All posts tagged: ikea

Ikea Kitchen Review

The 70’s Kitchen Final Reveal – And an Ikea Kitchen review

We’re back at the 70’s apartment this week for another final reveal – it’s the kitchen. An Ikea kitchen to be precise. Read on for before and after pics, a detailed breakdown of the what’s where’s and why’s… and the cherry on top, an Ikea Kitchen Review. As you can see from the floor-plan the kitchen in this two bedroom apartment is bijou small. It leads straight off the large living space, so it was important the new design connected to the space around it. Here’s how it looked back in March 2019: Before The budget for ripping out and replacing with a new kitchen cabinets, worktop, appliances, flooring and tiling was £6k. This needed to cover labour too. It was tight, which limited where we could “shop”. After looking around at several kitchen options, we took a punt on Ikea as they offered the fitting and wrap around service of supply, build and fit. The kitchen concept was based around the Ikea VEDDINGE range. Simple, light grey slab doors and drawer fronts. The small space meant …

The Green Guest Bedroom

The 70’s Apartment – The Green Guest Room – Final Reveal

Well it’s been a while since I’ve written about this project. The two bedroom, 70’s apartment was introduced over ‘ere back in July ’19. You can read the intro to it here where there are all the before photos and the floor plan. Since July last year, there has been A LOT of work going on behind the scenes; A new kitchen, new bathroom, two bedrooms, a large open-plan living space and long hallway all redesigned, refurbed, decorated and furnished. Today we’re focusing on the final reveal of the Green Guest Room. Let me begin… When I first met the homeowner, let’s call him Mr J, he had very fixed ideas about what he wanted to do with each room. Initially I was only booked for a colour consultation and all I knew was that he wanted this room to be green. He’d already bought the paint (turned out to be the wrong green) and was set on having a feature wall in this room. As the decorators were actually already on site on my very first …

The Victorian Terrace - The Living Room

The Victorian Terrace – The Living Room

Hello 2020! How are you all? Settling nicely into the new decade? For my first post of 2020 i’m introducing you to a project i’ve been working on since April last year; A four bedroom Victorian terrace in North Leeds. House floor plan The house was previously a rental property, and so was more than a little unloved. It looked “ok” from the estate agent pics, but in reality it needed a lot of work to bring it back to life: New windows throughout Re-wiring Re-plumbing Floorboards refurbed Walls stripped and re-skimmed New joinery New kitchen New bathroom Complete redecoration Fixtures, furniture and furnishings for the whole house In fact, it was this project that prompted me to write this blog post last spring: A Guide for New Homeowners – Where to start, the dos and don’ts. This new homeowner, let’s call him Mr H, is a complete noob to home ownership. Knowing where to start and what order to work through the renovation across several rooms at once had him in a bit of a pickle. …

Ikea Pax Hack - Nude Bedroom

My Ikea Pax Hack – The Nude Bedroom Update

Hello there, and welcome to the other side of our Nude Bedroom. Today i’m sharing our new wardrobes. Doesn’t sound that exciting does it? But we’re both super excited to have said goodbye to our old ones… … they looked lovely, but there were a bugger to use. The handleless drawers were on wooden runners, so when full of clothes, as most wardrobes are, they were way too heavy to open with ease. Those slim recessed handles were a nightmare for when you’d had your nails done, having to claw your fingers into the recess and heave the drawers open to grab a clean vest. Not cool, Derek. Not cool. Pic – Katie Lee for MADE There was also a lot of wasted space. Something I desperately needed more of. This one wardrobe was certainly not enough for my extensive collection of blue jeans, over sized black tops and boyfriend cardigans. So they were sold on eBay and we used the money from those to build our very own dream storage solution using the Ikea Pax …

The Garden Room

The Garden Room

I’m sure you’ve caught a glimpse of the Victorian property i’m working on already, either on here or Instagram. But there’s another space i’ve been working on that leads off from this cottage kitchen. Before Through that stable door, there’s The Garden Room. You can just about see it through the window. As i’ve already mentioned, this single skin, timber built conservatory will be knocked down to make way for the big extension in the next few years. But until then…. we are making good, using every trick in the interior design book to transform this unused space into a room that can serve many purposes, whilst the homeowners save up for the dream kitchen, diner, family room. Let me show you the floor-plan, so you can see how this large, previously unused Garden Room will be given a new lease of life, function and purpose and some of the tricks we’re using to disguise the quirks imperfections. The Garden Room is built off what was originally the external wall of the house, which means all …

