#blogg100

Nov

2014

Round, white table-lamps

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

I’ve long had a crush on round, white table-lamps. I got the above one many years ago from Åhléns for about SEK 249 a piece. I have two. No, they do not sell them today, but they had them for quite a long time. At the end of the selling-period they also added a larger model. I always liked the small one best. Smooth and round, slightly oval, mat surface.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Sometimes, like above, I place them on the window-sill, sometimes on a table. They both got updated with a LED lamp a couple of days ago.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Friend Ulla also always liked my lamps. But doesn’t want to pay a fortune to get a similar one. A “fortune” is anything above SEK 500 both in hers and my eyes.

There are similar lamps around for a higher price than what I paid for mine. Lately they seem to have started to pop up at several companies.

Globall by Flos

Globall by Flos is one of them. Not new, has been around for quite some time. Comes in various sizes and models. Not cheap… Sold by several retailers around the world.

Flos mini globall

The above is the smallest. Flos mini globall. What I remember of them from seeing them in stores the Globall lamps are a bit more shiny than the other ones mentioned on this page.

One of the newer ones is the MIMO S LED lamp which is sold by Nordic Design Collective below. A nice thing is that it can be run by batteries, no cable. Gives you freedom to place it anywhere.

Mimo S LED

Love it. But it is more expensive than I would like to pay for a smallish lamp, SEK 1195. Not as round as the others but round enough. Not as expensive as the Globall and/or the Iitala lamp below though.

Iitala Kuukana

Another new one on the market is Iitala Kuukuna above. Even more expensive… SEK 2.799. Some more information here.

I am sure that there are more similar lamps out there. It has a pretty basic form… But why do they have to be so expensive as soon as they get a designer label on them? My original ones had the perfect price…

PS 2014-11-15
I found “my” lamp on the internet. Or at least it looks like my lamp and has the more reasonable price too. Here http://www.wohnzimmer.se/se/produkter/lampor/bordlampor/ it is. It comes in three sizes. 15, 23 or 27 cm diameter. The largest presently in stock, the smaller ones 4-6 weeks delivery.

Nov

2014

All polished

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Yesterday was that time again: to polish the brass candles. Have had them in storage over the warm and bright season. I almost never light candles in summertime. You don’t need either the warmth they give or the light during that period.

It is time-consuming to polish brass and your hands get all black from it. But it looks nice when done and all candle-holders are assembled again. The above ones are from Sweden, Greece and India. There is also an old Swedish candle snuffer there.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

The candle-holders got all new candles too, which had to be manually sculpted to be able to use. Particularly those cone-formed candle-holders (they are made in India and bought cheap in a 2nd hand store) has a tricky form.

Also came to the conclusion that I needed something round to put the candle-holders on. I like the above tray, but not for brass items…

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Dug out the above tray/plate from one of my cupboards. Normally it is the tray for a turkish/arabic coffee-set. Cleaned it and polished it. I think this one is not brass but something else. I suspect it is gilded tin. Because the color came off here and there at the edge of it.

It had the right look and size though. Have had it for many years. Originally bought at the Yafo market just south of Tel Aviv in Israel. I love the pattern on it. It is hand-made, not factory done.

brass, cande-holders, plate, tray, polished, shiny

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

The above is is the final result but not the final placement. Have to dig up something to put under the tray if I shall keep it on the kitchen-table. Last season I hade the candle-holders directly on the kitchen table (which is solid white-stained oak) and got dark marks from the candle-holders which are impossible to get rid of. I don’t want a larger mark from this set-up…

The dark season for lighting candles are upon us…

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Check out the pattern of the plate/tray. Do you see the pigeons/birds?

Oct

2014

No More Monstera

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

I had that huge monstera in the livingroom window. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger … and stole all the light in the room.

The huge monstera is no more. Cut it down and threw it out last week. Tried to give it away but nobody wanted it due to its size. In its place now stands another big plant, a Dr. Westerlund pelargonia, which has moved in from outside. Remains to see if it survives the winter and darkness inside.

