home edition | chalk

So this post is long overdue. Or rather, the project that the post is about is long overdue. Way back when I got that quote wall decal in our entry, the husband started a project as well; painting a wall with chalk paint. Well, as it turns out following instructions isn't really his strong suit so it all ended up a disaster with big chalk lumps all over the wall. Fast forward about a month and a half, and I finally lost patience in waiting for him to fix it, so I made him get  a board the size of the wall for me to paint.

The board was put up about a week and a half ago, and I am loving it. I have wanted a chalk wall for ages because I hate having little notes and stuff all over the place. I hate forgetting things equally much. So now I am a happy camper, and I think the narrow wall between the entry and the kitchen (actually, it's the side of a kitchen cabinet) looks super smart.

From the entry


From the kitchen


Up close


So far we haven't filled it with stuff. I kind of like the white space (or should I say black).

wall decor | finally on the wall

Writing this post is making me truly happy. After many trials and tribulations with emails back and forth with the print company, and a lost package at the post office, I was finally able to get the wall decor that I designed based on a Pinterest find and posted about a while ago .

And I am thrilled with the finished result. I love how striking the entry has become compared to what it used to look like. Of course, we spent a weekend painting the house white a few weeks back and that helps too with the crisp feel that white has.

Alright, so this is before


And this is now


Better, no? I am very happy. I was also able to pick up both the lantern and the chevron door mat for practically nothing at a sale on hm.com just before Christmas.

We also started another DIY project yesterday, but the husband messed it up and so that remains a work in progress for a little while longer. I hope I can share soon (as soon as he fixes it, that is, LOL).

wall decor

The huband and I have been thinking about repainting large parts of our house for a while now. At the moment the entry/kitchen/living room area (which is pretty much the larger part of the house) is painted in a tan/cream colour. Even though it's still nice and in good condition I am lusting for bright and crisp white. The painting is planned to be started, and hopefully finished, in about a week or so.

Now, painting does mean that the saying that I freehanded in our entry when we moved in will have to go. I have so loved having it there so I was quite sad about it in the beginning. At first I thought about redoing it, but then decided to do something new. A while back I saw this gorgeous thing on Pinterest and totally loved it:

Source: theberry.com via Linda on Pinterest

We decided to do something like it and I created two different versions, one very similar and one quite different, for the husband to decide between.

This one


and this one




The husband nixed the second one. He thought we would grow tired of it faster, and of course he is right. Plus, it would also cost a lot more to have it made due to all the different fonts used. So right now I am waiting for a hopefully very reasonable quote on the first one. If all goes well, we will be putting it up on our freshly painted entry wall very soon. If not, I might have to get me a Silhouette and do each and every single letter individually if I have to. Plus, owning one of those big boys isn't a bad thing, is it?

thursday love | manual labor

Even though the actual work itself isn't all that exciting, the finished product so totally is. We built this "roman bath" (we joked that if we covered it with plastic inside we could totally use it as a tub) together, just the two of us. We will plant something pretty and colourful as soon as we have decided what that pretty and colourful is.

More house love

I had some comments on the husband's painting which made me happy. I am really so proud of his talent. So much that all of our art in the house, apart from my photography and a few framed scrapbook papers (you'll see them soon), is his original art. I really like the idea of putting nothing but our own creations on our walls. So if you see a painting in any of the pics, it's his. :) There was one in the dining area pic and a few coming in this post as well.

Guest lounge whisky room


1. The sofa bed folds out to sleep two. It's the perfect solution in a tiny room. We don't have guests stay over every week exactly which means that it would be a total waste to have  this room decked out as a proper bedroom. This way we can lounge in here, listen to music and read, and be able to use the room ourselves.
2. The round, red, soft rug was bought when we bought our last home many (seven) years ago. It still looks brand new, it is still a pain to hoover, and I still love it as much as when I saw it the first time. Red usually isn't a huge favourite for me but because of this rug red is the only colour in our house that isn't a neutral. Go figure.
3. The wall hung cabinets hold the husband's whisky collection and various other spirits. They are narrow which is perfect in this space and they look sleek and clean. It's also much easier to clean the room with them being off the floor.



