My Apartment
Age: 30+
Location: Guangdong Province
Tag: a kid was just born, storage controller
Floor plan
Introduction:
Location: Guangzhou,
Room type: hardbound room, 3 bedrooms
We got the keys of our apartment in June 2017, but we started looking for a whole-house customization designer in April. It’s a little amazing that our whole-house customization just lasted less than a month, including the design, discussion, modification and final measurement. But our neighbors who got their keys of apartment in the same period were still looking for designers, while the installation of our furniture had already finished. So it’s relatively efficient.
And since that my baby was just born, so we let the room ventilated for a few months. We didn’t move in until December, so there is basically no smell.
There were not many places to be renovated because my apartment is hardcover house. Basically, we just needed to do the whole house customization and changed the position of the sockets. Our apartment is normally in a square shape, but not so big. There are only three bedrooms, but my 6 family members, grandparents, my husband, two kids and me, need to live together. Moreover, the kid’s room is a little small. And we still want a study room and a lot of storage space. Fortunately, the designer helped us to solve all these problems.
Here, I want to say thanks to the designer from Wision Group. She is so considerate that not only did she meet all our requirements, but also helped to figure out the unreasonable design of the sockets!
As for the style of our apartment, it is Simple Nordic + Black Walnut.
Indoor Garden
A big advantage of my apartment is that there is an indoor garden and an entrance hall. In this case, it seems that there are two entrance halls.
There is a shoe cabinet in the indoor garden, which is big enough for us to keep our shoes. Moreover, the designer creatively made the cabinet raised up by side panels, leaving a gap under the bottom panel, which can be used to put our daily shoes. In this case, we can put and take our shoes conveniently instead of opening the door frequently. What’s more, it’s hard for me to tolerate that all the things are in a mess. So this design is highly recommended!
Besides, considerate as the designer was, she made the door of the shoe cabinet as louver door, which is breathable that there was no smell.
Also you can put some green plants and small items on the worktop of the shoe cabinet, which will bring you a good mood.
Entrance Hall
If you keep walking in, you will see a small entrance. There is a full wall cabinet on the left side, enlarging the storage space. As for the wall unit, there is a hanger on the left-up side. It is very convenient for us to hang bags, umbrellas and other things. The rest part of the cabinet is made of shelves, which can be used to keep the tissue, baby's diaper, and daily necessities.
Here, I would like to praise the designer again.
There is a row of drawers in the middle of the storage cabinet. The designer suggested making it as socks rack and we did it. Socks will be put in this storage cabinet instead in the bottom of the wardrobe.
In this case, we don’t need to go back to the bedroom to take out the socks when we go out. Moreover, the grids inside can help to tidy the socks. It is really advised to do so!
As we just had our baby, we didn’t want to make our apartment look too dull. So we painted the wall on the opposite of the storage cabinet into green, which is the same color as the wall of the kid’s room. I think, my baby will love that. Besides, there is a super large mirror on the wall. On one hand, it takes the function as daily dressing mirror. On the other hand, it can also visually enlarge the entrance hall, playing a role of decoration.
Dining room
My apartment is a typical horizontal room, with the dining room and living room connected. At the beginning, I would like to make the open cabinet as many as possible. But according to the designer, it’s better to make half-open cabinets. And then, the open part of the cabinets can be used to display those good-looking objects and collections. And the rest part can be used to store other items. After moving in half of a year, I feel strongly that, fortunately, we listened to the advice from of the professional designer! It is so great!
Besides, all the cabinets were designed not extending to the ceiling. On one hand, we don’t want to make full wall cabinet. On the other hand, it is because of my body height. My husband is 180cm tall, but I am just 160cm. If the cabinets were full wall cabinets, undoubtedly, the storage space would be increased. However, it will be very troublesome that if I want to take the objects on the top of the cabinets, I even need to use a ladder. That’s why all the cabinets are not full wall cabinets; all these details were taken into account by the designer.
And amazingly, I just knew the meaning and consideration recently! What a considerate designer!
Also we specially chose the warm color bulb for the ceiling lamp in order to make the food look more delicious and create an atmosphere of warm and sweet!
One thing I am most satisfied with is the design beside the dining table .There is a wine rack and a storage cabinet. What's more, the designer also considers where to put kettle and other small household appliances. Originally, there is a socket close to the floor, but the designer suggested making it a little higher. And also, she even drew the position of the socket to us.
After moving in, I just realize that it is very convenient that all the small household appliances are at hand. Actually, even all the wiring in my home was changed according to the common daily life scenes.
Moreover, the location of ceiling lamp was determined after calculating the length of sideboard and dining table. Some of my neighbors installed the ceiling lamp first. However, the problem is that the lamps are not in the middle after the installation of their furniture. Here, I would like to say thanks to the designer because she gave me a lot of helpful suggestions!
Living room
The living room is in simple style with the TV cabinet and the sideboard connected. And most of the decorations on the sofa and partition cabinet are DIY.
The background wall behind the sofa is green, with 3 hanging pictures. And I have to say that the L-shape sofa is really comfortable!
Actually, on the original renderings, the dining table is white, in simple Nordic style. But considering that my family love drinking tea a lot. So it would be very weird that there was a set of dark color tea set on the white color table. So we finally chose the New-Chinese style one.
