layer.

2. Working when it’s 30 degrees Celsius outside with the wallpaper stripper inside was like being in a sauna minus the part of feeling refreshed afterwards…..no, for me it felt like my skin was melting off my face.😲

3. Wallpaper stripper + super hot steam + 3 year old boy = lethal combo. I had to make sure my son was safe at all times. And yet the more I warned him the more curious he got!

Before:

 

Hallway – prepping stage:

 

Now we just need to get the ceiling plastered and the whole hallway decorated but before we can start with that circus my family and I are off to Munich and Vienna this Friday and I can’t wait for a nice break with my family.

I also plan to gather lots of inspirations and ideas from the beautiful cities of my childhood.

Wish me luck!😘

 

 

 

 

So this is what we have been up to….

I have been meaning to write this post sooner however, lately it seems that time is against me and there’s so much to do! Living in our house now while trying to continue with the remodel does not make it easier.  It’s juggling parenthood, establishing new routines, office work, house work, oh dear, the list can go on and on….

Despite being busy, I must admit that I absolutely love that my family and I are now living in our very own house. I love how we can see the progress we are making and how things are becoming more of how Christopher and I have envisioned it. Plus my heart melts when people come by and my little man tells them proudly and full of enthusiasm that it’s his new house.

So what have we been up to these last three weeks!?

1. Front and back porch roofs update:

We finally had the front and back porch roofs repaired! Christopher striped them back and removed all the rotten parts, Christopher’s dad installed the fascia boards and we called in a roofer for re-lining and water proofing. Good bye to those rotten roofs. Spot the difference!?

The front porch roof was the one that was rotting away so it definitely needed some serious repair work.

 

The back porch roof slightly dropped so it had to be lifted up and supported.

 

2. Hemming the living room curtains:

When I bought our curtains for the living/dining areas they were way too long. There was definitely no getting away of having to shorten them. I didn’t really want to use my sewing machine and so I did my research and found the perfect solution of how to  hem our living room curtains without using a sewing machine! I found an iron-on hemming strip at IKEA for just £2 and it was an absolute lifesaver. It was so easy to use and all I needed were scissors, pins, 2x clips (to hold the end of the curtains) and the hemming strips and I am super happy with the result:

 

 

 

3. The epic journey of acquiring my IKEA white Vittsjo shelving units – “I came, I saw, I conquered”! It was tough but I was Victorious!

The living areas are pretty much done except for some small finishing touches…ahhhhhhh all those little things that take up so much time when all I really want is to finally do my living area reveal post!

As the living areas open planned I wanted to put shelving units in the room that will connect the living and dining areas. (To see my initial mood boards check out: Interiors and Mood boards )

However, the shelving units need to be light, fresh and airy; cohesive to the theme I want to establish throughout the rest of the house. And so I decided to go for the  IKEA Vittsjo shelving units in white. They are exactly what I need to bind the areas together. (Plus unlike other shelving units similar to Vittsjo, they are actually quite affordable and yet looking very “designer” at the same time)

 

 

I decided to go for the double and single rather than just a double as grouping things in 3’s are more pleasing to the eye. Keep in mind the rule of 3’s is one of the golden rules of style and interior design! 😉

However, acquiring those shelves was an absolute roller coaster ride for my nerves. 😵 I thought I will just be able to waltz into IKEA and purchase my “must-have” shelving units but instead my excitement was shattered into pieces when the information personell told me that only the white single ones are available in Bristol and the white double ones are out of stock and is unlikely to get restocked as the line is being discontinued! 😱 (why the heck would IKEA discontinue such a popular  line!? Je ne comprend pas est pourquoi?) Imagine the panic I have felt when I heard those words! As I was so determined to have those shelves in white, out of desperation I was so close to just buying the double ones in Black-brown and spray paint them white. But then I ended up not buying anything as Christopher said that the packagings are too long they wouldn’t fit in the car anyways!

Yup I came home heart broken because of shelving units I couldn’t buy, it’s ridiculous right!? But I didn’t give up just yet. I did further research and found out that the double white ones are luckily still available in IKEA Reading which is an hour away from Bristol. Chris’ dad was kind enough to accompany me with his van to pick up the single one from the Bristol shop and last Saturday he accompanied Chris to pick up the double ones from the Reading shop. My husband and father-in-law indeed made me very happy as they definitely helped me complete my “work of art”.

