Generell skjerpings etterlyses

Mens Magnhild fortsetter sin Shabby Fredag-serie, til glede for noen og sikkert forargelse for mange, leser jeg interiøratikler i avisen. I dette tilfellet Adressa, som har vært på besøk hos Ingeborg Okkenhaug på Svartlamoen. Et ganske så sjarmerende hjem, skal jeg innrømme, selv om jeg er alt for glad i bacon til å ha åpne hyller på kjøkkenet.

Men å finne på billedtekster til slike reportasjer er tydeligvis ikke helt enkelt. Man finner, for eksempel, denne perlen:

adressa_interior

Jakker på knagger? Jøss. Og hatter på hattehyllen, sier du? Det var virkelig orginalt. Og så jeg som alltid har oppbevart hattene mine i fryseren og jakkene slengt over tv’en.

Okkenhaug er designeren bak klesmerket Nordlys, som jeg såvidt har hørt om. Så da måtte jeg jo google litt. Jeg fikk litt alveoverload av nettsiden (altså, jeg synes det er ganske fint med “alveklær”, jeg, men det blit fort for mye av det gode), men denne jakken, for eksempel, den var da ganske kul?

Today’s flea market finds

Two curtain lengths.
Two curtain lengths.
A printed table runner.
A printed table runner.

I think there might be a difference in shade on the two lengths, they seem to have faded unevenly, but I haven’t checked properly. The material is very summer curtainy, netlike, and not very versatile, but they were cheap and the print makes me happy.

I also bought a 1000 piece jig-saw puzzle, it was still wrapped in plastic from the manufacturer, so it seems likely all the pieces will be there.

Painting, painting, painting

Sunday I got some help with the painting
Søndag fikk jeg hjelp med malinga

Did I say painting? Perhaps I meant spilling? Oh, well, things got white, anyway.

I think she did quite well.

Quite well.
Quite well.

But, as with most instances where a three-year-old “helps”: I think it’d been quicker without her.

And I think I’ll need at least two more coats on this wall, despite probably managing with two overall on the others.

Ah, well. She had fun.

Pine begone!

Eller død over furuhelvetet, som man kanskje ville si på en norsk interiørblogg.

And it’s so much better already:

Though a few more coats, perhaps?
Though a few more coats, perhaps?

Also, paint the rest of the room, as I only managed a first coat on half the room this evening.

And since Nicolette asked about bathrooms. Well, there’s the combined toilet/utility room:

I need a fisheye lens...
I need a fisheye lens...

Yeah, we thought we’d leave the washing machine in the middle of the floor. Making a statement, you know.

Kidding, obviously. We need to adjust the back left “leg” to make it stable and level and we couldn’t get at it. We’ll have to give it another try.

This room badly needs a decorator, but it’s not high on our list of priorities, because it’s at least practical. I did put a mirror up, though.

I love this mirror
I love this mirror

And here’s the bathroom. Well, a sliver of it:

As you can see: SMALL
As you can see: SMALL

Here’s another sliver. Including an inadvertent self portrait. Well, at least I’m dressed.

The shower curtain we picked up at a flea maket. Geeky enough for you?
The shower curtain we picked up at a flea maket. Geeky enough for you?

And another detail, non-permanent: We’ve set up our bed in one of the smaller bedrooms, and needed a reading light. We’ll only be here until we’ve got the other room painted, so there didn’t seem to be any point in finding a permanent solution – buying a new lamp, for example. So I mounted one of our old lamps on my tripod:

Ingenious! Until I need a tripod, obviously.
Ingenious! Until I need a tripod, obviously.

Ok, so the paneling stays.

At least in the bedroom.

I started trying to remove it, starting with the molding:

Molding gone
Molding gone

Then I attempted to remove the longest piece on the left wall:

And found a snag in the plan
And found a snag in the plan

See, the wall between this bedroom and the main living area was put up by the previous occupants when they had another child and therefore needed another bedroom. Prior to this the area was open off the kitchen and used as a dining room. We’re happy with the dining area as it is now, we need the extra room more, so we’re leaving the wall up. However, the wall was simply put in place on top of the existing decoration – paneling, molding and all.

It’s even more obvious from the outside:

Elegant, innit?
Elegant, innit?

So we’ll go for plan B, painting it all white. In the bedroom at least. On the walls in the living area, I think it can be removed without this sort of trouble, but that’s a project for later in the autumn, I want to get the bedroom sorted first.

Another argument for leaving the paneling is that we won’t have to deal with sorting out things like these:

The sockets can stay as they are, then. Goody.
The sockets can stay as they are, then. Goody.

Aha. Pictures!

