Wednesday 24 August 2016

living simply


Hi....it's been a while, I know...
Time has flown by and stood still at the same time around here, and blogging has been on the back burner..

Amidst the chaos and calm of starting a new life for me and my daughter, my priorities has changed: I no longer feel the need to cram a million projects into my day and I am trying to embrace the everyday glimpses of joy that only reveal themselves when we pause...

Pausing, or taking time out may sound easy and blissful.... and it is, but it has actually taken a lot of hard work to embrace the stillness: Not the break-neck physical kind of work that leave your body and mind aching, but the kind of painful soul searching that makes you re-evaluate everything you thought to be true....creating some kind of inward tornado of chaos that leaves you exhausted....

So as a reaction to all the chaos on the inside, I think simplifying things on the outside became the antidote....

Only having what you really need in terms of worldly possessions: A roof over your head, food in the belly and clothes on your back.....those are the essentials....everything else is just spice.

Don't get me wrong: we have more than we need....plenty of spice: A few treasured belongings that are utterly useless other than to be appreciated for their beauty, or the memories and feelings they induce....but that's OK....this is not about living minimalist , but rather simplistically.

Visually not much has changed since me and miss moo moved into our little house here on the west coast of Norway, and I think this is a direct result of this newfound mindset.

As a self proclaimed interior blogger, this has been a huge stumbling block for me....how can I blog about interiors, trends and styling when none of it no longer held any value with me?
But then I realized that there are some new influences in my life that easily translates to interiors, and is very evident in our little home here by the sea...
I will divulge more in another post....hopefully soon, although I am not putting any pressure on myself.....but for today I will leave you with some shots I snapped the other day of our little living room:
















Have a beautifully s.implistic day folks

Monday 9 May 2016

housetour

Our new home by the sea....


Hi! 
So, as I showed you our new home last week, as it was before I spent nearly 3 weeks...blood sweat and tears (yup...there was plenty of tears) , painting and decorating the place, today's post is a picture-heavy-bragging-tour of my decorating efforts so far....
There is no hocus pocus here....just tonns of white paint.... and a little grey (which goes to prove just how much difference a lick....or 4, of fresh paint can make to a place!)
(you can see the before pictures here)

I'm not going to lie, it was pretty heavy going there for a while, wielding that paint roller long into the night ....Doing up an entire (allbeit little) house on your own is NOT something I would reccomend...But now that it's done, I couldn't be happier with the result!

There are still plenty of things to sort out around here (to keep me busy) but I snapped these pictures the other week with my phone camera (as my proper camera is still in a box somewhere) hence the sometimes poor picture quality....apologies.....

Anyway....here it is: Our new home....in all its imperfect perfection....No styling...just a quick tidy up...a little make shift and slightly bohemian, I think you'll agree:


The kitchen

As mentioned in my previous post, the entrance to the house is through the kitchen, and I've updated this room by giving it a thorough clean, a good few coats of paint, white and grey..


and I've simply added some marbled sticky back vinyl to the worksurface and splashback by the sink to update these....


I actually love that the old cupboard doors squek a little when they shut....But not so much that the lower cupboard door, seen above doesn`t want to shut at all....like I said: Perfectly imperfect!


The hallway

It may seem a little odd that we don't use the entrance door to the hallway to get into the house, and come through the kitchen, but without having to explain too much: It just works better that way.


But the hallway provides us with a great little landing station, and space to store our coats and shoes...


And of course, it is the perfect place for a full length mirror, (which by the way used to be in the bathroom)....And that lovely old corner cupboard came with the house (I cannot open it as I haven't got the key...hehe)
In fact there is quite a few little bonus prices like that here....wich is perfect for me, as we didn't bring a lot with us in terms of furniture when we moved from England.

Upstairs

From the hallway the stairs go up to a landing strip space that is currently full of boxes and suitcases full of clothes...the plan is to convert one half of this space into a wardrobe area, and the other half into a workspace....but  that's all for a future post....


