The multi-purpose Diptyque candles

I had imagined many things during my maternity leave. I had imagined myself writing this blog regularly in my beautifully designed new study room. I had imagined that my two very well behaved children to pop their heads in once in a while to give me a kiss and otherwise fully occupied by themselves. I had imagined my blog traffic to be picking up once I start posting regularly and wittingly. 

In reality, the study room is invaded and permenantly taken over by the husband. I only used it during his toilet break to download TV shows. I spent most of my maternity leave rocking/pumping/feeding the new born and subsequently entertaining the toddler. All in all, blog traffic still as dead as a morgue. 

xxx

I have fallen in love with Diptyque candles lately. Its scents are light, natural and soothing. Lighting one fill up the entire room. They are impressive to have when you have guests around and very relaxing to have in private space such as the bedroom or the bathroom. 

More importantly, they make great props for decoration. Place one on a tray or on top of magazine, they instantly make a stylish statement.   I think they also make great gifts, for men and for women, for people you know well and those you don't. 

Currently I am having 'Cuir' in the bedroom which has a romantic and powdery scent; and 'Choisya' in the living room which has a light orange smell to it. 

Completion of the project

It has nearly been 2 months since I last blogged. Piper was born in late March, all 8 pounds of her! We settled nicely in our new flat while we waited patiently for our new furniture to arrive and other parts to fall into places slowly. 

Too bad I wasn't a skillful photographers but I have tried my best to capture the essence of my proud design. I must say I am happy with it and received quite a few compliments from friends. 

A walk-through......

Entry way, featuring a L shape shoe cabinet + cupboard. This massive storage space makes Steve a happy man. Finally his wife won't be forbidding him to buy new running shoes....until he filled this one up that is. 

I said it many times but I will say it again - love the laminate we use for the cabinet. 

I am still searching for a stool or something to place near the mirror for people to put their shoes on. Or perhaps a runner.  

Dinning room. I love the ceiling pendant, except I should have been more aggressive and bought a size to two bigger.

Loving the view on a bright sunny afternoon.

Glad we pushed the wall back to open the living/dinning area, even if it meant to leave a pillar in the hallway. As a matter of fact, I think it bring a certain character to it. 

I was spent a long time looking for a new modern ceiling light for the living room to go with the pair. At the end, I used my own chandelier from Laura Ashley. Looks pretty good!

Great couch from Tree. It is so professionally done. We got the rug from Ikea, and we could have gone a size bigger as well. 

 

Proudly present my epic TV cabinet, featuring a concrete platform in the middle. 

My favorite room, the Study room. 

This long hallway has become the signature. Lola loves running down it. Steve said it reminded him of his childhood house and it was handy for me to rock the baby while walking up and down it.

Needs a few more pieces of art but hey Rome wasn't build in one day.

Piper's room aka family room. The wallpaper, the white couch and my own black & white rug really go well with one and other.

Perhaps Lola's room is my 2nd favorite room. I wish I had a room like this. Nothing expensive here, all Ikea + Etsy.

I really like this photo, looks a bit nostalgic. This is one of the two dressers I bought from My Woodz.

Master bathroom. I was very worried that the marbles were too busy but all turned out good. Love the concrete floor as well - can't think of using any other materials.

Kitchen. 

 

All in all this is my best piece of work, wrapped up in the shortest period of time. Padding myself on the back. 

We have moved!

I am glad to say that the flat is every bit as good as I imagined it to be.

As an apartment, it is airy, bright and spacious! From an interior decoration perspective, both Steve and myself love how it turns out overall.  It is a comfortable home and I love every inch of it. The little Roller seems to have settled in well immediately. The helpers are happy with their room. Even my mom said she likes the grey palette.

There are still bits and pieces that needs to be done, which is a nightmare if you are already living there. The flat has been filled with smell of glue & paint, dust was everywhere. It was grueling. They glossed up the concrete floor yesterday and the helper already stepped right on to it and left a foot print. Steve has been having pretty bad allergic reaction to all the fume and dust. It probably wasn't good for my pregnancy either.

Not all furniture have arrived. In Hong Kong rent is so high that most retailers don't stocked up well.  When you order something they will have it made in China, which coinciding with CNY, takes 2 - 3 months or they have to ship it from abroad, which again takes forever. I tried to order to Charles Ghost stool. They said it will take upto May. It is crazy.  

So considered these work-in-progress snap shots:

This is the living dinning area. Our sofa hasn't arrived yet. This is just a loaner from Tree which is also quite nice.

Have a slight miscalculation here. Originally I wanted to hang Allie Synder's 'let go' here and have a blue tone in the living room. The painting turns out to be smaller than expected and therefore fit better down the hallway. I hung my larger piece here which is very red, and Asian. Now this space even has a hint of communist feel to it. (So much for looking Scandinavian) 

Lola's bedroom. Ikea delivered the bed but forgot the backbone for the matress. Then went MIA. So it is still not functionable. Also missing a few pieces of art work and decorative stuff that is being framed at the moment.

