Over the past week I redesigned the living room of the house and am very excited about it. I feel like it's simpler, more spacious and more elegant than before. What I did: I moved the door to the other side of the house, moved a window, added a shelf along the entire back wall, and made a bigger couch. The shelves along the back wall features a fold out table for dining, working and games(I love card/board games). The new couch is also a lot bigger(5'x2') which means more storage inside it and a lot more room for guests or naps downstairs.
I really like how the shelves take up the dead space on the wall the door opens in to. I think it'll be a good place to store hats and mittens.
The second idea I'm really excited about is the kitchen sink. I've been having a really, really hard time finding something affordable and the right size. The sinks I've found that would work ended up starting at $150, and I am just not willing to pay that much for my sink. I've thought about galvanized pails, cutting double wide sinks in half and even making one out of concrete, but none of the ideas were really practical. However the other day at work I saw a hotel pan and then it hit me, I'll just find a hotel pan that's the right size and put a drain in it. I came home from work and did some Googling and decided upon getting this(or something similar):
The second idea I'm really excited about is the kitchen sink. I've been having a really, really hard time finding something affordable and the right size. The sinks I've found that would work ended up starting at $150, and I am just not willing to pay that much for my sink. I've thought about galvanized pails, cutting double wide sinks in half and even making one out of concrete, but none of the ideas were really practical. However the other day at work I saw a hotel pan and then it hit me, I'll just find a hotel pan that's the right size and put a drain in it. I came home from work and did some Googling and decided upon getting this(or something similar):
It's 12 3/4"W x 20 3/4"L x 6 1/4" deep, full sized hotel pan. I figure I can under mount it and use 1/2 size or smaller hotel pans to effectively make it a double sink when I need one. Then, when I don't need one I can take it out and store it under the counter. The picture below shows a few possible sink configurations:
Something else that's pretty awesome is they make perforated pans like this that I can put in the sink and use either as a giant colander or to put clean dishes in for drying, which eliminates the need for me to find a space for a drying rack.
The last change/idea I've had this week has to do with the flooring. I've been playing around with this idea for about 6 months now but am finally committing to it: wood pallet floors. I'm going to hoard and disassemble old pallets over the next year that I'll pick up for free from local businesses. Two things about this floor: It's free and I think it looks stunning. While it won't cost me anything financially, it will cost A LOT of time, but I've figured I have a year to work on this so it should be doable. I've already talked to a few businesses who gave me the okay to haul off their old pallets, which is great. Here are a few links showing what others have done with this kind of project: A Building We Shall Go and Improvised Life.
The last change/idea I've had this week has to do with the flooring. I've been playing around with this idea for about 6 months now but am finally committing to it: wood pallet floors. I'm going to hoard and disassemble old pallets over the next year that I'll pick up for free from local businesses. Two things about this floor: It's free and I think it looks stunning. While it won't cost me anything financially, it will cost A LOT of time, but I've figured I have a year to work on this so it should be doable. I've already talked to a few businesses who gave me the okay to haul off their old pallets, which is great. Here are a few links showing what others have done with this kind of project: A Building We Shall Go and Improvised Life.