George Kovacs Second Marriage Double Wall Lamp

Yeah, I know…How weird is that name for a lamp, right?
It was my first online lighting purchase, I usually have to see/touch the product to make sure I like it, but this time I decided to trust all the good reviews this lamp had and I have to say, I’m glad I did. The lamp is what I was looking for, the lights curve anyway you want, plus, there is a dimmer, in case if you want to read (knit:)) while your partner’s asleep. In terms of price+look = total score, I think.

Built in PAX

The spring is here and so is the time to change up the winter clothes to a lighter spring/summer ones. While doing so the other day, I couldn’t help but notice how well we’re doing with our  PAX wardrobe system. We installed it almost a year ago, but had completely finished it off a few days ago.

I guess the system works for us because V and I are trying to keep everything minimal around here. I’m not a “fashionista” type of woman, there is no closet space devoted to shoes or a place to hold all my jewellry, simply because I don’t have much of any of that. I can occasionally splurge on good jeans, nice pair of sneakers or boots and I might have a soft spot for scarves and shawls:) but nothing too excessive even there. And with V, its even much more simpler than that – couple of jeans, nice sweater, some t-shirts and socks:) We literally shop for “his” clothes once, twice a year at most. That’s right, folks – minimalism, take it or leave it, but it’s our philosophy and we’re sticking to it.:)

Basically, we have three sections in our PAX: two meter-ones for each of us on the sides and half-a-meter-one in the middle - to be shared.

In order to fit this giant in the closet niche, V had to cut a bit of the linen closet that intersects into the room on the right side, and built the wall over. Not his favourite reno thing to do, but it had to be done in order to gain the 2.5m wide space. There was some empty space left atop the closet, which we closed off by using a baseboard strip from Home Depot. V also attached a quarter round at the base to give our PAX a fully “built-in” look.

We opted for single doors in shiny white and three mirrored ones in the middle. They enhance the size of the room and reflect so much needed light.

I'm quite happy with our PAX so far and already looking for other places in the house to fit another one into:)

Custom-made nightstands

If you can’t find what you are looking for – just make it yourself.
That’s my new motto and I’m sticking to it. Well, husband forbids.:)

I simply failed in my search for a perfect pair of nightstands for our little bedroom in terms of  size+price+look. Yes, size is the biggest issue for us, folks. We can’t really accommodate bulky pieces of furniture or, I should clarify, any other furniture in this room except for our bed and coupe of nightstands.

So the nightstands HAD to be very compact while still functional and work with the rest of the room.

What I like about this design is its minimalism. We don’t usually keep knick-knacks on our nightstands, so this design suits us just fine. The top part is for essentials only (and occasional flowers) and the little shelve on the bottom is for magazines and books that we like to read before going to bed. We do plan to have reading lights in the future, but those will be installed on the wall as well.

The materials we used were two birch planks from Home Depot, $17 each. My first choice was maple, but at $35 for the same board, I couldn’t rationalize the expense. We applied three coats of this wood stain, in “Espresso”, some oil based varnish to protect the wood, strong glue, some screws and bolts to attach the shelve to the wall.

I’m not going to go over how to cut wood and put the shelve together, I’m guessing if you are taking on DIY like this you already know/have the tools for the project but I will say that the cutting was the easiest part, it’s staining and varnishing that took most of the time due to drying in between coats.

After we had them installed V started working out design alternatives: “I should have made this side longer and this side curve this way, so we could have more storage space on this side”, to which I replied: “no worries, honey, next time you can make them anyway you want.”:)

Our bedroom is coming together nicely, I have to say, so stay tuned for more updates.