What are your happy colors?

Maria of Colour Me Happy asked in her blog what are the colors of fun. That lead me to thinking, what are the colors of happy. On the contrary to what you might think, for me it's not just bright and strong colors. At the moment, one of the corners making me most happy is the one in the picture. And it's probably the whitest and lightest corners of our house! Normally I feel incapable of decorating with white, so it seems quite unusual (for me at least, maybe not for you! :))

But it's not so much the colors, but the color combinations that make the feeling of happy. The harmony that you get when you find the right combination. That's how I feel at least. On the other hand, maybe I am biased to certain colors. There's not many rich, earthy tones in our house for example.

What do you think? Do you have a color or color combination that makes you happy? Is there a favorite, trusted color you always turn to?

Everybody was kung fu fighting Disco dancing

Yo-hoo, we had a moment of sun. It was brief and there still wasn't much light. We are in the middle of kaamos. You know, in the summer we get midnight sun when the sun doesn't set at all. But of course, to balance it, we have to have a time when the sun barely shows her face.



I got the disco ball from Panu as an anniversary present. Now it's hanging in the home office. There's a motor that spins it and colorful, blinking LED lights if you plug it in. Now we can have our own disco in the home office.

Gifted Magazine out now

The first issue of Gifted Magazine is out now. I tell you, it's stunning. It's full of Holiday inspiration and ideas, DIY projects and a wonderful gift guide. I feel so honored to be a part of it.
Thank you Ez and all the amazing contributors!





Here's a sneak peek to one of the projects I was cooking up. You can see more in the magazine. That's also our new headboard, I've been dying to show you! It's a vintage door found at anno.fi (for those who speak Finnish or Swedish).

Mr. Eames in holiday mood

After seeing first snow mr. Eames was feeling festive and demanded that I hang some appropriate decorations. So, what is a woman to do? I think it's a bit early, but on the other hand, I want to keep everyone in our household happy. Therefore mr. Eames is now holding a kusudama ball and a paper globe (click links for instructions), both of which I crafted ages ago.

He asked for some lights too, for he feels they accentuate his beautiful profile. I got the felted lights (originally by Hélène Magnússon on Etsy) from the Vanity. She looks a bit naked now. I think mr. Eames might have started a chain reaction.

How to repair furniture chewed by your Puppy

I am a person who hates to throw away anything. Especially anything with memories. So I've had this chest of drawers with me for years. 20 years to be more exact. It's the very first piece of furniture I chose by myself. I remember how exciting it was, me and my Mom going around all the furniture stores (at the time there weren't that many!), me looking carefully at all the possible candidates.

Now as you can see, it didn't really fit my style anymore. And furthermore, one certain Puppy - I'm not pointing fingers here - ate some pretty important parts of it. For one brief second I thought of tossing it. But how could I? After years of moving from one flat to another and now renovating our house, things keep changing place constantly. These drawers have been the only place where I know exactly where my stuff is.

So I had to think of something else.



I'm going to be perfectly honest here. I was the one who decided we need to fix the chest of drawers, paint it turquoise and change the knobs. But Panu, my husband and engineering mastermind, did all the planning. He chose the right tools and plotted all the necessary steps, I just executed them with his instructions.

I feel quite pround of myself, because the last time I even touched a saw was on 3rd grade when we had shop, and I hated every minute of it. But this time it was a lot of fun. That's why I wanted to share the process with you as well. You don't have to be a carpenter to do this stuff. Not even a man (hehe).





The plan was to trim the lower part that Mansikki puppy had chewed big chunks of. For that I used some of Panu's flea-market-find planes. The planes worked nice for cutting with the grain. The sides had to be cut against the grain, so I used a jig saw.





There was still some holes left after the planing, so we filled them with wood putty.



Also the tooth marks on the upper parts got filled with putty. Then I sanded the whole thing. The sawed surfaces were quite rough so they had to be smoothed. The rest was covered with varnish that had to be sanded before painting.





I painted first with Uula primer and then with Uula Into, although it's not a furniture paint. They even tell on their site that it's not recommended for furniture. But we had it left from painting the office, so that's what I used.