Some pictures from the new flat:

Kitchen and living room to the right, bedrooms left. Will have to paint this wall. Might cover it with bookshelves.
Kitchen and living room to the right, bedrooms left. Will have to paint this wall. Might cover it with bookshelves.
1st bedroom, with something that looks like a carpet on this wall. WTF? Will tear down and eventually this will be the guest/craft room.
1st bedroom, with something that looks like a carpet on this wall. WTF? Will tear down and eventually this will be the guest/craft room.
Wardobes in what will be our bedroom. Will have to paint walls. Also, probably, tear down paneling. Or just paint it. We'll see.
Wardobes in what will be our bedroom. Will have to paint walls. Also, probably, tear down paneling. Or just paint it. We'll see.
Third bedroom. Will stay as is and be "junkroom" for the time being.
Third bedroom. Will stay as is and be "junkroom" for the time being.
More wardrobes. Three of the four bedrooms have these old wardobes, and they're great, so that's good.
More wardrobes. Three of the four bedrooms have these old wardobes, and they're great, so that's good.
Fourth bedroom. The lass has decided this is her room. Doesn't need much work, as we'll keep the walls white and add colour though furniture and accesories.
Fourth bedroom. The lass has decided this is her room. Doesn't need much work, as we'll keep the walls white and add colour through furniture and accesories.
View the other way, into the little hall which will act as a sound barrier to the living room, and has lots of closet space.
View the other way, into the little hall which will act as a sound barrier to the living room, and has lots of closet space.
Living room - not crazy about the brick but I can live with it. It'll probably be hidden behind bookcases anyway.
Living room - not crazy about the brick but I can live with it. It'll probably be hidden behind bookcases anyway.
Kitchen
Kitchen
Kitchen
Kitchen

Now, problem areas:

  • That carpeted wall. What were they thinking? Down it comes. Room will be painted white. Probably.
  • Green walls: Will be white ASAP.
  • Paneling: I hate it. Will consider tearing it down. Otherwise painting it white to blend with rest of wall. Probably tearing down, though.
  • Window frames and mouldings: I don’t like it. You guessed it: Paint it white.
  • Doors: Oh, the horror. A lick of paint would help, but I want the moulding gone, really, so I might try removing it on one door to see how much work it will take to make the door presentable.
  • Kitchen: It’s ok, I guess. Long term we will probably want to remodel. I’m still tempted to paint it, but I might not bother if we’re going to tear it out in a few years. It’s not the first project I’ll tackle, anyway.
  • Oh, and yes, those windows over the doors and wall. *Shudder* Not quite sure what to do there. Need to think. I suppose we could replace them with something “cleaner”.

Shelves – more inspiration

Since we can’t really do a lot until we’ve actually taken over the flat – in less than two weeks’ time! – I’ve been browsing blogs that have an element of interior design. I now have quite a few in a new folder in Google Reader, and on one of them, Trippel, I just found this image:

Styled by Lotta Agaton
Styled by Lotta Agaton

Trippel, in turn found it at Emmas designblogg, who used it to illustrate how excellent work of Lotta Agaton is. I am not going to quarrel with the styling, which I find impeccable, but my main interest in the picture is how a very striking set of shelves is constructed from a pile of crates. The husband keeps bringing home these lovely crates from work which have been used to ship wine bottles, and we have actually used them for shelving before, but in a much more straightforward, boring way. This idea needs to be mulled over.

Other blogs recently added to the “interior design” folder:

Most in Scandinavian (that is, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish), I’m afraid. Have a wee browse even if you don’t read those languages, they are all brimming with gorgeousness in the form of pictures – which, after all, is much of the point in seeking interior design inspiration.

One thing is given

Europris have recently started selling a line of storage boxes from Lego. They don’t have pictures online, but these seem to be the same:

legobokser

 They are even stackable. If you had enough of them you could build a life-size lego fort. Now there’s an idea…

Ok, maybe not, but I will certainly be stocking up on a few in order to store the increasing Lego collection.

I notice we are not the only ones, Den gode feen has also discovered them, and already purchased some. I think we’ll wait until we have actually moved.

More swap stuff

The friendship bag went astray, or was somehow appropriated by the post office. It certainly never reached its recipient. What with sewing mojo already being at the low ebb, this didn’t help. Still, there is simply no excuse for the tardiness of my package in the stitcher’s angels swap, but more of that by the by.

Once I got myself by the scruff of the neck back to the sewing machine I made a replacement bag for Renata of Zigzago:

Replacement friendship bag

This one made it to Italy, I’m glad to say.

TheStitchersAngel

I received my package in the stitcher’s angels swap at around the time one would expect if the sender stuck to the deadline, that is, in November. I loved the package, but didn’t have the heart to blog about it until I’d sent my own, and the longer it took the harder it was. Anyway, my package was put together by Lene of Denmark, and just look at this overabundance of loveliness:

Angel present

For more pictures, just click through to Flickr.

And I finally got my own package in the post, then waited with bated breath until Joy could report its safe arrival. Wouldn’t it just have been sod’s law if it got lost after all that? But they did arrive, and I could breathe again.