It’s about time we got to the point where I could finally post an updated house tour. Not much to the flat since it’s a studio apartment, but with all that Ikea furniture to put together, as well as some extra furniture from the previous owners to get rid of, the flat was looking pretty cluttered. These days – we have so much room we barely know what to do with it! Nice to have plenty of breathing space, especially considering we work, relax, and sleep in the same room.
These pictures were only possible thanks to the amazing new (previously used) lens Thomas bought me (the Canon 24 mm 1.4 in case anyone’s curious). I can’t imagine being able to take half decent ones on my old Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens. I would’ve had to resort to using my Sony Alpha a5000, which would’ve been fine, I think, but I love the Canon body a heck of a lot more so am really glad to have the new lens to shoot wider angles with.
Still plenty to be done, but all in all I feel like we’ve made good progress. It’s a minimalist flat that I tried to stick to a blue, white, beige, gold, and light wood colour scheme for. I think I managed to pull it off.
So anyway, let’s start with the bed:
It’s an Ikea Mandal bed frame, with a Morgedal king-sized (UK king size, which is a US/Canadian queen) foam mattress. I love this combo. It’s amazing. While it looks like it hovers over the floor, there is some more wood underneath that blocks any dust from getting under the bed – so good for sweeping and keeping the house dust-free. There’s 4 drawers, two on each side, which are plenty big enough for extra blankets and bed sheets, and the Morgedal mattress is amazing. Firm, but not too firm; just the way I like it. Could not be happier with this purchase.
The pillowcases between the navy are from the Sotblomster quilt cover and 4 pillowcases set. I love these – and I have the quilt cover on a duvet for when the weather starts to turn for the colder. Until then, we’re sticking to just using one Indira (navy blue) and one Fabrina (beige) bedspread, which we split up when it’s too hot, and we put together when it’s a bit nippy. Works perfectly for us.
Next, on the right of the bed and just by the door to the kitchen, we have two sets of Nordli 6-drawer dressers. They look fantastic, and go really well together like this. These are self-closing which made them a little trickier to put together, but so worth it. It’s nice to have a feature like that, especially since we use these drawers regularly (to keep clothes that we’ve worn, but aren’t ready to wash yet – so we don’t have to put them away with the completely clean clothes).
And here’s our little kitty cat corner wedged between the Nordli dressers and the Alex units under our windows. When I feed Avery, I pull out that cat toy, the Catit Senses Food Maze. Once he’s got only a little food left, I put it back on the mat so that he can save it for snacking on throughout the day. Works perfectly in the space.
And here you can see the full view of the windows:
Yes, it does seem Avery likes posing. Definitely not camera shy.
Those three dressers are the Alex drawer units on castors (only we have them not on castors). They are amazing for having a self-made window seat of sorts. The perfect height, and withhold our weight very well. Thomas uses them all to keep various hobby related things, stationery, fountain pens, e-juice and vaporizers, as well as our survival gear and currently tools as well. We’ll probably be moving the tools out after our next Ikea purchase (which should be our last – promise!), but for now, it’s certainly been enough storage.
If your’re wondering what that thing is on the right of the Alex units – it’s actually a litter box. The ModKat litter box, specifically. Looks sleek, right?
Wondering how the cats get in to do their business? They hop onto the grey platform, take a peek in, ease themselves into the box, do their business, then hop right back up to the grey platform to leave.
Makes for easier cleaning – as there’s less dust and debris that gets out; there’s no real tracking as the litter ends up on the grey platform only, and I put so much more litter in, meaning the litter is a lot deeper for when Avery does his business. Haven’t been getting as much peeing-on-the-back or peeing-on-the-sides/corners, and combined with the amazing cat litter we have (true to the title – World’s Best Cat Litter – the multi-cat formula), this box has been a complete dream. To top it all off – it looks dang good.
But back to the furniture. Ready for more Ikea, yes? We have enormous closets in this flat, so big I couldn’t even do them justice with my new lens. We have two Alex 9-drawer units, which we put on the other Alex units’ castors (we requested another set of wheels from Ikea and they were generous enough to give us a 4th!), squeezed into one end of the closets with absolutely no problem. Leaves room to put some extra stuff on the top, even. Take a look:
My closet –
Thomas’ closet –
Nice perk of these closets – the fact that there’s a light bulb and light switch within them. So perfect.
And here’s where we do our heavy lifting. To be completely fair, I do a lot of my work on the bed, since I actually use my laptop as a laptop. Thomas uses his laptop like it’s a desktop computer; so yes, that is a monitor, mouse, and keyboard all plugged into that workhorse of a laptop.
Two Alex desks side by side make this place feel like a business start up. Cute as hell, I think. Soon we’ll get a couple rolling chairs from Staples, and we’ll be all set. Until then, we have these lovely folding chairs from Sue in some cute sock cosies (working at keeping our new floors from being scratched up).
I love our work station.
Of course we still have some things left to buy – namely a dresser to clear up our currently-on-the-floor charging station. Definitely think I’m going to go with a Rast dresser for that.
And before we finish off, let me show you the entrance now that I’ve got my new, wider-angle lens!
Love the way it’s coming together. It’s a great space that’s basically being used as a mudroom. I want to change that one poor little coat hanger into a DIY version with two lines of wood and a slew of hooks in a row – one row for hats and scarves and the one beneath for the coats and fleeces themselves. On the other side, I want to hang a nice white mirror. Have one from Wilko in mind already.
We used the Kallax shelf from Ikea as a shoe rack – and its been perfect! Going to grab four boxes to put in the bottom ones so that we can put flip flops, flats, and Birkenstocks in, since they don’t need to take up a space of their own. This is just the right size, though, and an excellent fit in our little entrance space.
Well that’s all for the updated house tour! Hope you enjoyed it. Will definitely be showcasing our washroom and kitchen in another post, and will show off our updated space again once we have the new furniture from Ikea. That may be a while, though, since we’re still recovering from the last order!
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