One of the most difficult and time-consuming steps was to choose new knobs from Anthropologie. They have sooo many amazingly beautiful options. I ended up with green glass knobs.



And voilà! You can hardly see any dents anymore. This is something I could definitely do again, it was so much fun. (Although I hope Panu doesn't expect me to do all the fixing from now on.)

More livingroom

We have got some decorating done in the livingroom. It's still quite bare and doesn't look lived in yet. It's because we are not living there yet. We still need the electrician to come, and we want to wait another week before letting the dogs in. That way the paint has dried a whole month so it should be as hard as it gets. I'm worried what dog nails will do to our pretty white floors.



We found the bookshelf a year and a half ago at a thrift store. It cost only 35 euros! (48 dollars) It has been waiting ever since for the renovation. Well, actually most of the furniture here we have collected from flea markets and thrift stores over these couple of years, and finally I feel like they have found their home.



The pillows are one of the few things we've bought new. The elephant pillow is from the London Cushion Company and the squirrel is by Varpunen. The Kartell Stone stool is a birthday present from Panu.



We also need to frame some art that's been waiting in the closet. I'd like to make a collage wall above the chest of drawers. But I don't know what kind of frames they should be. All the same, or a variety of different types? The images are all a bit different. All have some turquoise or green in them, but different sizes and shapes. Maybe if the matt and frame material/color were the same they would look more harmonious. But then, I don't know if I want harmonious!

Oh, and did I mention I ended up getting the Hay Hee chairs last summer? We brought them inside for the winter. (Yes, it is almost winter here.)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sneak peek in to the livingroom

Now how wrong was I when I thought we'd have the livingroom pretty much renovated in two weeks? Very. But now, after 7 weeks we are almost there! The finish line is nearing and I couldn't be happier. There's still a little something left, like painting the moldings and getting the electrician to redo the wires. And decorating. Oh, how I've waited to decorate this room.

Out of all the rooms we have renovated, on this I've worked the hardest. Maybe that's why now I also feel the most proudest of it. Do you ever get that feeling? That you work and you work and you almost loose the sight of the goal at some point. But when you get there, it has all been worth it. Well that is how I'm feeling at the moment, even if we're quite not there yet.

Vintage radio turned into a guitar amplifier

We found this vintage beauty last weekend at the antique fair. It's a Philips radio from 1957. Panu has been looking for a right kind of radio for a while now, because he wanted to use it as an amplifier for his electric guitar. And here it is! Panu only needed to modify the instrument cable going from the guitar to the radio. It works perfetto.



If you are interested to know more, you can email me for details. Don't try this with any radio though, because you might get an electric shock!

In my dreams: Quilts

Lonny Magazine

Hei, I haven't forgotten you my friends! I've been just so busy I haven't had time to blog. I'm working on a couple of projects, that I hope you will like. But I can't reveal them yet! Must...stay...patient. You know it's difficult for me, definitely not one of my strong sides. But later this fall, I promise you will be the first to know.

Lately I've had my eye on quilts. I didn't know there are so many stunning quilts aroung. I spotted the top image on Lonny Magazine. It's gorgeous, no?

Finnish Design Shop

I love these antique quilts by Hay on Finnish Design Shop. They are made of vintage saris that are hand tacked together.

Neëst

The quilted blankets designed by Rie Elise Larsen are also hand sewn. My heart is singing swooooon when I look at them. Haha, I don't even know what the word means, I've just seen it on so many blogs :D But I'm sure this is the right occasion to say it, so: swoon!

Bed in the bedroom... Finally

We have finally our bedroom back. Because of Mansikki's puppy habits we've been living downstairs in the livingroom, keeping the bedroom as a renovation place and a safe haven for objects not to be destroyed. However, now it looks like the Destoroyah days are over (oh no, hope I didn't jinx it!) and we can move our vintage furniture downstairs to all day dog-accessible areas.

(And look how big my little baby has grown!)





The crocheted bedspread I got from my grandma when I was a kid. I've had it with me all this time, but never really found good use for it until now. It has always looked a little out of place, but now it actually finishes the room. I have been unsure about the wallcolors since we painted it. It was supposed to be grey with a red undertone, but instead it looks lavender. I've had really hard time finding the right color scheme for the room. You won't believe how many times I've told my husband we need to paint the room over. But after I discovered the bedspread, I changed my mind. Everything just fell into place. Don't you love when that happens?

