Old chair make over!

A while ago, I bought this great piece of fabric with cupcakes on it. It posted something about the fabric earlier. There was still some fabric left and decided to do something with it and upholster a chair or something. Now the coincidence was that we sold all of our dining rooms chairs because we bought the church bench. I used one of the dining room chairs in my study so now I really did need a new chair!

So I started to look on the internet and try to find the perfect chair to upholster. But unfortunately, for me there's no such thing as the perfect chair but I did find something that was good for me to practise on.


So I bought an old chair for EUR 1,50, bought paint that was inspired by Yvonne on the Yvestown blog and used the cupcake fabric. The end result is this:


Now, I love it offcourse and it stands proudly in my study! S. said that it will never go in our diningroom and that's just fine. This it a chair, specially for me. Although it would look great in a children's room too. But for now, I'm going to keep it for myself and enjoy it every time that I'm there, studying!


It's really a shame that S. doesn't like pink, otherwise there would be so much more in my favourite colour! Oh well...

New Book Maak Het ( Make It)

Last week I bought a new book online. The book is called 'Maak het!' written by Machteld Stilting, it is in Dutch and is about 20 women between 27 - 45 years old who have an creative webshop. It is a shame that this book is not in English because it is so inspiring. It tells the story of the ups and downs of starting and owning a webshop and selling your our selfmade stuff online.

I especially liked the story of Ingrid of Wood & Wool Stool. She works in a hotel, like me, and makes stools of used wood and makes a cover for over the stool. I think that's such a great idea. And because I'm a stool fanatic, I have to have one. Ok, maybe I don't have space for it now but you never know! Here are some more pictures:




So you Dutch creative readers, you know what to do... Buy this book, it is worth it!

The new/old cabinet

Well, the cabinet is finished and I think it looks great! It's only painted with a primer to give it a plaster look. Maybe it doesn't show on the photo but when you look at it, you can defenitely see it!



We use it in the walk in room, not a closet, ha ha. We switched the bedroom and the room with the clothes a few weeks ago because we could hear our nextdoor neighbour at night and it is better not to know certain things about your neighbour, if you know what I mean... So now the room with the clothes is huge and it needed a cabinet. We use it for storage and toiletries.



The next project is an cabinet that used to belong to my grandmother and is supposed to stand in the hallway. I will let you know when the end result is ready!

Above the couch

Last week we decided that something should be hung above the couch. The wall is pretty long so we had to come up with something big because otherwise it would look silly.



And we decided that it would be best to hang different kinds of things. I think it looks great. I printed some of my favourite photo's and the great thing is that it's possible to change it if I want to.




We bought the shelves and the white frames at Ikea, the pink one is a gift but I know it's bought at Zara home and the black ones are from Hema.


I'm waiting for S. to come home from work so that we can pick up an cabinet I bought online. I have already have paint waiting for it. I'll make an before and after to show you the result! And saturday I'm going to de Bonte Kamer, a store that sells secondhand furniture from eastern Europe. I saw a cabinet that we can use as a tv cabinet. All the details will follow!

Old/ new

Ok, I'm not going to start again explaining why I have been absent for a long time... Let's just keep it that I've been busy with work and painting old furniture. Yes, that's right! My new hobby is buying old furniture and give it new life!

We have been living in our new home for almost zeven months now and I see now what it needs. And it needs a mixture between comtemporary and brocante. And a small budget maybe has something to do with it, ha ha.

In my last post you can read that I bought an old stool and was planning to paint it. And that's exactly what I did. This is how it looked before:


You can see, a real old fashioned stool, I think from the 1950's / 1960's. And this is what is looks with a new coat of paint!


I put the stool, together with another 'new old' one in the livingroom.


Stools are multifunctional! You can use it for an extra seat or as a sidetable. This one I use in the livingroom as both. Last week I was at the secondhand store where I bought it and saw another one, exactly the same! And of course I had to buy it too and take it home with me. The fact that I was on my bike was no problem. It took a bit longer to get home, but I got there and the stool was still intact, stratch free! With this one I'm going to experiment and I'll show you when it's done!

And finally, I painted a cabinet I bought years ago. This time, not white but a beautiful grey colour.



It's now in my bedroom and the towels and bedding are put away in it. I think it just looks lovely!

The Hummingbird Bakery

For our kitchen I wanted a nice painting or framed photo of somthing that looks nice in a kitchen but doesn't look like an item that you use in the kitchen. So no pictures of cultery, ingredients or something like that.

Then I remembered that I made a picture of the logo of the Hummingbird Bakery when we were in London in 2008. So I have the picture enlarged and hung it in the kitchen. And then I heard from a friend that there was a cookbook of the Hummingbird Bakery so I got that too and this is the result!





On the other side of the kitchen I made an inspirational board. So every time I see something nice or inspiring in a magazine, I hang it on the inspirational board. This is sort of my own painting, ha ha

My very own!

About a year ago I blogged about a painting I saw in Amsterdam. I never stopped thinking about it and hoped that one day it would be mine.



But unfortunately it was already sold. But they told me that I could ask the painter if he would make somthing like that again. So I did and after waiting for a few weeks, this is how our painting looks like!



I can't believe hoe great it looks. I gave it S. for his birthday but I'm equally happy with it. It hangs in our living room where I can look at it everyday!



This is our first real piece of art and hopefully not our last. I have become really exited about beautiful art and hopefully in the future we will buy another piece.

Please tell me what you think of it! I would love to hear from you!

First a lot of rain before spring arrives

Just wanted to say a quick hi this weekend!

It has been poring rain all day... So I went out this morning to buy groceries, did the laundry and then took a long bath. I am completely relaxed and have shaken of the work and daily life pressure. I also did one other thing but will tell you about later...

For dinner it will be soup with sandwiches and a chick movie. Maybe Maid of Honour, Julie & Julia or You've got mail. I haven't decided yet.

Before I leave, check out the bookcase that S and I made last week. Well, he put it together and I painted it. I think it looks great for a first time try!



Enjoy your weekend, hopefully it is just as relaxing as mine.

Flowery shelves

Yesterday the broker came by our house to make pictures for the ad for selling our house. I read a brochure as to how to make you house look to sell it faster. It said to put flowers everywhere and that's what I did. I put flowers on the table and on two shelves. I really liked it but as it turns out, the broker didn't make a picture of my flowers on the shelves so I made one myself.



And I made a picture of the exterior when the sun was shining. Do you see the shade of the tree, I love this picture!



I send the picture of the exterior to the broker so hopefully he'll use it for the brochure. He told us that next week the house will be on sale so it's very exciting!!!

In the meantime, we're looking around for a new house but we haven't found one yet. We don't think that the house will sell quickly, especially now with the economical crisis going on so we're not in a hurry. We've seen some houses and next week we going to look at some other properties so it takes up a lot of our time and thoughts. But it's an exciting time and I'm trying to enjoy it all and not be nervous. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done but in the end, I know everything will be ok. It will all come in good time, just hopefully that will be soon ;-)

Talk to you soon!