After covering the first floor in my first post about our new place, I initially wanted to write about the second level, but because that has my absolute favourite space in the entire house, I decided to save the best for last. This post will be all about our bedrooms, which are located on the third floor.
There were some “surprises” during the renovation process, like how we discovered that our master bathroom had a really high ceiling when the workers removed the false ceiling. Francis quickly contacted us, and suggested that we took advantage of the unique high ceiling to provide the bathroom with a bit more ventilation. That bathroom was originally really dark and stuffy, so after we replaced a wall with sliding glass doors and left the high ceiling as it was, the bathroom became a lot nicer.
Francis recommended adding gradient film from 3M to the glass doors, so that the person in the bathroom has a bit of privacy. Initially, we thought the gradient film didn’t make sense, because we could still clearly see the person seated on the toilet bowl, but then we realised that if we were lying on the bed, we couldn’t see the person anymore, so okay la, not bad.
To make the bathroom look even more spacious, Francis chose not to have fixed mirrors for us, allowing us to “keep” them when we don’t need them.
The twins were most amused to find out that they could open the sliding doors and “talk” to the person inside the bathroom, and promptly ran to get their “babies” to hang out at our bathroom. Hahaha.
We realised that the towel rail we got didn’t look nice at the spot which we intended it to go, so Francis helped us to order this towel ladder rack from Urban Mood instead. It took about two months to arrive, but finally arrived recently. We’re planning to put some decorative items on the top few rungs, but haven’t quite decided for sure yet.
As our master bedroom is quite spacious, we chose to divide the room into two, creating a walk-in wardrobe behind our bed. We opted for wallpaper (also from Windows & Waltz) on the dividing panel, so that our “bedroom” looks “softer”. We took quite a while to decide on the wallpaper, but Rene was really patient, giving us advice and even made the effort to bring down larger sample pieces for us to compare.
After factoring in our bed frame from King Living, we realised that our bedside tables had to be really small. Francis found these Kartell Componibili modules from Space Furniture, and they fit perfectly! He also managed to get wall-mounted bedside lights for us that matched the lights at our staircase, which was great because it freed up space on the bedside tables.
We got the same blinds from Windows & Waltz for the entire house, and Rene customised three panels of blinds for our little “balcony”. We originally wanted to have just one larger panel in front of the “balcony”, but Rene told us that it would look weird, and we’re glad we listened to her, because this looks much nicer!
The blinds in our walk-in wardrobe area work really well as they let in some light during the day, which means our staircase area is brighter, since we put a fixed window there.
The kids’ room is opposite ours, and the staircase is directly outside their door, so we decided to put a safety gate there for our own peace of mind. I kept worrying that the kids would fall down the stairs in the middle of the night, and even jumped out of bed one night when a dog barked and I thought it was the one of the kids shouting after falling down the stairs.
I really liked this Lascal safety gate that our friends passed to us, because it didn’t have the bar below, which I thought people (okay, I) might trip over. It’s also not easy for kids to open, and I was really pleased with it, until one day, after I closed the gate to prevent Didi from coming to N’s room to disturb us (I was going through N’s homework with him), Didi suddenly appeared in N’s room. He looked REALLY proud of himself when he burst into the room and exclaimed, “Ta-dah! SURPRISE!” I was absolutely baffled because I knew I had closed the gate properly, right in Didi’s face as he was standing at the stairs, and I also knew that he didn’t know how to open the gate. I went out to check that the gate was still closed, and Didi gleefully said, “I went UNDER the gate!” *facepalm*
Anyway, we now have a night light on the staircase landing, so it won’t be completely dark if the kids decide to crawl under the gate to go downstairs at night. They haven’t tried it yet, but I wouldn’t put it past these cheeky kids!
We haven’t decorated/styled all three bedrooms yet, and the kids’ rooms are plain and purely functional at the moment. We brought over the Flexa bunk bed from our first home, and kept to the same sleeping arrangement, where N sleeps on the top bunk and the twins share the bottom bunk, because N changed his mind about sleeping in his own room.
The twins actually sleep on two separate Ikea mattresses, as the mattresses fit quite well in the space beneath the top bunk. It also helps that we got the slanted ladder instead of the vertical one, as we planned for the twins to share the bottom bunk. They don’t quite have fixed sleeping spots yet, but most of the time, Didi is on the mattress inside, and Meimei sleeps on the one outside, because it’s slightly cooler there.
N was thrilled to bits when his ErgoBloom BloomDesk and BloomChair set arrived, and asked to try sleeping in his own room because of the new desk and chair. We haven’t gotten him a proper bed for his room yet, so he slept on a mattress on the floor. I think he felt pretty grown-up, but that lasted for all of three nights, and he asked to go back to the twins’ bedroom after that, “because it’s lonely in my own room”.
He really likes using the ErgoBloom set to do his own work, draw or even just read, and has been trying to “decorate” the desk with his little knick-knacks. Sometimes, when I can’t find him with his siblings, I’ll find him enjoying his alone time, reading a comic at his desk. I’ll do a proper post on the ErgoBloom desk and chair soon!
Apart from his ErgoBloom desk set, N has a set of the Ikea Trofast storage containers, where he keeps some of his favourite toys. I got him the Ikea Socker greenhouse and some plants, which he’s in charge of watering regularly. He also wanted to display the lion that he made during his art holiday programme at HeART Studio, and we’re still trying to figure out how and where we will display the rest of his artwork.
The kids’ rooms are connected by a shared bathroom, and I think it’s quite convenient this way. The plan is for Didi to take over their current bedroom next time, and for Meimei to move to her own room downstairs, so that the boys can share the bathroom, and Meimei can have her own bathroom. That will probably be quite a few years later, because we first have to get N to sleep in his own room, then get one of the twins (probably Meimei) to take the top bunk, before moving Meimei out of the room completely.
We’re taking our time to decorate the rooms and to make them cosier. The kids would probably like to see their artwork being displayed in their rooms, and we are planning to display some of our family photos in our master bedroom, but probably on a thin console table or sideboard. Time to go shopping, I think!
Talking about shopping, I’m working on a blog post with all the links to the items that I’ve purchased from Shopee, so look out for that at the beginning of November, just in time for the 11.11 sale!
PS. I’ve added the list of contacts below, just like I did in my first post, in case anyone is keen on using our ID/Contractor, or getting blinds/wallpaper done.
List of Contacts Interior Designer: Francis Leong | Tel: 90688349 Contractor: Gary (Charlton Design) | Tel: 93696699 Blinds: Rene (Windows & Waltz) | Tel: 91000781 | Website
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