My homes are funny things, I sit in them and look around in them and than all of a sudden they tell me what I need to do. This new home told me to use black. So I've started to use black. What do you think?
Ingrid even sneaked in some black yesterday and I just didn't want to give it back to her.
I've bought the botanical rose poster from The Evolution Store, the chestnut seller closed her Etsy account and the tree chalkboard is from here. The rusty Y was a gift from Marné many moons ago. |
The TV room so far. The walls are a bit empty and it quite echoes in the room, which freaks the BooBoo out, but I'm pleased with it so far. A room always needs to grow on me and over time I'll add, remove and replace stuff.
This is what the room looked like when we bought the house. We took all the old plaster off and the wood ceiling, replaced all electricity, made a new ceiling, re-plastered, took the carpet out and painted the wood boards, made a new windowsill, new radiator and that's about it. The ceilings are 3,40mtr high which makes me look like a gnome with my 1,64mtr.
I used Loom by Histor (S 1002-Y50R) for the walls and All White Estate Eggshell by Farrow & Ball for the all the woodwork. For the floor I used Sigma S2u primer and Sigma S2u Satin for the top coat. I didn't use the recommended S2u Gloss for the floor as you'll end up with a mirror compared to the F&B Estate Eggshell with only a 20% sheen level. If you're in Germany, Belgium or The Netherlands and you find F&B paint too expensive, try the new Histor One as it's fabulous.
You can find more info on the stool and cupboard in my previous TV room post.
I love to crochet while I watch TV so I've made myself a little corner. The bunny and bird vase are by Joanna Mendicino.
I'll shoot some more pictures as the light outside is getting a bit better, this is the darkest room of the house. I'm really ready for spring as this winter is taking quite long. |
It was September 2009 when Nina and I met Ingrid for the first time and on that same day Nina gifted me this plate, known in my home as 'The Nina Plate'. I've been meaning to photograph it and send it to Nina, to show off, for ever and never got around to do it as 1. I've been living in my car for the past few months and 2. because of bad lightning.
Today I got my hopes up as the sun is out and she makes my kitchen so bright and shiny. That's why I devote a blog post to 'The Nina Plate' and show off my new kitchen cupboard doors I'm dead happy with. Later today they'll have glass too as I can now just grab everything inside without actually opening the doors, but you can't see that.
I'm off to play around in the kitchen a little more. And also in my study as we found some amazing old tiles for my fireplace ... oh and ... crap the sun is out, I must go outside.
Will be back more often, I promise and try to keep away from the car ;o) |
Happy 2010!!
This is what I did over the holidays.
I'll be writing, telling about color numbers, places to buy and showing more during the week as I'm still unpacking and painting. But damn I love my study so far. |
The TV room of my house is almost done. It still needs a new (old) radiator, a ceiling lamp and the TV! I also might swap sofas tonight.
This afternoon I just sat in the TV room (without TV) looking around. The Boo came to join me.
Last night I quickly crocheted these stars to add a bit of Christmas to the room but I've already decided to keep them there after Christmas as they make me happy. The paper lanterns are by Jurianne Matter and are sold here.
I've repainted this cupboard in the same color as my front door, Vert De Terre by Farrow & Ball, and removed the white knobs and replaced them with various porcelain knobs I've collected. The TV will be on this cupboard. I also made a new slipcover for the footstool, I used washes roses by Cath Kidston.
The Boo likes the room too. This is her 'I love it' look or I would love to think so as she always looks at me like this. |
It bothers me when people ask me if Bo doesn't get sick of all the pink in our home and think he's weird if my answer is no. What people don't realize is that I equally have a lot of blue at home. I think that all the blue sometimes outweighs all the pink and ho ... wait a minute ... I have quite a lot of white at home, white definitely wins. But people never seem to bother to ask me if Bo doesn't get sick of all the blue and all the white makes me wonder; do they get sick of my pink? That's very Freudian but quite correct.
