Build 101...walk in robe plans storage wardrobe

So here is the skinny on the specifics of our walk in robe, in case you love it as much as I do and absolutely have to have your own.  I relied heavily on the Italian style wardrobe designers, like Poliform and Fanuli, for inspiration.  I love the symmetrical designs and substantial but elegant cabinetry.  

#1   Width of shelves and dividers

All our shelves and dividers are a chunky 32mm wide.  It makes the joinery marginally more expensive but creates a very high end custom looking finish.  

You could economize here and use a normal 18mm width, but the small extra cost does add a lot of extra visual impact.

#2   Symmetry and the power of 3

A big part of what makes the Italian designs so pleasing to the eye is their symmetry.

Three is a classic design number, things really do look better in three's or other odd numbers. 

Although the storage on our His and Hers sides is a little different, they have the following symmetries:

• the height of the hanging rails is identical on both sides
• the shelves above the hanging space are identical on both sides
• each side is divided into three sections
• two of the three sections on each side are identical. 

Even though the sides are not exactly the same there is a strong sense of symmetry in the space.

#3   No doors - pros and cons
PRO 1: I like being able to see our clothes.  I tend to keep things tidier and there are fewer hidden pockets of clothes that are never worn. 

PRO 2: Not having doors also means the space can be smaller.  We would need at least half a meter more between the two sides for doors to open without blocking the space.  And don't mention sliding doors, not a fan.
PRO 3: No doors is cheaper.  You can spend more on making the internal joinery pretty, and on pricier inclusions like pull out racks, drawers and shoe racks.

CON 1: It's messy if you don't keep it neat.  We specified pocket doors between the walk in robe and the bedroom to block the space visually.  It is nice to be able to close them if we need to, but it only happens when one of us is getting dressed early and we want to keep the light out of the bedroom. 

CON 2: Dust - not really a problem, yes there is a little dust but hardly clouds of it.

#4   Hanging rail height

Our hanging rail is 193.6cm high.  Much higher than most manufacturers recommend, but I can reach it easily, and I am not very tall.  The extra height creates space for double drawers underneath.

  

If I had a dollar for every time I was told by a builder it just isn't done that way, well my walk in robe would lead to a luxury yacht.  It may not be done that way normally but there is no reason it can't be.

#5  Lots and lots of hanging space
Two reasons you should plan lots of hanging space:

• It is cheaper than putting in drawers and shelves because there is less wood and less work,
• Clothes don't crease when they are hung
• You can see exactly what you have and are less likely to hoard what you don't use

#6  Finish - stained oak
I love this finish, its elegant but not pretty and totally timeless.  Now that I have had a wardrobe with a dark inner I can't figure out why most of them are white.  Probably only because white is the most easily available option.

#7  Basic measurements
You can see the detail in the attached scale drawings but here is a quick summary:

• width of shelves & dividers - 32mm
• depth of cupboard - 600mm/60cm
• width of space - entire space is 2.7m long and split into 3 sections.  After allowing for 32mm dividers each section is 957mm wide
• height of space - 2.7m and wardrobes built all the way to ceiling
• height of hanging rail - 193.6cm
• remaining details are in the drawing

#8  Pull out pants rack/trouser rail

I discovered that it is pretty hard to get good pull out trouser rails at a good price, and that they are only available in very limited sizes.  So for our non standard space I had to make my own.  It was a surprisingly easy project to achieve, to see how it can be done see the full diy here.

Having lived with a walk in robe I cannot imagine not having one in the future.  I would be finding a way to put one in by stealing space from the bedroom or re-configuring smaller rooms.  Read all about why a walk in robe is a great investment of your hard earned build dollars here.  

For more details you need to know to get the finish you want, see the rest of the Build 101 series here.

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bedroom credenza reveal...diy tips for making your own

My first piece of furniture, well I helped even if I can't claim I build this myself.  My fabulous hubby showed me how and I did a lot of sanding, prep and painting, but I was a bit nervous to do the drilling on such fine legs.  Even with my trusty kreg-jig I am not all that good at drilling straight.  With a lot of help, and a lot of spray paint (see technique tips below) the credenza went from a drawing to reality and I am delighted with it.  This won't be my last wood work project.

Wood work tips
For those who want to make their own the legs are 3x3cm of Tasmanian oak.  The top is 45 x 180cm laminated pine, and its stands 70cm high.  We used the kreg-jig to make the base and attach the top.  

