Continuing on from the master bedroom renovation, we shifted our efforts on to the second bedroom renovations.
Well, Dadonthebrink did. I was travelling.
This was intended as the boys’ room. I left Dadonthebrink a nice little list of the priorities we’d discussed. He made a prompt start with emptying the room of the boxes stored ceiling high, kids toys and bed and clothes and other paraphernalia. All the stuff overwhelmed the rest of the flat.
TOP TIP: If you have any opportunity of completing renovations BEFORE moving in, grab it with both hands! Renovations while living in a space is a juggle and makes the work go at half speed.
Dadonthebrink had just started preparing the walls and painting when I arrived back from my travels. There were a few holes to fill, some cracks to repair, some pealing wallpaper to remove. Then the painting began- white on ceiling, white on walls.
One morning, I popped out to buy some more paint and spotted a beautifully moody midnight blue in the shop. I bought it on a whim, without a tester pot. My plan was to paint the back wall of the little alcove in the bedroom and possibly a section of the ceiling above where their bunk beds were planned.
Change of plans
That afternoon as I was painting the nook, the sun was beaming into the room. This room was bright and airy, the nook felt so cosy.
I had a brainwave: this was going to be our bedroom and my office (as long as our bed fit with the full wall of wardrobes that we had planned for this room).
Dadonthebrink was not very pleased with my change of plans; afterall he’d assembled our bed, we’d sorted our clothes into the cupboards. The master bedroom and office was nearly finished!
We measured and measured again. It was decided: everything that we needed was supposed to fit snugly, so this was turning into the master bedroom and my office.
Ultimately it came down to the light. The bedroom is the only South-facing room in the flat and the quality of light is significantly better than all the other east-facing windows. I need that light! I’m to be working from home.
Cracking on with a new door
Everything in this room is about maximising space, therefore we decided to replace the existing door- which opened inwards- with a pocket sliding door. Naively, we though that we could just cut away a section of the existing stud partition (which is less than 6 months old, put up by the previous owner of the apartment) and fix the sliding mechanism, putting the old OSB and plasterboard layers back.
As all DIY projects tend to so, it turned into a much more involved process. We needed to take away that whole section of the wall.
It also had electric cables running in it, just to add to the complication.
Finally after a week of work, we have a functional pocket sliding door!
A lick of paint to touch up the reused plasterboard and we were ready to move furniture in.
Furniture
Wardrobes
First, we installed wardrobes. They needed space to be assembled and then stood up. These are IKEA Pax wardrobes, the shallower, but taller range.* It was touch and go whether we actually had the ceiling height to assemble them lying flat or would need to assemble them standing already. We just managed to get them up. Phew!
* IKEA has 2 depths of their PAX wardrobes a 300mm and a 600mm depth. There are also 2 standard heights- 2010mm or the 2365mm
We bought the narrower and taller units because:
- They have great internal use of space- the taller space gives extra use upwards and the shallower space, in my view, is a better use of the depth, because you can actually push things all the way to the back and still see items.
- It also is less intrusive into our tiny bedroom
Buying the widest possible wardrobes- 1 meter wide each with a two 1 meter wide sliding doors totally made sense for our small room. The little 50cm unit with the mirrored door was about utilising that remaining wall space and adding a reflective surface to bounce light around in the room.
Bed
Our bed is also from IKEA… what can I say? The ease of shopping there, the price point and practicality of the items makes us a fan.
It’s a basic white Malm bed with the whole of the base available as storage. The mattress flips up on and the bed opens up like a clam.
Bedside tables
We’ve been creative with our bedside tables. They are actually cupboards too and are great IKEA hacks.
The Home Office Nook
While I have ideas of what I want this space to look like, because it is so compact I have to think carefully about the fixtures and fittings to use in the space. I don’t want to rush out either spending a lot of money or buying the wrong things. For now, my comfy office chair drapped in my favourite sheepskin rug will have that space and I’ll use it as a quiet reading corner.
… while we move onto the next project: back to the big bedroom to split the room and create 2 tiny bedrooms for the kids.
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