My apartment – the proverbial white canvass

Now, before I continue with my methods, here is the story of my white canvass and why it is so important to make it work.

How I got my apartment

It all started in 2009 when I started looking for a place to live, and was horrified to find out that I like nothing entirely…so, while visiting apartments in Brussels I would always transform them in my mind – exchange one room with another, pull down walls, build in wardrobes, open up terraces, re-decorate… probably everyone out there has felt the same.

Then, I found a place to my liking (2 years later that is), but in my head there already was a comprehensive plan on how to even better this relatively small space. This may have been the 50th apartment I had visited, probably a 10th or 15th realtor – by this point in time I had enough experience to have confidence in my choice. So, I made the offer and signed a preliminary contract.

And then, something relatively bad happened – I could not go further ahead with the purchase because the apartment was mortgaged twice and the bank would not let it go. Enter 2 years of law issues, heartache, and despair and, you may have guessed it – loss of time and money. Two years later the property was back on the market, this time without the legal mess, and I was finally able to put a far more secure offer at a public sale.

Just as I had moved, and scratching the surface of what I had at hand and what it would cost me to start renovating and finally put my plans back on track, I lost the most beloved family member of mine. And that is how, once again the whole project of creating my own space was put back on the shelf. Emotionally I was in a rather dark place and chose not to deal with it for a while.

Another 2 years went by, and I realized that my negligence was getting expensive – a few invoices of losses due to bad maintenance kicked me back into reality and that is how I was able to shift my goals from getting by into my new flat, to repairing my new flat, to making it nice.

So, roughly a year ago, I took stock and started moving things, initially with just my own hands and what is available in the utility store. I discovered a wonderful universe of knowledge and crafts, which I had the unique chance to explore (and master, if allowed?). All along the way I had so many questions, in spite of having a career in the construction sector. It became apparent that the more I needed to know, the more involved I would get, and so much higher my aspirations would be!

Thus, after six years, divided equally between hesitation, distrust and desperation – two years for each of those periods, I found myself finally ready to use my very first apartment as the proverbial white canvas for my first interior creation. And here we go.

And, in more practical terms – here is my apartment

At the time I made the first offer, I already knew that I didn’t have the budget to buy the exact property I fancied, in an area where I’d live happily, so in my mind there were already some pros and cons settled.

I was very much prepared to compromise on:

·      size of the apartment (because I love small spaces – so cosy, so economical, so easy for the maintenance).

·      the area – if not where I wanted to live, at least the nearest place affordable

·      the floor – because street noises do not bother me as much

I was not prepared to give up:

·    the terrace – but had to in the end – not Brussels’ most common feature in the recent past, and therefore expensive

·  a second bedroom – no matter what size – the expat life suggests comings and goings of friends

·      relatively good general state – today I am thinking it is the relatively which is the key word in the above.

·      Sunshine! At least part of the days and part of the time

·      Lift – I do not like stairs at all, and yes, it is a luxury in Brussels and someone has to calculate in how many years to price difference of lift/no lift property is amortised through the lift running costs.

And here is what I got:

Now, to my mind major defects were:

•           bathroom only accessible via bedroom – and I had plans to make good use of the second bedroom
•           separate wc and bathroom – as a result minuscule wc. To be honest I find the practice of separating those, in smaller apartments, very useless, and may be tempted to write a post on it alone. It is to this date the most annoying feature of local internal interior design and architecture
•         kitchen far from the living room/dining room

To be fare on the architect, his original plan did not feature a second bedroom:

In fact, dining room could be reached straight from the kitchen, the living room features exposure to two facades, so no blame at all for the original thought.

In my mind however, things should gradually evolve this way:

As already mentioned – there is only point in getting a spare bedroom if it can have independent access to the facilities. Also, I feel so uncomfortable in bedrooms, where the double bed basically fills the room. In fact, I am a huge fan of hotel rooms, where one can do almost everything in his room (but meet visitors I would say). And then, meeting visitors, ideally should be done in a room forced to be formal – i.e. like the living room but different.

When I analyse my feeling for home spaces – it is like my inner circle is the bedroom, where I’d happily also leave, just so that a space for outsiders is reserved in what is called living room.

So, another reason for the swap is also proximity to the kitchen (even if it is all so relative in smaller spaces). And a final touch – the entrance door opens into the today’s master bedroom – and it makes so much sense to have the first room in sight as the formal living room.

Here is the place to say that the future living/dining room already had its floor replaced in order to match the other “no need to wear slippers” areas. That is because here people wouldn’t take their shoes off when visiting someone’s home, which is another reason to keep a separate visitor’s area.

Well, may have not made myself so clear, but hope the drawings are speaking loud enough. Before dipping into really important matters, such as:

• ·      planning spaces
• ·      my style
• ·      sourcing
• ·      how I put the two rooms together,
• ·      etc.

I will be so delighted to learn what readers think of the swap. Does it make sense? Do you think it is alright to disagree with the building’s architect? What are the risks when changing a rooms function?

Still have to decide what exactly the next blog will be about, but if have to describe the hottest potatoe – it is the future living room – colour scheme is clear, however there are so many ways to go with it… do tag along and you’ll find out!