4. The "Inferno" painting. The red is much stronger in real life than in this picture. I love lying in the sofa bed staring at it. I think it looks like flowing lava. I also like that you can see the photo wall in the hallway outside of the room from that same position.

Bedroom


1. General design and colour scheme in this room is my absolute fave. This is actually my favourite room in the house. We wanted to create a luxurious, boutique hotel style look for the bedroom and we also wanted to bring with us the colour scheme from our last place. I am very pleased with the look. Everything in here is white, a shade of grey, or silver. It means it's very calm and serene and also very sophisticated and classy. The one thing that bugs the heck out of me is that the super cool silver ceiling (that was a total pain to paint) had to be painted over after the second  year inspection (all new houses have to be inspected after two years and the builder has to fix whatever problems are found) stated that there were too many surface cracks in the ceilings. Of course they restored the ceiling to its original state which was white. Two years later I still haven't gotten round to getting the silver back up there. But you can see what it looked like here.
2. The wallpaper. I just love love love this design. We spent weeks looking for the right one and had a few quite heated discussions in the shop but it was so worth it. I don't think we could have found a better match.



1. We found the frames on sale at IKEA and put scrapbook papers in them and had super nice art for almost no money at all. I really like the fact that they aren't hung but rather just leaned against the wall. It's a huge pain to dust but I'll take it. Now, I have tried very hard to find as practical solutions as possible throughout the house, and I think the fact that we like modern and no fuss design helps that, but sometimes surface needs to go before practicality.
2. The stools are perfect for putting clothes on at the end of the day if we feel we're going to use them again the next day. They can also be used as emergency seating should we have too many guests over at the same time, lol. I also really like the rough wool with the ultra modern design. I think it's a great combination.



1, Painting! The organic shapes and the soft variations of whites and greys is what gets me every time. Waking up to see this painting makes me feel happy. I think it's the energy and movement.
2. Telly. I have to say that I strongly disagree with people who say that you shouldn't have a TV in the bedroom.
3. Granted white furniture in a bedroom means you're setting yourself up for a lot of dusting, but I love this cabinet. I think it is super pretty and I love the storage it offers. I keep my wedding and decorating magazines here.
I'm not going to share the office/dressing room combo again. If you want to see what it looks like you can read this post. It still looks the same and I still love the same things.

The laundry


1. Ok, first off, are there things to love in a laundry room? It's just a work room after all. But yes. There are indeed things to love about a laundry room. I love the tiled floor. It means we can hang really wet stuff up to dry without worrying about the floor being ruined. It also means it's easy to clean. And I like the tiles. I think the rough look is really nice combined with stark white (I like it so much that I have the same in my bathroom).
2. The sheer size of the room (which I also love as it means it's actually possible to be in there and do stuff) means there is ample room for many cabinets and counter space. I love that I can use all that counter space for folding laundry. It's also used as a changing table when "our" babies come over for visits.

We had plans to paint that left wall with some cool design. After four years we still haven't been able to decide what we want so it's still white. It doesn't bother me because as I said I like the contrast of the grafite grey and the white. But one day we might come up with something and actually do it.

Alright. So that's it. Our home and what I love about it. It isn't spectacular with lots of expensive design stuff. That's kind of typical of us. We get regular cheap stuff from IKEA and we make it work by putting it together in a personal style. I was once told that my style is post mod Euro trash IKEA style by someone on a wedding forum online. It had me laughing because even though she said it in a derogatory way it really isn't a problem at all for me. We don't own one single thing that is worth much but it all means the world to us. I think that is what I love the most about our home in the end.

We do have two bathrooms that I won't share even though there are plenty of things to love in there (like a shower curtain with ruffles) because I'm feeling iffy about sharing bathrooms on the internets. We also have two closets but those won't be shared either. If you ever saw Monica's closet of crazy in Friends you will understand why! LOL!

Now, do you have things you love in your house? I would love to see if you want to share!