So for all the people who get sick of my pink, here's some blue and white for you.
This is my kitchen WC, still without a door so it's very open air or the kitchen is one big WC.
The print is by Linzie Hunter for Tumbtack Press. It used to hang in my old study now it matches the tiles perfectly. The carved Dala horses are from Sweden and that mushroom is a kaleidoscope from Dille & Kamille bought by Bo so he can look at the tiles on the floor when he sits on the toilet - and now who's weird eh? |
I'm not such a big fan of all sorts of unpractical items on display throughout my house. Having said that, I can't leave a surface empty so I always try to put a small group of a couple of practical little things here and there.
For example on the kitchen mantel I placed these three small items. A Cath Kidston milk jug, a tiny ceramic bunny from Joanna Mendicino and a Muji incense burner. All functional except the bunny.
On the kitchen table I have a Muji tray with all the essentials we use for eating. Salt en pepper shakers from GreenGate, a soy sauce pot, and a basket with toothpicks. The wee pumpkin and the flowers in the vase I can change with the seasons. A tray is also great for wiping the kitchen table as you only have to pick it up.
Next time I'll blog about grouping with books and magazines. |
When I returned home today, after working off Roel's party grocery list which contained beer and I'm not custom with buying beer so it took a bit longer and I have a beer cap cut in my index finger, I found Boo snuggled up on the new shag carpet in the sunroom.
That's a good sign, Boo never set paw in the sunroom before.
I've changed the whole sunroom again. I also changed the kitchen (as the sunroom and kitchen are in the same construction) and bought some bits and pieces to make it more 'us'. I like pretty but I do mostly like functional and sunroom v.3.0 was far from functional as we couldn't really sit properly on that sofa ... and why would we sit there anyway as we can sit at a table in the kitchen 2 steps away? So I went online and bought a secondhand Ikea Nikkala sofa as I sat on one at Ingrid's and liked it. I found one for 25 Euro and a 40 minute drive, ordered a new slipcover at Bemz and used my judging discount.
I'm so happy with it now. All I have to do is wait for the slipcover to be delivered and change 2 of the 4 Ikea roller blinds I bought yesterday as one is twirled and one is just a complete different blind, why is that always IKEA? After that I'll post a completed sunroom v.4.0.
And to know that I still have a whole house left to finnish + a shopping list will be in my next sunroom post. |
I think I'm done with the sunroom. Yes I think I'm done with the sunroom, I still find it a wee bit too sweet. I'm hoping to make a shop stop at Loods 5 next week and I hope to find a nice piece of Fermob to replace with the yellow chair. I hope with bringing some aluminum in the place I can actually make it a little less sweet. Who knows ... will report again next week.
And I've made a 'where to buy' right here. |
Oh just really quick because I'm having a secret hiatus and will be back with a brand new blog in two weeks. But I couldn't resist to show you sunroom version 2.0 (this definitely will look different in two weeks) and to let you know that I'm excited to be one of Holly's 'Favorite Things' guests.
See you in a week or two with all new things. |
It's wednesday, let's discus my sunroom floor.
Good news, for those interested in my floor, we've finally found someone who can fix our problem without spending too much money and without having to take the whole sunroom down. He'll be fixing it next week and after that I can start decorating.
At last!
Now I'm quite giddy about decorating this room because I've been looking at that horrible floor for too long now, disliking it but appreciating the room itself more and more. It always has been such a non-room to me as it is really oddly shaped and an extension to the house that doesn't really fit. But over time it has become quite a lovely extension of the kitchen and I find myself hanging bits and pieces on the walls. My birds are already up there and now I've hung this artwork by Geninne up there to. It's going to be my bird room, or nature room. But also a good room to photograph in as the light is quite something.
Will post pictures when the room is done.
When the room is done ... sigh ... that sounds like music to my ears. |
Please do not fall of your chair, you're not losing your mind, you haven't stranded on a different website that looks at lot like mine. It's true and yes ... I did two posts in one day ... it's almost scary.
