colors

Summer whites

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Summer whites in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Summer whites is a way to confirm that the summer is here. That means changing the covers of the furniture to white ones.

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Summer whites in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

What do I mean by that? Well, with all the white light in the summer I always feel I need even MORE light and white by changing the covers on the furniture in the living room. I don’t need to change the curtains as they are always white. Some might say that it is enough with the light outside and the eventual sunshine and that you therefore should have dark colors in your home in the summer and light colors in the dark season. I feel the other way around is the way to go. Summer whites in the summer and dark colors in the winter.

summer whites, livingroom

Summer whites in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

So, the other day I changed the covers of the EKTORP chaiselongue and the small JENNYLUND armchair to white from grey (the very pink fleece cover there is protection against dirty cat-feet). Neither is particularly hard to change cover on even though you have to remove the armrest on the chaiselongue to be able to change the cover. I have done that often enough to be comfortable with it.

summer whites, chaiselongue

Summer whites in the livingroom, the EKTORP chaiselongue. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Yesterday I switched the livingroom carpet from dark blue to off-white. To do that I needed to move the sofa-table and all that was on it and on the shelf under it off the carpet. Only then could the carpet be changed.

When the carpet area was already empty, and carpet changed, I decided I’d also take that opportunity to change the cover of the sofa from grey to white. To change the cover of the sofa demands space for the work.

summer whites, sofa, carpet

Summer whites in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Changing the cover of the 2-seater KARLSTAD sofa is a lot of work. First you remove the cover of the four pillows. Then you remove the armrests with the sofa-legs. Then the legs from the armrests. Then then cover of the armsrests. Then the large cover over the rest of the sofa. Then you put on fresh cover for the large part of the sofa. Then put the fresh covers onto the armrests and then attach the legs (2 for each armrest) to the armrests. Then attach the the armrests to the sofa (4 screws each). The sofa is then ready to get back the seating pillows and the back pillows. Changing cover on the KARLSTAD sofa is actually the same thing as assembling it from scratch, twice. So I tend to not change the cover of the sofa too often…

The non-fresh cover has to be dry-cleaned. You cannot put it into the washing machine unfortunately. And it really needs cleaning by now.

The summer white covers need to be on now until at least when the dirty ones have been cleaned. Hopefully no cat with dirty feet will step on them meanwhile before I’ve put a protective towel or such on the now summer white furniture.

The KARLSTAD 2-seater sofa is no longer sold at IKEA, only the 3-seater. So if I want a new cover for it, I need to get it from BEMZ, and that is pretty expensive. The EKTORP chaiselounge with armrest is no longer sold either. The light grey cover I have for it is from BEMZ. The JENNYLUND armchair is still sold and apart from the white cover I have a dark grey cover and a dark blue cover with white flowers for it. Its first white cover shrunk enormously in the laundry and can no longer be used. I’ve saved it as a pattern to be able to make my own cover one day.

livingroom

Part of the darker livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

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

The Green Wall

greenwall

The Green Wall Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

The green wall is up.
Now is the season where all the greens take on the same color. The green wall will still get somewhat deeper green.
The trees across the road (with a small stream at its feet) become impenetrable and hide what is behind them.
Though I know there is a daycare home behind them and plenty of large villas. Those I only see during winter when the leaves have fallen off the trees. This time of the year until autumn it is a green wall of leaves.

In a British TV-show I watch on and off, Escape to the Country, about people seeking new homes in the country-side, people often refuse homes near to the woods or lots of trees. As if they are afraid of the trees… Odd.

I love this green wall. This is where all the birds come from that eat at my feeder. This is also where the frogs, toads, snakes, rats, mice, hedgehogs and squirrels come from.

clover

Clover. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I also have a green carpet of clover. In lack of good grass there is the clover. When it gets too high I move that too, together with the grass. This year with the very dry spring the grass is not really green and it grows slowly. But the clover grows and spread.

clover, fyrklöver

Clover for luck. Photp: ©nini.tjader.2017

If you look closely into the clover you will find your lucky clover with 4 leaves. Above there are four stems with four leaves and one with five. Most clover have just three leaves.

Talking about greenery… Recently I found a hazelnut with roots in one of the flowerbeds. And two small leaves on it. First placed it in a glass of water. Then planted it in a small flower-pot. It stands on the table on the patio. And it grows. Should I plant it somewhere and get a hazel bush? Can it survive indoors as a house-plant? It was planted by the birds.

ladybug, honeysuckle

Ladybug on honeysuckle. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Not only the greenery attacks presently. So does the bugs and the lice… It keeps the ladybugs busy and happy. Looks disgusting, but it doesn’t really harm the plants.