The only problem with a kreg, and this is why I was nervous to join everything myself, is that even if your pieces are very square they are pulled slightly out of shape as you join them.  We found the best solution was to clamp the 4 pieces of each side of the frame together, before joining them.  You need a lot of clamps and patience, it doesn't take that long but it is a bit fiddly.

Spray painting tips
I used at least a can of spray paint more than I should have before I got my technique right.
Turns out I had the distance from the wood right, and I was spraying nice and steadily, but I was moving to fast.  This made the paint all spackely and rough, not the glossy finish I was going for.  

Slowing down the speed of my strokes a lot delivered a lovely glossy finish with no stripes or drips.  I sprayed across the width of the piece taking the spray right off the edge on each side to prevent pooling on the edges.
Hope that helps, this video helped me with technique the most.

Mr B also made the mirror which is my favourite piece in the room.  He cut small wooden "tiles" for the frame to create an effect something like bone furniture, actually I prefer it to the bone mirror we do have.  

If you do have the skills and patience you will be rewarded with big savings.  A similar table will set you back at least $400, ours cost $80 including wood and paint and took a day to build, and several days to paint properly.

Our room finally feels finished, for now of course.  It's never long before I start moving the furniture around again.

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cottage renovation...main bedroom

This funny dirty room with to many doors has become a serene retreat for afternoon snoozes and lazy mornings.  That is if we ever have an afternoon without diy in it!  This is one of the before and after projects I love most, the room was just so dirty and ugly before.  My wonderful hubby closed an extra door that opening into the living room and put lining board panelling across the wall behind the bed.  Neatly taking care of all plastering problems and creating a subtle feature.  Scroll down to see just how impressive this change was.

Dirty paint, cracked cornices, peeling ceiling, ugly curtains and pelmets, this room was full of ugly.

Closing up the extra door gave us a larger space to put the bed against and the panelling created a subtle textural feature.  Good looking and time saving, you got to love that!

I love the soft grey wall with the crisp white of the rest of the room.  It took coats and coats of paint to stop the yellow of the wood trim coming through.

It doesn't even look like the same room!  It looks twice the size we started with!  The colour scheme centres around the gorgeous knitted bed cover that was given to me by a friend.  I found patterned grey and white sheets that feel a bit Ralph Lauren, and added just a little bit of yellow in the cushions and lights.

The bedside tables were repurposed from home and given a fresh white finish.

My amazing hubby made these wonderful wall sconces, I love how the yellow cable pops off the grey wall and the old style globes create a lovely soft light at night.  You may have noticed that only one light is up in these photos.  The other one made it up a few months later but I haven't been back to see them yet.  I will post an update next time I visit.

The final touch was adding the linen look curtains, again in a pale grey.  I found this fabulous poly linen mix at Bargain Fabrics.  It looks like linen but won't be affected by the sun and won't stretch or shrink.  Making them was a labour of love and took several days of sweating at the sewing machine.  I'll tell you all about it in another post. 

Just a final reminder of what it looked like before...and after.  Hooray!

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pretty pretty things

Some lovely things I have spotted recently.  Loving these soft colours, the mix of textures, the muted metallics, the sense of calm they create.  Perhaps its the rough ride that my day job has given me these past few months but I find I am needing the feeling of calm in at least one space in my home.  Enjoy...

Images from top: 

1. Bedroom detail from The Veda House Blog.  Veda House is a new find for me, a gorgeous blog of shoots by photographer and stylist Cassie.  Well worth stopping by.  This bedroom was from a collaboration with Caitlin Wilson textiles.  See more detail of the gorgeous pillow below.

2. Detail of a flower shoot on the West Elm blog.  A gorgeous post on how to take photo's of flowers, and you know how much I love flowers!  Worth a visit to see the rest of the pics too.

3. Love this kitchen via kk living, photo by All Over Press Norway.  Clean white cupboards, a gorgeous old table, wooden floors, a bit of crystal and a kilim rug.  All my favourite things...

4. At left a detail of a gorgeous kitchen styled by Home Beautiful Magazine, designed by architects Robson Rak.  Textures again, marble and wood, I love this space.  At right a pretty as can be nursery with colour swatch rug.  I love this space, pink but not too pink, neutral but not boring.  In a crazy instance of synchronicity this is a detail of a different house designed by Robson Rak, with design by Made by Cohen.