I just want to tell you about what's going with the house and me and the garden and the mess and the really filthy cat, who's turning my bedding black right this second. We're fine, all is fine and 8 months after we've started this project we're still married and quite happy with one another, we still don't want a baby, I still want a dog, Bo still doesn't - we'll have rabbits instead and next year, when the back garden is done, we'll have chicken. We thought we have done so little but when one of my mum's friends told me how impressed he is by how much work we've done and quoted this amazing line I'm going to tell everyone because it's so good; "you've done an awful lot of work but because you still have to do an awful lot of work it seems you haven't done nothing" Brilliant! This man is brilliant and I'll start to phone him weekly for words of wisdom. Last night they cleaned up the whole front garden and now I have to decide what to do with it, the hard task. We have a fantastic working kitchen and all my pots and pans and things are in place an already cooked some delicious meals. only we need doors, quite a lot of them. The kitchen cupboard, Bo made, needs doors and the toilet needs a door. Also the kitchen doors need to be fixed and I have to make curtains When all that is done my kitchen will be revealed on an amazing website for the first time. I'm really excited!
PS: click on the image and it will take you to Flickr where most questions will or are be answered. |
It's good to have my mum over as she reminds me of all the holidays where I'm free to go a bit decoration crazy. Christmas I remember, as it's my favorite time of the year, but all the other catholic holidays I forget. It's also because supermarkets and stores start selling Easter stuff in February. To me Easter starts when there are chocolate eggs for sale.
So I had to do some last minute decorating as my brother and his girlfriend (hello Themar and Suzanne) will be here for Easter brunch on Sunday. Now our kitchen is almost complete (spot the messy fireplace and oh, there's no door to the loo) so I had to improvise as this is the only pretty place in our home to eat.
More Easter stuff this weekend. |
Hello, I'm back - finally.
It's been a hectic 8 months since we've moved here. This house is really something, each time we start a job it turns into about a thousand other jobs. Like the floor job I did in the sunroom, it turned out to a complete disaster. THE HORRIBLE FLOOR MAN, as he's know in my house, decided to seal the top layer of the concrete floor with polyester. This is quite fantastic if you want to have a cool floor that doesn't show wear, doesn't get dirty and doesn't let anything get in ... white paint included!!
I was rather pleased with the result I showed you in March to discover 8 hours later that the paint came off faster as it did to apply it. I could scrape it off like butter. A lot of products, tears, blood, sweat, money and threatening phone calls to THE HORRIBLE FLOOR MAN later we came to the conclusion that we had to take the perfect top layer of the floor off. I phoned another floor man and he diamond stripped the whole floor. Straight after that I painted the floor again and it stayed put ... for just a little while. After my first floor mopping the floor went sticky and the paint went all yellowy weird. Turns out that the actual concrete floor under the removed top floor didn't dry out completely so that's why it's sticky.
This is the sunroom today. The floor seems perfectly white but don't let the pretty picture fool you because the floor is sticky like hell - if hell is sticky and if hell exists.
I'll have to wait for the concrete to dry and than I'll sand and paint it again. I know for sure it will turn out to be ok but arrrggghh ... all the unnecessary work because of THE HORRIBLE FLOOR MAN!!
Just on the other side of the wall I'm setting up my kitchen.
This is my loo view :o) |
The sewing room is almost done. I only need to paint the heating pipes, put chicken wire in front of the windows (because I'm scared frogs will get in) and find a cute free standing cast iron radiator because I find it too cold with just the pipes.
Most of the furniture in this room is new and from Ikea. As this house is three times bigger as our previous house, we are in desperate need of furniture. Now I'm not one for buying everything in one day (can't even afford that) because I like rooms to evolve. I already had the EXPEDIT bookcase but bought some extra drawer inserts to house all my yarn. I bought the MALM chest of drawers, the two MELLTORP dining tables for my sewing machines and the table top for the VIKA ARTUR trestles.