The house love continues

The house is an open plan house which I really love. I love the large kitchen/dining/living area. Not only does it mean that the house is very light and airy, but it is also perfect for communicating. Even when it's just the two of us we can still talk to eachother when the husband is cooking and I'm watching telly in the sofa. Of course, the large open area is perfect for entertaining.

The dining area


1. Our large table that folds out to seat twelve is a complete life saver when we have many guests. The padded chairs are super comfy which means that long meals are no problem at all.
2. The big windows facing both west and south ensure that the house is flooded with light. The floor to ceiling windows ar,e granted, a pain to clean but I can live with them being dirty. It's not going to kill me.
3. The vicinity to the kitchen is optimal when having sit down dinners. Serving is a breeze and the island can be used as a buffé.
 
Living area

1. The wallpaper on that one wall is very clever. The swirly pattern is a golden/bronze metallic that changes depending on the light. From some angles and in some lights it isn't even visible and then during other parts of the day and from other angles it stands out in a 3D like effect.
2. The photo wall is perfect for displaying my photography. We change the photos out every now and then. Mostly then actually. We've changed them out twice since we moved in. I still stop and look a the photos sometimes when I walk past.
3. The oak parquet flooring is a beautiful warm honey colour that seems to get only more beautiful with time. It kind of sucks that it's so soft because there are already knicks and marks in it but I guess I just have to suck it up and accept that it's part of every day life.



1. Our large brown leather sofas are perfect for watching films and falling asleep. We chose them not only for their sharp look but also because they are so comfy lying in. They are also wide enough that we can lie together in one.
2. The stools offer valuable storage as well as extra seating. They hold toys for our younger guests and cooking magazines.
3. The thick blanket is perfect for chilly winter nights. My sister in law gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago and the only chance for someone else to use it is to claim it when I'm not at home.



1. The big mirror reflects the whole living area and makes the room look much bigger than it is (as if that is needed). I also love the rough edge of the frame.
2. The books are placed colourized rather than alphabetized because I can't stand the cluttered look of books in different colours next to eachother. The look is also broken up and lightened by the white doors and the glass bowl. I had to put away 75% of my books (which was already halved by a previous weeding) when we bought this shelf. It hurt but surface proved more important than being intellectual. How shallow of me, lol!
3. The lamp shaped like a bonsai tree is a favourite of mine. It has a bunch of tiny lights that makes the lamp look like a floating tree at night. It's difficult to explain but it's just gorgeous.
4. The big vase holds wine corks. Our plan is to fill that bugger. I'm realizing it will take a while since the little sliver of a layer is the product of about eight months worth of drinking. But it looks cool I think.



1. The suede panel curtains are sleek and luxurious at the same time. I am so not a frilly person (which might not come as a surprise to you at all, lol) and these are the perfect match for me.
2. The large glass table with storage underneath holds a lot of books and all our techie gadgets but still manages to look clean and tidy. The glass gets dusty quickly but is super easy to clean with some glass polish and a paper towel. I will cry when the glass gets so scratched that we have to replace the table.
3. The candle holder on the wall was purchased at an outlet and looked like crap. It was black and the glass cups to hold the tea lights were so tacky. But I spray painted it silver and changed the cups out and all of a sudden it was elegant and pretty. I love the look of the candles glowing on the wall when we light them.

Alright that's about 50% of the house covered. Next house post will cover the bedrooms.

Oh, and I also created a layout!


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Supplies: Meet & Greet Paper Pack and Elements Pack, Moments Elements Pack, It's a Start Templates 5 (coming soon) all by In the Making Design.
Staples by Vinnie Pierce.
Fonts are Century Gothic and Another Typewriter.
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Serious house love

We moved into our house about four and a half years ago and it's been a love story from the start. I adore the comfort and simple elegance of our home. Having grown up and lived all my life in apartments I never thought for a minute that I would be a "house person" at all but I am feeling like I'm in the absolute right place in a way that I have never felt before. I can only chalk it down to it being the perfect match. Of course, had I won millions and millions on the lottery I would probably be in a bigger and more spectacular place, but let's live in reality here, lol.

