Nye gardiner

Når vi flyttet inn i leiligheten vår i 2010 hadde vi bare to uker fra overtakelse til vi skulle være ute av den gamle leiligheten, derfor ble bare det aller nødvendigste av maling gjort. Etterpå har vi fikset noen flere vegger (fjernet brystningspanel og malt hvitt). Vindusveggen i stua var dekket av… treverk når vi flyttet inn. Radiatorene var bygd inn i kasser og den biten av vegg som ikke er dekket av vindu var dekket av trespiler, litt som på vinduslemmer, men altså spikret fast i veggen. På et eller annet tidspunkt fikk jeg nok og rev det hele ned. Vel og bra, men så skulle jeg jo liksom male veggen, og det… tok sin tid. I fjor (eller var det forfjor) sparklet jeg det som var av spikerhull og slikt, og hadde store intensjoner om å male også, men så kom vel livet i veien. Så sånn har det sett ut since forever:

Vakkert, eller hva? På toppen av det hele: Når vi flyttet inn hang vi opp gardinene vi hadde med oss fra den gamle leiligheten. Sånn inntil videre, liksom. De to lange seksjonene (som hadde vært tilpasset verandadøra) var akkurat for lange, så de sopte i gulvet. Og opphenget var ikke akkurat ideelt, vi arvet kirsch-skinnene (type U) med leiligheten, men på dem var glidere med klemmer (slike) og det går jo for all del an å henge gardiner i de, men når noen drar litt hardt i gardina rykkes den gjerne ut av en klemme eller to, så gardinene hang litt på snei til stadighet. Og det har de altså gjort i ti år. Ting tar tid.

Men nå er både vegg og vinduskarmer blitt hvite. Og det er så lyst og deilig at jeg er nesten ekstatisk. Det var ikke det minste fristende å henge opp igjen de gamle gardinene (med eller uten fikset oppheng og lengde). Så jeg tok en tur på stofflageret, og fant noen gardinlengder fra IKEA. Og noen meter rettsøm senere har vi lyse gardiner i sommer- (ok, da, vår-) sola.

Jeg hadde tre lengder av stoffet med kvistmønster og to av det med striper. Sistnevnte ble kjøpt med tanke på et annet rom for noen år siden, men aldri brukt. Kvistene hadde vi faktisk et sett sommergardiner av i den gamle leiligheten, men de ble hengende igjen til glede (tror jeg) for neste eier. Det er hele tre skinner montert der oppe bak gardinbrettet, så jeg har hengt gardinene i to lag. Og for å utnytte stoffet og få nok gardiner skjøtet jeg de to typene sammen i to lengder også, og det ble i grunn ganske stilig synes jeg selv.

Jeg har sydd rynkebånd på gardinene og hengt dem opp med “rynkebåndskrok”, eller “sånne gardinkroker som ser ut som flatklemte alfakrøller” som jeg beskrev det når jeg skulle spørre etter dem på Sommer (de hadde ikke, forøvrig, jeg kjøpte bånd der men måtte over gata til Wiig for å få kjøpt kroker).

Jeg er jo ikke så god til å planlegge, for jeg dro til byen for å kjøpe bånd og kroker uten å ha målt bredden på gardinene. Eh, gi meg ti meter bånd, sa jeg, det holder sikkert i massevis. Holdt gjorde det, men ikke akkurat i massevis…

Det er noe som heter “thread chicken”, det spiller jeg til stadighet. Rynkebåndschicken var nytt for meg.

If you’re interested

I’ve blogged about our bookshelves on the bookblog. It sort of fits in with the series on “how the apartment is coming along”, but since it’s mostly book-related I put it over there.

I realise when looking at the pictures that even if we were able to live like minimalists in all other ways (not likely) our flat would never look minimalist with all those books. And there’s no way we’re covering them up. Or, even worse, making them look minimalist by turning them around. Yes, people actually do this (via). The mind boggles.

Not actually practical

We have an addition in the office:

Skatoll
Skatoll

This desk has been in my parents’ house for ages. It used to be in the dining room while we lived in Hamar, and lately my father has been using it for his laptop when working at home. I remember that we got it from someone in  the family way back when, but I can’t remember who, or why, or exactly when that was. I need to get some details from my father, I guess.