I planned all the stuff I wanted to be in this room in advance by sorting out and preparing boxes in another room. This way I only had to move everything in.
The radiator will be under this spool rack. I used Elephant's Breath floor paint by Farrow and Ball for the floors. For people in The Netherlands and Germany Forel from Histor will match perfectly and you should get it mixed in the Histor concrete paint.
It was pure practical to start to renovate the basement first because so much stuff can go in there. The room next to my sewing room is the Bo's tool room and where the combi-kettle is. The first corridor is used for storage (vases, pots & pans) and the second corridor will be for my shop. There are still two uncompleted rooms on the other side that hold wood we need for building and one where we keep junk. We also really like to work in pairs, like we are doing the kitchen the same time as the basement. The kitchen will be done plastering tomorrow so while that dries we can work in the basement. After the kitchen is finished we'll work on the TV room and my office as they are next door. Next we'll be working on our bedroom and the bathroom and so on.
I'm in love with this room and I think today will be the first day I actually get a chance to play in it. |
Today the official press release went out for the Bemz "My Home, My Way" contest at the Bemz blog, It's a Cover-Up.
I'm one of the judges amongst these really great bloggers:
Leslie Webster from Apartment Therapy
Elka Karl from Casa Sugar
Frida Berglund from Husmusen
Jules Yap from Ikea Hacker
Helena Karjalainen from Room and Serve
I'd love to enter with the Bemz slipcover I bought a while ago but it's a great honor to have been asked to judge too.
I'm really looking forward to all the entries!! |
I promised so many times (via e-mail) to show how I go about my table stapling - it seems, one of my great pastimes.
So here we go.
These are the tools you need:
oilcloth
stapler
staples
measuring tape
scissors
Also a cloth surface is a must for easy sliding when stapling small objects.
This is what my table looked like before. It's an INGO table from Ikea. I didn't paint the surface because I'm going to cover that with oilcloth
Cut the oilcloth so that you have a couple of centimeters to spare on all sizes. First staple all ends with just a single staple to make things easier. Don't forget to pull it really, really tight.
Finnish stapling all around the table. Thanks to Bo for professionally showing us how to do this.
And here's the result, aaaaaah - Boxed Letter Cushions A for sale in the shop. |
This is the "real" tree in the living room. It's the radical little sister of the big "fake" tree in the dining room. It's a little bit like me and my sister, not so tall and well figured, some rough edges here and there, dressed colorful and oddly instead of being perfect. But most of all, lovely to smell ;o)
Above the tree the famous "keep calm and carry on poster". I bought my copy here but you can buy it all over the place. Victoria sells some pretty colors to match your interior. We have the poster next to our big front window and you can actually see it very clearly from the outside when you pass the window. I love the text so much as for a lot of people stand still in front of this window and try to peep inside. I once was hovering under the window and made a sudden upright position and I was eye in eye with this woman who stood pressed with her face in front of the window. It scared the hell out the both of us. So in a way I like to say to people who pass our bright and colorful window "keep calm and carry on".
Here a close up of the German Weihnachtspyramide that's on the table. The heat of the candles makes the propellers spin and that way the heat will spin the nativity around. It's pretty nifty! I bought this one in Germany on a weihnachtsmarkt (boy I love those) but you can find beautiful pieces on eBay too. The German really know how to throw a good Christmas!
That's it for today, more Christmas news coming soon. Also thank you for the lovely birthday wishes :o) |
The big "fake" tree is up, Christmas 2007 has officially started at my home!!
This year I moved the 'the village' from the mantle to the chest of drawers in the dining room. The Bo did the art direction, mountain work and moon and star mobile staging and I constantly said "oh that's cute, that is so cute". We tried to put Christmas lights in all the houses but we couldn't find a string of lights that weren't so near to one another, so we decided that the people with the lights out are just not at home. Ah I love the new location of the village.