Finally gorenje

Finally, after three months of waiting, we got our creamy gorenje. It's as beautiful as I remembered and makes walking into the kitchen so nice. If you remember how our kitchen was before, you notice we tore down one upper cabinet to fit the fridge. We fixed and painted the wall. But the ceiling has to wait until the proper kitchen redo. And who knows when that's going to happen...



The sweet little elephant is from Kay. Thank you! :)

Yellow, yellow, more yellow

Niin kuin mainitsin, herra tonttu ja kilpikonna eivät olleet ainoita, jotka saivat spray-käsittelyn. Myös vanha talouspaperiteline tuli maalattua. Jotenkin olen huomannut, että meille on ilmaantunut aika paljon keltaista. Niin kuin nuo Unikko-patalaput. En oikeastaan tykkää Unikko-kuosista, mutta noissa oli värit niin kohdillaan.

Like I told you, mr. Elf and the Turtle weren't the only ones getting spray treatment. Also the stand for the kitchen roll got painted. Somehow I've noticed more and more yellow sneaking into our house. Like those Marimekko kettle-holders below. I don't really care so much for the pattern, but the color was so great I had to get them.

Haaveissa keittiö / Dreaming of a kitchen

Meillä on haaveissa totaalinen keittiöremontti. On vain vielä vähän epäselvää, miltä uuden keittiön pitäisi näyttää. Uusi jääkaappi on tilattu Hulluilta päiviltä ja kellarissa on jo kaappeja odottamassa. Yhdestä vuonna -57 rakennetusta talosta purettiin alkuperäiset keittiönkaapit remontin tieltä, ja haimme ne tänne. Mutta kaikki muu on vielä epäselvää. Värit, laatat, järjestys, uuni, tiskikone... Keittiön laittaminen vaatii paljon tarkempaa suunnittelua, ei voi tuosta vaan alkaa häseltää (niin kuin meillä normaalisti on tapana).

We are dreaming of a complete kitchen remodel. It's still unclear as to how it should look like in the end. We ordered a new fridge a month ago and in the basement we have a bunch of kitchen cabinets waiting to be restored. They are original kitchen cabinets from a house that was built in 1957, just one year younger than our house. But apart from them, everything else is still a big question mark. The colors, the tiles, the oven, the dishwasher... It takes much more planning to renovate a kitchen, you can't just start messing around (which is what we normally do).





Tältä meillä näyttää nyt. Kaappien maalaus jäi viime talvena kesken, kun tuli kaikkea muka tärkeämpää. Ja jos aiomme rempata keittiön kesällä/syksyllä, niitä on kai turha enää maalatakaan.

This is how it looks like now. We started painting the cabinets last winter but didn't finish because something "more importart" always came up. If we are going to renovate the kitchen this summer/autumn, I guess there's no point in painting them now.

Operaatio homeenpoisto / Operation anti-mould

Viime kesänä raahasimme tämän astiakaapin Panun äitin luota meille. Alaosa oli hyvässä kunnossa, sillä se oli ollut paremmassa suojassa, mutta yläosa oli melko säänpieksämä. Lähempi tarkastelu osoitti, että sisäpuolen lateksimaalin pinnassa oli tummia läikkiä. Kovin hometta muistuttavia. No tietenkään ei voitu ottaa käyttöön homeista kaappia, vaan homeen rippeet oli poistettava. Projekti on kestänyt melkein vuoden (köhköh) mutta nyt aletaan olla voiton puolella. Enää puuttuu ikkunoista lasit. Ja ehkä noita valkoisia maaliläikkiä turkoosissa voisi hieman peitellä.

Last summer we dragged home this kitchen cabinet from Panu's mom's place. It was in pieces, it had been stored in a barn. The bottom part was quite ok, but the upper part needed a lot of love. Pieces were missing and we inspected dark spots on the white latex paint. So an anti-mould operation was in order.