However, it is old enough. The colour is rendered pretty accurately in these pictures. It’s not really practical, which is why my father didn’t want it anymore. I don’t really have any plans for using it yet. In fact, I was all set to store it in the basement for the time being, when the husband suggested we might as well have it upstairs.

Detail of front
Detail of front
One drawer has a fake lock, the rest are real.
One drawer has a fake lock, the rest are real.
Inside drawers
Inside drawers

So. It’s not practical. The ground colour is – well – hideous. And I can’t really paint it, since I want to keep the rosemaling, even if it’s (probably) not the most impressive example. Still, it’s got history and it holds memories for me personally. It stays.

Desk open
Desk open

Note the yellow poster, by the way. My mom left a few bits and bobs in one of the drawers, mainly scrap paper and such, thinking the lass and I might find use for it in crafting projects. Among them was this poster. It says: “Not ready for cleaning.” I threatened to get it laminated and hang it on the front door any time my mother or my mother-in-law comes to visit…

To fit the writing desk, we had to move a tall chest of drawers (which were not meant to stay in this room anyway), and there was suddenly space to hang my type case. I found another one recently, which turned out to be perfect for displaying regular size minifigs, but not so good for the Toy Story characters I recently aquired.

They fit nicely in here, though.
They fit nicely in here, though.
See where the type is still marked on the case?
See where the type is still marked on the case?

Which gave me the idea that perhaps this desk would be the perfect Lego-building site. We’ll see.

Lovely

I’ve pinned this as well, but just have to repeat it here. I love, love, love this interior:

Living room by Todd Alexander
Living room by Todd Alexander Romano

I’d change the artwork (not a big fan of non-figurative art, on the whole) and though I think the zebra skin rug looks stunning I wouldn’t actually want a real one on the floor, but a BIG yes to those laquered walls and the frankly gorgeous sofa.

More detail in the article in Architectural Digest.

(via)

Some more tearing down of things

I had a bit of time this morning while the lass was playing happily on her own, so I tore down some panelling along the wall running from the kitchen to the living room. We’re planning to put up the “magic” wall-smoothening wallpaper here, and paint it white, before hiding the whole thing with shallow bookshelves. I wonder, of course, whether we shoud dispense with the wallpaper and the paint and just put the shelves up, but figure we might as well do the job properly.

I guess I should disconnect the fuse before doing anything with the socket...
I guess I should disconnect the fuse before doing anything with the socket...

Also, note the use of floorboards to construct the wall. Interesting choice. Considering the price of floorboards vs. mdf I know what I’d have chosen, but whatever.

We'll have to figure out a way of sawing off the end of this moulding, it continues through the wall into the bedroom.
We'll have to figure out a way of sawing off the end of this moulding, it continues through the wall into the bedroom.
The top of the wall with the godawful glass inserts. And a hole through into the bedroom.
The top of the wall with the godawful glass inserts. And a hole through into the bedroom.

While we’re at it we should probably substitute those glass inserts with something else. Like, I dunno, wall? That seems slightly complicated, though. It’d be easy, of course, to just slot some pieces of mdf or something in over the glass and paper over that. It would look ok from the living room side, but probably quite nutty from the bedroom. On the other hand, who cares what it looks like from the bedroom?

I’ll think about it.

Details

To start with, let me just say that though I’ve been craving a dedicated crafting space for years, I had no idea how ridiculously happy it would make me. I’ve been sewing today – in my new Dedicated Crafting Space – and every so often I would pause and just… savour the feeling. I’m either mad or just counting my blessings.

Anyway, this is what it looks like when I’m in the middle of something:

At least for the moment, it's unlikely to stay this tidy
At least for the moment, it's unlikely to stay this tidy

Furnishingwise I’ve mostly been working on details today, figuring out what goes where on the shelves, hanging another picture and so on. Some details, therefore:

Two prints hung
Two prints hung
Too true
Too true
A library worthy of Jorge Louis Borges
A library worthy of Jorge Louis Borges

The top print is from The Black Apple on Etsy, and was purchased about a year ago, I think. I’m thrilled to finally have it up on the wall. It’s been languishing in its shipping envelope since it arrived, as I really had no place to hang it, but I just had to have it anyway. The quote, by the way, is attributed to Morrisey. The bottom one is also from Etsy, from Industrial Fairytale, and arrived only last week – and it’s still available, so if you want one for yourself, go get it!

