Color Coordinated Bookshelves

I've always dreamed of having bookshelves in my living room to display all my stuff. And now finally, it's here!

Decluttering and Organizing our home (part 1)

I'm sure I'm not the only one with dreams of having a perfectly clutter-free home. Especially for those with kids, it's such a struggle to keep everything neat and orderly with their endless toys, books, clothes, and shoes everywhere! I mean you've just put back all their toys in the bin and arranged their books on the shelf, and barely 10 minutes have passed and they dump everything on the floor again! Honestly, why do we even bother?!

Anyway, I've been seeing a lot of those professional organizers online these days, hired by celebrities to tidy up their closets. I wish I had the budget for one, but I know I can do it as long as I put my mind to it! Challenge accepted! ;p

DIY Lampshade Makeover

Lamps are a great way to accessorize any room. And customizing the shade with fabric is a great way to add color or pattern to the space.

DIY: Painting our front door RED

I've been wanting to give our front door a fresh coat of paint for the longest time, and it's finally done!

Our Rainbow Vacuum Demo experience (to buy or not to buy?)

I've been referred to have a Rainbow vacuum demo a number of times before, but I've always said no since I know how expensive it is. But I've read such great reviews about it in online mommy groups, saying how it was SO worth it since the unit can last for decades and they have superb after-sales service. And since my family can be prone to allergy attacks, I figured it was time to see for myself if we should indeed get one.

Giving our gate a fresh coat of paint

I've hardly done any DIY projects inside the house lately since I guess I've been pretty happy with how everything is so far. However, one thing I neglected was the outside. And that something was our GATE.

Our updated picture frame wall gallery

I first put up these photo frames back in 2012 when we only had two kids. I've been meaning to change and add photos ever since we had Skyler and finally I've gotten around to doing it.

Here was one side of the wall before:

Room renovation part 2

Here's an update on what my daughter's new bedroom looks like. If you haven't read my past posts, all she wanted for her 7th birthday was her own room (plus loft bed). So we granted her wish and renovated one of the rooms in our house. You can read all about part 1 HERE.

Room renovation part 1

All my daughter wanted for her 7th birthday was a loft bed and her own room. She fell in love with the Svarta loft bed from Ikea, so we ended up ordering this from Mobler last November. It's still not here yet, so I'm getting a bit impatient na haha! But for the room, she currently shares one with her brother (see their room HERE and HERE). But of course we knew they would need their own space when they got older.

One of the rooms we have is currently a guest room/storage room. But the layout just isn't right for the loft bed. What I wanted to do was remove the existing closet since I think the loft bed would fit better on that side of the room.

Vacuum Cleaning Service with Happy Helpers

As part of my new year's resolution to organize and declutter around the house, I've decided to get a cleaning service to vacuum our mattresses. This has actually been long overdue since we moved in our home 5 years ago! I realized I really needed to get this done since we've all been getting symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Like I couldn't get a good night's sleep since my throat and eyes were always so itchy, plus we're all sneezing and getting runny noses all the time.

I searched online and read all about dust mites and bed bugs (ewww!) which was probably the culprit for all our allergies. That was when I found HAPPY HELPERS through some recommendations from a mommy group. There were actually other companies I inquired with, but what made me ultimately decide on Happy Helpers (aside from their lower price compared to others) was that they're a social enterprise that employs women from Gawad Kalinga communities.

Vancouver Vacation: Shopping heaven at HomeSense

Shopping for home decor has got to be my favorite (next to clothes of course). And during our trip to Vancouver Canada, I stumbled upon a motherload of fabulous finds at HomeSense!

Real Living online features

Our home was featured a few months ago in the August 2015 issue of Real Living. This time, they also published two articles about it on their website!

The first one is basically a photo gallery of the different areas of the house. Read the entire article HERE.

The second one has some DIY decorating tips including some of my own personal projects like making your own wall stickers and creating silhouette portraits. Read the entire article HERE.

So again, thank you to Real Living for all these features. Really makes all the efforts in making my DIY projects and decorating on a budget worth it! :)

A trip to IKEA Singapore (plus shopping loot)

When I travel, I try to drop by an IKEA if I can since I just can't get enough of their stuff! I've already visited their Singapore branch in Tampines when I was there a few years ago, so I was happy to check out their other store in Alexandra this time.

Our house is featured in Real Living!!!

