Year: 2012

It is back!

black chair

Notice the black chair to the left in the picture? I bought that from IKEA on May 5th 2006 for SEK299:- It is very comfortable to sit in and it survives winter and snow outside just fine. It is still like new.

The above picture is from early summer 2010. The two blue objects there have since been painted black.

The table is falling apart and I’ll have to buy a new table for the coming season.

Since I moved to my present place, I’ve regretted I didn’t buy 2 of the black chairs.

My wish for a second one might now come true (as soon as IKEA gets them in stock).

It is back at IKEA. The chair VÄSMAN. Now SEK 395:-

Väsman karmstol

It still looks just the same.

PS. I just now checked availability at my closest IKEA and they presently have it in stock. Wonder if my neighbors small car can take it… or if I have to carry it on the bus. They unfortunately don’t sell the summer furniture on the internet.

 

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, 0 comments

Subway art at Alby station

Alby subway wall decoration

Alby subway wall decoration

The subway in Stockholm (Sweden) is a really long art exhibition.

Every station has its’ own look and feel. Its’ own kind of art.

Now and then I pass the subway station at Alby (on the red line of the Stockholm subway).
The station is like a huge green cave. With cave-paintings on the walls.
Last time I passed I managed to take a picture of one of the decorations with my iPhone.
I plan to take more pictures on other parts of these walls the next time.
I love these decorations at the Alby station.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, Various, 0 comments

Eye Candy

I yesterday visited the Stockholm Furniture & Light fair on the only day it was open for the public (it was open only for professionals Mon-Fri). Thought there would be lots of visitors, but the fair was rather big, so it wasn’t all that bad. In Hall A, the large hall, were all the new and beautiful things. In Hall B, the small hall, were all the ordinary and not (in my eyes) so interesting things. Looked more like ordinary furniture stores there. In the passage in between you found the commerce and the cheap stuff. Not all that much though as this fair didn’t sell anything “physically” (even though you could order from the various representatives).

I love fairs as inspiring as this one.
And I love what they had done to the exhibition areas.
I enjoyed every minute of the beautiful lines, the colors, the materials.

A clear trend was nuances in grey, towards a white background, intermingled with objects in clear basic colors, like red, blue, green and yellow. And a lot of plywood and wood. Like it!

It felt like my eyes and my soul needed this.

The above is a coffee-house inside the fair with textile decorations. The public were of all ages but it was obvious that it was the design crowd – plus me – that was there.

Photos: Nini Tjäder @2012. More pictures here.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 2 comments

My real life kitchen – and my dreams of change

kitchen

My kitchen is bright with its two corner windows. Love the light in it. And it is fairly big – at least compared to my previous kitchen (some very small pictures here – will update those pages one of these days, it is on the agenda). I love my table and my chairs. And my ceiling-lamp. I’ve added the windowsill to the left, there wasn’t any originally. And the floor is very nice.

But.

The kitchen is not that well organized. Our flats at the ground-floor of this building were built in 2003 where there used to be a daycare centre. They used the existing areas and puzzled in four flats. Three inside the house, one outside. Mine is one of the inside flats. (See plan of flat here).

There are a couple of things I lack in my kitchen:

  • a pantry. Presently solved by a low BILLY cupboard (above right). No, I don’t have space in any of the existing cupboards for the dry stuff, unless I throw out a lot of things. (I had a pantry in my previous kitchen).
  • a bigger fridge and freezer. I’d love to have them fullsize. Question is where it would be possible to put them. Haven’t solved that yet.

kitchen

The corner between the low BILLY and the cupboards is also somewhat problematic. I cannot put BILLY closer than it is as I would then not be able to open the door to the cupboard furthest away.

One solution might be to remove BILLY, put in drawers instead of shelves in the bottom cup-board closest to the wall, move what’s in that cup-board into another cup-board (make space first by getting rid of anything I never use). Could work… The bottom cup-board next to it is ready to swallow a tiny dish-washer. Has all the electricity fixtures and such. But I don’t really need a dish-washer.

kitchen

There is very little space to work on. Very little. I use the space on top of the stove and to the left of the sink. And sometimes the kitchen table. And to a certain extent the small cutting-board that is under the worktop with the coffe-brewer.

kitchen

There is one tiny worktop to the left of the stove, and another equally small, to the right of the stove. And one in the corner by the BILLY-cupboard, where the microwave lives (and takes up all the space). Then there is another one to the right above. Occupied by all kinds of things that are frequently used.

