butterpaperstudio: Reno@Bt Panjang Maisonette

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Reno@Bt Panjang Maisonette - IKEA is here!

Hi there, over the weekend, hubs was at the Bukit Panjang Maisonette to go through the carpentry drawings and here are the progress over the week. The parquet upstairs have been polished. All the door frames have been painted black and matches the current black skirting like a ribbon.

Above (right) black door frame and black skirting. (left) Common toilet upstairs with 2 shelves fixed onto the wall for the shower items.

The staircase railing has been installed. It's a slim lined vertical railing. The IKEA couple wanted horizontal railing in the first place but we advised them for vertical ones to prevent safety from falling. Horizontal railings allows young children to climb onto them easily, something which we learnt from work.

IKEA contractor has been here since Monday and it's already Saturday today. They are still in the midst of installing their carpentry. They have finished one straight counter at the back and an island but they are still short of another L shape counter.

I wouldn't say they are slow because it's quite a huge kitchen and there are so many parts to it, especially I heard that there's some parts which belongs to the older model and some parts of the kitchen are new models. So the carpenters have to match the old spare parts to the old models and new spare parts to the new models.

Here's a view of the kitchen from the dining area. The cupboard doors are all covered in a blue protective film now. The top and bottom cabinets are finished in a white laminate. The countertop will be in white too. We didn't want to be caught in something trendy like back in the 90s where everyone wanted something "Zen". So for this kitchen, we aimed for something that is simple and pure. So literally white was our first thought. White is definitely our choice of colour when the IKEA couple wanted a bright, spacious, airy and bright look for their new home.

I guess it might be hard sometimes for us to have clients who are willing to have an all white kitchen as many are afraid of maintenance. White might turn yellow or white is difficult to keep clean at all times. It's definitely true to a certain extent but my all white kitchen has been quite "white" for the past 5 years and I'm not complaining.

as one chef used to tell me..."wipe as you go". So everytime when i spill something over my kitchen top counter which happens to be white too, i will clean it up. And so far my solid surface top looks quite pristine from far. haha...let me stress the words "from far".