Disclaimer: This post is part 4 of the IKEA Bloggers Program in which I was given a gift card to revamp my place. All ideas and comments are my own.

Hello! I can’t believe we’re into the final installment of my collaboration with IKEA. The theme of the month is “In and around the kitchen”. THE KITCHEN! My arena! Although I already did my kitchen back in my first task Bringing the outdoors in, that was only ONE side of the kitchen. This month’s direction gives me the chance to do the OTHER side, which really looked like this before this week:

Chio not, my kitchen? Although it is was messy, nobody has died in here before. LOL. And many delicious dishes have come out from here, so don’t judge ok? Disclaimer: I had nothing to do with the “before” of this kitchen because I wasn’t interested in cooking when we moved in, but I admit, I have procrastinated too long.

The first thing I did was get rid of those Toyogo plastic boxes. They’re functional but so ugly, maybe the aunt got it to match the kitchen tiles. I replaced it with the marvellous KALLAX shelf, which comes in different colours, heights and widths. I got the one with 8 compartments, all empty at first – you decide how you want to dress it up. I chose 2 sets of drawer inserts and another insert with door for the aunt to store her medication. I kept the first compartment on the left empty so that I can display more of my bowls, plates and tingkat collection.

You can do whatever you want with these. More drawers? Ok! Black and white drawers? Not a problem! You don’t like the insert with door? Well then don’t get it. I decided to use storage boxes and baskets for the bottom compartments – they’re great for snacks and beverage, and stuff like ziplock bags and lunchboxes. I mixed and matched DRONA cloth boxes and KNARRA baskets to create some difference in texture. The KALLAX shelf is your personal DIY shelf!

On top, I placed items commonly used in my cooking – dried chilli, honey dates, trail mix (for my salads), mixed herbs – so that they’re easily within reach.

And now let me show you my favourite buy this month: the GRUNDTAL Kitchen Trolley. I have space problems in my kitchen – the space on the counter top is so limited, I get frustrated all the time when there isn’t even space for a few plates or for me to chop vegetables. And when a recipe calls for rolling out the dough, I have absolutely no space to do it. Now I do!

The GRUNDTAL Kitchen Trolley is stainless steel, and just the perfect addition to your kitchen if you have space constraints like me. What I really like about this trolley is that you can buy little hooks (I got both big and small sizes) to hang your ladles, spatulas, whisk, egg slicer, strainer, grater…. as opposed to chucking them (still damp) in a cutlery holder.

I can do all my food prep on the counter top! The trolley also has space for rolling pins and wine bottles, and a larger pull-out storage compartment below. Just perfect for my airfryer basket and salad spinner.

Nothing makes me quite as happy as organising my kitchen! You don’t have to spend a bomb to do it. Get the look:

Thank you IKEA for the four months :) We’ve had good times together!

You might also be interested in my other IKEA posts:
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #1: Bringing the outdoors in! (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #2: The Living Room – I did colours! (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #3: Dining – The Great Gatsby Wedding! (here)

The post IKEA SG Bloggers Task #4: In and around the kitchen appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Disclaimer: This post is part 2 of the IKEA Bloggers Program in which I was given a gift card to revamp my place. All ideas and comments are my own.

The Living Room Challenge is is part 2 of the IKEA Bloggers Program. Read about my kitchen makeover in Part 1 of this series: IKEA SG Bloggers Task #1: Bringing the outdoors in! Kitchen Makeover

My living room is very typical of a Chinese family. Dark brown leather sofa, wooden cabinets, traditional embroidery-type cushion covers, Chinese vase by the side complete with fake CNY pussy willow (銀柳) and a terribly out-of-place Victorian style lamp with mismatched floral lampshade. Oh, and that Chinese painting on the wall passed down from my grandfather – it is apparently worth a lot of money.

The aunts are quite proud of their traditional-looking living room, so imagine their apprehension when I suggested to change the look-and-feel by just a little bit. I’m not about to do anything large-scale, I told them. I’m going to leave the sofa, cabinets, gaudy curtain and painting untouched, but maybe I could add some vibrancy by mixing some materials and textiles, patterns, prints and colours?

We often have relatives over for coffee and cakes, so I’ve also been wanting to spruce up our living room for some time now to make it more guest-friendly. What better way to do this than with a couple of lidded cake stands, complete with a table-runner, matching candles and nifty paper napkins for an inviting pop of colour?

I’ll confess, my plan was to bake a pandan chiffon for my aunt’s bestie who’s visiting today, but baking right after touchdown (I just came back from Japan less than 20 hours ago and slept for 6 hours) is no joke. So I’ve decided to entertain with Tokyo Banana instead. And to add on to the goodies, I got some ginger thins, pear cream biscuit sandwiches and packet lingonberry and apple & strawberry smoothie (!) from IKEA’s Swedish Food Market. Talk about having everything under one roof!

When entertaining, IKEA’s range of cake domes and tiered stands are perfect, just what I need for storing freshly baked cakes and breads. The large dome is now a permanent fixture in my living room table for little snacks. I like it so much, I have another one in the kitchen! The aunt is obviously in love with it and has hurriedly transferred her loaf of Gardenia bread from the oven even before I could say anything else.

Since we’re on the subject, the Apple & Strawberry packet smoothie is my latest favourite drink! It is made with 100% fruit purée and one packet is an acceptable 96 kcal. I think it’ll be good as an afternoon pick-me-up (I already eat fresh fruits for breakfast).

