New Building ~ How to Plan a Room
There isn't much to update you on the building as we are still waiting in line to get the asphalt done. The rain has been an issue, so sadly that has fallen behind schedule. The one thing that has been done this week is that electricity has been run to the sign and it now lights up at night! I'm thrilled we decided to do a lit sign. There aren't many on our side of the street and hopefully it will get the place noticed. That with the accent lighting, I think it was a definitely win for that goal.
It looks much better in person and when everything is completed, I'll take my tripod and get a sweet shot of it all. For now, you get my precious hubby's fabulous picture taken with his iphone. I'm so blessed he is able to pop by as much as he can.
Since we only have a temporary CO (certificate of occupancy) and while we wait for asphalt and eventually the final inspection, we've been working on getting things together on the inside. Specifically ACI. My side only has a few things done but since I still have to meet clients and my lease isn't up yet, I'm continuing to operate out of my current space so I can't move much yet. Since we've been doing a little decorating inside, I thought I'd share a super cool way to help you design your space more accurately and a great place to furnish it with ;)
Ikea. Yep... you all know it, or you should. If you don't then you've been living under a rock and honey, you need to get out once in a while. It's a little bit of a hike for us to get to our closest location in Round Rock but when we do, we can get lost in it for hours. And sometimes by choice. You know what I mean if you've ever been there!
I discovered, quite randomly, that Ikea has a free room planning program. It's not super easy to find but if you google it, or click HERE you'll get there. It's not the most user friendly program (took me a bit to figure out how to measure the room and add windows) but it was very helpful in planning the room. Especially if you will be purchasing items from them. They have most of it available to place in the space (finding it can be a small challenge at times though) and if not, or if you have furniture from somewhere else, you can add "blocks" of items per your measurements that represent each piece. In my space, because most of my stuff I already have or I bought it elsewhere, I had to use a bunch of "blocks" to represent so my side isn't as cool to look at. However, I'm thrilled to show you what we did for the ACI side.
When you start planning, you'll see a bird's eye view of the space. It shows you the graph, measurements and where you've placed your windows, doors, etc.
You can also choose to have a 3D view or just a front view (similar but not as realistic looking).
Here is the view looking from the break room toward the front door. The big brown "block" is the Emerson Sideboard we stole purchased from the West Elm Outlet in San Marcus. The white cabinets near the desks are actually supposed to be black but they didn't have them in the program that way so you'll have to use your imagination for those.
The pendant lamps we installed are not the ones show here but they are similar. I was going to do a geometric looking one but it didn't feel right so we ended up using the ones we had chosen for the bathroom and they were a much better fit for the space. The bathroom got something very different and I'll post that in the final reveal.
It's pretty cool to be able to rotate around the room and look at it from different angles. As you can tell, we were able to put together a super great shelving space for all Greg's retail product at a much lower price than what I had originally wanted to do. Creating shelving from wood and pipe sounds cool (and cheap) but it ain't cheap and it's not easy. Tight budgets call for tight budget furniture and Ikea is king in that department.
This is the view as you walk into the shop. There are actually two ladder/basket stands between the two windows on the left but I couldn't represent them very well here so I left them out of this program. The big table in the center was only for idea's sake and will be changed out. I'll have a DIY post on what I'm doing there later.
There are several additional bonuses to using Ikea's room planner. You can compile a list of all the items you put in the room, and even order them. You can add, subtract, rearrange, etc. All with your keyboard. I had to do this with graph paper and a drafting board in college. That was fun... sorta.
The other bonus... you can take that plan, order online AND pay some seriously low shipping to have it delivered! There was only ONE cabinet that wasn't available online but was at the store. We decided to go and try out the office chairs again anyway so to the store we went. We only had to carry home, the two boxes for the cabinet, the plastic floor coverings and the boxes for the two chairs. The rest (see list below) was all shipped to the building for only $39!!!!! SCORE! The best part is someone ELSE had to do the heavy lifting, ha! We did have to assemble everything and boy I felt I had aged about 237yrs after all was said and done but praise the Lord, it's all done! If I don't have to assemble another piece of furniture for the next 20yrs, it won't be long enough, gah! I do have to say, for someone like me that is very detailed and notices slight differences, the pictures in the instruction manual(s) helped a ton. However, there were a FEW times where I would have loved a little verbiage to help out. Best part, Greg and I didn't kill each other during the process, lol!
The items we bought through Ikea....
Office chairs (2)
I am now officially a pro at assembling Ikea furniture and I'm considering hiring myself out... just kidding! If I can do this, you can do this, I promise :D
I can't wait to get the official reveal up and show you everything together. Feels like it's taking forever I know but it'll be here before we know it.
Until then, Happy #fixerupperfriday !!!!!
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He is watching over me. ♥ Matthew 10:29-31
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