Obviously that's not to scale. But that's the gist of it.  The main living area is now so tiny but it's fine, we have a resto right here! :) Of course, I presented myself to do the interiors, I can not let them do it by themselves.. Hehehe. The catch is the budget for the decorating / kaartehan part is really small since the renovation / equipments cost them a lot. I can't just purchase or do whatever I want. But I took it as a challenge, that space needs to be cozy, and welcoming. I'm not going for grand or high-end, I wanted it to be comfortable and homey.

Before I share the decorating part, let me show you the space towards the end of the renovation. I don't have much photo of the process as it's basically just a mess. Hehe.. 

I didn't have any moodboards, or showed them any plans for this. I just spoke with the contractor and instructed him directly on what to do. So basically, I did what I want. Haha.. But of course I didn't went crazy, I would love it if they love the space too. The very big wall in the middle of it all is actually a post, the left part used to be our front yard, and the right part used to be part of our living area. We removed both sides of the wall and kept the post for structural reasons, and even not for that, I love the look of it.

I went with a very neutral white, black and wood for all the main elements. I was actually hesitant about the black part since you know, chinese. Haha.. But I love black walls, and thank goodness I didn't heard a word about it. But infairness, I didn't do it all out, just the lower portion of the walls. Actually, even before starting the Tiny House, I have pegs of this type of wall treatment and I was thinking of doing that for our own house. But the bf's not sold on the idea, plus we did had the loft, so half of the living area has high ceiling which will be weird to have two-tone on the walls. I don't know if I'm making sense, but trust, it will be weird. So instead, I use that wall treatment here which I love.

Anyway, we have existing ceiling beams and upon renovation, had exposed some, so we just kept it and I asked them to keep them / bring them back to wood. They we're even asking me to have ceilings, and I was NO. Haha.. Keep the ceiling as high as possible, embrace the beams as those quirky crooked beams will give the space architecture and personality. 

Since half part of the restaurant was our living room, it of course have windows. Windows to our personal garage. What do we do with it? I don't want to lose the light coming from the window, but our garage is very unsightly. Hehe... So I asked them to build display shelves in that niche and install a smoked glass behind it.

Oh and the floors. As you can see above, we have two different floors. The weird yellow / black one is original to the house, think 1950s. I used to hate it, but now that I know a little better, I love it! I appreciate the history, and the weirdness of it all. I would love to see this house in it's former glory. Anyway, they wanted to cover it up with new tiles, and I insisted on keeping it. I can understand their apprehension since its old and is already showing wear and tear, as expected. But that's what I love about it. The other side are new since the original flooring there were not great, at all. Just did a stripe pattern because I still wanted a pattern, but something simple that wouldn't compete with the crazy yellow one. :)

Hallway going to the restroom. We carved a small restroom for diner's use at end of the space. 

This is the restroom. Chose a simple white tile for the walls. It's classic and clean. But that's not it, I did a little something to make this bathroom special. Small doesn't need to be boring. 

I know it's weird to end a restaurant post with a toilet shot, haha, but that's about it for now. For the next post, I'll show you all the decorating I did. I know, such a tease!

But if you want to see the decorating for yourself, visit us. See for yourself. Happy Lulu is already open. :) There's some sneak peek at the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/happylulukitchen

And while you're at it, like the page as well. Haha..  Check out the menu, the food is really amazing, and I'm not just saying that because it's my dad's. They server really great comfort food. Anyway, I'll share part 2 of this post soon.