Anyway. Room got much lighter after the monstera is gone.

livingroom, window. windowsill, pelargonias

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Oct

2014

Work in Progress – Bedroom Walls

Photo: ©nini.tjader

This is how it all begun in the bedroom. Just a couple of weeks after I moved in. I disliked those green walls already before I moved in. I had a 180 cm wide bed at the time. Too big for the room. Drove me nuts every time I made up the bed.

Photo: ©nini.tjader

This is the next stage. Bed exchanged for a 120 cm wide one without headboard or bedframe. Wall decorations temporary (to hide the old holes in the wall from the former lamps). Bookcase in corner still in the living room.

Photo: ©nini.tjader

Then I changed the decoration on the wall to this one. Noticed already then that it would not be easy to remove it. It takes the wallpaper with it when removing it… Low quality wall-paper…

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

A week ago I finally removed the wall-decoration. Was really fed up with it. Wall then looked like it got some odd graffiti…

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

At the same time I also removed the bedframe I bought in June this year, but kept the headboard. For the entire time since I got the bedframe I’ve started each morning by shoving the bed onto the wall and pressing the sides of the bedframe into the headboard and footboard… Bed has felt very unstable, actually to the extent that I was a bit afraid to move in it. It really was not securely fastened together which I noticed when taking it apart. I intend to complain to Ikea. I’ve assembled lots of Ikea furnitures over the years and they have regularly changed the system for how to attached different parts of the furniture to each other. The system they have presently for the Malm bed frame is no good.

I’ve re-attached the legs to the spring mattress and it has also got a black cover. I’ll make go without a bedframe. Bed is now very stable.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

As I’ve mentioned before I intend to paint the bedroom walls (all of them) dark blue. So the other day I bought a tiny can with a test-mix of the color I’ve decided on. It has the values above.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

I’ve only used it on a limited area – 0.35L paint doesn’t cover that much. It covered the area with the destroyed wallpaper though so I could get an idea how it will look in different light conditions.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Love it. With the white headboard from the bedframe and the other white details in the room I think this color will be fine when all walls get painted. Some friends have had concerns that it is too dark. I have seen plenty of examples of dark colored walls lately though and liked them.

All the walls will get painted eventually. Just have to buy the paint first… And I have to figure out how to move the furniture around to be able to paint all the walls.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Oct

2014

Nice 2-story studio flat

Photo: Mäklarringen

I sometimes look at flats on the market. The link to this one appeared in my FaceBook flow via a friend of a friend.

I love the layout of the flat and its two stories, the light and the open plan. I would personally probably use the rooms differently than the seller, but in all, I love it.

It is situated at the top of an older house at Ugglevägen in Saltängen/Nacka, just outside Stockholm. Requested price SEK 2.195.000 – but I guess it will go up if it is as fresh as it looks in the pictures. 57 square meters but a floorspace of 78 square meters.

Photo: Mäklarringen

Very small kitchen, but all new and updated. Also looks like it has got a ceiling window.

Photo: Mäklarringen

Don’t think I would put the bed under the ceiling windows… unless it has remote controlled window shades in all windows. Would be hard to get some sleep there. There must be other spaces better suited for the bed.

Photo: Mäklarringen

Interesting space in there behind a window-door at the top of the flat.

Photo: Mäklarringen

Sellers use the space inside the window-door upstairs for an additional bedroom.

Photo: Mäklarringen

The flat is at the top of this very traditional older house that this unusual flat is situated.
Below the drawings of the floorplan.

Oct

2014

TBT When I was a kibbutznick

Nini as kibbutznick in 1963.

(TBT – Throw Back Thursday) In 1963 I went to Israel for the first time. I went together with friends Ninna, Hans and Elge. We had our base-camp at friend Channas parents villa just north of Tel Aviv. It was popular to go to Israel during that period.

The house we lived in at kibbutz Gevaram in 1963.