I’m liking the way this is working out so far, the plan is still to fill the wall with book-related prints and such. I’m expecting to stick to black frames to create some sense of order, and I’m also expecting to take my time filling the space, waiting to find pieces that I really love instead of falling for the temptation to buy things just to fill it. I also know I have several things in boxes and such that might work.

The frames are Ribba from IKEA, and the one problem I’ve discovered so far is that the passepartout in these are for A4, whereas the prints, naturally, are American letter size. If you click one the images to get a larger version you can probably see that there is a gap on either side of the print. I’m going to have to get new passepartouts done, in other words, but in the meantime this will have to do. Having them on the wall makes me happy, gap or not.

The reading nook before adding the last picture
The reading nook before adding the last picture

Another detail to note is the lovely little pillow, which is from Syko. I’ve been a faithful reader of her blog for quite some time, so I had to have one of her creations – I also bought her book, Scandinavian Stitches, which is quite wondeful.

The curtains, by the way, are moving into the lass’ room when we get a rod up in there, and I’m making new ones for this room. If she ever “grows out of them” though, they might well be moving back, since I’m still as much in love with them as I was when I bought them before she was born.

Taking shape

About a week ago I started putting up our old Ivar-shelves in the office, and found to my annoyance that we were about 1 centimetre short of fitting five widths in there. We considered several solutions, one of which was to shave 1/2 a centimetre off each end. However, I suddenly remembered that once we get around to redoing the bathroom we will want to take 40-50 centimetres out of this space anyway, so there was really no point in going for a perfect fit.

The bathroom is on the other side of the wall behind the chair, so this is the wall we'll want to move
The bathroom is on the other side of the wall behind the chair, so this is the wall we'll want to move

So we just put up one height using the narrower shelves. All was right with the world again.

The rest of the wall
The rest of the wall

Then I spent a few nights (well bits of a few nights) getting the Hemnes daybed together. And today we went to IKEA to get a mattress for it, and to look for useful bits in the “rejects” corner for the desk arrangement. I decided a while ago to go for kitchen tops instead of “desks”, as I suspect they’ll be more hardy and take kindlier to any messy crafting we might want to do in here.

Daybed up, with mattress and new pillows (they were on sale)
Daybed up, with mattress and new pillows (they were on sale)
Two kitchen countertops at 33 and 38 % off for minor faults
Two kitchen countertops at 33 and 38 % off for minor faults
Kitchen cabinet at half off, two desk legs at full price in the background
Kitchen cabinet at half off, two desk legs at full price in the background

So with that all in place we started constructing a desk. I got adjustable desk legs since I wanted something a tad higher than 70 centimetres, but wasn’t entirely sure what to do to get the kitchen cabinet to the right height. However, a search of the flat unearthed some shelves that we removed from the kitchen cabinets because they were not needed, and with those screwed on to the bottom (and edged with duct tape to avoid the raw edges becoming dust magnets) I had myself a hack:

Pre duct tape. Note the felt pads cleverly covering the screws.
Pre duct tape. Note the felt pads cleverly covering the screws.

Then it was a simple matter of connecting the desk legs to one end of the long countertop and the hacked cabinet to the other, and voilla, a desk:

Love it
Love it

Because I hadn’t quite worked out in my mind how this was going to work I only got two desk legs today. So the idea is to get two more and connect the shorter countertop to the other half of that cabinet to create one long desk. And, yes, the desk runs the length of the shelving – in front of it. It’s going to work pretty well, belive me. I’ve already started getting stuff onto the shelves, and it’s perfect.

That office chair, by the way? Also from the rejects corner, at half off. Purchased a couple of weeks ago. Have I mentioned I love IKEA?

I’ll snap some more pictures tomorrow, in daylight.

