BEFORE
AFTER
When I do Before and After in my current house we are assigned to live by my husband’s office, I cannot do much to make changes to the house. What I do is mostly moving the rental furniture around in the house, changing the wall colors and adding some decorative items to the room. Even small things like these can reflect so much of our liking and it’s fun and less expensive. We do not want to make any financial investment in something we only use for 3 years, so I don’t have many choices. It’s fine. It forces me to put on a creative cap and come up with some ideas.
Why did I take away the chairs and bring the sofa instead from the living room? (You can see the old location of the sofa in this post.)
I wanted the combination of gray and green in this small hallway space and this green sofa color went well with the dark gray I painted on the wall. This space is so much more in use after I brought the sofa. When I had two chairs, no one except me sat in it. With this sofa in place, I could bring in the white tables to create something like coffee table in front of it.
Why did I put the white tables here?
I wanted to create a kids eating space where our girls and their friends can eat snack. We live in a country where leaving some sugar or food on the floor brings ants into the house (trouble!), so I wanted these white tables and chairs to be in the area with a floor that is easy to clean.
Why box in front of the lamp?
It covers the plug and cord of the lamp. Inside the box play dough is hidden. My girls are only allowed to play with play dough in this area either on the floor or on the white table, so it’s convenient to have play dough in this box so that my daughters can reach it easily.
I have to come up with something better than the basket sitting on the floor under the table with phones. I put some sticky notes, pens, and directories there, but you can see them and it is not so pretty. We have those phones as they were provided by my husband’s office. They are not cool looking, but they function just fine.
I apologize for the poor quality of photos. I’m not skilled, but also it’s the amount of light we have inside our house. In Southeast Asia, most houses have iron bars to prevent break-ins. I feel like living in a cage sometimes, but I’ve gotten use to it. I sometimes open up the iron bar sliding doors to let the light in more. I’m not sure if I’m making any difference, but it feels different. We also have a large awning above the balcony and lots of trees outside that might be blocking the sunlight to come in. Seeing green is pretty, but I’d rather have more natural light. If this was my house, I would chop them off, but I can’t!
Cool place. Looks nice and spacious. Is this a house or apt.? What does your hubby do that allow you guys to travel around so much? I wish we could move about sometimes. I get tired living in the same place all the time. You are so creative and organized. How do you manage to keep your place so clean w/ 2 kids??? I’m lucky if there’s room on the floor for me to walk w/o tripping! LOL.
Thanks, Katherine! It’s a townhouse, so it’s not quite as big as a house, but much bigger than our two bedroom apartment back in Virginia. I am the same way as you in a sense that I do get bored with living in a same place for a long period of time. However, in our life, we cannot have a beautiful kitchen like you do! Our place? Clean? Oh, thanks. I shove stuff to hide when I take pictures (ha!), but the key is to not own much. I’m good at tucking things in apparently since I don’t think I own much, but the movers in the U.S. and Indonesia say we do! I don’t get it!
You are right! a bit of color and decorative items change the look of a room. what a neat idea of having the play-doh in the suitcase (box) I LOVE it. that is very creative girl!!!I’m in the same living situation as you are. We moved in to an already furnished apt. and we can’t paint the walls so I’m stuck with white walls. and since our length of stay is temporary we didn’t want to invest in making it our own. Maybe that’s the reason we spend as much time as possible outdoors. Which brings me to a question, (you mentioned the iron bars, are break ins that common? we actually had iron bars in our home when we lived in Texas.
Ps. I have peeked over to styLIZIMO! and I love that site. great way to get inspired. now i want to go buy some baskets!
Hi, Elisa! You’re in a temporary housing? That’s got to be hard!! I love white walls. I would keep white walls if I could furnish my place with our own furniture. This is the first time we painted our wall because I heard I didn’t have to paint the wall back in white before we move out (I hope that’s true!) and also realized that when you had furniture, curtains and interior that is not of your taste, painting walls can help distract your eyes from the furniture and other stuff. I am not sure how common break-ins are in this city. Most foreigners live in the housing with a tight security system. Most crimes occur when insiders, whether that being a maid, gardener, or driver, get involved in the crime scene. There was a murder case in this past June where a Japanese couple (husband and wife) were killed at their residency. Their previous gardener broke into their house. So sad. I found Stylizimo totally inspiring, too! I recently discovered her. The founder, Nina, is super nice, too. I’m glad you like it, too!!
The Townhouse looks very spacious. Much larger than my hous..maybe it’s the layout….
With three kids I tend to shop at IKEA lots! But, haven’t updated the living room. Our end tables and coffee table are 15yrs old and are starting to show the wear and tear of the kiddos. But, it must stay kid friendly. I love the cute little table and chairs from IKEA…think I might have to pick some up on my next trip to replace at least the large coffee table my kids love to sit at.
I have two large basket ottomans that have hidden storage for kiddo toys in the living room.
how are you?
Just wanted to show my appreciation for your time and hard work
Thank you.