Ekaksi rapsuteltiin vanhat maalit pois. Ne olivat aika tiukassa, välillä oli kuumailmapistooli apuna. Vitsit kun en muista, keneltä saatiin aivan loistava vinkki, tuota perusskraappaa (kuvassa) paljon parempi raaputustyökalu oli sikli. Niitä saa rautakaupasta tosi halvalla, kaposemmat 0,50e ja leveämmätkin parin euron luokkaa.

First we scraped off the old paint. It hung on pretty tight, so we used an air-heater. Much better than that normal scraper (in the photo) was a scraping iron, that at least here you can buy from a hardware store for almost nothing.



Kun maalit oli poistettu, kaappi kuurattiin yltä päältä kloriitilla. Sen jälkeen laitoimme siihen vielä Uula-homeenestoainetta. En tiedä, menikö se jo vähän liiallisuuksiin, homeenestoaine on tarkoitettu ulkoseinille. Mutta olen vähän hysteerinen näiden homeasioiden kanssa, minusta parempi huolehtia vähän liikaa kuin liian vähän.

When the paint was removed, we washed the whole cabinet with chlorite. After that we used Uula Anti-mould agent. That might have been exaggerating it a bit, it's meant for outdoor surfaces. But I think it's better to be too cautious with mould than not enough.



Tarkoitus oli maalata sisus valkoisella pellavaöljymaalilla, mutta maalasimmekin vain Uula-Sisäpohjamaalilla. Siinä oli niin mukavan matta pinta ja se jäi vähän läpikuultavaksi. Ja voihan siihen myöhemmin maalata kerroksen pellavaöljymaalia, jos siltä tuntuu.

We meant to paint the insides with white linseed oil paint, but the primer made the surface look so nice and matte and slightly translucent, that we left it like that. If we change our minds, it's always possible to paint it over, right?

Pihahaaveita / Backyard dreams

kuvat / images: Knoll, Finnish Design Shop

Arvatkaa kauanko olen tuskaillut, että mistä löytyy sopiva pihakalusto. Bertoian Wiren haluaisin, mutta Heehen meillä voisi olla varaa. Minusta Hayn Hee on oikeasti tosi ihana, ihastuin siihen leveämpään lounge-malliin jo viime kesänä, mutta Panun mielestä se on liian moderni. Tuo dining voisi olla tarpeeksi siro, että passaa meidän talon tyyliin. Bertoian Wire on tietenkin aivan älyttömän kaunis ja 50-luvun kasvattina sopisi meidän taloon kuin voinappi puuroon. Mutta voih, se hinta... Tuohon Heehen voisin saada Panun jopa suostumaan.

I've tried to find the perfect chairs and table for our backyard since we moved here. What I'd LOVE is the Bertoia Wire side chairs. What we could possibly afford is the Hay Hee dining chairs. Actually I fell for the Hee lounge chair last summer but Panu thought it looks too modern for our house. But the dining chair could fit the style. Being born in the 50's the Bertoia wire chairs would of course be a perfect match for our house, but the price... With the Hee chairs there is a remote chance I might be able to talk Panu into it.

kuvat / images: Finnish Design Shop, Ikea

Ja sitten pöytä. Hayn DLM (Don't Leave Me - hihi) olisi minusta aika just passeli. Mutta jos saan Panun suostumaan tuoleihin, ei varmaan mitään jakoa enää pöydän suhteen... Ikean Blankö on kans aika näpsäkkä, katselin tarjotinmallia jo viime kesänä. Oikeastaan voisin ottaa vaikka molemmat.

Oikeastaan, jos joku on menossa lähiaikoina Oulun suunnalta Ikeaan, niin voisiko tuoda mukanaan Blankö-pöydän? Tietysti maksaisimme siitä. Ikean toimituskulut on niin suolaiset, ettei kehtaa pikku pöydän takia maksaa.

And then the table. I'm in love with the Hay DLM (Don't Leave Me - hehe). But if I get Panu to accept the chairs, there's probably no chance with the table... I think Ikea Blankö is nice too, I wouldn't mind having both the DLM and Blankö.

