The k4j Designs Studio.

I took the opportunity last week to take some pictures of my studio.

I've been meaning to for ages now, but I'd no sooner gotten it all set up and I got super busy with projects galore, and I'm afraid the Studio looked rather 'lived in', if you know what I mean. (As an aside, my next Studio most certainly, definitely, absolutely will NOT have a carpet floor! Threads are worse than pet hair. Oh my word...)

Anyway, my Mum came to stay last week, and the Studio is the only spare bedroom we have, so it got a very thorough going-over and the furniture was packed to the side to fit a bed in. After she left, I put the room back to normal and snapped a few piccies before the loose threads and tiny off-cuts of fabric could take over again.

Here's where the magic happens - my glorious large desk. The  curtains on the window open really wide to allow loads of natural light.

The desk is made from two Ikea Expedit shelving units and a hollow-core internal door. The yellow stripe along the front edge of the desk is a measuring tape (sealed in place with sticky-tape) - so useful.

I spray-painted the door/table top as a quick fix, but gloss enamel paint would have been much more durable - there are scratches galore.

I used a roll of non-slip rubber matting between the top and the shelving to prevent the table from sliding, and also to protect each piece of furniture.

As the table top is very lightweight and not designed to carry weight this way, when I'm not using my sewing machines I move them to the sides (over the supportive shelving units) otherwise the top would sag pretty quickly.

In case you can't tell, I'm a BIG fan of Ikea Expedit storage. All of my fabrics, interfacings, personal patterns and dress bags are stored in the big boxes for easy access.

The open pigeon holes are generally reserved for project work and my threads sit on top so I can quickly see if I have the right colour.

I used to hang dresses from a rack over the door, but during busy times it was difficult to walk through the doorway, and I was concerned about the weight causing damage to the door hinges. The current arrangement works much better. I found the truss in the roof (the timber above the plasterboard - this is important as there is no way the plaster alone would support the weight of all those dresses) and screwed in two cup-hooks, roughly 110cm apart. From each hook is a short length of chain, and at the bottom of each chain is a caribeener just big enough to hold a 16mm (5/8 inch) diameter, 120cm (four foot) long piece of wardrobe rail. Voila!

Continuing my theme of separating everything into boxes, these ones hold the chunkier bits and bobs - zips, ribbons, overlocking threads, tools, elastic, boning, beads... As you can see, the shelves are yet to go on the wall, making it annoying to get into the box on the bottom of the pile, which is of course usually the one I need!

All in all, the Studio has become a functional little workspace. I wish sometimes it was a functional big workspace, but one must work with what one has for now!

Kitchen Reno: Coming together

At lunch time on the Friday, all the cabinetry that could be done was done.

There was an issue with the cabinet that's to go above the fridge (in that gap next to the pantry), so that needed to be fixed up. The only other issue with the cabinetry was the rangehood - we got the wrong one and will need to take it back and swap it over.

The pantry turned out bigger than I realised it was going to. I think it'll look pretty empty when I load everything into it!

Apart from being rushed in the preparation, the kitchen installation went pretty smoothly.

My brother [and his wife] stayed for the Easter weekend and helped us out by fitting off the electrical work. He installed a new ceiling light in the centre of the room, and downlights in the bulkhead.


The shelves above the fridge were fitted, and the door was replaced.

 

I bought some fabric-covered boxes from Ikea to fill the shelf. They're almost the perfect size, have a big clear label and a metal handle for easy access. We'll store medicine, first-aid and other bits and pieces in them

 

R cut and stuck the cornice around the microwave cabinet and pantry, but the glue wasn't holding to the laminate. We used tiny nails to nail the cornice to the ceiling plaster and that worked very well.

R tiled the splashback, including cutting some tricky holes around the power points. Again, the tiles look plain black, but they are marble.

R also tiled the floor which was more difficult as there were many tiles around the edges that needed to be cut, including 8 tiles that required tricky cuts to fit around the cabinetry and door frame.

All that's left is to finish painting and hang a blind. I really like the natural light through the undressed window, but coming into winter it's noticeable how much heat disappears through the glass.

Reno Update: A study nook and a bookcase corner.

I'm currently working my way towards a Bachelor of Business. So far, for the last 4 and a bit years, the study and assignment work have taken place in various locations around our small home - at the dining table, on the couch, on our bed, at my sewing desk, sitting on the floor... But, for the final 9 weeks of said degree, I'll be working in our new study nook. Better late than never, right?

In the midst of looking for renovation inspiration, we were looking for a way we could better use the space under our stairs, to make it more useful and nicer to look at. Here's the jumbled mess beforehand:

(Oh my, I'd forgotten how bad it was!)

I'd brought up several ideas with R, such as a collection built in storage boxes, but he didn't like any of them.

Then, I found a picture via Pinterest that showed a study nook under a staircase. It didn't exactly offer the storage solution I was looking for, but R loved the concept. As a fan of Ikea Expedit furniture, I knew they made a desk that connected to a bookcase/wall unit, and we decided it would be perfect for our space, giving us storage space as well as the desk.

Before we could make the study nook a reality, we needed to decide what we were going to do with our books. We decided to keep the blue bookcase (which, incidentally, is also an Ikea item, that my parents bought years ago), but update it and paint it black. Its new home would be the landing at the top of the stairs. Here's the landing space before:

One busy weekend I cleaned up and cleared the landing, painted the walls and architraves white, painted the bookcase black, and R helped me move it into place. I let the enamel paint dry for almost a week, but I wasn't convinced that it was completely set, so I used baking paper as shelf-liners so the books wouldn't stick. I loaded up the books, added a few decoratey-items to the top, and voila! (The light was updated at the same time as the kitchen electrical work was done.)