Some pictures from the lass’ new room

Bed
Bed

She is well and truly installed now, and seems to like it better than her old room, despite the fact that it is noticeably smaller. She’s still in love with the wall colour, which is good. The lamp is a temporary solution, the walls next to the bed are masonary and hell to drill in, so we haven’t quite figured out how to give her a permanent reading light. For the time being, this works.

Bookshelves
Bookshelves

Two Billy bookshelves, purchased a few years ago while you could still get them 60 cm wide. We have a lot of children’s books. This is most of the ones with pictures, there are boxes and boxes of books for reading aloud or for reading to oneself once she gets to that stage, as it is she “reads” anywhere between five and thirty books before going to sleep every evening. It’s best to instill good habits early, you know.

I meant to take some more detailed pictures, in order to tell you a little about some of the books, but it seems I forgot. I might get around to it later. In the meantime, let me show you a nice little piece of furniture, purchased long before I even met the husband.

Isn't it lovely?
Isn't it lovely?

Yes, it’s child size. Found at a flea market in Oslo for a mere 100 kroner in 2001. My only regret is not buying its twin, too. I can’t remember why I decided to buy only the one, I might have been short on cash, I suppose.

Reading

It should come as no surprise that I like reading. And books. And any art that involves either is immediately interesting to me.

For the hobby-/guestroom we had planned to get a Hemnes daybed from IKEA, furbish it with proper mattresses and quite a few pillows and a good reading light, so as to cater for guests (hence the essential “good mattress”) and reading (pillows and lamp, though the essentialness is a bit overlapping, obviously). The nice people of IKEA decided to have a 30 % sale on Hemnes this week, so we now have one Hemnes flatpacked on the floor, waiting for this weekend when we plan to move the lass into her new room, thus freeing up the space in the would-be guestroom.

Over the daybed, I’m planning to frame reading related “things”. I have som old (well, late 90’ies) ads from Waterstone’s (that I just LOVE), and I have one or two prints purchased off Etsy. I would like some more of the latter, though, so today I’ve been browsing, and tomorrow, once I’ve had time to consider which ones I really like the most, I’ll be putting in a few orders.

Here are some of the ones that immediately appealed to me:

read1

 

“The reader” by Majalin

read2

“Girl reading” by Belafonte (Emma Leonard)

read3

“The boy who liked to read” by TheExtentofSilence

read4

“One Story More” by trafalgarsquare

read5

“Books can take you anywhere” by TheLittleFox

read6“Reading is rad”/”Girl in green socks” by Artisjustfrozenmusic ( Carla Thursday)

Since it’s expected that the lass will use the space as well as us “grown ups”, I quite like the idea of mixing the styles a bit, rather than sticking to a more coherent collection. Since they have a common theme, I think they’ll work together anyway.

Have you seen any reading-themed illustrations lately? Please let me know in the comments, I’d love to get some tips for more candidates.

Painting the “pink” wall

20110110_maleUhm. Well, things took a turn for the better at the shop. We had picked out a nice, bright pink, and I’d gone to stand in line to get it mixed while the lass and the husband wandered a bit, and then the lass came running over. She’d found a new colour swatch. And she wanted that colour instead. Was she sure? Of course she was. And I wasn’t about to protest.

It turned out the shade she had found was not available in the paint type we wanted (Jotun Sense – we could have had it in Butinox Green Room, but I used the Butinox in our bedroom and on the doors and found the coverage to be appalling. I ended up with five coats on some of the doors!), however it was a little dark anyway, so a slightly lighter version of the same shade was settled on before the lass had time to change her mind.

The original colour was “5786 Lavendel”. And here I was going to link to the Butinox Green Room colours, but no such luck, there doesn’t seem to be a web page for it. Is it just me or is that a little strange? Aaaaanyway, its not really lavender, more aubergine (eggplant), though not quite as dark as that. And the code for the one we ended up with is 4030-R50B. It’s less pink in person than it looks in the picture, and also darker (it dries darker, that is).

The lass insists on calling it pink, however. She also exclaims how beautiful her wall is. I have to agree, it’s a nice colour. I’m quite happy to be able to call it purple, though.