Uusi vanha puhelin / New old phone

Tämä oli yksi juttu, mikä saatiin loman aikana seinälle, Panun lapsuudenkodista tuotu vanha puhelin. Panun äiti oli sitä varta vasten Panulle säästänyt. Meillä ei ollut kotona tuollaista seinämallia, vaan pöytämalli, muistaakseni harmaa. Hassua miten silloin ei ajatellut mitään puhelimen merkkejä, kaikilla oli tuollainen puhelin. Nyt selvisi lähemmässä tarkastelussa, että Ericssonhan se on. No ei tainnut Nokia noihin aikoihin puhelimia valmistaakaan, vaan jotain ihan muuta.



This is one of the things we got on the wall during Easter holiday, an old phone from Panu's childhood home. Panu's mom had saved it for Panu and gave it to us when we last visited. Everybody used to have that same kind of phones when I was a kid, only we had one that sat on the table and it was gray. At that time nobody thought of the brand, but I learned now that it is Ericsson.

Hyvää pääsiäistä! / Happy Easter!

Pääsiäinen on päässyt aivan yllättämään minut, nyt se on yhtäkkiä täällä. Emme ole tehneet mitään suunnitelmia, mutta tuskin teemme mitään kovin ihmeellistä. Ainakin käymme kissavahteina ja paikkailemme Mansikin hampaiden jälkiä listoista ja ovenkarmeista. Ehkä kunnon suursiivous ja järjestelyurakka olisi myös paikallaan. Puolet alakertaa on ollut pois käytöstä remontin vuoksi ja jotenkin kummassa sitä rojua vain kertyy ympäriinsä. Ihme kasoja, joskus tuntuu että ne kasaantuvat itsekseen.

Mitä suunnitelmia teillä on? Lomailua, remonttia? Kevätsiivousta?? Kevätaurinko on kyllä aivan käsittämättömän armoton. Olen ehkä ensimmäistä kertaa todella ymmärtänyt kevätsiivouksen käsitteen. Viime keväänä meillä ei ollutkaan puoliksi lapinkoiraa karistamassa karvojaan joka paikkaan :) Niin ja hei, käykää ainakin Pilvitarhan pajalla kevätarvonnassa! Siellä on varsin asenteellinen ja hulppea kesäkassi arvottavana.

Joka tapauksessa toivotan teille kaikille ihanaa pääsiäislomaa, nähdään ensi viikolla!

Wow, it's Easter already, all of a sudden. We haven't made any plans yet, probably babysitting cats and fixing some damages Mansikki has done to the moldings and door frames. And a proper spring cleaning would be in order! You know, the winter is quite dark in Finland, but as spring comes there will be much more light. Which is nice, I love it, but it makes all the imperfections of your home very visible. I don't know if it's a global thing or if it happens only in countries such as ours, but at least a lot of the Finnish blogs have been full of spring cleaning. And I don't think I fully understood the whole concept until now. But now we have a half arctic dog that sheds her hair (and I mean LOADS of it) everywhere.

What about you? Any plans for the Easter holiday? Traveling, relaxing? Spring cleaning?? :)
Whatever your plans are, I hope you have a wonderful time. See you next week!

Opetustauluja / Educational charts

Minulla on joku juttu opetustauluihin. Työhuoneesta löytyy nyt nämä kolme. Varastossa on vielä lisää odottamassa vuoroaan, tosin ainakin yksi niistä on varattu Panun tulevaan musiikkihuoneeseen. Se onkin sinne sopiva, 'Musta surma Suomessa'. Passelisti synkeä :)

Paasikivi on pistänyt bileet pystyyn. Se on niin hilpeä. Piti ihan googlettaa, Paasikivi on ollut presidenttinä 1946-1956. Juuri sopivasti tähän taloon, tämä on rakennettu 1956. Paperiliittimellä on muuten aiheeseen melkein liittyvä arvonta. (Voi mikä aasinsilta...) Käykää katsomassa täällä!

I have a thing for educational charts. These three are in the office. We have some more in storage waiting for their turn. Although one of them is reserved for Panu's future music room. It's called 'The Black Death in Finland'. Appropriately dark for him (haha).

Above is J.K. Paasikivi having a party. He was the president of Finland 1946-1956. I thought it suits our house, since it was built in 1956.