DIY Project Diary – Week 9

In the world of home improvement things always take longer than anticipated. No wonder builders never finish projects on time – why, knowing this, can’t they be realistic and allow for extra time when they give their estimates?..

Anyway, we were working hard during the last week on the bedroom, as we really want to move in and sleep on a proper bed. We’ve been sleeping on the floor for almost six months now! We’ve built the bedside cabinets (with push-catches, i.e. no handles), the headboard (thin cabinets with a lid) and upper cabinets. They are made of MDF & Ply – the doors & sides are covered with panelling. The cabinets next to the headboard are cantilevered; they look as if they were wings. Above these we built three wall cabinets – they are also covered with panelling and also look like they’re floating. There are 4 different dimmable lighting systems installed – these can also be controlled from the entrance both sides of the bed.

Having finished with the joinery work, we put down the wooden floorboards in the bedroom and the hall. They will continue into the other bedroom (where we currently sleep) after we’ve moved out into the new bedroom. The floorboards will visually connect and unite the three spaces on the top floor.  Of course achieving such a concept is always more difficult than dreaming it up. We had to spend hours on working out where and how to start the laying. Of course none of the walls are straight – the floorboards are – which created an off-balance effect. Headaches… headaches… but we worked around the problem by manipulating the gaps between the boards.

So that’s all we’ve done. It doesn’t sound much, I know, but actually we’re pretty exhausted because we’ve been working from 9am to 9pm. The days are longer now, so we don’t have to stop till the dark sets in. We’re still finishing the "coffins" – what we call the storage boxes that will surround the bed. Then we’ll have to build the bed-frame itself and the two long shelves on castors that will slide out from under the bed. Basically the bed will be surrounded on all sides with storage, storage and even more storage – without appearing to be so.

When this is done, I can start painting. I think I’ll just go for pure white. The panels themselves already have their own statement of style – adding a hue would interfere with that. Besides, white is classic and the accessories can add some other visual interest. I’ve ordered a bed mattress – not a top quality one (can’t afford it) but it will do for a while. I also ordered a white, black-out blind as the window treatment for the dormer-like recess created by the sloping ceiling.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully by the end of next week the room will be finished!!!! I really need to sleep a lot and in a proper bed! My back is killing me…