I've been mega busy with the renovation works at the new condo unit and we're almost done! We've spent quite a bit on this but it's made soooo much difference to the whole place.
The bulk of the money spent went to changing the flooring. It was originally a yucky coloured red tile (left pic). We spent RM13k just to change it to a wood laminate floor (right pic). They placed the wooden boards like piecing together jigsaw puzzle pieces on top of the existing tiles. We spent ages deciding on the colour, as there were so many shades and grain patterns to choose from. In the end, we went with Siam Teak, which is a light colour, to brighten the whole place up.
One of the first things hubby insisted on getting done was knocking down the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room. It was a great move, as the whole place opened up and seemed bigger and brighter.
There was a big, humongous cabinet along the wall of the dining room and corridor. It made the room darker and also made the corridor narrower. The dining area is already dark, as there are no windows to let in natural light. So we decided to demolish the whole thing. Thus we discovered that the behemoth was actually constructed to hide a fat pillar behind it.
We decided then to make that wall a feature wall and almost put glass bricks on it in an attempt to bring in some natural light. Thank goodness we came to our senses and laid natural stone on it instead, because glass bricks are so 'yesterday'! :) (We couldn't afford to spend too much time over decisions, all this was done at lightning speed, because we are aiming to move in before Chinese New Year, and I suppose so is everyone else!) We also made a row of cabinets and a shelf there, but kept it minimal and not too big.
Okay, the piece de resistance... This is one of the walls at the living room. Refer to the 'before' picture on the left; see that 'cushiony thing' on right? Don't even ask me what it is. The previous owners must have ordered one too many bed headboards and decided not to waste it. So, the mounted it on the wall and called it art!? Hmmm... It puzzles me to this day. Anyway, this monstrosity definitely had to go. Didn't take long for us to decide that.
This wooden, cushiony, wall feature thing covered the whole wall. When we removed it, we found it was constructed to cover two pillars! These guys must have hated pillars. If there's one thing we've learnt from all this is, "condominiums have a lot of pillars".
So, we decided to embrace the pillars instead and incorporate them into our designs. We kept everything simple and fresh. I'm loving how it's looking right now and can't wait till hubby comes home to see it tomorrow!
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