The Living Room
22 May 2019
Finally, here is part 3 of our flat tour, you can find part 1, The Hallway, here, and part 2, The Kitchen, here. The living room is the largest room of the flat, and also the only room where my husband, Shin, has complete veto rights. That means that he has to approve all of the interior design choices in here, which is not always easy because we have quite different opinions on this subject. Even so, I think we found a balance between our different styles and created a space that we both like to hang out in.
The sofa is our favorite piece in here, but finding one that we both liked was really difficult. We looked at so many sofas and when we finally found "the one" we thought it was too expensive. This model starts at £1000 pounds but we got super lucky and found one on second hand for only £190! The frame is made of solid oak and can also be turned into a double bed so very practical when you have guests. It is really comfortable too. I made the cushion covers from Japanese fabric that I brought home from our trip in November last year, and the monkey print is the exact same one we had in our Tokyo flat!
The theme for the sofa is "jungle". I have really turned into a crazy plant lady since we moved into this flat! The shelf behind the sofa is a DIY project we made from the leftover piece from the dining table (keep reading) and the 3 tier bamboo plant stand is from IKEA.
The TV corner is my least favorite part of the flat, simply because we never got around to get some nice and proper TV and speaker stands. We asked our landlords if we could mount the TV on the wall but unfortunately they said no. Oh well, at least it fills its purpose!
Another IKEA Ivar shelf! This one has the same standard measurements as the one in the kitchen but with a different configuration and painted in another colour I think they look quite different! The arm chair is also from IKEA. I have a serious love/hate relationship with this one. I really despise the design (even though it looks better now after I made a new cover for it) but it is super comfortable! This chair design has been around since 1978 so I guess I'm not the only one.
On this shelf we mostly display books and travel memorabilia from Japan and other destinations. Shin also stores his computer and other personal stuff on the right side, since he doesn't have a designated desk.
These plastic boxes from Poundland (a store where everything is only £1) fits perfectly with the shelf and we use these for storing random stuff that we use quite frequently, like the toaster, oats and other seeds and grains, workout gear, tools, bike stuff and a voltage converter for our Japanese rice cooker.
The dining table top is also made from solid oak, we actually custom ordered it from a company that mainly does kitchen counter tops. Shin really wanted a solid wood table, but they are usually quite expensive so we compromised and only bought the top and combined with IKEA trestles. And yes, we keep Shin's bike in here because there is no storage shed or similar outside that we can use.
Shin working hard in his favorite chair. And that concludes this part of the flat tour. I will try and put up the next one quicker this time, and not with a 3 week gap in between. Only two rooms to go, the bathroom and the bedroom.