Some people did some really cool IKEA hacks with their Vittsjo shelving units, like for instance spray painting them in gold and applying marble contact paper at the bottom shelves, giving it the glam look:

But I think I will likely leave it in classy white with a touch of marble. Uhhhhh how I can’t wait to style my shelving vignettes! (And of course let us hope that Joseph does not use the shelves as ladders!)

On that note as Caesar once said when conquered Carthage: Veni, Vedi, Vici!

Until next time peeps! 😘

 

 

We have finally moved in!

After 8 weeks of waiting and hard work, I can now officially say that we have finally moved into our new house! YEY! We managed to move in officially on Saturday, 17th June. Of course, there is still a lot to be done, but that is ok. There is no better feeling than my family and I being in our own home.

Remember my blog post about my rug dilemma!? (read: Which one, which one? Major RUG distress!) Well, I have finally decided and ordered at the beginning of last week! It was also such a bonus to get it on a 60% off sale. CHACHING definitely saved a bit of money there! To my surprise, it was delivered swiftly and the rug arrived by Friday. The courier was DHL and I was able to track the delivery online too.  When I opened the package I knew that I have made the right choice. Rolling out the rug into the sun-soaked living area while the marvellous pattern and colours unfolded before my eyes and also seeing the difference it brings to the room was just absolute magic! I do not think I will ever get tired of it. It feels really soft too. When Joseph saw it, he quickly laid on it and said with a long sigh: “Ahhhhh reeellaax!” I am glad that my little monkey likes it too.

By the way, I have decided to ditch the coffee table. As much as I wanted to keep it, I wanted to make sure I was maximising the use of every space we have while keeping every sense of comfort suitable for my family. So instead I bought a footstool from IKEA which will also serve as a coffee table and storage. It is from IKEA’s “Ektorp” range which I absolutely love as it is timeless and yet at the same time super practical as the slipcovers are machine washable. Perfect for a household with little children and I can get away with having a white settee. YEY!

To ensure I can use it as a coffee table too when entertaining I bought a large white tray with grey laurel leaf pattern on the side which gives it a “French Provence” vintagey look. For a bit of texture on the whole ensemble, I have added a faux sheep fur throw which I have also purchased from IKEA for a bargain price.

However, as the room is not complete yet you will have to wait for the “Room Reveal” post.

We are soooo close to finishing the Living/ Dining and Kitchen area, so it should not be long anymore. But here’s a little teaser…..:)

 

Here’s one with the footstool and tray:

 

I know it is 3 months overdue but this is the welcome package and the house keys which we have received from the estate agent shortly after the exchange of contracts:

 

And because we have worked hard and the sun is smiling down on Bristol this week again, I decided to take it easy and explore a bit of Yate.

Here’s Joseph enjoying the giant sandpit in the middle of the town centre:

Until next time my lovelies! 🙂

Sunday best – dress up

I love fashion! I love how you can express your creativity and style in how you dress and present yourself. Plus it is super fun! Sometimes as a mum I feel that throughout the week I do not have enough chance, time or opportunity to put a nice outfit together and wear it without getting any stain on them. Yup! The joys of being a mummy! And I will not sugar coat the fact that there are days where I am an ultimate hot mess and actually feel like one of the “Walking dead” zombies! 😱 Scary right!? But that’s reality!

And so it is a massive treat for me when I get the chance to dress up and be girly on Sundays for church.

I am not good with selfies and pictures and oftentimes I just always end up looking awkward in them. 😲

However, I have decided to “Style my heart out” in this “Sunday best – dress up” blog post in which I am hoping to share with you my OOTDs on some Sundays (…where I look halfway at presentable!? 😅)

 

Ha! Do forgive me but I just can’t pose. Looking at these pictures makes me laugh!

As the sun is shining down on Bristol today I decided to wear a plain white tee from H&M, nude tassel earrings from Topshop and a blue striped maxi skirt similar to a Mark D. Sikes skirt. I love the big ruffles of the skirt and how it’s so flowy! Definitely one of my summer favourites!

Happy Sunday everyone! 😘