Last night I celebrated my 33rd birthday. My friends, Myra and Auk, ended up staying the night because Myra drank too much and Auk missed the last bus home. We had so much fun pulling out mattresses and blankets it felt like we were back in high school. We should do this more often as adults, it gives so much comfort and love. I can't explain it but it just feels so damn special to have people in my life who really, really like me just for who I am. It was a special birthday this year.
More decoration news coming soon!! Because I've only just started ... |
I'm officially ready for Christmas but Christmas isn't officially ready for me. The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December so it's rather a crime to put up any Christmas decorations before the 5th.
So lovely Jenny made me happy with her elf clog pattern because that keeps me occupied and kind of distracts me from the boxes in the attic that softly whisper my name ... Yvonne ...Yvonne ... Yvonne!! It's dreadful and I don't understand why I'm so influenced by the outside world and why I let other people boss me around about what or what not to decorate and most importantly when I decorate. It must be a tradition that's stuck somewhere in my genetic gene ... DO NOT decorate before the 5th of December because you'll cause a terrible epidemic of a horrible virus to spread the nation - Chrismasporadoxion perhaps???
I'm going loopy but that happens if you know that true Christmas people already have four trees up while I'm stuck with some ornaments in the chandelier and two wrapped presents - that are not even for me!!
So thank you Jenny for giving me something to do and for this lovely, lovely pattern. You also must check out the Elf Clog Flickr group it's fun!!
Tablecloth fabric
Wrapping paper and bows |
This is how I spent my weekend, trying to brighten up the landing and the study by painting some furniture and doing some oilcloth on table stabling.
It was just such a glorious autumn day. The sun was shining, clear blue skies and it was actually really hot so I could work with the windows open. What a little light can do to a picture.
I painted the armoire in glossy Nursery Pink by Cath Kidston and for the inside I used water based eggshell in All White by Farrow & Ball.
I painted the table, I use as a desk, in glossy Nursery Blue and I used Dotty oilcloth by CK for the top. Don't be fooled by the colors on her website because this oilcloth is really, really white and not off white as shown on her site. Most of the fabrics on her site show quite yellowy, I recommend to get a free swatch before you order fabric. The swatches are also a lot of fun because they are quite big and if you save up a bunch you can make a really pretty patchwork quilt - but don't tell her!
And as a final touch, I lined the shelves in the armoire with the leftovers of the oilcloth.
Boy I had some good old fashioned fun. I love projects like this but I'm getting through them. This house is almost completely done and it may sound weird, because they say you're never done, but it's really true. I can't add anything or I should drastically change everything but I'm really happy with the results so I think I need to move!
Red fling cabinet
Pink chair
Blue Tubtrug
Turquoise planner
Dress and Bags |
When we bought this house in 2003 there was no kitchen, well there was a dodgy counter with a sink in it and some hot water tank hanging above it and some stoves were left and a very smelly fridge, but nothing quite Yvestown-esque (ha ha, I read this over here and I love it, thanks so much for turning me into something esque)
This is the sight of the kitchen when we took all the mess out and after the stucco people left - man alive do they make a mess!
With a very tight budget we found this kitchen on eBay for no money and remodeled it and painted it white to fit our kitchen.
Now a couple of years later we decided that we are grownup enough to spend grownup money on a ridiculously expensive fridge. You should know that I have different prices for everything when I tell my mother how much I spent on stuff. It's always 50% off and I always bought it on sale. But I really couldn't cheat with the baby blue Smeg we bought. You should've heard the howl she made after I told her the price when she asked me if it was ok to give a donation towards the fridge for the Bo's birthday.
Before the Smeg could enter our kitchen we had to make some changes.
I decided that we needed new counters, the old (build-in) fridge needed to go and I had to do some new shelving arrangements.
The bookshelves were a later addition so I wanted to level the work tops and replace them with oak.
