livingroom

Apr

2016

Alternative to blinds?

The livingroom window and door to outside place. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

In the livingroom my blinds on the livingroom window broke. As it was too damaged to even consider repairing, I totally removed it. The blinds in the window in the door is fine and working.

The livingroom window and door. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Do I need blinds here? Yes, I do. On the other side of the fence is the road that passes through down to Tumba. Lots of traffic, lots of busses. On the other side of the road is a bus station. I see the people waiting there clearly. Do they see me? I have no idea, but probably not.

On the other side of the road there is also this strong orange road-light that shines straight into my livingroom at night. Very disturbing.

The windows in the livingroom are west-facing. In the afternoon the sun shines straight into the livingroom, It burns the flowers in the window (which is no big problem for the main part of the year, but in the summer it is). The sun also makes it impossible to watch TV in the afternoon as it blinds you in the room.

So I need something to replace the removed blind.

Picture above is taken early in the morning when the sun is not yet around the corner to this side of the house.

curtain-rods, window, blinds, livingroom

Curtain rods in the livingroom. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

I am looking for something to replace the blinds. These are 3-glass windows and the blinds were placed between the window-glasses. I have the ventilation for the room up against the ceiling, behind the curtain-rods. Above it is also the electric outlet for a window-lamp. Except for the curtains hanging on the rods, I also hang the window-lamp on one of them and on and off hanging flowerpots as well. Presently no hanging flowerpots as my corokia cotoneaster and the fig-tree have become too big to have space for a hanging plant in the window as well.

Window in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I also have the sideboard for flowers and decorations just in front of the window. To be able to close out the outside world by drawing the curtains, I have to create a space between the windowsill and the sideboard. Doable, but… won’t look good. I would then also need to use more covering curtains than I have presently.

Blinds in the door to the outside place. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

So what do I get for the living room window in place of the removed blind?
A new blind?
A blind on the inside of the window instead of between them?
Something else to hang on the curtain-rods?
All suggestions are welcome.

Blinds in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

In the kitchen I use a semi-transparent blind on the inside of the window in addition to the regular blinds. I love those as they keep the worst of the sun out (windows in the kitchen are to south- and west-facing) without keeping the light out.

Kitchen blinds. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Those semi-transparent blinds are from IKEA and I have had them for a long time. Unfortunately IKEA no longer sells those and also has no good alternative to them. I need them in the kitchen so I cannot move them to the livingroom.

Blinds in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

The blind in the bedroom also need fixing before it totally brakes as the one in the living-room. This is fixable though as the line has only escaped a little bit (so far). I’ve bought new lines for it. Have been waiting for warmer weather though, before trying to fix it, as it requires the window to totally open to be able to fix it.

In the bedroom, apart form the blinds between the window-glasses, I have a special darkening curtain that closes out the lights from outside, plus regular curtains. I close them all at night (including the blind) as I have the same problem here as in the livingroom with the streetlights and the lights from passing cars and buses coming right into the bedroom.

So, what would look good as a replacement for the blind in the livingroom window? Suggestions?

Livingroom window, October 2015. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Mar

2016

Take photos of your home

Sofatable in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

There are several reasons that your should to take photos of your home.

1. For insurance reasons to have a picture-record of what you have in your home.

I originally started to take photos of my homes for this very reason. To be able to prove what I owed in case of burglary and theft in my homes. At the time I started doing it digital photography was not that widespread. Pictures were still mainly produced on paper and paper-copies were the ones you saved for insurance reasons.

Take photos of everything you would want to document that you own. Plants, books, decoration items, pictures on the walls, content of drawers and cupboards and closets. Be thorough and detailed. Photograph in good light, preferably day-light so the items get the right colors.

In the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Don’t forget to take pictures of the titles of your CDs, DVDs, records, books etc. It is much faster than writing down all the titles…

The most important with those pictures taken for insurance reasons is to keep them in a safe place and not only in the computer itself. The computer can be stolen, then with all its content and then the pictures are gone too. Make backups and store backup in a safe place. Think thefts and fire (or any other natural disaster that can strike).