So despite all this love and lah di dah, I think we all go through bouts of just plain tired. I do when we haven't had time to clean and keep the house tidy. Those are the times when I feel like just packing up and staying in a perfect hotel. If I happen to have spent time perusing Pinterst at the same time I feel like so even more. The other week was such a time and guess what I did to get out of the funk? Well, let me tell you. I really like this idea. Here's what I did. I whipped the camera out and shot a bunch of photos of all the rooms in the house and once I had loaded them in I listed things I really, really like of each room. After having gone through them all I felt quite differently about our home.

Please allow me to share with you! Things I love about our home!
(ok, brace yourselves , I will have to break this up into several posts because I discovered I love a lot)

The entry


1. The granite floor is so easy to clean and the rough surface hides dirt quite well which means we don't have to mop it all the time.
2. The sliding glass doors to the wardrobe makes the space seem bigger and reflects a lot of light from the windows in the kitchen (off the left edge of this photo).
3. The huge painting, that the husband painted when we had just moved in especially for that wall, is absolutely stunning and exactly our style.
4. The three windows in the entrance door lets even more light through which means we have ligh coming in from all four sides of our house.



1. The bucket with the fluffy slippers for guests is a popular feature of the entry. It was one of the first ideas I had when we signed the contract to build.
2. The hand written text (by me) on the wall says: "Come as you are, leave as you became". It encompasses the feeling of freedom and relaxation that I want guests to feel when they come to visit us.
3. The photos on the wall were taken with our first DSLR and back when we were completely clueless when it came to photography. But they represent a beginning of a lifestyle - one as a photographer (not professionally of course but I do consider myself a photographer).

The kitchen


1. We chose to go with aluminum doors for the fridge/freezer instead of stainless steel. This is great because finger prints and smudges are much less of a problem. It meant that we had to have two towers with a fridge/freezer combo (they didn't have one large frigde and one large freezer) which we thought would be a problem at first. It ended up being a huge plus though. We don't use the right freezer, which means less using less energy, and we can use one fridge entirely for drinks (wine, beer, soda and so on) which means we can have the temperature a little higher without it affecting the food.
2. The cutting board, cut from a solid wood counter top, covers the whole width of the island and this is perfect for a household where food is a huge priority. I was against it at first but the husband stood his ground and now I love it.
3. We eat most of our meals sitting beside eachother at the island. It feels relaxed and we get to be close to eachother. It's also a perfect place for me to sit and sip some wine on Friday nights when the husband is cooking.



1. The magnet rack of professional knives used to scare the heck out of me. Now that I have started cooking on my on I appreciate having the perfect knife available to me.
2. I don't drink coffee but I love the idea of the espresso machine. I love how metropolitan and Mediterranean it makes me feel owning one.
3. The sleek look of the the cabinets is perfect for a semi minimalist. I sometimes wish we had gone with white, and I think we will once it's time to redo the kitchen further down the road, but most days I'm quite ok with the look of our kitchen.

Alright, let me break it up here. I'll be back with the dining area and living room tomorrow.

Homemade Christmas decorations

Here I am, coming to you live and direct from a brand new computer! I only unpacked it yesterday so I am far away from ready with migrating everything from the old one to the new, but so far I am totally loving the experience. Superfast and super pretty. What else could a girl want? LOL!

So, with Christmas just over and done with, I want to hold on to it just a little longer by showing you some crafts I did, but never had the time to post about, before Christmas.

These balls were done with papers from the Frostbite Paper Pack




They were surprisingly easy to make with directions from Kaiserkraft (link will come once I have it on this computer) but if you ever decide to make them at one point or another do get a circle punch! I didn't have one in the right size so I hand cut all circles for six balls. That's 120 circles. It took me four hours and gave me a nice little aching hand. Ouch!

I strung some of mine from the light over the kitchen island and it was just the right amount of decoration for me. Not overwhelming and not too ostentatcious. Simple but pretty.

You can also see a small peak of the wreath I made at the bottom of the first photo. All I did was wrap some white organza ribbon and attach some tiny white balls and that was it. It matched the tree perfectly.

