Ensuite Mirror Cabinet

My Ensuite bathroom is pretty small and the vanity cabinet is tiny, I think only 750mm wide. I like storage in a bathroom... you know, to keep all those lotions and potions we all hoard (or is that just me :/ ). I like being able to put everything out of sight, rather than sprawled out all over the place and frankly that tiny vanity cabinet of mine just won't be enough. Therefore I want to add in a wall hung mirror cabinet to solve my storage dilemma.

My builders standard is to supply a regular builders grade mirror stuck on the wall (you know, those plain ones with no frame), well my plan is to ask them to leave this off so I can install a wall hung mirror cabinet after I get handover of the house. This will provide so much more storage for all my bits and bobs and keep the bathroom much tidier.

I had a few cabinets in mind and originally was leaning towards a more traditional style with a wooden frame etc. Like this one below....

but after thinking it over and considering the size and style of the bathroom I decided to go in a different direction with a more minimal and sleek look.

I've been eying off the IKEA Godmorgon Mirror cabinet for a while now. Its mirror on all sides and also has a mirror finish on the inside.

The picture really doesn't do it justice, its very pretty I promise.

At $300 for the 600mm wide one, I think that's a fair price.

So last weekend I journeyed to IKEA with Mum and Dad to get my cabinet. I don't get to IKEA very often so its always a fun day out. I think we spent about 3 hours in there just looking at different things.

Once home, I pulled a few bits out just to make sure it looked right and there wasn't any cracked mirror. It will be packed away now until the house is complete.

 
Hoping it won't be too much of a drama to hang on the wall as it is pretty heavy, 22kg I belive. I don't think I'll be able to tap into the house frames because of their location so I'm going to have to go straight into the gyprock and am considering cavity fasteners, Ramset make some which might do the job. I would love to hear from anyone who has used cavity fasteners to hang something heavy, what was your experience? any tips or tricks?

Up..UP..UPPP she goes

My house has finally turned 3D.... Framework is done.

It took 4 tradies only 3 days to put it all together. It looks mighty fine if you ask me.

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 This is looking into the 2 car Garage. The second pallet of bricks towards the back of the photograph (on the left) is where the outdoor alfresco is.

This is looking down my long hallway in the centre of the house. To the right is a bathroom and the laundry. At the very back is a bedroom. 

This is standing in the dining room looking down through the kitchen and into the living room. That big pile of dirt out there will be my backyard. To the left of the photograph (where the bricks are sitting) will be a glass sliding door with access to the outdoor alfresco area.

Just a photo of the roof framework

This is looking back at the rear of the house, on the left is a bedroom and on the right is the living room.

..and a photo of me standing at my kitchen sink haha. Please excuse the daggy after work attire.

 

Cant wait to see my roof go on next and then see some brickwork start!

Flooring....check!!

My flooring has been selected and deposit paid. Although I still have a couple of months before I need my flooring, its one of those things I just wanted to get out of the way so I can move onto other decisions. So many decision lol. My local carpet store had a great sale on so I decided to take advantage of what they had on offer.

The flooring budget was tight, as with everything. Although I'd love to have fancy hardwoods throughout, my budget just doesn’t allow for that and therefore I decided on laminate wood-look planks. A lot of my family have it in their homes and have nothing but praise for it. Its hard wearing and no maintenance required.

I wasn’t 100% sure what type of laminate I would go for as there are hundreds of options, long boards, short boards, wide boards, beveled edges, flush edges, gloss, matt etc. I guess I was just looking for something that looked like real timber floors to me, and hoping to find something that would draw me in and I would just 'know'. I liked the idea of the longer boards, but really had no idea of colours as I like both light and dark timbers.

My local store had a great longboard product which was on sale called 'Titan Longboards', it has a gloss finish, but not high gloss and a small beveled edge. There were a bunch of colours but I was straight away drawn to ‘spotted gum’. They laid it out on the floor on top of the real ‘spotted gum’ timber and you could not tell the difference. It looked just like the real thing, I'm not making this up.

Then we wondered over to the carpet section. I was planning for the master bedroom and one of the minor bedrooms to have carpet. The third bedroom would have the laminate. I didn’t realise there were so many different types of carpet, different styles, materials, finishes. I wanted a dark charcoal grey, and they had just the thing on sale for a great price. It’s not super plush but I was advised not to go that route and plush carpets wear a lot faster than the harder carpets. The dark colour is probably a bold choice, a lot of people advised me against it but I had to choose what I loved, otherwise I knew I'd regret it if I played the safe option. 

I've decided to install the laminate flooring myself (with some family help of course) this saved me a lot of money. It'll be a time consuming task, but I'm in no hurry so it doesn’t really matter how long it takes. 

Hopefully it will all look great once laid. 

The beginnings of a gallery wall

Growing up, one of my favorite parts of my family home was our central hallway. There is nothing particularly interesting about the hallway, it’s just a long narrow stretch down the centre of the house. But what makes this hallway so special is all the photographs that line the entire length of both walls. Family photos, mostly wedding photos. Almost everyone who visits, always stops in the hallway to have a look. 

I remember deciding, wayyyy back, when I was only a kid. Before I was even interested in interiors, that one day I would have a house with a big long hallway where I could have treasured photos lining the walls, just like in my parents home.

Maybe that’s part of the reason I fell in love with my house plan, it has a huge long hallway, stretching a large portion of the house. Perfect for my very own gallery.

Some inspiration I have gathered....

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I have already started slowly collecting some frames. The cost of these soon adds up, so doing it over time helps spread out the cost. So far my frames are all new, however I am keeping an eye out at my local second hand stores for old frames that I can re-purpose with some spray paint if needed. 

Photo wise I will need to organise some enlargements. I’m planning on mixing some old family photos, in with some recent ones, and maybe some other bits and pieces thrown in there. 

I’m also leaning towards using a picture ledge/s to put them on rather than hanging them individually on the wall. But I will lock that in later on. 

Location wise, here’s where I’m thinking...

 

I'm pretty excited about it, can't wait to see it come together.