On the kitchentable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

2. For styling of your home.

If you want to style your home, re-arrange your furniture, build a picture-wall, get an overview of a room, there is no better way than taking pictures of your interiors.

My kitchenwindows. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

What you get is an overview and you can SEE the room (or the corner or the wall) in another way than you normally do by just living in the same interiors.

On the kitchentable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

If you have the possibility to, get up on a ladder or a pallet to get the extra overview of items you want to re-arrange. You might realize then that there are too many things in a certain spot, or that they are arranged in an awkward way.

Picturewall in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Take both close-ups and overviews of your interiors. In natural light preferably. Digital cameras are good at taking pictures in quite poor light conditions, but the best is to use the natural light in those hours when it is the best. When that is, depends on how your windows are placed and which direction your windows are turned. Never take photos in full sun-light. It is very difficult to get good pictures in full sunshine as the shadows become too sharp.

In the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

You will be surprised how different your home looks on pictures compared to in real life.

3. For blogging about your home.

If you want to blog about your home and show pictures from your interiors, the rules are the same as for the styling and insurance photos. Shoot them in natural light. Zoom in or out on what is important for the blogpost. Get up high on ladder or a pallet if you want to get an overview.

Pillows on the bed in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

One difference with blog-pictures is that you can arrange them to your liking. Remove items you don’t want to show. Move items around to get the effect you want. Be personal. Don’t try to make your home look like in a magazine about interior design – that can be really boring. (Not the magazine the look like a magazine picture).

My 2-seater sofa in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

4. Other reasons to take photos of your home.

Other reasons for taking pictures of your home is to make comparisons over the years of how your home has changed. Which furniture and/or solutions or decorative items survived over the years. Which disappeared. How did your taste and style change over the years.

Here are some fun pictures for comparison of my livingrooms and my bedroom.

My livingroom in the seventies. Photo: ©nini.tjader

My livingroom 2009-05-02. Photo: ©nini-tjader,2009

Part of my livingroom 2016. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

My bedroom, February 2011. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2011

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

Mar

2016

My second flat

The livingroom. Our Lamino chair and palett. Photo. ©nini.tjader

My second flat was on the same street as my first one, but in entrance F instead of D and on the 7th floor (top-floor) instead of the 2nd floor. I moved here with Janne after a couple of years living in separate flats. We exchanged our two smaller flats for this larger, three-bed flat.

For more about my second flat, and some pictures, go here.

The livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader

Feb

2016

My very first flat

In the kitchen. Very colorful. Photo. ©nini.tjader

I recently started a new department on my blog called Nini’s flats. I intend to publish pictures there from all flats I’ve lived in. The only one more or less finalized so far is my very first flat at Diagnosvägen 1D. Still lacking the flat-plan for that one though.

I moved into my very first flat in 1974 when I moved back to Sweden from Israel. It was a one bedroom flat of 67m2 on the 2nd floor at Diagnosvägen 1D, Flemingsberg, Huddinge.

Seeing picture of interiors from the 70-ties is quite shocking. The interiors are painfully colorful. I used a lot of red, yellow and green at the time. Even the coffee-brewer was yellow… Those were the colors of that time.

The sofa-corner. Witch cat-basket in it. Photo: ©nini.tjader

The sofa-corner in the livingroom consisted of two brown corduroy sofas and a square white sofa-table. I had lots of greenery and plants already then.

The daybed in the livingroom. Surrounded by greenery. Photo: ©nini.tjader

I loved that daybed. Unfortunately it broke when I once stepped onto it to reach something on the wall.

See all the pictures from my first flat here. All pictures are my own.

Jan

2016

A crocheted pillowcase/cushioncase

The new pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

The old cushion/pillow. Photo ©nini.tjader.2016

I have this old cushion/pillow from Ikea since a couple of years back. It is meant for outside use, summertime. The cushioncase is very colorful and totally wrong for the inside (though it has been used in the chaiselongue occassionally). Took it off to investigate the pillow inside (and to put it in the laundry).