For now I've just painted it white and laid down some cork flooring....


Little Miss Moo's room


The main room upstairs, and the largest in the house, is Little Miss Moo's room...



A deep clean of the old carpets and a little paint in the eaves is all that I've done to this space ....so far....
Again, those lovely old beds came with the house, providing ample sleepover space for Mia's friends in the future....as did this lovely chest of drawers, below:


Mia loves having all that floorspace to play on, and I must admit her room does NOT look this tidy on a daily basis....but I don't mind...this is HER space and she can do what she wants up here!


She also loves this little den-nook I've very simply created by hanging some curtains from an old broom handle....


The french-matrass-style floorcushion also came with the house, as a set of 3....just wait till you see how I used the other two....

But first, I want to take you back downstairs and show you my bedroom:


The bedroom


Again this room has just been painted white...I say "just" with some reluctance as this was by far the worst room to paint...5 coats it took, ceiling AND walls, to cover the previous dirty beige...

As you can see, it is very much back to basics when it comes to furniture and decoration in our new home, and the bedroom is no exception:
Mum and dad was kind enough to donate me one of their spare beds, and aside from that, the old swing chair (Love it) and dresser came with the house...
...that's all you need in a bedroom , right??


...well, maybe, except a huge piece of DIY art and some mismatched rugs on the floor....


And a mirror and some nice lighting, of course ...

Yes...that is the door to the bathroom you can see in the picture above, and although it looks miles better now than it did before, I unfortunately failed to take some decent photo's of the room, as the light is quite bad in there, and my phone camera just couldn't cope....so I've decided to wait until I dig out my good camera and get some nice photos to show you in a future post....
...I'm sure you`re all gutted (hehe)

So....my bedroom is located next to the living room, and was probarbly originally meant to be the dining room, so I've simply separated the two by hanging some curtains on the open doorway:


The livingroom


This is my favorite room in the house....mostly because of those windows: Not only do they let in the most amazing light pretty much all day long, but they also have THE MOST AMAZING VIEW OF THE SEA...and face west , so that in evening I can watch the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine...follow me on instagram to see!!


You may recognise my coffee table, a DIY I did back in England, and one of the few pieces of furniture we took over the pond, sitting pretty ontop of my ONE extravagant (Even if it was a bargain!!) buy for the house: That huge and fantasticly soft and shaggy Boucherouite-style Beni Ourain rug.
 I've been wanting one for ages, and do not care one bit if they are going out of fashion....

As we had next to no furniture, I had to get inventive when it came to seating for the livingroom....but, as simple as it is, I adore my pallet sofa!! 4 pallets,8 wheels, a matrass and some cushions, and voila....a perfectly bohemian sofa! (I also love that I can store magazines and games underneath the seating)
And yes, those are the french matrass-style cushions that was here when we moved in: Perfect for making a comfy sofa back!! Don't you think?


Here's another couple of gems that came with the house:
That gorgeous vintage teak chair and the floorlamp.... I feel lucky just looking at them!


My DIY sidebard came across the pond with us, and now serves as a TV and Media console...


I actually love that the interior look of our new home is a coincidental mix of styles, naturally eclectic....and the little old fashioned woodburning stove, below, in the livingroom is one of my favourite things about this house....


Juxtaposed with the modern lines (although probarbly from the same era...?) of  my Eames chairs, below, now situated around a dining table (another inhereted piece)....


that also serves as a temporary work space..


I was not intentionally searching for a new interior style when I decorated our new little house, and the look has come together quite organically....wich makes it feel authentic and real....

All I'm lusting after now is some more plants to bring the spaces to life....The one above (I do not know what it's called) was a housewarming gift from my best friend...Thank you Janne;)

It feels wonderfully bohemian and minimalistic knowing that the stuff in here is either stuff we love or need...no more... no less, all set for a simple life. And I look forward spending loads of time at the nearby beach, the lake in the woods or montains....with this little simple home to come home to in the evening....
idyllic, no?

