As many of you know, my family and I recently moved from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. For us it was quite a big step to make, something that came as a surprise to many. My husband and I were both born and raised in Abu Dhabi. We lived there (I still can’t believe I’m referring to it as ‘there' now) our whole lives. We went to school there. We met there. We fell in love there. We got married there. Our kids were born there.

I’m not going to go into the hows and whys of making this decision, but it was a mutual decision. I am however, going to go into the process of actually moving and how overwhelming it was and still is for us. Moving is stressful. Since being married, I’ve moved twice, and this was the third and, hopefully, last time. There is just so much to account for. Long months of planning, and longer months of waiting, crazy amounts of payments and the actual packing and unpacking of everything. First, you have to make sure you secure yourself. So, we started looking for jobs, once a job was secured and I was employed, we then started looking for schools for the children, and I’m sure every person knows the stress of finding just the perfect school that you feel comfortable putting your child in. Once we found the ideal school, and secured their places, we started looking for a house that was in close proximity to the school. Our thinking was that, in case of emergencies, since we’re both working parents, and we’re moving to a city away from our families (who were always our go-to in these situations), we needed to be close. It also made drop-offs and pick-ups easier, especially during the rush hour. The house hunting took a little longer, but eventually, we found the house of our dreams. The house we could envision ourselves growing old in, we could envision our kids growing up in, and after some pricing negotiations, we went for it. Now, the waiting begins. We had to wait for bank approvals, we had to wait for assessments, we had to wait to exchange contracts, along with confirmation of when we can actually start moving to the house. We were basically living in limbo for at least 2 months, should we start packing? Should we half-pack at least? Do we book a moving company? No, not yet. Can we start working on the new house (it needed a lot of work)? No, not yet. Disaster, really. September was looming, first day of schools was upon us, and we were yet to get confirmation and we were starting to slightly panic.

Finally, last week of August, we were good to go! We started working, and we started working fast. We had so much to do! The house we fell in love with was old and beaten, but it was quaint and beautiful and warm and I didn’t want to go for a shiny new house. But that meant…lots of work needed to be done! Here’s the fun part now. By fun, I mean, pull my hair our, stressful, crying, emotional wreck kind of fun!

The walls of the whole house were yellow. Yellow! Why would you paint your walls yellow, I just don’t know. The floor tiles were red. Yes, red. Please see all images below for reference. I couldn’t live in a house with red tiles and yellow walls, so first thing we needed to do? Rip out all the tiles (and of course, I’m not an expert here, so not even sure ‘rip out’ is the right term, but you get the gist), that was a long and painful process. The dust, the dirt, the sounds. We had one week to do it before schools start. ONE WEEK. Ripping out the tiles of the entire house is a process that usually takes 2-3 weeks…maybe more (again, no expert). We made them start upstairs, that’s the priority, at least get the upstairs ready so we can prepare the bedrooms. In the meantime, my husband and I went looking for new tiles for the house. We opted to go for parquet for the upstairs living quarters and bedrooms, and porcelain tiles for downstairs and kitchen.

Then, step 2, was paint everything white. I mean everything. Every wall, every corner, the ceilings, the windows, the doors, the cupboards, the staircase, all of it, painted white. Another long process, but again, made them start upstairs.

We had hired a moving company to pack and move all our stuff from one city to another, but we couldn’t unpack anything until the house was ready. I still didn’t know where I wanted everything to go. It was mental. You can maybe tell from the pictures, everything was in boxes, furniture wrapped up, it was chaos. I then started looking for help. I needed help to expedite things, because with work, and kids starting school, I needed to get things done quickly and I had neither the time or resources. So, with a little research, I found this amazing, wonderful human being, who I consider a friend now, Valentina from KUKY design, a super affordable online design service, to help me bring my vision of the house to life.

I started with a bunch of Pinterest boards and a theme - Scandinavian. I knew that was the style I wanted, but I had to work around some of my old furniture to make that happen. We went room by room, again, starting upstairs, I talked to her at length about what I wanted to do with each room, and she presented me with the layout then went sourcing the different elements required to make it happen. I used most of my old furniture, but based on the new theme we ended up refreshing a lot of it!

LIVING ROOM:

I knew exactly how I wanted my living area to look. With the help of Valentina, we were able to source the exact shade of brown for my existing L-shaped sofa and had it reupholstered. Added a few cushions, a throw, a carpet and a coffee table set to complete the look, with a gorgeous pouf that I fell in love with. We then got our old TV station set in the middle with the TV mounted on the wall. We had a bit of space left on either side of the TV station, so decided to get ladder shelves to fill that space and decorated them with the many books and trinkets I had.

I knew I wanted to add a little work station for myself as well, so had my desk placed in the same space as the living area. However my desk chair now didn’t match the rest of the room so had that reupholstered to a brown leather that matched the sofa color. To separate the two areas of the room, we put wallpaper along the wall where the desk is placed. Added sheer curtains on the windows, and there you have it. Room one done.