If you know me or have been reading this blog for quite some time now, then you know that Real Living Magazine has been a constant source of inspiration for me for many, many years. Even before I got married, I was already reading this magazine, just dreaming about the day when I would have my own home and get to decorate it.

When we finally moved into our house 3 years ago, I initially wanted to hire an interior designer. I actually inquired among several decorators whose style I liked from Real Living and even had an ocular at our home to know the costs. Well, it turns out we couldn't afford it then, but I guess it was a blessing in disguise since I was able to fully exercise my creativity and DIY skills to the maximum level.

Hubby and I bought furniture on sale and had some custom made to save on costs. I went online to find inspiration from websites like Houzz and Project Nursery. I discovered so many blogs that inspired me to do my own DIY projects (which I blogged about as well!). I discovered places like Dapitan and Uniwide which were treasure troves for budget conscious people like me.

All these things led us to have the home that we have today, a home that I'm extremely proud of. And what makes it even more special is that I didn't need an interior designer after all! Like the title of the article says, this really was my "PERSONAL PROJECT". And this just proves that you don't need to spend a lot in order to have a nice space. I think it's just a combination of inspiration, imagination, and a little bit of hard work too (hindi madali ang magpaint ng room ha!).

Before, I would just read Real Living magazine, gushing over the beautiful houses page after page. Who would have thought that I would eventually be able to see our own home inside the magazine? I swear, it really is a dream come true!

DIY Triangle Accent Wall

After I painted my kids' room blue, I knew I wanted to do something with the main wall behind their bed. It previously had an owl mural so the plain blue was just looking well a little... plain. ;p

DIY: Repainting my kids' room

I'm probably the most adventurous when it comes to doing painting projects in my kids' room since it's not that big. I know I can pretty much do it myself without spending a whole lot for materials. One of my very first DIY projects was doing this owl tree mural, which is probably one of my all-time favorites.

After, I decided to paint half the wall purple, just to give it an accent color.

Then, I went all out and painted stripes on the ceiling since I figured, why not? ;p

I guess I'd forgotten how much work it actually took to do these projects since after a while, I was itching to make some changes again. Plus the kids were getting older, which meant they could already give me input on what they wanted. Both my son and daughter stay in this room so I couldn't really choose between a "Princess Underwater" or "Power Rangers" theme. ;p

Basically, I knew I just wanted to change the color of the walls first. Of course, it had to be gender neutral and something that would match the striped grey and white ceiling (no way was I repainting that anytime soon since it took me forever to do that!). Honestly, it was so hard to choose especially when I was looking at paint swatches since there were so many nice colors!

In the end, I decided to go with an light blue color called PEACE RIVER in a satin finish. I got a gallon of paint which cost about P1k. This was honestly more than I was expecting to pay for the paint, but it was good quality which meant good coverage. So I figured it was fine since I was going to be looking at those walls for quite some time right? :)

Before I got started though, I first wiped the walls using a damp cloth. This is important since a lot of dirt and residue can accumulate on your walls over the years. Mine was super dusty, I didn't even realize it! I also sanded over any uneven parts from my previous paint job. You definitely want a smooth and clean surface when you start.

it was definitely hard to take the owl mural down, but it's time for a change ;)

Since I was repainting over the owl mural and also the purple half of the wall with a lighter color, I had to get a primer so I could even out the color first. Others might just go ahead and paint over everything at once, but you might need more coats to make sure the old paint color won't show through. Personally, I think a primer saves you time and energy and just ensures a nicer end result.

I loved putting on the primer since I didn't need to be neat about it. It doesn't have to be applied perfectly since you'll be covering it up with your new paint color anyway.

After everything was covered, it was finally time to really paint. I also love how my little assistant was back! She also helped me paint the purple half of the wall before. I had to kick her out after a while though, since honestly, we would never finish with her around! lol ;p

Anyway, if you think it was easy, it was NOT. I definitely need blog posts like these to remind me of the blood, sweat, and tears it took to finish painting the damn room! I blame HGTV for making it look like a breeze haha! And honestly, who here hasn't looked around a small space and confidently thought, "I could paint this in a few hours max!"

Well, it took me 3 days and I almost gave up and hired someone to finish it for me. I think maybe it was because of the cheap paint rollers I used, or maybe I just bit off more that I could chew. But I got the job done in the end and it's beautiful if I do say so myself!

I love how the color turned out! Even though it's blue, the light shade is still feminine enough for a girl. The primer definitely worked since it covered all the old paint perfectly. And the color made the room brighter and fresher, don't you think? My kids are happy and so am I!