I also decided to add some life to the living room couch with cushions of contrasting colours. My little niece Cara loves to throw ALL my soft toys around so these chic cushions will do nicely for her, I think. I secretly wish they will distract her from my poor soft toys which are trampled to death every time she comes for a visit. Ah mm also loves the bigger cushion because it can support her back better. I spied her using it while watching TV just now! Get the look:

I thought these would be too edgy for my aunts, but they surprisingly liked it and said our living room looks tonnes more modern now. So you see, you can transform your living room even without a major overhaul. Til the next collaboration post!

You might also be interested in my other IKEA posts:
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #1: Bringing the outdoors in! Kitchen Makeover (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #3: Dining – The Great Gatsby Wedding! (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #4: In and around the kitchen (here)

The post IKEA SG Bloggers Task #2: The Living Room – I did colours! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Disclaimer: This post is part 1 of the IKEA Bloggers Program in which I was given a gift card to revamp my place. All ideas and comments are my own.

BREAKING: I’m finally showing you my embarrassment of a kitchen. I can’t believe I have cooked everything on this blog in here. Going by how much of a sucker I am for pretty presentation, really, who would have thought my kitchen looked like that? My colleague even went as far to accuse me of messing it up deliberately for this challenge. No really, I am this messy.

When IKEA Singapore approached me for their 2015 Bloggers Program, short of being surprised, the first thing I thought of was, “I AM SOOO GOING TO REVIVE MY KITCHEN”. The collaboration with IKEA will run for four months. To kick-start the program, our theme for June is: Bringing the outdoors in.

The kitchen is the one place where I spend most of my time in at home. It is the place where all our meals are whipped up, where Jason’s breakfasts get prepared, where my lunchboxes get packed, where our last meal of the day is cooked. It is the first place Ah-mm goes to when she wakes up (see that red chair in the first picture? That’s where she takes her medication every morning) and the last place 88 goes to before she sleeps (she always needs to eat something before going to bed). I knew I had to make it a more comfortable place for all of us.

And finally, my vintage faux formica stools can see the light of day (I collect vintage things) and now I have a place for my Kitchen Aid (thank you Mayer Singapore)!

My problem was really, storage. I live in a regular 4-room HDB flat with my aunts. When we bought the flat, I hadn’t picked up cooking yet, not that obsessively, anyway. No one gave a *** about how the kitchen would look like and what storage capacities we’d need. As time passed (and I bought more and more plates, trays, cutlery… you get the idea), we quickly ran out of space. I decided to fix our storage problems (and the ugly mismatched shelves and table) by getting a nice shelving unit and accompanying baskets. Everything unsightly can go right in, instead of being left all over the place or stuffed in every nook and cranny imaginable. I also got some pretty tea towels to cover them up so they look neat and uncluttered.

I dressed up the baskets with existing little bunches of flowers. I also had a polka-dot countryside-style basket sitting around since forever, so I used it to store Jason’s wine glasses, corkscrews, and wine-related stuff. Much better than letting the wine glasses stand dangerously on the ledge just waiting to be broken.

I made use of the KNARRA woven baskets to store the rest of my items. Food stuffs in the first basket, lunchboxes in the second, and baking stuff and measuring cups, plus little things in the third.

These baskets are sturdy and don’t break easily. I thought of getting those plastic baskets from Daiso and I’m glad I didn’t. Seeing how these baskets fit right in, I know it’ll just not be the same, both functionally and aesthetically.

We used to have this red plastic trolley which we place our electric kettle. I replaced it with a MOLGER trolley in the same series as the shelving unit, and used it to also store my plates and bowls, and sugar and coffee. Macam hotel. I think Ah-mm secretly loves it cos I refill her white coffee for her every couple of days now.

I now have more space for my plates and bowls. And that means I can buy more!

The folding outdoor table is from their TARNO range. It comes with matching folding chairs but I didn’t get those due to space constraints and because I secretly wanted to use my retro kopitiam stools. The brown is lighter than the shelf and trolley, but that doesn’t matter, because for furniture to “match”, it doesn’t mean they all have to be the same colour. The lighter brown actually match with the off-white baskets and provides a nice contrast to the darker wood. Plus, I think it’s just beautiful with the grass-green rug.

I’m kinda proud that Jason and I can both hold our own when it comes to fixing up IKEA’s flat-pack furniture. I fixed the trolley and he fixed the shelving unit. We challenged each other to see who would take a shorter time. He won, of course (by just a few minutes!). We completed both in about 45 minutes and saved a hundred bucks in delivery and installation fees. And now, you should check out the look book:

I’m so happy with my new kitchen. Thank you, IKEA Singapore, for getting me off my butt to finally do something about it. I love it that it is less cluttered and I’ve solved a lot of my storage problems. And although I don’t have a balcony, there’s still a small area for us to sip tea and have a slice of cake.

Can’t wait to know what the other themes will be. I’m starting to love our (very frequent) IKEA trips! (Jason prefers the food, but we’ll leave that for another day.) LIKE me on Facebook and follow me on Instagram to get alerted on my 2nd IKEA task!

If you have time, please leave me a comment to tell me what you think. More tips and tricks are very welcome!

You might also be interested in my other IKEA posts:
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #2: The Living Room – I did colours! (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #3: Dining – The Great Gatsby Wedding! (here)
IKEA SG Bloggers Task #4: In and around the kitchen (here)

The post IKEA SG Bloggers Task #1: Bringing the outdoors in! Kitchen Makeover appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.