Unfortunately for J, I have been obsessed with interior design since 1995 when I discovered interior design mags in the UK. I would give my parents’ house a makeover every night like a sleep meditation exercise. I still remember walking through Ikea in One Utama for the first time in 1999 and feeling like my home planet had beamed me in. Magical magical place.
When we moved into this house, it was a fixer upper. Although it’d have been nice to have the perfect house from the start, I wouldn’t change anything cause the journey of getting our house just perfect is part of what I imagined for marriage? Like a lifelong project together.
We’ve added cabinetry, laminate flooring, porch tiles, porch roof and an auto gate as little year end treats to ourselves. I love it when J asks me or I ask J “Do you remember the cement porch?” or “Do you remember pre-auto gate life?”.
This year, I finally got a mirror for the dining area. I always wanted to get one for the dining table. 11 years ago, I just wanted to get the ubiquitous Ikea Toftbyn but some how kept postponing it cause it felt like such a splurge. #youngLApauperlife
It was good I waited cause I didn’t just get a mirror, I got a mirror wall. Haha. Poor J. I didn’t just get a mirror wall either. Haha. I got myself a sliding partition door so that the living and dining area can cool down faster and I got myself a proper grown up dining table with dining chairs!
For 11 years, we used an Ikea Bjursta. It was great cause it was so cheap, (RM699/799 only!) it was extendable, and our house isn’t huge. The only niggling issue was that the table legs didn’t expand with the tabletop. Ikea has fixed this design flaw now. Pre-Covid, we were hardly home and barely used it. After 2 years of intense lockdown usage (and as the 10 year warranty conveniently expired) the the laminate table top started to chip at the edges and bulge. Very annoying and gross looking.
Dining chairs are so expensive generally that we never bought proper ones to replace the plastic Ikea ones we got as placeholders.
I did get Eames knockoffs from Shopee last year but they were not much better than the Ikea plastic chairs. Haha. They creaked and their screws needed tightening all the time. Very annoying also.
TL:DR? Very pleased with my 2021 home improvement projects. Will I be doing some more projects in 2022? Why, yes, indeed. Haha.
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