Renew Ikea furniture with Bemz

Did your know that you can renew your Ikea furniture by getting new, washable covers from Swedish company Bemz? All you have to do is to know the name of the Ikea model and pick out your favorite fabric. No need for taking measurements or any boring stuff like that. Just order, remove the old cover and slip on the new. Simple as that!

Take the old Tomelilla armchair pictured above. I've had it since I bought it second-hand seven years ago. It's a tad big for my tiny apartment, but I decided to keep it for a while longer due to the facts that it's both very comfy and it's got wheels. It's easy to move over to the sofa area when I have guests. The original cover from Ikea was once white, but over the years it has become both yellowish and washed out. Time for a new one.

From Bemz you can order fabric samples for free:

They have a huge selection of fabrics, colours and patterns, both their own design and from other designers. As I have just bought a new sofa from Ikea, a Karlstad in a fabric called Korndal Medium Grey, I was looking for something to go with it:

(Photo by Ikea)

I was particularly taken with a fabric from Designer's Guild called Castellar Indigo, which has some grey in it:

However, upon seeing it on a photo from the Bemz blog, I realized I'd rather use that particular fabric for cushions than for a whole chair, as the chair needed something to make it look less conspicuous since it's so big:

So I went with white and silver grey vertical stripes. They're supposed to be slimming, right?

A closer look:

From I made the order with Bemz and until I received my new cover it took about 3 weeks. Impressive, as they're sewn to order. And the total price, inclusive of shipping and taxes, was only a fraction of what it would have cost me to get a completely new chair. Isn't that just so neat?

It looks fab with the sofa, too. But as the refurbishing of my living room isn't completely finished yet, you'll have to wait for a little while longer until I can show you the whole "new" room. Hope it won't be too long!

Murder!

Oh no.....! I got this idea that I would wash my whole teddy bear collection as they've been played with by many ferrets and got a bit dirty over time. They all survived, except for my precious koala, given to me by an Australian friend many, many years ago. A sad day, indeed.

Anyway - I might seem a little mature to still keep these toys, but hey, almost all of them are gifts from dear friends and loved ones on special occasions. What would you do? Do you hold on to old toys for the sake of the memories attached to them, or do you give them away to declutter your life?

Crystal steal

This morning I was just on my way to an appointment with my optician, which incidentally has their store in my local shopping centre. The location is practial, as it's easy to get to. On the other hand, as it is a fairly large shopping centre, it's difficult to resist the lure of all the stores, with their sales or displays of all things new for the coming season. However, with a lot of activites planned for spring I'm trying my best to be somewhat frugal.

So I hadn't planned on shopping anything more exciting than a litre of white paint for my living room. But then I came across a store that actually sold Villeroy & Boch crystal wine glasses at a discount of more than 50 %. I stopped dead in my tracks and rushed into the store. Almost hyperventilating, I ran to the counter: Do have more of those V & B glasses left? They had. So home I went, with 12 new designer glasses at a price which can only be classified as a real steal. I was so excited, I completely forgot the paint.

Cheers!

Villeroy & Boch Maxima Bordeaux and White Wine glasses

Roxy made me do it!

Inspired by the great tip about an artist that Roxy put on her blog My Cup of Te, I just went right ahead and got one of those lovely prints from Janet Hill Studio's shop on Etsy. I intend to frame it in white, and put it up above my bed.

Fell in love immediately with this row of dancers' shoes. Also think the colors will be super with the rest of the room. What do you think of it?

(Image from the artist's webshop on Etsy)

PS. Dear mum. I did not break the bank by buying the painting at USD 1500. Only a print which cost USD 44. :)

Sneaking in a touch of colour

Outside my flat there's a little entrance that I share with my next door neighbour. It used to be all white, which I found rather dull after seeing it every day for seven years. Now, technically, this room is part of the public areas in my building as it's an emergency exit through the loft, from one main entrance to another. However, on a daily basis my neighbour and I are the only ones who use it. So I asked her if she was ok with my adding a touch of color to it. As she had no problem with that, I just decided to go ahead and paint it without bothering to ask the board for permission. Since they're never here anyway, I'm pretty sure they're never gonna notice something has changed....;)

Previously:

 

Now: One wall is painted in a greyish blue called Gustavian Blue. At least it matches the rather ugly vinyl on the floor. (Why didn't they use some nice tiles instead? Surely it can't be that expensive for this tiny room?)

And since it's Christmas, I added a few ornaments to the usually empty jar that I've put out there just because there's no space for it inside the flat:

A bit more welcoming than just plain white, no?

Refurbished bedroom: Closet heaven

So I finally did what I have dreamt of for a number of years. I tore down the old wall between the bedroom and the entrance hallway, and had it built up again further out, making the bedroom bigger and the hallway smaller. I also had a sliding door put up between the rooms. That gave me enough room to put in not just one, but two, sliding door closets. In my little flat, that's the maximum storage space I can possibly get!

