It’s getting too cold to work on my projects outdoors, so it’s time to tackle the next room. I’ll need a space where I can cut, sand, build, paint… I need a small “diy studio” 🙂 Next to the office, we have a small room that’s currently filled with boxes. Things that have been neglected since we moved in… (laughing in regret and self-pity) Lets get to work! Remember this cabinet from our old office? It’s heavy. I’m dying… We can’t drill into the garage that we share with our neighbour. Having the shelves here provides a lot of storage space! We can walk in the room now!!! Some remaining stuff need to be organized within this room. This is a drawer I thrifted in June for this room. I’m a really indecisive person, so I’ve spent months thinking about how to refinish it. But I decided that it is too pretty to stay in this room! Maybe you’ll find out in 2023 where it goes? Haha I decided to shift all my tools up to this room.
Back in July, I organized all my tools and diy supplies in the basement; but I’ve realised that wasn’t the best idea. I like to work in natural daylight, so I often brought my tools upstairs. Whenever I forgot something, it was frustrating to go down and up again. I think bringing all my tools and supplies up is going to be a great decision. It’s 5pm and the sun has set. I love the colder seasons, but I hate how early the sun sets. Nevertheless, I want to finish moving all this up today. But the truth is…… I hate filming in artificial light! So here are a few daylight shots where I fake-organized everything~ ^^ I kept most of the organization the same, but improved on a few parts. Whenever I’m exhausted from a diy, Pat helps me put my stuff away 🙂 I’m adding labels so he knows where things go. Concentrating very hard on the middle point… Bullseye! In this room, we have enough space to put a third Ivar unit. The perfect space to tuck away all my spare wood, large clamps, long rods and woodworking jigs.
Last but not least, the pegboard of essential tools! I’m planning out my next DIY project. I want to reuse these cabinets, but I’ve grown tired of the plain design.. I want to hack them into faux apothecary drawers~ My plan is to order thin MDF boards that are cut to the size I need. Each square piece is only 26cents~ Today is a rare sunny 10 degrees! I’m going to take the opportunity to work outside~ As usual, we have to sand the cabinet so that paint will adhere better. Let’s see our paint choices… Maybe brown or black? I love this taupey colour, but I’ve painted so many neutrals already… On the other hand, the darkness of this black scares me… In the end, I went to the hardware store haha.
Something possessed me to get an anthracite grey colour. I was surprised to see how blue it was in the can… but decided to take a leap of faith. Somehow it looks more navy blue than dark grey…? We also collected the custom-cut HDF boards I ordered. To save time, I chose boards that are already primed. Use wood glue to adhere them to the doors. I’m deciding on the layout. Initially my plan was to do layout A or B. But if I stack the Eket cabinets, I can get the most floor space. On the way to my second home.. The hardware store, lol. To maximise the wall space, I decided to do track shelving. My table could also hang from the wall, saving precious floor space.
To protect the wood surface, I’m applying a layer of transparent hardwax-oil. Let dry for 24 hours after. I am really indecisive. So last night I had a moment where I wasn’t sure about the “raw-pine-look” anymore. So I decided to try out a stain and I did this walnut coloured oil; I really liked the results on the small piece. It gave this very rustic vintage look. But when I tried it on a longer board… I don’t know… I don’t know if the board is just a low-grade so the stain is really *no words* …Not great. To be fair I didn’t sand this beforehand either, but I’m not sure how much that would have helped. There’s just so many knots that make the wood look very very busy. So I think I’m just going to keep to this plain, oiled pine for now and in the future when I get sick of it, I can always try staining it again or painting it.
There’s still a lot of possibilities if I don’t do anything to it now. I just need to remind myself that this doesn’t have to be forever, I can always change it, It doesn’t have to be perfect now. *setting my mind* Brackets for my tabletop are added at approx 70cm high. Besides being my DIY workshop, this room will also be an editing office. Right now I edit my videos everywhere – in bed, on the sofa, the stairs… I think having a dedicated workspace would be beneficial! I’m mounting on a tripod for filming flatlays / overhead shots; or at least, I tried to…
I cannot get this to open T-T This is supposed to go on here to make an overhead tripod. *sigh* After determining my tripod height, I fitted the other brackets and added my shelves. Have I ever told you that I have a fear of falling? Whenever I’m using a stepstool, my legs are slightly trembling. When I was a child, I loved climbing everywhere. Once, I climbed onto this monkey bar over twice my height. I slipped and fell directly on my stomach, I can still remember the pain today.