My whole body was aching for days after I did this - from all the bending over, reaching up, and going up and down the ladder. I now have a newfound respect for house painters! I told hubby I won't bargain anymore when a painter charges for labor since I now know how hard it is to do their job haha! ;p

I honestly want to paint over a lot more walls in our house (like the accent wall in our living room and also our master bedroom). But with this weather, it will definitely take a while before I do manual labor again hehe! But stay tuned since I have a lot more home improvements coming up soon. :)

Japan Surplus Store (BF Paranque)

I've always been curious to check out this Japan Home and Office Furniture store along President's Avenue in BF. Not to be confused with Japan Home Centre or Daiso, this is a surplus shop selling second hand furniture and home accessories.

The pieces I've seen displayed outside seemed promising. So I finally found the time to drop by a few weeks ago to check out the prices and to see more stuff.

Upon closer inspection though, I realized that these pieces definitely needed some work. Most were in good condition but you could tell they were definitely used and even old. And what was even more surprising were the prices! Can you believe this black chair pictured below (left) was about P3,500? And you needed to have it reupholstered pa in my opinion since the fabric was dirty and had stains. These tall chairs on the right meanwhile caught my eye since they had that vintage vibe and I could already imagine repainting them in a bright color. However, they didn't seem sturdy enough anymore when I held them. Definitely needed more repairs.

There's more stuff and knick-knacks inside. Be prepared though, it was very dusty and quite hot.

From the first glance, I already knew I wasn't interested in anything. And again, the prices were a bit too expensive for me considering these were surplus stuff. My mom was interested in a bowl that she wanted to put plants in. I swear there was nothing special about it so we were so surprised when we were told it was P650! Ummm, di bale na lang, sa SM na lang kami bibili, bago pa!

These figurines/dolls were probably the only thing I would consider buying...

Again, just to give you an idea of the prices, this cabinet was P9,800 and that center table at the back was P5,800...

Those big cabinets at the back were about P18,000 to P20,000...

they also sell bikes btw

Bottomline, I didn't buy anything from here. If I saw something really unique and special, for sure I would have gotten it. But based on what I saw, I'd rather go to the mall where I can buy brand new stuff for much less. And I wouldn't have to exert effort to paint or fix things anymore. And for the plates and ceramic items, just go to Uniwide or even Landmark for a better and much cheaper selection. But who knows, maybe you can find some hidden gems here if you look hard enough.

IKEA shopping loot

Here's the stuff I bought from IKEA Hong Kong:

I'm currently stoking up on duvets and this one had a cute print and was one of the cheapest ones out of all the designs.

ÖDESTRÄD Quilt cover and 4 pillowcases, Queen size – HK $129.9

This was one of the duvets I've been wanting for the longest time! I just love the alphabet design! :)

EIVOR ORD Quilt cover and 4 pillowcases, Queen size - HK $169.9

I love colorful prints and this pillow was just too cute to pass up. And there are even pineapples in the design!

KNAPPSÄV Cushion, multicolour - HK $69.9

I love this holder which fits all my cute paper napkins perfectly.

LIKSIDIG Napkin holder, white - HK $25.9

This placemat has a cute design and made of plastic which makes it easier to wipe and clean after eating. :)

KLISTRIG Place mat, multicolour (4 pcs) - HK $25.9

This picture frame is made of plastic but the ornate design is really nice. And it can be used hanging or standing up.

KVILL 5x7 frame, white - HK $59.9

These colorful plastic bowls and glasses are perfect for the kids' snacks.

KALAS Bowl, assorted colours (6 pcs) - HK $19.9

KALAS Mug, assorted colours (6 pcs) - HK $19.9  

Miley actually held on to this stuffed toy as soon as we entered and she even wrote her name on the white tag with a pencil! So we had to buy it talaga hehe. And we also bought this cloth crown which if I remember correctly was on sale that time, so I think it was just $19.

HASSELMUS Soft toy, mouse - HK $11.9

VITSIG Children's hat - HK $39.9

My son is currently addicted to straws so he was already so happy with this purchase hehe. It's a bit wider than a normal straw and the colors are so cute. :)

SOMMARFINT Drinking straw, assorted colours (100 pcs) - HK $7.9

So many cute stuff, so little time! I'm really happy with everything I got but if only I could fit so much more in our luggage! I wanted to buy tables, chairs, rugs... Definitely can't wait to travel again to another country with an IKEA store. :p