The worktops are fake oak. I’d love to have white ones. (Just outside the kitchen is my tiny office-space).

kitchen

Above is the tiny fridge/freezer. And that size is not enough for me. Even a one-person household, needs more space than that. At least if you want to cook and freeze – I don’t cook one-person meals, that’s not efficient – and want to take advantage of the better prices for larger quantities. I’d at least want a bigger freezer. To be able to squeeze in a full heights freezer and fridge here, I would have to remove the cupboards to the left. That’s a lot of work.

Have seen solutions with built-in freezer or fridge in drawers. That maybe might be a solution for the bottom cup-board here if I keep the present fridge/freezer and add a freezer with drawers. Which would mean yet one less cupboard…

kitchen

The number of cupboards is OK. I could probably get rid of some of the stuff I keep in them too… to get more space.

I changed the door handles in August 2010. The old ones were those brownish pinewood ones below. Couldn’t stand those. The new ones are in brushed metal. Made quite a difference. But I would love to also exchange the doors to shiny white ones that Ikea has. Cannot afford it presently though. It’s a lot of doors. At least they are standard sizes, which was not the case in my previous kitchen.

Conclusion: new fridge and freezer full size (or new freezer in drawers), new worktops, new cup-board doors (same handles)… Well. One can always dream, right? A new, modern, flattop stove would also be nice to have…

Suggestions? Opinions? Note: I don’t have the money for a total rebuild.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 1 comment

The Dams

My favorite walk goes to the dams in Tumba (Sweden).

There is an illuminated track that goes from the villa-area behind Storvreten into the woods and around the Big Dam and the Small Dam and back again.  I visited the Big Dam the first time at the beginning of August 2010 and was impressed by the beauty of the spot. After that I have visited it several times, alone or with company, during different seasons. From home, around the track, and back home again, it is a two hour walk in comfortable speed. In the winter, if there is snow, the track becomes a skiing track, and you have to watch up for the skiers. They get quite mad if you walk too close to the track. This winter it has, so far, not been enough snow for it to become a skiing track.
Last time I was there was friday Jan 8th 2012. The pictures are from then.

It is a beautiful spot. Looks different each time you come there. (I am planning to create a gallery of pictures that spans the entire year, lookout for it in the Galleries section above).
This time the level of the water was unusually high and the small waterfall from the Big Dam down to the Small Dam was more powerful than usual. Ice was new but very thin. Snow fell the day before.
The brook below the Big Dam was also larger than usual.
In the winter you can also see the Small Dam (above). Other seasons there is too much greenery to see it.
The storms of the last weeks have done a lot of damage to the big trees in the woods.
The electricity cables along the illuminated track are down in several places.
Huge fir trees (and other trees too) have fallen and taken down the cables with them.
Wood clearance is ongoing and the huge trees are sawn inte smaller workable parts and removed. But a lot of it is still there to witness about the damage of the storms. A lot more trees than expected were downed here. Sad to see.
Photo: ©Nini Tjäder 2012
Posted by nini in Garden and Nature, Thoughts, 0 comments

My tiny workspace

workspaceWhen I bought my present flat, I got one room less than I previously had. Went from 78 to 66 square-meters and one room less. I lost a workspace. Which I really need (why I need it is another story). Solution? I moved one cleaning cupboard from the lefthand corner above into the storagespace and squeezed in a workspace in the small hallway, on the way to the kitchen. Above is the result.

workspace

So this is what I have to make do with. Tiny, cramped, on the way to the kitchen, but it works acceptably. Being in the doorway to the kitchen makes it feel less cramped than it really is. And I get the daylight from there as well.

I only miss a space to put my scanner. So when I need to scan something I use my second iMac (an older one which normally lives in the bedroom, meant to watch movies on) on the coffee-table in the living room with the scanner.

I could put the scanner on top of the printer though. That is where I put the other printer (a fast, black and white HP printer that belongs to the housing cooperative, used to print those 144 copies info-letters I do for the housing cooperative regularly, plus other info-material to distribute – it lives under the black chair just inside the kitchen when not used). But that is not very good. Anything put on top of my color laser CAN fall to the floor… (Unfortunately happened to my camera once when downloading pictures from it – cost me SEK 1800 in repairs).

workspace

Storage to the left and the right behind my back. The opening to the left goes to the first tiny hallway and the entrance. Which means I hear every movement in the entrance to the house (despite having a piece of drapery covering the entrance door). A plus there is I hear when mail is delivered when I sit here. We have the mailboxes in the entrance to the house.

workspace

The cupboard above is also used as a linen cupboard in the spaces behind the doors. The narrow set of shelves to the right (the beech tree one) has since been moved elsewhere.

I spend far too much time in this corner…

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 1 comment