5. And lastly below another look at those gorgeous fabrics by Caitlin Wilson that feature in the bedroom detail.  I would love to add them to my bedroom scheme.  And at right a rather amazing gold finish cow hide available from Citta Designs.  Pricey but pretty pretty!

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How to get your beauty sleep and create a relaxing bedroom

The festive season is fun but busy, and we all need our beauty sleep to be at our best.

Take a moment to create an area of private relaxation in your bedroom, a space where you can unwind from the silly season.

My essential list for creating a bedroom where you can rest, relax, and revive your energies.

• A few fresh flowers.  Just a few blooms cut from your garden are lovely, scented if possible.  You would do it for house guests, this season do it for yourself too.  
• When you have guests staying, or children home during the holidays, let your bedroom be your retreat, a little oasis where you can have a little quiet time.  Make sure you have a few extra pillows so you can sit comfortably, a snuggly throw to cover your feet, and a good book handy to dip into.  
• Trinket box for festive season bling.  Tis the season for getting dressed up, a handy trinket box on the bedside table will keep your party bling in check.  
• Make sure you have enough pillows if you are having guests to stay.  Last time we had guests I realised little Miss J had moved into a big girl bed and we were a few pillows short.  Plan ahead so that everybody will be comfortable.
• Bamboo cotton pillow cases.  Soft, yet silky, the only pillow cases I use at the moment.
• Keep a notebook in your bedside table, for making notes, doodling, and writing to do and shopping lists.
• Open your windows and let in the lovely fresh air.  Well I guess this only works if its summer where you are. 

This post was written in collaboration with Sleepmaker, but as usual all opinions are entirely my own.

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Boxes from Freedom

Cow hide rug turned headboard

Chiang Mai Dragon in mocha

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vignette practice...in my bedroom

My favourite thing in our bedroom is our cow hide headboard.  I bought it as a rug but it was far to small so it has ended up on the headboard.  I was a little worried it would be scratchy to lean on but it isn't.  Its still a work in progress, I want to finish it with a nail head trim, and I need a better solution for the edges, but I haven't quite figured out how to do it.

The little horse has migrated from the spare room to the bedroom, he does roam around the house but has to be kept away from Miss J's curious fingers. 

In this room I am aiming for a collection of textures in neutral shades and tones - soothing but not boring.  The linen curtains are every bit as lovely as I hoped, elegant, light and classic, but still polished.  The rest is a bit of a collectors hodge podge: bedside tables off ebay, lamp bases posted back from a Cape Town holiday, art bought online from KwaZulu Natal, aloes from the neighbourhood.

One day we will get or make a new bed, but its far far down the need to have list.  I also would like a console table for the far wall that I can put a pair of mirrors above, but sadly those too are far down my list.

The photo above was taken by the lovely Maite Robin for Prebuilt.  Our lovely home is fabulous prefab, preFAB to those who know it, and the builders, Prebuilt, asked if they could take some photos.  Enter Maite who took some amazing images which I will share with you in the next few weeks.  I want to pair her work with more intimate images of my own to give you a real sense of our home. 

All other photo's by Eva of BuildHouseHome

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sweet and simple vintage bedroom

Back home at last!!!  After a thrilling, exhilarating, exhausting, inspiring, invigorating, incredible conference at Alt Summit 2013.  More on that later, it was a life changer.  
I also have some very exciting news from the past few weeks, two design successes I am really thrilled with, I'll share soon I promise.  But for now a quick post of an image that has been in my mind the past few months.  

Simple, vintage botanical, pinks, white walls, natural light - many of the things I love. (via Hus & Hem)

I have to hang my fish prints somewhere, similar to the botanicals I love, but fish versions we have had for years.
Its on the 2013 style refresh list.

But for now its back to settling back into home, you guessed it - laundry laundry laundry and covering school books.
No complaints - there is no place like home.

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dreaming of order

I spent a frustrating weekend trying to force the elements of various IKEA storage units into the space I have in the playroom.  It can't be done.  I am a frustrating 20cm short.  The lovely Chinese cabinet with the TV has to move, I have no idea where, and the storage will need to be custom.  The storage we have is already bulging at the seams and Christmas is just around the corner.  I will have to take a leaf out of Melanie of You are My Fave's book, she said this week If you come to a point where the toys are greater than the amount of storage its time for a game of keep, donate, or trash.
So now all I need to know is how to persuade Miss E to divest herself of countless small treasures that each seem terribly important

Perhaps thats why this week I was drawn to these wonderfully styled adult spaces.  Clearly there are no toddlers to play with the arrangements of books and pebbles, play hide and seek with the neatly folded blanket, or take the flowers out of the vase to smell them better.  