Ever since then, I have had a phobia of falling …which is why I’ve refused to buy a ladder and Pat is in charge of hanging curtains and lights ^^ At the bottom, I added two more boards that I had in my wood stash. It’s time to finish the Eket apothecary cabinet hack. I ordered some vintage-looking wheels. I’ve never seen anything like them before and was intrigued. Clamp to easily secure the cabinets together.
I hate it. :’) So it’s almost done, I’m missing a few knobs that I’ve ordered. Errrmmmm Ya, I hate it. I think it’s because in my initial plan, I was supposed to put them side by side over here but the layout didn’t work out, so I stacked them. It’s very weird to have 4 rows on top but 6 rows at the bottom. It just doesn’t work. I hate the colour too. I tried to be brave and to do something different but… No, I hate the colour. I think they would work separately. Just imagine this with another full row.. It’ll look like those vintage lockers and have some character. But together, they just don’t work. I think I have 2 options. The first one is to try to remove the panels that I glued and make them 4 rows instead of 6 so they don’t look so mismatched; but that doesn’t solve the issue of it being blocky. The second option is to just take this top cabinet (because I actually like how the top one looks) and then mount it onto the wall and also paint it…
BROWN. I know I wanted to avoid painting everything in our apartment brown, but I mean, Pat likes brown, I love brown, Brown’s ok! Pat’s out tonight for dinner, so I can’t ask him for his opinion either. So I guess I should just slowly think about it, maybe sleep on it, and decide… tomorrow? Maybe? I lied. There’s no way I can wait until tomorrow. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all, thinking about this project. When it comes to DIY, it’s a lot of trial and error. Even if it means scraping a whole project and starting again. (Eket cabinet doors are the worst) Since I’m drilling near the switches, I’m checking where the electrical lines run. We can’t do any loud work past 7pm, so I have 10 minute to do this! Mission accomplished~ To be fair, the colour is called ”grey-beige”, not brown 😉 It’s 9pm and… everything’s painted! Can’t do anything else so I’m gonna rest for the night and continue tomorrow~ Since the room is quite plain, I’m adding lots of shapes and colours through decor.
This is a cute rotating calendar I bought in Singapore. A beech wood board that I also got from Singapore. It’s meant to be a serving platter, but it’s pretty as decor as well. I’ve had this for a while, but it never fails to put a smile on my face. It is too small for any plants we own, so I just added pebbles and a little faux succulent. I’m a big fan of Muji’s plant-based candles that come in simple tin packaging. This one matches my pullover ^^ I love it when the apartment smells like sandalwood or hinoki wood.
They have a long lifetime too, I’ve used this many times and it’s still half full This is currently my favourite shade of blue. It is a collapsible crate useful for storing knick-knacks. Milk-chocolatey brown with soft black speckles. This is one of my favourite jugs I ever thrifted. A cute petite shape with an earthy brown colour. I’m adding many thrifted art to this space, including this one. I especially love how thick this frame is! These are my favourite notebooks for scribbling down ideas.
The paper feels buttery smooth, perfect to sketch on. This rainbow pencil makes doodling extra fun. (Some examples) A book I thrifted in London many months ago. It contains a collection of poetry written from 1870 to 1920. This cabinet will be used to store all my thrifted decor that will be sprinkled around the apartment later. I still had some money left in my budget, so I purchased more doors to hide away the messy spare wood. I also added a shower curtain in the middle of the room so that my “office space” stays clean whenever I’m cutting or sanding. When not in use, it can easily be hid away in a basket on top. I added Pat’s old speaker to the corner of the room. As it gets dark earlier, I lose motivation to be productive. Putting on music in the background helps so much 🙂 For the first time, I’m decorating without overthinking because this room is not a “public” space like the living room. I feel free to add colour and have a lot of fun experimenting with the decor.
It’s my little safe space 🙂 I wanted to show you a glimpse of the “real process”. I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief roller coaster ride with me ^^ I’m fortunate to have a whole space where I can be creative. I hope to share more of that side of me with you in the new year :-).