Here's the result. New Ikea (abstrakt) counters, a leveled work top and less shelves.
Oh and of course room for the baby bleu Smeg!
***
As I get so many email asking me where I bought this and that, I've decided to include as much info on the bottom of each post as from today. I can't impossibly write down everything and link to everything so you'll have to email me only if you really, really must!!
I bought the Yummy letters over here, the wallpaper and red clock are by Cath Kidston, the sink, work top and counters by Ikea and the china is Greydawn by Johnson Brothers. |
We finally found a replacement for the HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP. The Norm 03 by Normann Copenhagen won me over after the Bo convinced me he would put the lamp together (it's a bit of a job) I went for it and I love it. I do miss my HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP just because of the whole conversation it brought with it. The constant bickering in the house about a lamp is actually quite funny to me and all the hilarious comments left on that one post cracked me up. It's so interesting how we can look at one piece of furniture so differently.
As I never really showed all the corners of the bedroom before, it's always a little corner or the view from the bedroom door, I decided to make a little bedroom photo set over at Flickr for you to have a peek. |
Over the weekend Holly from the lovely Decor8 blog wrote a little post about me. I'm super flattered to be mentioned on such an inspiring blog like Decor8. Thanks Holly and thanks to all the people who left sweet comments on my Flickr pages and who sent me email. I can't believe how friendly people are. Thank you!!
One of the comments left on Decor 8 about my HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP cracked me up. I can assure, and maybe comfort you Melyna, my husbands finds it a HORRIBLE lamp too. Each time he walks in he's moaning about it. The other day a fly got caught in it and it made a terrible noise and he lost it. "That lamp is so ugly Yvonne, why on earth do we need to have this lamp? Oh God that fly is pooping all over it".
Well, I like the lamp. I like to throw some new stuff in the mix and this lamp so clashes with the rest of the room that in a sort of way it makes it a bit humorous.
My dream lamp for the bedroom is this one by Habitat. But since we don't have Habitats in The Netherlands anymore and because they're sold out in Belgium and because I keep forgetting to pick one up when I'm in the UK, I'll do with the HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP!!
The rose prints are Redouté replicas and the cat is mine!! |
I'm going to answer some questions about my cabinet(s) because I often get questions about them.
Are they from Ikea?
No, I wish they were because it would have saved me a pretty penny. They are custom made by Jan from InterAntiek in Veldhoven The Netherlands. Yes that's Jan and Elvira's home on the main page.
How many do you have?
I have two, they are exactly the same. One is in my dining room and one in the living room. In one I keep books, cd's and the HiFi system in the other one my fancy china.
They look really big
They are. My ceilings are 3.15 m high so the rooms need something that goes up in height. The cabinets are both 2.45 m tall.
What's the material?
They are made from recycled old pine cabinets and doors. They are painted white with a thick water based paint and waxed to give it an old look.
***
Oh and yes yes I did yet another redesign but I just love doing it so much and this one suits my new landing wallpaper. I'm also working hard on the Housekeeping special, holy moly there's so much to tell. I keep writing little things down and in the end I'm going to put it all together. Thanks so much for the lovely response. |
I just found out about Ikea Hacker (via sfgirlbybay). It's such a fantastic idea because I love to hack my Ikea buys. I basically love Ikea but I don't want my house to look like an Ikea catalog so I keep pimping all the items I buy.
I submitted two of my hacks; the SKRUVSTA slipcover I did last year and the Expedit bookcase I pimped recently.
The bookcase (click the photo for a larger image) is in the study and I'm using it to file my favorite magazine back issues. I pinned the retro wallpaper, I found in Germany, on the back of the bookcase (quite a job) to create a fun backdrop.
I can't wait to see more hacks on Ikea Hacker!!
***
Oh and thanks for the lovely pantry comments. Bo wanted me to add that he loves it so much that he wanted to sleep in it the night I finished it. Yes he's almost 40!! |
One resolution I made for 2007 is not to be so easy anymore. Since I married Bo almost eight years ago I've become too easy. In easy I mean "oh sod it, Bo will do it when he gets home".
