KL Home Blogger Makes Her Place Look Like It Came Out of An Ikea Catalogue with a Minimal Budget

You’ve moved out from your parents’ place and you’re living on your own. Suddenly, your interests shift from partying to just lazing at home. Home décor also suddenly becomes interesting, even buying different sized boxes to organise all your stuff you have lying around has become a hobby. Is it just us or are we just experiencing some sort of ‘aunty’ syndrome?

This is also why we find it so fascinating to scroll through Instagram pages and blogs such as ‘That Isle Life’, who has home organisation down to a T. Lilian, who is in her early thirties, lives in a chic apartment with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu and runs her home décor and lifestyle blog full time.

The Sarawak native left her life in the fast lane in the fashion industry — she’s even pals with designer Zang Toi whom she interned with — when the pandemic hit and found herself being stuck at home 24/7.

During this time, she unexpectedly discovered a newfound love for decluttering, organising, and just making things look beautiful. She also attributes working on her home to helping her deal with her anxiety and grief.

She shared, “People often think that they need to be rich or knowledgeable to build a perfect home. And, I’m here to prove them wrong.”

She definitely proves that you don’t need an interior designer or a huge budget to transform your home. Check out how Lilian changed up these areas:

Kitchen

She uses a trolley from Ikea as her makeshift pantry. This is great to easily reach for sauces during cooking as well as saving space. Plus you can easily stow it away when guests come over.

Have you ever thought of organising your fridge? If you haven’t already then maybe this is your sign to start! It helps food to last longer and avoid food wastage as it helps you to see what’s in there easily.

Lilian spent RM234 to organise her fridge including getting a mini Lazy Susan, airtight glass containers, and a non-slip fridge liner (check out the full breakdown here).

She also keeps the space under her sink organised by using stackable drawers and vertical space. Hey, every little space you can get counts when you’re living the apartment life!

Living Room

Lilian simply painted her plain picture frames black and voila! It created some much-needed contrast in this living room space. You can also easily switch out the prints to update a home in an affordable way. Hers are from Etsy.

A great throw pillow collection will also work out to be both functional and decorative.

Bedroom

Most of us may say yes to a walk-in wardrobe but our bank account says no *sobs*. Lilian uses a Crittall-style room divider to separate the space between her bed and wardrobe.

She also shows the importance of choosing gorgeous bedsheets as they transform the feel of a whole space!

Home Office

With many people still living a ‘WFH’ life, it’s important to create a comfortable home office space that’s pleasing to the eye. Lilian bought her home office setup from IKEA for less than RM500.

She made the space personal by decorating with some dried flowers, photo frames of her loved ones and her favourite books.

Closet

Lilian keeps her wardrobe from looking cluttered by arranging her bags according to colour and size with this bookcase from IKEA. It goes to show: organisation is key!

Follow Lilian’s Instagram page here to get more tips and to purchase items pictured in her home.

mage source: @thatislelife