During the reno process, we were keeping an eye on the Expedit furniture (and how it would fit into our budget), and one Sunday morning we noticed that Ikea had introduced a new range of colours and finishes - none of which were what we wanted, plus they were more expensive. Worried that they would discontinue the one we wanted, we were there straight after church to battle the crowds and secure our items (none of which was actually any drama). Thankfully the flat-packed boxes didn't take up too much space in our dining/storage/mess room, although the car ride home was a bit squishy.

Fast forward a few weeks, and we were ready to get going with our next 'room' renovation. We cleared out the mess, R painted the walls white and gave the floor a good vacuum, then we set to work building out Ikea furniture.

I loaded most of the stuff back in (the rest will be donated to charity, thrown out or stored elsewhere), and when I'm done with uni the whole lot with be sorted through. Here's the finished product:

We're a bit proud of ourselves really. It was a really easy solution that will work really well, and didn't cost much. All we need now is a better lamp and a proper office chair. The longer term plan is to move the desktop computer here and put a 'real' TV in front of the couch, but for the time being we're happy with this arrangement.

Well, I better go and use the study nook for it's intended purpose then!

Kitchen Reno: New beginnings

The electrician was busy on Tuesday morning, adding power points and moving light switches.

The builder came on Wednesday to finish off the walls, which I neglected to take a photo of (well they weren't that exciting, they're just walls), and he also jackhammered up the tiles and glue, leaving us with a blank slate.

On Wednesday night R & I plastered up the bulkhead, & The Puzzle arrived first thing Thursday morning.

By lunchtime on Thursday the cabinets and bench were in, and it was starting to take shape.

Kitchen Reno: Out with the Old (Part 2)

The electrician came on Monday and disconnected the oven. On Monday night, R got busy with the screwdriver and pretty soon, it was ready to take apart.

I bought a new chisel on Saturday morning, and the tiles came off the wall really quickly - well, except for the few stuck to the duct in the corner. I thought R should be allowed a turn with the new chisel too, so I left him some..

Underneath the bench-top, the whole kitchen was only four parts; the pantry and these three. 

Empty space! Ready for the final preparations.

That was last night. The electrician was back today and connected up all the wiring in the right places.  it needs to be fitted off, so for now there's just cables hanging all over the place.

Tomorrow's job is the final preparations, but there's not much to do. :)

Kitchen Reno: Out with the old (Part 1)

I got an email from the kitchen guy, Ross, last Tuesday night, saying he'd be ready to install the new kitchen on the Thursday following. R & I were still in coasting-mode, slowly finishing off the bathroom, so the email was a bit of a wake-up call to come back to reality and get on with the next part!

R's had a lot on his mind with work and going away to Adelaide, and was feeling a bit stressed about getting it all done on time and doing a good job. If you're gonna do it, do it properly, he says. He's a good man. While he's been away, I've made the most of my time (usually while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil) and made a start.

I unpacked the kitchen and have relocated as much of it as I can into the dining room. I hope there aren't any important birthdays coming up that I need to bake for, my tins are buried... Also now that I look at it, I'm not sure why I ever feel like my pantry is full, there's really not that much food there.

I was feeling adventurous, and after taking the shelf down, I got a little screw-driver happy and removed the space-filler that joined the top of the pantry to the ceiling. Then I spoke to R on the phone and he told me there was a screwdriver bit for the drill, and how to make the drill go backwards. Yay! Much easier.

So, about a dozen screws and a good bit of wiggling later, I pulled the pantry down. I barely caught it though, it turned out to be a little heavier than I was expecting. Still. I had a little 'I am Woman, hear me Roar!' moment. (I discovered later I have quite a bruise down my leg where it scraped, but hey, battle scars are cool, right?)

It's hard to tell from these photos, but the room feels a lot wider now. I was expecting it to feel bigger, and longer I guess, but wider was a happy surprise. Hey, in a townhouse, any feeling of more space is very welcome!

It is now possible to stand at the stove and see the TV. (We watch TV through the computer in the corner, in case you're looking for an actual TV set in the photo somewhere and going crazy because you can't see it.) And yes, the pantry will stay right there in the middle of the lounge-room until R is home and there's another guy here to help with some muscles. Did I mention it was heavy??

I think the cabinets look small now, but the room feels bigger. Can't wait to see the new one go in!

Looking through the new doorway from the garage. (Behind the cabinets is a piece of plasterboard, and behind that is the new dishwasher. Yay!)

Next, the electrician will move some light-switches and add in some power points; the carpenter has a bit more work to do to finish the wall and doorway (and he'll kindly lift the tiles with his jackhammer too); we've got to fix up the bulkhead; then the kitchen will go in on Thursday.

Kitchen Reno: Prep

We'd originally planned to keep the same layout in our kitchen and just replace the whole lot with the same but new (and better colours!), until one morning I had a stroke of genius. What if there was a way to move the pantry out of the centre of the room, onto the blank wall? It would mean removing the small wall beside the fridge (was that even possible?) and moving a doorway (in a load-bearing wall, no less). Two opinions from two builders said the same thing - yep that should be fine. And there was much rejoicing!

Earlier this month, while we were renovating the bathroom, our builder did the prep work for the kitchen. Our fridge has been under the stairs this whole time. I'm getting used to walking the extra 5 steps. I keep telling myself it's just like having a massive kitchen in a big house.

The bulkhead had to be opened up for the bathroom pipe-work, there's a picture of the mess here. It didn't take the guys long to remove the nib wall.

A new doorway and a new wall, mid-construction.

Looking through the new doorway from the other angle, inside the garage. The room feels so much bigger now! Can't wait to see how it'll look with the pantry moved.

Starting is so exciting. Then it gets messy and turns into hard work, but it's still fun. At least I think it is.