Monday 2 May 2016

The old cottage by the sea....

Our new home.....before redecorating


We are in! 
After months of living out of a suitcase, me and little Miss Moo have now finally moved into our new home here in Norway....in fact we've been here for a couple of weeks now. And we love it!

It's been a long and hard journey getting here...but now that we are in, it finally feels like we can truly start our new life here in Norway!

I found this little house (No....it's not a "hytte" (Norwegian for cabin or holiday home).....it IS A HOUSE...it may be small, but it's just the right size for us!) to rent back in February....just a 15 minute walk from my mum and dads, on the utmost island here on the west coast of Norway....
Yes, it is in the sticks, and yes, it is small....and YES it is most definitely old!!
In other words: It's Perfect!!

I had to spend a lot of blood sweat and tears to get this place up to date and suitable for living, as it had been stood empty for quite a few years....but 7 kettles of paint later,it is now our home and dramatically different from the pictures I'll show you in this post.

I thought I'd share the before pictures of our new home today, so that you can all see just what a difference a few coats of paint can make , when I post the after pictures in my next post next week...

So here it is....our new home in it's unpolished and dated before decorating state:


The Kitchen

There is actually 3 entrances into the house: One through the bathroom, One that leads into a handy hallway and One that leads straight into the Kitchen, which is the one we have taken to using...
I fell in love with the old fashioned kitchen cupboards straight away, and even though the kitchen is small...(in fact it's so small that there is no room for a standard size cooker and the fridge has to go in the hallway), I could tell that this would be a perfectly cosy little kitchen with just a few modifications and some paint.....


Little Miss Moo did not share my vision of the cosy little kitchen when we visited the first time, as you can tell by the skeptical look on her face...And I can't say I blame her: it was cold and dirty....definately needed a little tender love and care!


The livingroom

The livingroom also felt a little worn and dirty, but those windows have the most amazing view (See my previous post) and the light in here is amazing....


It also has those gorgeous beamed ceilings and the retro woodburner in one corner....

Apart from giving the walls a few coats of paint to brighten the room up, the vinyl flooring needed a good on-your-hands-and-knees-scrub-clean!


My bedroom

Leading straight off from the livingroom is a room that was probably meant to serve as a dining room, but that now serves the purpose as my bedroom...


Again....this room felt a but dark and dingy, especially as the ceilings are quite low in here...but nothing a little paint and some nice lighting couldn't fix...

The bathroom


Leading off from my bedroom is the bathroom....or should I say toilet and shower room...


The old fashioned shower curtains and those pink walls really makes this room look hideous here in these pictures, and although there was not a lot I could do to modernize this room, the way it looks now is a definite improvement, just wait and see...

The hallway and stairs


I kept joking that the hallway felt like walking into a Swedish flag, with yellow walls and blue trim....
But I could tell that this space would be invaluable for storing our coats and shoes....as well as the fridge, wedged under the stairs. LOL.


The Upstairs landing


As you come up the stairs, there is a landing where I am planning on creating a little office space with a desk on one side, and a wardrobe space on the other under the eaves...


Again, this area needed a lick of paint (or 4 ) pluss some new flooring...


Little Miss Moo's room


The lovely big room upstairs is Little Miss Moo's new room...A little paint and a thorough carpet clean, and this room was ready for all her toys...


The lovely old-fashioned beds have both stayed, which was handy as I would've had to buy a new one if not. Mia loves her new room and having that big space to spread out in....


So that concludes today's tour of our new home....as it was before I redecorated. 

If you are curious to see how it looks now, tune back in next week for the "After".

It is by no means finished....and there is still the odd job or two to do....But as always, a Home is a constant work In progress....Something that evolves With Life and time, so it'll never be "done" , But then again that is exactly as it should be....perfectly imperfect❤️ 

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