Home re-newing: Hallway

At long last I'm done with my hallway! I've only been thinking about doing it for more than six months. Things take time - and I do mean that. The renovation was actually more time-consuming than I expected. I was dead set on doing it on my own with no help form anyone. To my surprise, January has been really hectic and not as quiet as normal, which always promt me to re-new things. As such, I've been a lot more rushed to finish the hallway than I anticipated.
But enough rambling, on to the project. First some before photos:

When moving in, I think the initial vision I had of the hallway was something Italian-inspired because of the terracotta floor tiles that were already there.  I chose the wall colour "Toscana" (which is a latte-ish colour)  and the iron furniture. Problem was possibly that I never found a proper light fixture or that the hallway isn't spacious enough to get that Italian vibe.... or the simple fact that we are miles way from Italy, Anyway, it just wasn't working. 

The worst part was the lamp. I absolutely hate it. I didn't chose it, but I did allow it into the house. What the hell was I thinking!?!? Just proves that not all IKEA is a good thing!

So after a few days of intense sparkling and sanding the walls, the first thing to go was that damn lamp. And up with a shining and sparkling new light fixture. 

Unfortunately it doesn't properly come out at the picture (see pic under from the store). But it's soo pretty and it gives so much more light! I couldn't be more pleased with it.

(source: skeidar.no)

Then after another couple of days of putting masking tape all over, it was time to attack with the paint. Again, not sure how well the colour comes out in the pictures, but the colour is called "Sukkertopp" and it's a soft grey colour with a pink/purple undertone:

Then it was time to ditch the old iron furniture (which happened to still be in a very good condition so after advertising it for free, it was picked up by a very nice Finnish guy), and up with some new, white and contemporary furniture, both from Jysk:

And there we have it! Very happy with the result.Granted, the actual paint job was more work than I first thought as my walls have some sort of pattern on them, which makes them uneven. And it was really hard to get the paint into the tinsy little nooks. But hey, good work out, so...
 I also prove what I suspected, that I'm a sloppy painter. I ended up with a good deal of it on myself (thankfully I'm washable), the floor tiles, (thankfully they're sandable), and the roof (which now really needs to be painted as well, but...).

But project done! Happy days!

Inspirational Sunday

My hallway renovation has been delayed due to some family issues, but I'm finally hoping to get going next week. But until then, I need me some inspiration. OK, I just need an excuse to look at pretty pictures is all....!

Source: shopswell.com

I want everything in this collage. Every single thing! Do I need them? Of course not. I'm not even sure what the bottom left is... a window shutter...? What would you do with one shutter anyway? But look at how pretty it is!

Source: betterafter.blogspot.com

One of my goals this year is to start learning the piano. That would obviously mean I'd need a piano at home. There are plenty of pianos handed away for free in this area actually. Which means the actual transport and the tuning. And of course I would probably have to paint it white. Would love something like this! 

Source: Amanda Perry

Source: La-corde.tumblr.com

I'm still hoping to replace the living room chair some day. Would absolutely love something like these, though I haven't seen anything like them in the shops. I also love the blue wall colour in the first picture. Bedroom wall goal, that one! 

I'll be back with the hallway renovation project ASAP - enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

A kitchen counter named trouble

Happy new year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Here's to 2017 being a lot better than 2016.

...having said that, there's always something now isn't it? In this case, my kitchen counter. Now, my counter top is in solid wood. Not my choice, it came with the house. Of course I won't argue that it looks nice and cosy and all that but the practicality!! My goodness, which idiot came up with the idea of an un-varnished counter top in the first place!?

As you may have guessed, that counter top has been a pain in the neck from the very start. EVERYTHING stains. Even water. And don't even think about something else like coffee or juice from berries or something like that. Or as I was unfortunate to experience a few days ago, the biggest sinner of them all: Metal.

That's right, there was a metal tray, there was water underneath, it sat like that for a bit too long and bam, a stain which looked like an oil spill surfaced. Intense scrubbing with green soap had little effect so off I went to get hold of some sand paper and oil (as in for woodwork obviously, not like... olive oil). I'm glad to say that after two long hours the sanding paid off, but it was very long and tedious work. I whacked on two coats of oil for good measure and I'm planning on re-oiling the entire counter top to avoid this devilry from happening again in the future. And the next time I move house, there will be a laminate or a stone counter top and nothing else!

So there you have a little tip to kick off the new year: Should you ever get yourself a nasty stain on your woodwork, get some sand paper, some oil and a lot of patience. A LOT of patience!