This is what the old room looked like:

 All white

 Door from the hallway going into the room, taking up valuable space

 Very little room to store clothes and stuff

And the new: The walls are painted with a color called White linen (a greyish light brown), and the closet doors are whitewashed wood, with the wood showing through in a color that matches the wall paint. (The wall is all one color, the light stripe is just reflection from the mirror.)

 Sliding door closets to the left...

...and the right. I left a tiny little part of the old wall, where the fuse box is located. That way I didn't have to pay huge amounts to an electrician to move it - and I also got a little room for the necessary stuff that one really don't want to put on display:

A curtain that matches the paint was used to hide the content:

Details:

 A cool sheep pillow that I bought from a local artist in Trondheim when visiting my mum last weekend...

...and a cute little orchid in a light blue pot:

The window is mirrored in one of the closet doors, making the most of the daylight:

And in the window hangs a little guardian angel that my mum bought from a local artist on a visit she made to Sweden - watching over my new heaven...;)

 

What's left is finding some white frames for hanging pictures above the bed, and a couple of lamps for the bed tables with shades that fits with the rest of the room. But that I think I'll have to leave for after Christmas. Next up...the hallway.

Plentynine something

29....++++ ;)

So it's my birthday today...I guess I should make a little note of it here on my blog. While some people dread getting older, in my situation with two rounds of cancer I happily look forward to every new birthday I get to celebrate. Hurrah!

With that said I havent' been around here much lately. The refurbishing of my flat has taken so much longer than expected (isn't it always so?) and been so energy consuming that I simply haven't had the time. But I promise you soon there will be before and after pictures coming up when everything is ready, hopefully next week already.

A life too crowded

HOLY COW!

So I'm refurbishing my flat, and as I was moving things out of my bedroom and hallway to leave room for the carpenters, I got a real shock! How on earth did I ever manage to stuff my tiny 1-bedroom apartment with all of this? I don't know. Seriously, I don't. And more importantly, do I really need it all? Really?

The answer is a definite no! I found things I never even knew I owned! Unused clothes, shoes and jewellery, along with cds I'm never gonna listen to, make-up I'm never gonna use (honestly, who needs 4 shades of blue nail polish when you never wear blue nail polish?) and - judging by their dusty covers - books I haven't even considered reading.

One thing's for certain - when the bedroom and hallway are done, I'll be more than a little particular when I put my stuff back in its place. I'm figuring I can easily get rid of nearly half of it and never miss a thing.

What I really, really need is to stop convincing myself that every time I see something nice on sale or something new and exciting in the store that I just have to have it! If you have a similar habit and have no intention of changing your ways anytime soon - look out for some very pretty, slightly preowned or  NWT items coming up for sale on this site shortly! ;)

Under my umbrella

Well, that's where I've spent most of my time this week, anyway.

Since returning back to Oslo on Tuesday after spending the weekend and our National Day (Constitution Day) on May 17th at my sister's place in Southern Norway, the weather has been gorgeous and very warm. Perfect for outdoor activites (read: keeping cool in the shade of my parasol). To quote one of my favorite songs by Kid Rock: I've been sittin' here wasting time - drinkin', smokin', tryin' to free my mind....

 (Terrace slippers - great for lounging around)

These past few weeks since returning from New York have been quite the ordeal. It all started last summer, really. A tiny pea sized lump on my tummy caused me to worry enough to have the Cancer Centre change my scheduled routine check-up from October to August. Nothing wrong was found. It grew, and was taken out by a local surgeon in November. By January it was back, twice the size. It was removed once again by the same surgeon. At the February check-up the Cancer Centre found no reason to worry. Again, the tests showed nothing wrong. By the beginning of March the lump exploded in size. My GP thought it better to have the Cancer Centre take a closer look and asked them to give me a new appointment Almost two months later I finally got a response - from the head of the department of plastic surgery! He flat out refused giving me a new appointment to have the lump removed and examined. Like he thought I was a lunatic hypocondriac or something. In the meantime, the lump had grown even more.

That's when I decided to invest in getting a check-up at a private hospital. Unfortunately, they don't have a department for treating cancer, and since that's what they're thinking the lump might be, they sent a rather strongly worded referral back to the public hospital, asking to have it removed within one to two weeks. Even if it turns out to be benign, it must be removed shortly, they said, otherwise the surgeon won't be able to close the opening in the skin as it it will be too big to pull together. A week later I was called in for a consultation, which consisted of a surgeon taking a superficial look at it, and telling me he would waitlist me for a surgery. Then - nothing. No word from the hospital. When my GP called the surgery coordinator yesterday, he claimed my papers must have been misplaced as he had not received them, so no surgery was scheduled. I don't know what my GP said to him, but at least she could give me the good news that I'm going for a CT-scan on Tuesday and surgery next Friday.