I've always been a hands on girl. My father passed away when I was only thirteen years old leaving three women behind and a boy with two left hands, we were forced to do everything ourselves. So by the age of nineteen I was quite the handy woman. Fixing VCR's, painting houses, trimming trees, driving tractors, sewing cushions, studying, working in a shop, cleaning two homes, participating in an amateur drama group and cleaning a whole Hall single handedly wasn't strange to me. I can't sit still very long and I'm really quickly bored. It's not that I'm not interested it's just that I want to get on with things but I've lost that a bit since I got married.
To get my old groove back I decided to start the year fresh with a new D.I.Y. project known as The Cupboard Under The Stairs a.k.a. my pantry. It needed a fresh coat of paint, some un cluttering and organizing.
This is what it looked like on Monday.
And this is what it looked like two days and a lot of pink paint in my hair later.
I did everything myself, even the drilling and the lightning fixture. I was pooped by Tuesday night but extremely satisfied. |
Thanks for your sweet birthday wishes, I had a really good one.
The day before my birthday (Sinterklaas evening) the Bo and I went out for Sushi in our favorite city and afterwards to see The Queen. I can highly recommend this movie - but that's a whole different story. On my birthday the people that are building a whole new neighborhood around us decided to cut of our water. It's one of the privileges of being born and living in a country with tapped water, it's horrible to go a whole morning without it. The rest of the day we spent food and cake shopping and in the afternoon we had a soes (Dutch cream cake) feast with my neighbor Amanda and her son Jesse. At dinnertime my friend Mandy, Rob and my brother with his new girlfriend came over for food and drinks and more soesen! It was a good birthday :)
So on to another festive part of this season, decorating the house.
The tree is up. It's my first ever fake tree and I'm still working on liking it. I don't know yet if I can go without the scent of a real tree, without the wonky branches and the picking out ritual we have each year. Maybe I can go without that last one because it's terrible how we both fuss over a tree. There's still more to decorate - oh joy!!
That little aqua colored thing on the floor is the Boo's fish. She always puts it somewhere she likes. I often find it next to her food bowls, it's so cute! |
There are a bunch of reasons I've been so quiet. One is the weather ... it's stinking hot over here (I so get this phrase now because everything really does stink, including some people today in the supermarket). The other reason is that I've been working on my boot room.
The main plan was to move all my gear to the attic and turn it in to a sewing room. But after some Bo inspections and dodgy floor constructions and the chance that the perfectly plastered ceilings could come down, we reconsidered and moved my gear to the boot room instead. It's a great little room we only used for laundry and some of the tools we both use. It now is a utility room and not so much a boot room anymore.
This is what the room looked like when we bought the house, actually this is what all the rooms looked like when we bought the house.
We than decided to renovate and paint everything white so we could decided later what to do with the rooms. Honestly I'm one of those people who needs to sit in a room, for as long it takes, to know what to do with it. Boy I love that stable window! It was actually so tatty that we spent a month recovering it.
This is what it looks like now. And there's that plastic rug I've been talking about (still need to find an online retailer for that one K). And look at those fantastic Chinese gauze lanterns I bought via Kathleen at Anahata.
This is from the other side. I couldn't get a good shot of the washing area and the stable window because there's too much light coming through the window because it's so stinking hot!!
I still need to do some finishing touches but I'm really pleased with my little utility room. Of course the attic is still going to get it's make-over, we're going to make it a guestroom. We never really have that much guests but having the spare bed in the studio isn't so much fun either. So the studio is going to get a nice lounging corner too. Oh my .... all the possibilities. It's going to be a winter of many home improvements. Ah ... the thought of winter!!!
