Furniture Refurbishment

I have been inspired by a DIY blog called http://www.younghouselove.com/

They are a husband and wife team that does a lot of DIY projects around their  house.  The best part is that they share their secrets and ideas.

I have been picking up some furniture that people have thrown out of their house.  They seem to be in good condition, and unique in design.  They just looks a little old and worn out.

Here are three rattan chairs that I have found and brought home.  Rattan chair ONE is rather common in design, but I liked it and it is comfortable to sit on.  Rattan chair TWO was picked up from the same rubbish dump as Rattan chair ONE three months later.  Rattan chair THREE was found sitting outside opposite a house which was near to our new home.  

With all these three chairs, what I did was spray paint them in white, changed the cushion cover for one chair, bought a cushion for RM10.00 for another and left the one empty.

The condition of Rattan Chair ONE which was found at a rubbish dump

After a few repairs and a coat of white spray paint, this chair is good to sit on.  No cushion needed.

Rattan Chair TWO was also found at the same rubbish dump as Rattan Chair ONE about three months later.  It's unique in design and heavy too.  Gave it a wash and dried it out in the sun.  Sand paper a few parts too.

Gave it a few coats of white spray paint before it could be finally used.

Bought a cushion for RM10.00 at a local cushion and curtain shop.  It now sits at one of the corner in our living room.

Chair Rattan chair THREE was found outside opposite a house nearby to our new home.  It was ivory in color and the cushion was worn out.

Sand paper some of the sides, gave it a few coats of white spray paint and put a new cloth over the old cushion.  This chair too sits at the corner of the hall

Kitchen Cabinets Wishlist

When we first designed our kitchen, we had a look and compared with so many places like Ikea, the internet and other kitchen solutions.  We compared the designs, the quality and of course the price.  In the end we settled for Kitchen Palace (http://www.kpinterior.com/v1/).

In our minds, we had already set for a white open kitchen with simple lines.  Meaning that we didn't want our cabinets to have all the frills, just straight lines.  We didn't want a traditional nor a modern kitchen.  We wanted something in between.  We didn't have much space to play with in our kitchen.  If we fitted in too many cabinets, our kitchen would look small and we would not have like the open space that we wanted.

We designed the kitchen in mind that we will entertain friends our friends there.  Being Malaysian, all our gatherings involves food.  And honestly, we designed our kitchen based on one of Ikea's design at their store.  So in the end, did we imagine how our kitchen would turn out to be?  Is our kitchen what we expected it would be?  Yes! and Yes!

The only pending thing for us  to do in  our kitchen now is to fix the Penisular's countertop.  We've made the the countertop already, just need to sand it down again, varnish it and secure it.

The Penisular and the wood for the countertop sitting on the floor

Hubby fixing the wood for the countertop

Ikea's model kitchen that we like

Our own kitchen : similiar

Kitchen Cabinets

Our kitchen cabinets was installed in two days but minus the counter top which came in two weeks later.  The two installers were efficient, organised and most importantly clean.  Unlike other contractors who would just do their work and then leave their mess behind for the owner to clean, these two men were constantly sweeping away everytime they saw or cut wood.

The two installers installing the kitchen cabinet

Kitchen cabinets installed minus the counter tops

A semi functional kitchen, counter tops are installed BUT minus the fittings for the sink

Cooking and washing area

The cooking area with the cooker and hob

The Peninsular without it's counter top

I can't recall the material that we use for the kitchen cabinets. The counter top is Corian, black color with some other smaller white material. As for the kitchen cabinet, it's white in color, flat without any design but it you go closer, from the side, you can see that it's a little wavy.

The cabinet material ...

A close up of the cabinet and it's handle

Hubby fixing the counter top for the Peninsular

The sink minus the fittings ~ waiting for our plumber to fix it

My tin collection displayed above the cabinets

The Peninsular's counter top which Hubby will be fixing

The oven and microwave