At the beginning, I didn’t want to place a partition cabinet beside the sofa because it might influence lighting and permeability. But the designer suggested making one here. After installation, the partition cabinet not only has little influence on the lighting, but also plays a role of decoration. Also, the small collections on the cabinet can show our taste. As for the bottom part of the cabinet, there is a special rack to keep the packing bags, no need to worry about where to put them.
Master bedroom
In the master bedroom, there is a passage, which is straight to the bathroom. The left side of the passage is wardrobe, and the right side is the sleeping area.
Actually, the design of most hardcover house is reasonable, taking most of the necessary functions into consideration. As for my big wardrobe, 3/4 of it is equipped with clothes hangers, which helps me get rid of the trouble of folding clothes. If I have realized that, I will choose to replace the all the shelves into hangers.
The drawers below the shelf were designed into different storage racks, such as square rack for briefs and long rectangle rack for bras which is not convenient to show here.
Though the bedroom is not so big, we require a lot, including a wardrobe, bed, crib and a home office area. It is a pity that there is no study room in my house because we 6 people need to live in all 3 bedrooms.
Since our rooms are not so big, so we put the beds beside the bay window. If there were two passages, it will be too narrow to go through.
In this case, the opposite area of the bed is big enough to put a crib.
As for the cabinet, designer made it into an L-shape one with half-open rack, which can meet my requirements of display and storage. And the design of the cabinet looks great.
There is a desk beside the head board of bed and we can read and work here. Next to the desk is a row of base cabinet, playing a role of both storage and seats. With the cushion on, this is the corner I love most because I can seat on it, reading books or listening to music comfortably.
Guest bedroom
My parents live in the guest bedroom. Actually, I finally find that this is the bedroom I love most, with concise Nordic style, white, grey and light wood color.
Moreover, the design of this room is really perfect! Originally, I wanted to put a tatami and a wardrobe in, but the designer gave me another creative and practical advice later.
At the beginning, the design of the wardrobe was a full wall one, with 2 sliding doors but 3 doors of the top unit. Worse still, the gap of the basic unit and the top units were not in a line. It’s really hard for me to tolerate the asymmetric design. And there is a girder on the wall, so it is a little hard to design the wardrobe. But in order to meet my requirement, the designer finally made an open unit on the left side of the wardrobe. In this case, the design of the top unit changed into 4 doors and the whole wardrobe became a symmetric one.
The open cabinet is facing the door directly, which can be used to hang some clothes and put some books. Really cool!
The guest bedroom is so small that there will be little space for the passage with a 1500mm bed. Considering that two people need to sleep on the bed, finally the designer decided to make a bed of 1350mm. Moreover, the bay window was designed into part of the bed, which was comfortable for two people to sleep on, leaving enough space to make a desk. Designer explained the whole idea of the design to us later. Actually, we didn’t want to make a desk at the beginning. But professional and considerate as the designer is, she always gives some helpful suggestions from our perspective of future living life.
What surprised me most is that the head of the bed is designed into an up-open storage cabinet! We can put the sundries in. Basically, the cubes you can see in this room are all capable of storage.
At first, we wanted to make the base of the bed as tatami, but we changed it into up-open bed according to designer’s suggestion. Moreover there are some partition panels inside, helping separate the space into several parts, which can be used to keep a lot of items, such as suitcases, fans and so on. It’s so practical.
Kid's room
The last thing I want to say is the kid’s room, where I pay most attention. Though we just had our first baby, we are preparing to have the second one. So it is necessary to make the bed as a bunk bed. But it seems that it’s hard to do so because the room is even smaller than the guest bedroom.
In the stage of design, I have asked several customization companies for suggestions. And unfortunately, all of them said that it’s hard to do so. Finally, I decided to turn to Wision Company to solve this problem. Here, I want to say thanks to the designer again.
Finally, we chose the split-level bunk bed, making the small kid’s room look brighter. At first, it was a wardrobe instead of a desk beside the bed. Considering that a wardrobe here would make our baby feel depressed, and it would be better to set a desk. So we changed it.
The drawer-stair to the upper bed, the space under the lower bed and even the cabinet in the bay window are storage space, which is large enough.
Moreover, compared with the wardrobe, the kids will be more willing to tidy their own things in such small racks.
The cloud-shaped shelf along the beds was customized by the designer. So as a couple of small cloud-shaped wall cabinets are on the wall opposite to the bed. In fact, a lot of whole-house Customization Company doesn’t care the details like that, but I am a detail controller. Here I want to say again that the designer is really very considerate.
Last but not least
Compare with others, I feel it is not a tough work to renovate my apartment. The most important thing, I think, is to figure out your own thoughts clearly, including the style, functions and so on. Then you can speak out your own ideas and requirements to have a discussion with the designer.
At Last
Last but not least, the most important thing for a designer is that she can not just be an armchair strategist! The designer from Wision Company is very experienced that she has completed many cases. So she can put her feet on my shoes to consider the situation, design the plan and solve the problems. Since we are not professional in this area, the helpful and practical suggestions from the designer are really important, which will have a direct influence on the living quality in following several decades.
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