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And some other stuff I'd like to write about. Leslie started a fun new Flickr Group: in my life. Please go over there and join if you like. And oh .. uhm, I've changed the layout AGAIN!! I can't stop myself. |
Last week I bought these Lack shelves at Ikea because I find them fantastic. You can't see the hanging construction and we almost have the same color walls as the shelf so you don't really see them hanging much at all. But, with having yet more shelving, the same problem returns ... what to put on them?????? I'm not really one for ornaments because I really dislike the dusting and because I can't find nice ornaments. But I do love vintage tin toys and I adore vintage Tonka trucks because they're so cool and come in really cool colors. So I started to gather bits and pieces I have tucked away around the house and was actually surprised with how much fun I think it is.
The vintage radio is a gift form my mother in law. She used to use it when she was my age. The little Adam Frank's Lumen cedar tree I found via Kathleen. I spelled out Boo Lief (means Boo Lovely) with some vintage alphabet blocks and found the old world bank in the attic. I bought the green Tonka truck on eBay and gave it a good wash (but it's still dirty) and I'm going to try to find another one for next to the radio on the top shelf. I'd love a red one!!
Click here for more pictures |
I love open shelving but it's hard to create a display of items that don't look yet too organized. When I made my kitchen design, before the renovations, I was determined to have open shelving everywhere. I now have but I've been struggling with it for the past year. I didn't have the right china, I needed pots to store things in, I needed ... just things to make it right.
So I started my hunt on eBay for pastel blue china and I found Greydawn by Johnson Brothers. I mixed it with some old and new Laura Ashley stuff, some Cath Kidston stuff (OF COURSE it's getting pathetic) and the odd Ikea items.
I'm pretty pleased with the result and I promised myself not to change it. The best thing is that we use all this stuff daily so it's not just a display of pretty things it's actually useful too!
After all the shelving in the kitchen is done I'm going to start on the pantry. I want to make it pink or green, I don't know!! |
Recently I made these top pillow shams for our bedroom. It started with an old white sheet I wanted to throw out but then I found that lace frilly hemming material while cleaning out some sewing drawers and made the shams. But white shams are just so boring. So I picked up my iron and the stitch-it kit by Jenny Heart, placed an extra heart and a flower in the center. And ta da ... brand new shams!!
I picked the same color of green in the CK shams for my bedroom closet, painted the French chairs pink, upholstered them with the same CK fabric and ta da... everything is matching!!
I love things matching. This bedroom matches beautifully with the green guestroom. I painted the walls the same color as the closet.
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These are two interior blogs I found recently:
I'm really inspired by their homes. Everything looks just out of a picture book!! |
The natural light here is terrible. It's dark and gloomy and it feels more like autumn instead of winter. I need some snow and sun!!!
Thus my attempt of taking a whimsical photo of my new green guestroom/study failed miserably. With some Photoshop tweaking it turned out ok-ish but you can't really see how the green becomes delicious when the sun shimmers in this room - oh I love this room!!
I found the French bed on a Dutch auction/car boot sale site and picked it up last Sunday. My neighbor, who caught us caring the bed inside, insured us that it could do with a new coat of paint - arrrrgh!!!
Neighbor: *puts on a broad Amsterdam accent*
"doesn't it need a new coat of paint?"
Me: *puts on a Southern Dutch accent*
"don't you need to shut your mouth?"
I would have love to say that!!!
I indulged a little while ago in the Cath Kidston eiderdown. I was looking for a real vintage one but they are always so tatty and I prefer my bedding to be clean and fresh. Speaking of Cath, don't you think her sale goes on a bit too long? I'm waiting in anticipation for her new spring line. I've been keeping my wallet shut just in case. I've made the hot water bottle cozy myself some time ago, from a Gap sweater.
Bo thinks the room looks like a child's bedroom - well it does a bit but so does our whole house. For Pete's sake we have sailboats wallpaper in our loo!!
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Oh and Dooce is in The Netherlands and this post cracked me up. The weather IS crazy here!!!
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