After several meetings with the interior designer, a couple rounds of revisions to the 3D design, and visits to suppliers to choose tile and flooring; sink and taps and other bathroom fixtures; hob, hood and oven combo for the kitchen as well as lights for the whole apartment - we are finally ready to start the renovation.
It is both exhausting and exciting at the same time. I can tell you nothing tests your communication and negotiation skills as husband and wife than going over design details. We argued over the choice of tiles for the bathroom; the brand of hob, hood and oven we would get; the brand of refrigerator - basically everything . I'm just glad we sorted everything out and ready to now see the design come to life.
To be honest we weren't really going for any kind of theme and just wanted something modern-looking, minimalist and relaxing with the color palette mainly neutral tones - gray, white, black and some light and dark woods thrown in for good measure.
Living Area/Dining Area/Play Space: This is actually a very long, rectangular area, with the dining area near the door, living room near the middle and play space at the other end where the windows were located. The picture above focuses mainly on the living room though because the design just needed to show what type flooring would be used (light wood but not as yellow as the picture, a bit more natural-looking) and whether it would mesh well with the built-in TV feature wall and console. We chose light flooring and will probably paint the walls white to have a more bright, airy feel to the area. There will also a red brick wall behind the sofa but isn't shown here as the designer said the brick wall effect doesn't really translate well in 3D drawings.
Kitchen: Originally I wanted an all-white kitchen but the realities of life and heavy cooking would render that kind of kitchen very hard to maintain and so we ended up having a darker tone for the area. I still have white cabinets though so part of the dream is still alive. A little to the right of the picture, beyond the sink, will be the trash chute area and I'm wondering whether we could set up a vertical garden somehow just above the trash chute. It will be near the window and will have access to sunlight and far away enough from the main cooking area - but will see how it goes. It will have to be a DIY project though since we're trying to keep to a budget here.
Common bathroom: We didn't really want a fancy bathroom, in fact, this bathroom is reminiscent of the bathroom in our old apartment in Moulmein - just white tile and dark gray flooring and yet it feels very relaxing. There was one thing hubby and I agreed on and that was getting the rainshower showerhead. The picture doesn't show but there are actually large industrial pipes to the left of the sink. We're trying to think of what color to paint the pipes. White seems to be the obvious color but black seems to be quite trendy right now as a color for bathroom fixtures so that's an idea too.
Bedroom: The flooring will be as is and we'll just sand and varnish the flooring so it looks new so the main change in the bedrooms will be the addition of built-in cabinets.
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