And the green or black lice… The green lice are on the rosebush, the black on the digitalis and the hollyhocks and the elder bushes. I’ll spare you pictures of those…

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Climbing hydrangea. Also a green wall. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2017

The climbing hydrangea on the backside of the plank of the patio now covers almost the entire plank creating a green wall there. After five (5) years, it now blooms for the first time ever. Three flowers… Could have been four, but one froze one of those very cold days/nights in May.

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Flower on the climbing hydrangea. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I wish there will be more flowers next year. It is nevertheless a green wall, which was the intention when planting these two hydrangea plants. Nothing else likes this location. Too shady, facing north.

Everything grows presently (provided it gets water) and gets larger and larger for each day. And it grows fast. Our garden might be wild and look slightly overgrown, but that is the look I like.

digitalis, hollyhocks

Digitalis and hollyhocks. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

 

Posted by nini in colors, Garden and Nature, greenery, 0 comments

Blue bedroom. My blue bedroom.

bluebedroom, bedroom

Blue bedroom. My blue bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Blue bedroom. Dark blue walls. My bedroom has dark blue walls. Lately many interior design articles and papers are showing and writing about dark colored bedrooms. As if it would be something new?

I painted my bedroom walls – all of them – dark blue at the beginning of 2015. I wanted another color on the walls already when I moved in in November 2009. Couldn’t stand the original pale green color. I began the project in October 2014, and finished it in February 2015.

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My blue bedroom. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Not much has happened since. I change the bedspread, the bedskirt and the pillows now and then, and the curtains, but otherwise it looks much the same as in February 2015. I have changed the carpet too to the big one I had in the kitchen before.

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I am happy with my blue bedroom and the dark walls. It is good to sleep here.

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

I have plenty of white details in the bedroom. Perfect against the dark walls. The bedframe is also white, as are the doors and outsides of the cupboards. The bedframe is one piece of an IKEA Malm bed. The rest of the bed is stored in my storage space. Its construction was/is really bad nowadays. Every time I got into bed it felt like the bed would fall apart. So I reverted to steady legs on the mattress and stored the rest of the bed, minus the bedframe.

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My blue bedroom. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

I have never regretted painting the walls in the bedroom dark blue. It gives calm.

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom color. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

This is the color I used. I have some left if I need to repair somewhere. 

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

Having white, or light, details in furniture makes the room feel lighter than it actually is. It is a rather small room, but the dark color doesn’t make it feel smaller because of it. I have too many bookcases and wardrobes though, which makes it impossible to have bedside tables by the bed (even though the bed is only 120 cms wide). I solved that need with those small boxes on the wall as an alternative.

(Why do I have two iPhones charging there? One the old iPhone 3 is my alarmclock, the other is an iPhone 5s that I really should get rid off as I’ve exchanged if for an iPhone 7 recently. The old iPhone 3 has no SIM-card.).

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Pictures and other decorative items in the bedroom stand out fine against the blue walls provided they are light enough.

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. Photo:©nini.tjader.2017

My oldest iMac (the very first Intel-model) stands there as an option for playing DVDs and watching them in bed. Still fully working with an old OS and applications which I don’t have on my regular Macs. Cannot get updated.

After having the bedroom dark blue since early 2015, I am still happy with the dark blue walls. I might in the future change them again, but for now they are fine.

bluebedroom

My blue bedroom. View towards the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Posted by nini in bedroom, colors, decoration, Interior Design, 0 comments

Dusty Colors

dusty-blue

My dusty-blue table cloth in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

All of a sudden colors are supposed to be “dusty”.  Dusty colors. Which means that they aren’t clear colors, but “dusty”, and have lost some of their brilliance.

Those colors seem to have spread to everywhere in interior design. Particularly for textiles. I noticed it when I recently bought a new table-cloth for the kitchen-table.  The color on it is called dusty blue.

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Dusty blue. Image from the internet.

It could as well be called dirty colors… or? Dusty colors?

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Dusty blue table cloth. Photo: ©nini.tjaer.2016

I actually like the dusty blue table-cloth I bought for the kitchen-table (or I wouldn’t have bought it). The material is oilcloth. Had to change the very colorful one with flowers I’ve had for some time as that one didn’t go well with my new carpet. This one does.

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Dusty colors. Image from the internet.

Some of those dusty color shades are nice, but… I wouldn’t want to have too many dusty colors around. They are so dulled-down…

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Dusty blue table-cloth in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Posted by nini in colors, decoration, Interior Design, 0 comments