The cushion without a cover. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

The pillow itself is OK. Quite big. Round. Soft.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

So I decided to use a jeans-blue cotton yarn I recently re-covered from a former sweater and to crochet a new cover for the pillow. It is easy chrocheting. You just go around and around in circles until you reach the desired size.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

You start on one side with a few stitches. Then go around and add stitches at intervals as needed to each row to keep the crocheting round and flat.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

When half of the pillowcase is crocheted, I left an opening wide enough to be able to insert the pillow into its cover and then continued with the same amount of stitches on the next row around.

This particular pillow has a straight edge of about 10 cms where I therefore stopped adding stitches for the number of rows needed, made the opening in the middle of the straight part, and then, when reaching the end of the straight edge, started reducing the number of stitches as needed to keep the other side of the pillowcase flat.

The opening of the pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

When the entire pillowcase was ready, I crocheted an additional row in the opening, plus one row with simple stitches to make the buttonholes. I then bought as many buttons as I had buttonholes in an appropriate size and sewed them to the other side of the opening of the pillowcase. Odd thing was that I actually had to buy buttons… I have a fairly large button-collection which I inherited from my mother and have kept adding to over the years. But this time there wasn’t any buttons in the right size in my collection.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I then inserted the pillow into its new pillowcase.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

And closed it with the buttons.

Crocheted pillowcase. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Done. So where did I put it?

The new crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I put it on top of the pouff in the livingroom. It might not be its definite place, but the size of the IKEA pillow happened to be of the same size as the top of the IKEA pouff.

Unfortunately the light conditions had gone from bad to worse before I could shoot this picture. It was, and still is very dark presently and hard to get decent light conditions to take pictures in natural light. That explains the very grainy pictures above and below.

The new crocheted pillowcase. Photo: ©ninit.tjader.2016

Nov

2015

Sofa styles come and go

KARLSTAD 2-seater sofa in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Sofa styles come and go. So also in my livingroom. Presently I have a KARLSTAD sofa from IKEA. A 2-seater (or love-seat as some call them). Presently in its grayish cover. Over summer it was dressed in white.

Before that, I had a MIO sofa called Coffee, that MIO still sell. A 3-seater. That one was way too big for the present livingroom. And I didn’t like its rounded look. I much prefer the straight and simple look that KARLSTAD has. The MIO sofa actually could be ordered with differently styled ends, not all that rounded as the one I then choose.

The previous sofa. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I gave the MIO sofa away for free when I bought the new, smaller KARLSTAD sofa. First tried to sell it on Blocket.se… None existent market. Too many sofas there. One of my neighbors got it for free (new it costed SEK 10.000…). He later gave it away to his son who lives elsewhere. Nothing wrong with the sofa, except the size of it. A quality sofa…

Now, these more rounded sofas are coming back again.
And Ikea has discontinued the KARLSTAD model.

Karlstad discontinued. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

IKEA flagged the discontinuation of KARLSTAD some time during this summer. What I do not understand is why on earth they discontinue a sofa that has been one of their most popular sofas over time…

It is really a pity that they discontinued KARLSTAD. It is a nicelooking, simple sofa. Straight and classy. Much loved by people all over the world. Including me. And it is comfortable to sit in and easy to get up from.

Norsborg sofa from Ikea. Photo: Ikea.

IKEA replaced it with a new model called NORSBORG. (Which has a 10 year guarantee, so I guess they will sell it for the next ten years at least… regardless of changing sofa styles…).

I don’t like NORSBORG.
At all.
It is too rounded.
Too big.
Not an elegant form (as I see it).
And not particularly comfortable.
Too soft.

Norsborg sofa from Ikea. Photo: Ikea.

One detail on the new sofa NORSBORG is that pocket at the ends of the sofa.
Good idea?
Not really.
After putting away the newspaper into the pocket a couple of times… how dirty will it be? Fun idea, yes, but practical? No. A loose pocket to hang over the sofa end is much more useful. As the one I have in the first picture (also from IKEA and not discontinued). Not for newspapers or books, granted, but for all those remotes you have.