For a while we went to a kibbutz. Ninna and Hans left already after two weeks because they were bored. Elge and I stayed another three weeks working in the fields etc.

Elge and Hans comparing how much their beards were growing… We were young in 1963…

Me and Elge at the kibbutz in the afternoon after work. March 1963.

The kibbutz was kibbutz Gevaram, 7 kms north of the Gaza border, outside of Ashquelon. This was my first experience working in a kibbutz. I think about this kibbutz sometimes when there are incidents reported on the news. It really is close to the Gaza border.

Map of area close to Gevaram

Map of area close to Kibbutz Gevaram.

I went back to Israel several times after that and lived in different kibbutzim before finally settling in Tel Aviv. All in all I lived seven (7) years in Israel. Ninna died of breast cancer in 1995. Elge and Hans are still around as well as Channa and Elge is my FB friend.

Hans, Elge and Ninna in 1964.

Oct

2014

Deceptive photos

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

I recently accompanied a friend to view a flat on sale in the neighborhood. Prior to the visit I looked at the pictures published for the sale. Just looking at the pictures the flat looked really nice and fresh. Particularly the kitchen-livingroom area. Requested price SEK 1.595.000. Sold for SEK 1.985.000. Sold immediately after the viewing actually. There were lots of people there during the viewing. Presently anything sells really fast in our area and to much higher prices than just a couple of years ago.

Flat was a semi-detached house in one story, 62 square-meters with a garden of 350 square-meters, kitchen, bedroom, livingroom and bathroom. Semi-covered patio. No neighbors on one side, just nature. One to the other side.

But the pictures lie a lot about the state of the flat.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

Sunny west-turning patio with a sloping grass on two sides. No bushes or flowers or other decorations in the garden. A larger tree. The garden was really neglected. But easy to care of in this state. Just mowing. The wooden fence and the decking of the patio had not seen any care at all for many years as I could judge. Looked really neglected. Apart from that a nice space you could do a lot with.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

Shower, WC and separated laundry part. Really needs an entire re-make of everything. Very tired and broken units… And why they didn’t have any partition between the shower and the WC I don’t understand. It also did not smell nice… Looking at flats use your nose… and your eyes of course …

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

The entrance seen from inside. Nice floor. White painted walls. Bedroom to the left in the picture. Bathroom to the right. In the ceiling a flap up to a storage area under the ceiling. There was also a storage shed outside.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

This is the entrance. Looks neglected. Fences hadn’t seen any care in years. Window to the left is to the bathroom/laundry area. Window to the right is to the bedroom.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

The bedroom was of a good size and had six (6) wardrobes on the wall to the left. Floors OK. White-painted walls and white wardrobes. Have no idea how the state of the wardrobes were inside. If I had been interested in buying, I would have looked at that too.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

The livingroom-area. Nice floors and white-painted walls. One wall with black-and-white wallpaper to the left. Very light because of all the windows.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

Livingroom-area + kitchen-area + door to the patio. Laminat floors that looked nice. But notice the corner there to the left of the door to the patio. Someone had mended the corner with a wooden board. Why didn’t they paint that white like the walls? First thing your eyes fall on in this area. Perfect corner windows for flowers with view out to the garden. Makes the rooms very light.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

The kitchen area. Lots of windows and light BUT, very tired units. Didn’t look inside the fridge-freezer, but the stove needed changing and was in really bad condition, and so did all the other units in the kitchen. You don’t see on the picture how tired they were in real life. Ceiling lamp also had no cover. Could become a handsome kitchen if you tore out all the cupboards and replaced them with new ones. The realtor thought that a remake of the kitchen units including stove etc. would cost around SEK 100.000. At least.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

Here you see the entire flat except the bathroom. Small but well-planned. Open and light. I like the layout of the flat and the location at the end of the area with only the woods as closest neighbor. And only one neighbor to the other side.

Photo: Fastighetsbyrån

The sloping lawn with the big trees to the right. Fence needed urgent care.