But I am not swapping, give me the toy tripping, decor defying, mess making mish mash of motherhood any day.  A few years ago the family went away without me for a few days while I was working on a deadline.  The house was spotless and I came home to the same tidy space that I left, but it was quiet and lonely and I couldn't wait for them to come home, joyful messes and all.  How lucky I am to share my life with them.
From left: study in Michael Deperno's home via Elle Decor, simple bedroom, bedroom by Tricia Folie, butterflies 

This room in a Paris apartment reminds me of our living space.  Long space with white walls and black framed floor to ceiling windows, oak floors and a black wall at the back.  I love the black bookshelves on the black wall.  Need something like that at our place, imagine how much stuff it would both hide and display.  You can just never have to much storage!  

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To do list and the dream list at my house

Sometimes I have to remind myself that this house is only 9 months old and we have achieved a lot already.  So many projects still to do, finishing touches to find, and tasks to finish.   With a limitless budget this would all be done in a flash(note to self "buy lottery ticket").  Failing the lottery we are doing a lot of the work ourselves, making our dollars stretch where they can.  It can be frustrating because it takes longer, but it is satisfying to do something ourselves.    

This is some of what is on my to do and dream lists at the moment:
- order these hooks for hanging towels at the poolside (via abodent)
- look out for long narrow table for bedroom, love the oversize mirrors (via Etcekodeco)
- plant wisteria to catch the season as it turns
- could this (finally) be the light for our dining room or entrance? (via Shelterholic)
- find reasonably priced cobbles so we can finish the driveway

Setting realistic goals:
With Little Miss J in tow things take longer than I would like and its easy to get frustrated.  Ashley from She Makes a Home wrote a brilliant post this week on the importance of setting realistic goals, of coming to terms with the interruptions that come with having a young family.  Ashley was talking about working from home, but it resonates strongly with my desire to get things done, and the frustration of not being able to do everything I want to.  

I would make long to do lists and then get so frustrated when a week went by with nothing accomplished.  The length of the lists were overwhelming, seeing the same tasks week after week demoralising.

I had an epiphany:

• make a list but divide tasks into necessary, urgent, important & nice to do (yes yes you have heard it before)
• do the necessary and urgent first and as soon in the week as possible.  Once they are done you get to move onto the fun stuff.
• schedule in the important, like bills and emails, so you don't get behind.
• choose one nice to do task each week, yes only one, and focus on getting it done.

On my list above, only the wisteria and the cobbles are important, all the rest are nice to have's or dreams.  It takes the pressure off knowing I only have two things to focus on, and if things go pear shaped this week neither are even important and I can let them go.
Sharing my dreams here helps too, putting the thoughts and images into a post stops them racing around my head.  Also I won't lose track of my ideas and thoughts.

One week I focused on getting the washing line set up.  Sounds crazy but it's a lot of little jobs: finding the drill, two trips to the hardware to get the right size drill bits and screws, finding the position of the wall supports, measuring the correct height, assembling the thing from the pathetic instructions.  At the end of the week the line was up, task firmly crossed off the list forever.  I had to laugh when I read Mia's post at Number-Nineteen on Monday, she is also celebrating the convenience of a new washing line.

This week it has been all about getting the children's clothes sorted as the seasons change.
I have done the sorting but the neatly labeled bundles are still sitting on the table until I buy a new plastic crate to store them in.  It all takes time, it will be done by Sunday.

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Don't you love......texture in the bedroom

This is the only time I have ever liked an Ikat print, yes I know that makes me a trend heathen but I just don't like it, except for this one time.  What I like even more is the bedside tables and lights being different, the rumpled bed, the bedside objet.  Usually I feel I need to edit my rooms, this makes me feel I need to add more.Both images via Number NineteenI have just discovered Number Nineteen and I am in love with Mia's aesthetic.  I love the contrast, the tones of light and shade, the way plants pop up everywhere.  I can see that most of the weekend is going to be spent browsing through the archives.

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