Norsborg sofa. Photo: Ikea.

The NORSBORG sofa also is not all that comfortable.
It is too soft.
Isn’t soft good?
No. It means it is difficult to get up from it.

Norsborg 2-seater. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I think NORSBORG is ugly…
Of course it is personal what you find ugly or not. But…
It is something with the proportions. And the roundedness…

Maybe Gustav, the neighbor cat, would like the roundedness of NORSBORG, but I don’t.

I wonder though how long the IKEA sofa EKTORP will survive… One of the most comfortable sofas IKEA has. When I was sofa-hunting, and bought the MIO sofa, EKTORP didn’t have any grey covers. If they would have had that then (they do now), I would have bought the much smaller and cheaper EKTORP sofa from IKEA instead of the one from MIO. Rounded ends, but much nicer than NORSBORG. The EKTORP 3-seater would also have been too big for this livingroom though and been exchanged.

Gustav on my KARLSTAD 2-seater sofa. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Sep

2015

Picturewall at my neighbors

The new picture wall. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I’ve spent the last weekend at my neighbors (where the cat Gustav and Alice live) helping her to re-arrange her existing furniture, a quick trip to Ikea to get new shelves, assembling the shelves and putting them in place, and creating a new picture wall above her sofa in its new location.

The livingroom at my neighbors. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

It is a very long livingroom where she also has her working space. It needed some division. Open plan towards the kitchen and dining area.

The dark picture on the wall mirrors me and my neighbor instead of showing the content of the picture. Has to do with how the light falls I suppose.

The livingroom division. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The solution was two new Kallax shelves from Ikea. This way she got a corner for the sofa and TV-watching, the computer corner partly hidden behind the shelves, and a new reading corner.

Division. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

When at Ikea, my neighbors friend Pia also found a cover for the old darkblue officechair. That cover, created for diningroom chairs, fit the office-chair perfectly.

Livingroom, the reading corner. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

All that lacks in the reading corner now is a reading lamp and a carpet. The lamp to the left of the sofa in the pictures above is supposed to move to this corner. She already has a carpet that she plans to place here.

View towards the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The livingroom became all new. The ceiling lamps need fixing, but that will come later.

The funny thing with the re-arranged furniture was the reaction of the cats. Alice, who slept during the entire re-arranging and appeared only when it was ready, and took to it with great curiosity and accepted it immediately. Gustav at first didn’t accept it at all. He hardly wanted to enter the livingroom… He got over it later in the evening though and accepted the new placement of the sofa.

The entire room became so much nicer with the picture wall, the re-arrangement of the furniture and the new shelves dividing the long room.

Sep

2015

Plants & Art

Got that fun topic “Plants & Art” from Urban Jungle Bloggers for September. I use to participate in the monthly topics as it is fun to see what you can do for a certain topic. This one was hard though.

Art above are a combination of five aquarelles I’ve done and some prints.

Why was it hard? Because I normally do not combine plants with art. I simply do not have the space for it or the right light for the plants where the art is. The above two pictures are from my livingroom. Having a plant in that location above would be risky. Could easily be run into and fall to the floor… (or into the sofa).

Aquarelle in the background by me.

So I faked it. Placed the plants near to the art where the art is. In locations where I would never normally put plants. The above picture and the following are shot in the bedroom. Unfortunately a day with very little light outside so the light for shooting pictures were not as good as I would have wished.

It was fun though to experiment and see how different combinations turned out. This location is way too dark though for any plant to survive there.

Pictures on the wall are one aquarelle by my father to the right, and a large print to the left that I bought at Ikea decades ago. So far the print has seen three different bedrooms. I want to be able to see it from the bed. The small thing on the wall is a souvenir from Greece, as are the greek ceramic houses and the figure on the shelf.