KIDS BEDROOM:

We had two rooms, but my husband and I decided that since the kids are still so young, they should share the room for as long as possible, before they start to grow in their separate ways. I also really wanted them to experience sleeping in a bunk bed! So that was my goal. Scandinavian themed bedroom with a bunk bed that had a slide. Not easy to find! We didn’t have furniture to move from the old kids bedroom, since my daughter at the time still slept in her crib and my son had this huge car bed that did not fit into the new space. So start from scratch for them, but keep it affordable. Most bunk beds we found were either bulky, expensive, or boring. So Valentina came up with a plan. Build the bunk bed of my dreams, and it was for half the price you’d find at any furniture store, and her supplier did it in record time too! The room is quite small, so all we needed to do was add a carpet, a chair, ceiling chandeliers, curtains and it was done. The highlight though, was the wallpaper we chose for this room. It was a risk, but it paid off and turned the room into a beautiful Scandinavian jungle, giving it so much life and so much character. We painted half the wall a blue/teal color to match, and the kids’ bedroom was ready.

PLAYROOM:

So what to do with the other room? Made it into a playroom! I used all the furniture I had from the old kids bedroom for the playroom. Their dresser was put there, the toy drawers were put there, we placed my wooden magazine shelves in the playroom to display some of their books, we also mounted this huge yellow shelf we used to have in our old TV room in the kids playroom. Added wallpaper, desk and chairs for the kids, chandeliers, displayed some of the stuffed animals, and my favorite part was a super cute curtain separation. It separates the dressing room from the rest of the playroom in such a subtle and elegant manner.

MASTER BEDROOM:

Now the master bedroom was straightforward. The bed stayed as is, but we changed the cushion slips to match the color scheme. We got a rug, matching side tables and dresser, chandeliers, reading lights and a ladder shelf to fill up the space next to the dresser. We used the same shoe cabinet we had, but added the cutest leather handles to them just to give it more character. We used the same arm chair from our old bedroom which was a bright orange red, but we reupholstered it into a dusty pale pink that looked stunning with the rest of the room. We then added some natural plants to breath life into the room.

And the upstairs was now complete. Moving to downstairs:

ENTRANCE HALL:

Valentina had the genius idea of using the table we had in our old kitchen, painting it white, adding a leather handle to the drawer and placing it at the entrance hall as a console. It turned out perfect! Added some monochromatic vases, an artificial plant, a mirror and a runner and the entrance hall was ready to take you into the staircase hall.

STAIRCASE HALL:

We lined our staircase with our family pictures, and at the bottom corner, we put our old TV room coffee tables, with some greenery and vases we had. Then directly below the staircase, we used the ottoman we had at our old home, but reupholstered it from yellow to a soft light beige. It filled that space beautifully.

MAIN LIVING HALL:

We used our entire seating set for this room, same sofas, same arm chairs. We reupholstered the armchairs from a turquoise color to a very soft blue color, we added a few more cushions to match the new color scheme. We painted our old shelves and TV station white, mounted the TV, and added old and new accessories that matched the theme. I was going for a very beach house Scandinavian vibe for the downstairs, and I feel like it worked. It was a bit tough with the furniture and accessories we already had, but we made it work. We added my childhood piano against the wall, with our old glass side tables on either side, and our turquoise planter.

DINING ROOM:

For the dining room, we used the same dining table and chairs set. We reupholstered the chairs because the old fabric was really stained from years of use. Added our old buffet table against the wall, which has all our tableware and silverware. We then had a little crook in there, that to me, didn’t make any sense, but to Valentina was a wonderful opportunity to get creative! With her recommendation, we painted the interior of that crook black, and built floating shelves in it, then accessorized it wonderfully, bringing the whole area to life. We also opted to leave the dining area curtain-less, as the light coming in is stunning.

STUDY/GUEST ROOM:

Finally, my favorite room, and also the most challenging. I knew from day one that I wanted to have my very own study. A room filled with books floor to ceiling, but I also knew practically, we would need a guest room, somewhere a family member or friend would be able to spend the night when visiting. So how do you transform this room into both of these things without jeopardizing one or the other?

First things first, the books. We built floor to ceiling shelves, but left a little gap in the middle to fit a desk, sort of like a work station. On the opposite side, we placed our old dresser as storage for the guests when they come over. Next to it, we knew we were going to place a sofa bed, but where do you find a comfortable but nice looking sofa bed that won’t destroy the whole look of the room? Valentina to the rescue again, somehow, someway, she was able to find the perfect Scandinavian looking bed from IKEA, that once covered with cushions and pillows, looked like a couch! It was perfect! We then placed an old quirky white shelf we had in our old main living hall over the sofa bed, added the old rug we had in our old main living hall, which was the perfect shade and gave it a beautiful Beauty and the Beast feel to it. In fact, when describing my vision of this room to Valentina, the words I used were “a Scandinavian Beauty and the Beast library”. However, to fully achieve that, there was one thing missing - a shelf ladder. Buying one will cost an arm and a leg! In fact, we almost gave up. But then, I remembered the bunk bed situation, and went to Valentina with the idea of building the ladder for the bookshelves! It worked.

It was a long but short journey, if that makes sense. We did so much, in a short amount of time. I have Valentina to thank for so much, I couldn’t have done it this quickly or this affordably by myself. Many of the new pieces we ended up purchasing for the house were bought at such affordable prices, we used 80% of our old furniture, but had to buy a lot of new ones because well, we moved from a small 3 bedroom apartment to a 5 bedroom villa. The furniture we had no space for or got rid of, we either sold or distributed or called Take My Junk UAE.

Of course, there’s also the kitchen, but the kitchen is a story on its own. We literally tore down the whole kitchen and built a new one. If you enjoyed this insanely long post and are interested to hear the kitchen story, then I’m happy to tell it and show it with images.

Until then, there you have it. Our home. At last.

LIFE: HONEY, I'M HOME!