Ikea Gagnet - Scale in Interiors

A successful trip to Ikea… and a tiny intro to ‘Scale’ in interiors

One of the things I try and do at home is to buy furniture that’s in keeping with the period of the property. Our 3 bed, semi is 1960’s, so late mid-century. I’m in no way trying to recreate a 1960’s home, that’s not me, I prefer to mix up design styles and eras as they tend to create the most interesting spaces…. BUT I do think post war houses (generally with lower ceilings and no period features of note) look best with mid-century or Scandinavian style furniture. It’s clean, un-fussy, uses lots of natural materials and the size and scale of that furniture works with the 2.4m ceilings and smaller room sizes of that era… and those that followed. This kind of touches on a whole post i’m still in the process of writing all about ‘Scale’ in interiors. Because some people get it a bit wrong and then wonder why their room feels “off”. It’s very subtle, but a room with the wrong size and scale furniture in just doesn’t work as it …

SPÄNST collection

SPÄNST collection – Ikea Collaborates with Chris Stamp

Ikea have released some rather impressive collaborations so far this year, with the SPANST collection due to land this May. So not long to wait. It’s a capsule collection of “lifestyle” influenced furniture, lighting and decor, where the fashion conscious are very much in mind. In collaboration with fashion designer, Chris Stamp, the founder of ‘Stampd‘ a brand known for its meticulous attention to detail with designs that embody modern youth culture. The Stampd brand focuses on quality and the minimal, urban aesthetic. Its flagship store based in the heart of LosAngeles, sells its line of clothes and accessories all over the world.    A number of items from the collection were also designed by Maja Ganszyniec, a frequent IKEA collaborator since 2014. Together they explored the changes and needs of young homes today, with a special focus on active, urban lifestyles. Maja has collaborated on several Ikea designs, including the HJÄRTELIG collection which was released last month.  Chris and Maja met for the first time in New York to find alot of their design ideas were …

Ikea Dark Scandinavian Design

My first trip to Ikea for 2018

It was a dark and dreary Sunday. I was up at 6am (stupid body clock) and I had a mission to complete: Operation ‘Charlie’s Big Boy Bed’ If you remember, we updated his room last autumn with some super sneaky bespoke joinery which not only solved the toy storage problem but also allowed us to fit a full sized single bed into his bedroom without re-wiring light switches or knocking out a chimney breast. S-weet! As we wanted to give Charlie the option of having little people over for sleepovers (when he’s capable of sleeping past 6am – does that happen?) we wanted to go for a bed that served that very purpose. Something white, without a footboard, something that didn’t have an ornate headboard, something that provided function of sleep and allowed the plywood storage wall to be the main feature of the room. Cue the Egzigu bed from La Redoute Two of these simple white bed-frames stacked on top of each other would solve everything and soon enough, courtesy of La Redoute they …

Large Bay Window

Upper Brook Street Project – Final Reveal of the Guest Bedroom

Typing typing as fast as I can…. It’s final reveal time everyone! Oh how I love a final reveal. Especially when it’s as awesomesauce as this one. Eeeee!! (If you’d like to catch up on this project, pop back a few posts to this one.) First, it’s time for before pics. A large master bedroom which was to become a guest bedroom. But not just any old guest bedroom, oh no siree. The weird recessed/built in wardrobes were going and an ensuite was coming. This is how the room looked when I started working with the homeowners: The entire house had been chopped up over time, converted into flats at some point, and then back again into a house. The walls and doors were in the strangest of places and it was time to breathe life back into this beautiful Edwardian home, and put those walls back where they were originally built over 100 years ago. This was back in January. Want to see what it looks like now? After Before It’s completely unrecognisable isn’t it? In …

Ikea FALSTERBO Marla Singer

The Loft Landing – Final Reveal

There’s just one space left to reveal now from the loft extension. You guys will have seen the open plan landing/office below with the staircase leading onwards and upwards to our new second floor. Open Plan Office Space But what you may not have worked out just yet is how it all connects together. Designing individual rooms can be tough, but designing rooms and spaces that connect with one another, not just physically but aesthetically, that’s a real challenge. Especially transitional spaces like hallways and landings where walls and levels connect over several floors. How do you make these work? This is the view standing at the bottom of the staircase. Remember i’m in my office here too. The element of shared space which works so well here, the office enhancing the staircase and vice versa. Here is the floor plan of the second floor. I saw the landing as another room in itself. They’re often neglected spaces, quite narrow and can be dark. I didn’t want any of these things to be the case. …