Some things were better looking than others. The cactus definitely looks better in its regular location in the bedroom window. The small olive tree – just moved inside from the patio – looks OK here though. But too dark for it to survive here. It goes back to the bedroom window.

It was a fun exercise though. Plants are now back in their regular locations, and so are the various details used in the exercise. I guess this is how professional interior designers work when setting up different looks for a photo shoot.

Aug

2015

Ordered a sideboard

Olivia, sideboard. Image from MIO.

For a long time I’ve been looking for a sideboard to place in front of the window in the livingroom.

The purpose is to get more space for flowers indoors when the cold season comes (which will be soon). I’ve got several plants outside on the patio that need to move inside when the weather changes and the nights get colder. My windowsill in the livingroom isn’t large enough to house them all. Some go into the bedroom, but most need to be in the livingroom.

When I got the new catalogue from MIO last week I found the table I want. Right look, right size, right height. White shiny white top on metall legs. Simple and airy. (They have it with a black glass top as well, but on black you see all the dust and such).

I ordered it yesterday and it will arrive to be collected in the shop in about a week. Looking forward to get it.

Jun

2015

White instead of grey

This time of the year – what is supposed to be summer – I always get the urge to change the covers of the sofa, chair and chaise lounge to white instead of grey. he curtains and the big carpet are already white.

So, the other day I did just that. Changed the covers both on the chaise lounge, the sofa and the smaller chair.

Changing cover on the chaise lounge means screwing off the armrest first or you will not be able to change the cover on the armrest or the body of the chaise lounge. It is now white.

This cover has been along since I bought the chaise lounge and washed several times. Contrary to the one for the smaller chair, it has not shrunk. It gets very wrinkled when washed though (in the washing machine). Some of the wrinkles disappear over time, but until then you just have to live with those wrinkles…

I also changed the cover on one of the pillows here. It got a new, blue one from a temporary collection at Ikea.

The smaller Ektorp Jennylund chair (from Ikea) also got a new white cover instead of the dark grey it has had the entire winter season. The old white cover has shrunk a lot and is no longer possible to use. I have saved it and plan to de-construct it and use it as template to try to make a new one myself at some time.

As protection against dirty cat-feet (Gustavs’) had to put on a fleece as well… Or I would have had to wash the white cover really soon. I changed the pillowcase after the above picture was shot.

And finally the sofa – a Karlstad two-seater from Ikea – got a white cover change as well. I have had the white cover since I bought the sofa (which is normally grey) but never got around to changing covers until now. I know why. Changing covers on the Karlstad sofa is the same as de-constructing the entire sofa, sides, legs and all, taking off the old cover, putting on the new cover, and then putting together the sofa again, sides, legs and all. You don’t do that in a few minutes… But now it is done.

The sofa also got a change of pillow covers. Most of them are now blue, instead of the black-and-white ones I usually have here. The one in the middle is a new one from Ikea. When I was at it changing pillow covers, I also changed the one on the big pillow on the pouff to make it more summer-like.

If anybody wonders why there are three mice on the sofa-table… Well, I am fixing them by shaking them in every direction possible to make it possible to use them again… It actually works. What happens to them is that they get dust and dirt into them and then suddenly are impossible to move in some direction. Just haven’t got around to move them back to where they should be…

Apr

2015

Moved a carpet

I have this long turkish hand-embroidered kelim carpet that I really love.

Until recently I had it in the hallway where my work-corner is. Had to have a cover of plastic on it so it wouldn’t get destroyed by the wheels of my work-chair. I have now moved the kelim carpet into the livingroom instead. Had an empty spot there just the right size for it.

Looks good here I think? Another benefit is that the chair no longer moves when heavy traffic passes outside… And you also really see it here, which you didn’t when it was in the hallway.

livingroom

Alternative to blinds?

Take photos of your home

My second flat

Like this:

My very first flat

A crocheted pillowcase/cushioncase

Sofa styles come and go

Picturewall at my neighbors

Plants & Art

Ordered a sideboard

Like this:

White instead of grey

Moved a carpet

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