After a lot of back and forth, I am growing to like this bathroom. There are still a few mishaps that needed to be fixed such as the shower head for the bathrub needing to be hung higher.

 My favorite and most perfect room so far - Study (except the wiring of course, not sure why it is a good idea to have the socket on the side wall rather than on the wall). Now they are dripping all over like

Love this Cole and Son wallpaper. It goes really well with this simple white sofa bed from ikea, except it would be even better if it isn't so big but of course they won't take it back now.

My lovely balcony. We can finally sun dry our laundry and mom can stop nagging me wasting energy to operate the tumble dryer.

 Kitchen. They gave us a black countertop rather than grey but they offer to cut the price in half so I forgive them. Maybe black is better for spillage. Will buy two clear ghost stool for this bar top here.

I didn't post the master bedroom because the bed wasn't made that morning I took these pictures and some of the furniture hasn't arrived yet.



Confidence and boldness

2 more days and counting. I went up to the flat yesterday to inspect the progress, breaking many Chinese pregnancy rules against things like hammering, nailing, painting, moving and renovating. I have always been a rebel when it comes to nonsense Chinese traditions which the only pursue it serve is to make our restrictive pregnancy experience even more unbearable. Having said that perhaps over exposing myself to dust and chemicals wasn’t a great idea either. I might just take a break today. Hopefully no more funny things like how they hung the shower rod for people with the height of dwarfs.

Some updates:

It was a big decision for me to go ‘grey’ on the wall. It turned out pretty well but it didn’t stand out as much as I hope. I was still lacking the confidence and playing on the safe side. In my next project, I will paint the entire wall plus ceiling the same color and it will be a shade or two darker.

I do love how the black box light amongst the grey and white. Very classy, modern and chic. Padding myself on the back.

Some examples of proper grey walls.

 

Count Down - 4 days

Had a routine appointment with the OBGYN today. Funny enough my weight hasn’t increased for a month already. To compensate, I immediately had a box of cookie and a big bubble tea.  

Received a call from Play the kitchen people who said that the countertop won’t be ready until next Monday – that means we will have 3 days without a functionable kitchen. It isn’t the end of the world but hugely inconvenient in a 5 people household. I asked them to at least install all the electronic appliances. He said “oh but when they might be scratched up if we install them before the countertop!” Well no shit Sherlock, but I have to cope with that don’t I? How can I not even have a fridge? Had he told me sooner, I would have postpone the move, now it is all too late.

The following picture summed up all the progress so far. Wall paint was mostly done. The first coating of concrete was applied to the TV cabinet. It wasn't bad but not that apparent. I asked them to darken the second coating to create a bigger contrast. currently its color is too similar to the wall.

Last but not least the wood flooring is being laid as of we speak. I have no doubt that it will be beautiful.  Almost there!

Count Down - 1 more week

The day I anticipated for months was finally approaching. We are set to move next week!

Surely a few things might not be ready when we moved in - the kitchen countertop, our new dinning table and sofa, bedside tables etc - but overall I would consider this a pretty fast project. Thanks to Ed of course. 

Movers were booked. Things were being packed. The rest of the renovation was being rushed. Even my sister has been approved for taking a day off to look after Lola for us. This move has involved so many people. 

I am also looking forward to not paying rent anymore. 

The flat was still a mess this morning when I saw it and never had I seen so many workers there. Clearly they were rushing it for handover. What was left now, was painting, flooring, installing the rest of the glass petition, ceiling. In addition, we will have delivery of furniture and curtain next week. 

Visually it would be an entirely different scene in a matter of days. Wooohooo!

Speaking of wall painting, I have boldly ordered them to paint all the walls in 'fine silver' from Dulux. This is a tone much darker than anything I have used in the past. I thought it turned out pretty well, thanks to our bright flat with lots of windows. This was the as far as I can go with color, at least for now. You can see the effect below. They do have a hint of lavender don't they? That bit was quite unintentional. 

Entrance hallway. The workers were laying the foundation for the flooring. A plastic sheet and wood deck was laid underneath the flooring to protect it from moisture. It was a noisy job. Sorry neighbors! 

Living room. You can see the balcony from a distant. I had big plans for it but decided to go simple - white wall, white bars with a grey top and concrete floor.

TV cabinet is yet to be concreted up. Can't wait to see how it turned out. I was convinced that I was the first to do it like this in HK!

The wood flooring pieces were being unpacked. Beautiful isn't it?

A cast of workers here.

Master bedroom.

They added a marble top on the window sill. This was the same one we used for the bathroom.

Guest bathroom. They changed the faucet.

Master bedroom.

Lola's room.

They have managed to enlarge the shower area for the master bathroom.

....and finally marbled up this bar.