Floorplan: Fastighetsbyrån

Looking at housings always need a visit in person. Pictures lie big time of the state of the places.

Oct

2014

Autumn garden

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Autumn is fast taking over the garden. Flowers die or have to be removed. Colors shift. Here some glimpses.

Giant verbena

Tagetes

Vietnamese Basil

Hollyhock

Astilbe

Mangold

Herbs

Oct

2014

Ceramic or glass vases?

This – above – is what happens if you put a ceramic vase with flowers and water in directly on a white-oiled oak-table and leave it there for a couple of days. (I guess it happens if you do the same onto any other wooden table or surface – and I know by experience that the same thing can happen if you put a decorative Halloween pumpkin on the table…). This stain is what remains AFTER sanding the stain and re-oiling the spot. It won’t go away… Ceramic vases leak humidity that destroys the wood they stand on.

Not to repeat that, I looked for small glass-vases and found these ones:

3-pack glassvases from RUSTA in different shades of blue and green with different structure on each vase for a total of SEK 20 (approximately USD 2.80)! Perfect. Here they are filled with drying lavender, but their purpose is to put small flowers in water on the table (with dry flowers it doesn’t matter which kind of vase you use). That they are cheap and come from a store that sell cheap things is fine with me. Even cheap can be beautiful sometimes.

Objects don’t need to be expensive designer items to be nice.

The small blue bowl is there to collect the drying lavender seeds when they fall off their stems.

So, which vase leaked? One of these below, from Ikea (flower in the picture is artificial). If you look at the bottom of a ceramic vase and see that the bottom of it is not glazed, then you can expect it to leak if you put water in it.

Oct

2014

Hem & Villa 2014

Thursday I visited the Hem & Villa fair at Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö (Sweden). I usually do that every autumn. Last year it was an exceptionally boring fair. This year was much better. The theme for the fair was “bazar”, and yes, there were plenty of things for sale.

Apart from the booths that sold things, there were as usual also lots of spa-baths, heat pumps, doors, windows, and other things that has to do with living in a villa/house and building.

Parallel to the Hem & Villa fair was also the Chocolate and baking fair at the end of the hall. Plenty of people everywhere even though I came early and it was the first day of the fair. Fair ends sunday. In short: I enjoyed it.

For my pictures from the fair go here or click on the image above.

Sep

2014

Sideboards with wheels

sideboard with wheels, sideboard, sofatable, mio

I like sideboards with wheels. Unfortunately I don’t have the space for one in my smallish flat. If I had, the above one from MIO would be a contender, 53 cm diameter. SEK 795 (approximately USD 110). Comes with either white or clear glass surface.

sideboard with wheels, sideboard, sofatable, ikea, strind

STRIND, sideboard with wheels. Image borrowed from IKEA

IKEA has a similar one called STRIND, with white glass surface. Thinner wheels. No hand-rail. SEK 799 (USD 69.99) for the one with a 50 cm diameter. They also have a bigger one. 75 cm diameter, for SEK 995 (USD 99.99).

The one from MIO looks more elegant to my eyes. And, as it has wheels, it is good to have something to drag it around with. The Ikea-model doesn’t have that.

In both cases, not that suitable for a family with small kids, dogs, cats… it is much too easy to knock off the glass surface from below the glass. But for the rest of us, nice tables. Personally, I would choose the one from MIO.

Sep

2014

Office-chairs again…

Image from Ikea Live.

Yes, I know, I solved my office-chair situation and actually bought a chair after having been cheated of the one I ordered and got the money back from the bank too (as I had paid by credicard).

Then IKEA announces this one above. Röberget, SEK799. I really like it. It has some artdeco/bauhaus-like impression. If it is comfortable remains to be seen. It wont be in the Swedish stores until some time in October. Then I’ll go there and sit in it.

Sep

2014

I love pallets

Pallets, Spiro from MIO. Image from their website.