The fight for being treated, the worry and the waiting has caused complete exhaustion on my part, thus no blogging. But for all that have been so kind and left encouraging and comforting comments here; Thank you!

For LouBoo and the challenge of a Grumpy Meme, I guess I'm so grumpy about the arrogance of some of the doctors at the public hospital I can think of little else at the moment to go grrrrr! about. When fighting for one's health and maybe even life against a couple of bastards in white coats, everything else turns pale in comparison. But otherwise, all kinds of injustice and cruelty towards humans and animals usually trigger my temperament to the extent of explosion.

For Soul Princess and the challenge of discussing one's blogging habits, blogging isn't really that big a part of my life. Originally I started blogging just to discuss clothes, shoes and make-up with a friend living in the US and anyone else possibly interested, but somehow my blog has turned into more of the "everything else" part than fashion and beauty, it seems. At least for the moment. What I really enjoy about it though, is the contact with other bloggers, all the inspiration I get from them and also the feedback, both from bloggers and my family and friends.

And for Holly Wolf and your comment to this post - yes, that is cousin Denise. And if she's your cousin too, it must mean we're somehow related - and I can't place you. Now, that has me really intrigued...or wait - do you happen to live in San Diego? :)

Well, that's it for now. I'm done with the "drinking and smoking" for today. Tomorrow I'll be doing more of the waisting time bit - in gardening centres. There's still a few more flowers needed by the "early morning sun/afternoon shade wall" here, I believe.

At least until the climbing Flammentanz rose in the corner (which were about 5 cm (2 inches) tall when I planted it a month ago) grows a bit further and becomes more like this:

 (Random photo from the net)

Tablecloth that turns spilling wine into poetry

Hey! Look at this fantastic innovative tablecloth from Norwegian furniture designer Kristine Bjaadal:

(Photos by Kristine Bjaadal)

What looks like an ordinary white damask tablecloth, turns into a poetic suprise if one should happen to spill something on in. Isn't that just so neat? No more embarrassment if an accident happens. I want one of those!

See more of her designs on her blog.

Redecorating my bathroom = 5 Balenciagas

Reading home stylist Emily A. Clark's inspiring interior blog and her post about Pondering my Powder Room, I decided to write a bathroom post of my own as I'm shortly going to redecorate this particular room in my flat. After spending parts of the last few weeks browsing through dozens of brochures, I've come to the conclusion my taste in bathroom interior is on par with my taste in handbags. That means non-budget friendly.

However, as my bathroom looks pretty much the same now as it did when I bought the flat seven years ago, it's time to give it a real facelift. This is how I've been living since the original mirror I had got damaged:

Loose Ikea mirror standing on the bathroom sink, electrical cord hanging out of the wall as I have been completely unable to decide on both a new mirror and a lamp for the mirror, huge old-fashioned sink with practically no space to put one's stuff when applying make-up, an unsightly grey concrete wall (the builder was obviously a cheapie as he didn't care to have the part of the wall that was concrete tiled), tiny granny style cupboard with little storage space and boring grey tiles on the floor. I'm sick of it!

This is what I want to wake up to:

 (Photo by kuma.dk)

A Kuma Divine7 sink, with white high gloss drawers that have built in grips. Extremely practical, easy to clean and the drawers close softly by themselves when given a little push. Only I don't want the sink to be black, but in a material called Terrazzo. It can be had in many colors, but my choice is white marble with grey and a few pink stones mixed in. According to the producer, this material is 2 1/2 times stronger than concrete. (Not that I have any intentions of testing whether the claim holds true!)

(Photo by Kuma)

As for solving the problem with the mirror and matching lamp, I want one like this, only bigger, with lamps and a plug for the hairdryer and toothbrush built in:

(Photo by Foss bad)

For the floor, I'm getting new tiles, in grey slate, like this:

(Photo by maxbo.no)

And finally, my old-fashioned toilet standing on the floor is getting replaced by one hanging on the wall, with a soft close seat that closes itself in the same way as the drawers and with a quick release function which makes the seat easy to take off for cleaning:

(Photo by Villeroy & Boch)

The grey concrete wall is getting covered by the same high gloss white tiles as the rest of the walls. I want to keep the walls white, as a darker color is gonna make the already small room seem even smaller.

I'm so looking forward to getting this done. The plumber will let me know right after Easter when he can start. It's not the cheapest solution I could have chosen. However, I'm pretty sure I'll quickly forget about the selection of Balenciagas I could have had when I'm smiling happily to myself in the (new!) mirror every morning.