As I’ve written before: I love pallets. I get very tempted at times to get more pallets… Just because they are nice. And useful. To be clear though – I do not have any space to add another pallet. But you can still look, right? Do I need yet another pallet? No, I don’t.

I’ve had my eyes on those metal pallets, lacquered in happy colors, for a long time. In red. but MIO has always been out of the red ones. Presently you can however order them via the internet and get them within about 2-3 weeks. Price is SEK 595 (approximately USD 84).

Came to think of them yesterday when I visited the website of ilva.se following a tip about a certain pallet from another blogger. Then I found that they too had that pallet in shiny red. Can be ordered via internet. ILVA does not have a shop in the Stockholm area, which is a pity.

ILVA, pallet Hallow, SEK 499. Image from ILVA.se website.

Very similar to the one from MIO except some small differences in the crossing bars under the seat. Hard to say too if the red color is different when compared. And the one at ILVA is cheaper, SEK 499 (approximately USD 70).

MIO, pallet Spiro, SEK 595. Image from MIO.se website.

The pallet that caused me to at all look at both the ILVA and MIO websites was this one below in bamboo which addsimplicity (blog on Swedish) used in some of her pictures in her blogg:

Pallet from ILVA, grey pallet in bamboo, SEK 249. Image from ILva.se website.

Hers is black though. I like it in grey as well. BUT, it cannot be ordered via the ILVA webshop. And they don’t have a shop in the Stockholm area, only in Malmö in the south of Sweden. Love this pallet. If it could have been ordered from their webshop, I would have ordered it and somehow found a place where to put it.

But no pallet this time.

Sep

2014

SEK 5339…

Olsson § Gerthel clothes rack. Image from their website.

Saw the above the other day at Olsson & Gerthel. SEK 5339… Wood is massive ash. Who pays that kind of money for such a simple thing? A handy person could easily build it for not much money. It is a clothes rack according to the description.

I have the below one in massive pine in storage. Got it for free from my neighbor when she intended to throw it out. I use it to hang thinner carpets on in storage and to hang fresh spices – like oregano – for drying on in the dark and dry storage closet. But I don’t really need it for anything or have the space for it.

Could easily be made into a clothes rack like the one on top with a few more bars. Right?

Anybody in the Stockholm area who is interested in getting it? Just let me know in that case. I would not ask for SEK 5339 for it… Give me an offer… and come and get it. Each section is 62 cms wide and the height is 170 cms.

Normally, this kind of object has cloth stretched between the top and bottom bars and is used for screening off an area in a room. I’ve just removed the cloth. Of course it can also be painted in any color you want. The only thing that is “new” with the one at the top of the page is the placement of the bars.

Sep

2014

What makes the prices differ so much?

This ceilinglamp is from MIO, has a diameter of 60 cms, and costs SEK 595 (approximately USD 84). There is also a model that is 80 cms in diameter and costs SEK 795 (approximately USD 112). They come in either white or natural bamboo color.

Then yesterday, I saw this ceiling lamp at Åhléns. They don’t have it in their webshop.

Can someone explain to me why this one costs SEK 1285 (approximately USD 180)? Same size as the above one. Model very similar. I would never pay that much for such a simple lampshade.

Prices above are only for the lampshade.

#blogg100

Round, white table-lamps

All polished

No More Monstera

Work in Progress – Bedroom Walls

Nice 2-story studio flat

TBT When I was a kibbutznick

Deceptive photos

Autumn garden

Ceramic or glass vases?

Hem & Villa 2014

Sideboards with wheels

Office-chairs again…

I love pallets

SEK 5339…

What makes the prices differ so much?

Search

Translate:

Nini on Instagram

ninitj

Recent Posts

I’m still here

Moving indoors, autumn is here

My turkish kelim carpet

On my windowsills

In the garden just now

Daylilies, summer 2019

Summer at the Big Dam

I love poppies

Summertime

Cherry Blossom Time

Monthly Archives

Nini on Pinterest

Annual Archive

Recent Comments

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Favorite Blogs

Categories

Meta