Now, I am so not a flower person. I kill flowers and plants with lightning speed. I swear, plants have died within hours of being in my house. But in spite of this I bought some hyacinths and tried to do something crafty and pretty with them. Here's one:


I put a few pebbles at the bottom of a vase from IKEA, wrapped the bulb with fresh moss (apparently from France as per the florist's info) and placed it on top of the stones. I rummaged through my scrap stash and found a sparkly snowflake, a bell, and some gem brads. Those, together with some ribbon finished off the creation. I cannot tell you how accomplished I felt once I put it in the window, lol. Now, it still hasn't bloomed, but at least it's not dead.

Apart from the tree and door wreath, the wrapped gifts, and white pillar candles everywhere, this is pretty much all of my Christmas decor. I guess one can safely say you won't find any santa figurines in my house, lol. At least it will be easy to take down!

I hope Christmas has been good to you all!

Cray fish party

Summer nights are lovely. Summer nights with people you love and good food are even better. August is the big cray fish party month here and we are always eager to celebrate because we love cray fish in this house. Here are some pictures from one of those parties.

I wanted a fresh summery vibe for this party so I went with a red, white, and blue colour scheme.
I decided to try out making pom poms to string from the ceiling. They turned out to be very easy to make, but also very easy to break, lol. I used white tissue paper for the pom poms and my husband said they looked like little clouds.


I got a blue table cloth with white dots and paired that with white china and red and white paper napkins (eating cray fish is a messy business after all).


I got white flowers and put them in white bowls in a dome-ish kind of shape. Thank you to the person who invented oasis!




I got clear round vases that came as a set of three at IKEA and put white pillar candles in them and finished them off with ribbons in my colours and little signs that says "cray fish party"


Each seat got a small booklet with songs to sing before toasting with the snaps - this is a totally Swedish thing so if you are not familiar with the tradition believe me when I say that it's a lot of fun! I also made little pinwheels that I stuck on clothes pins and put on a glass at each seat.
I used my Tricolor digiscrap papers to create the booklets and pinwheels.

Just a small tip: In the small bowl under the booklet I put a few slices of lemon and filled with water for the guests to refresh their fingers during the meal so that their glasses and flatware would be mess free.



The actual cray fish got to play center stage in the table setting. Their beautiful red colour was perfect with the colour scheme.


Besides the actual little creatures themselves we also had prawns, chicken and feta pie, and some gorgeous cheese and sour dough bread.


We also had a champagne bar with a few different juices, sodas, and berries to add to the goodness. As we had a few guests not drinking alcohol we made sure to provide an alcohol free alternative.




I made little umbrellas, again with the Tricolor papers and some barbecue skewers, for each champagne glass.


For the juice and soda bottles (from IKEA) I made little tags that I strung on the ribbons I used for the vases with the candles on the table.




The meal was ended with a blackberry cheesecake made by yours truly.


All in all it was a pretty great night!

Garden delights

I shot these photos in our garden this morning. We are very proud of having accomplished actually growing things.

We've got lavendar






tomatoes




fava beans


and zucchini


We also have a bunch of herbs growing in pots just outside the front door. Pretty cool for city folk.

Photo wall how to - Linda style

disclaimer: this tutorial works for frames that have holes in the back for the nail, if your frames are strung you will need to find another way to group them and hang them straight

So I said a while ago that I would come back and post my way of getting the grouping of the frames on my photo wall the way I wanted it. Here it is. I don't claim to have found the fastest way in the world and I am sure there are lots of great ways out there to hang picture frames in straight lines. I just want to share how I did it.

1. Get a roll of cheap-o wrapping paper that you don't want to use for beautiful gifts. I am a hoarder when it comes to wrapping paper and had lots to choose from.

2. Roll the paper out on the floor so that it's long enough to cover the wall  you want to hang your pictures on and cut it off. If your wall is wider than the paper roll out new lengths and tape together lenghtwise until you have a piece that is wide enough. For me it was enough with two lenghts. You don't have to bother measuring or making sure that the lenghts are taped together straight. You just have to make sure the whole piece is as wide or wider than your wall.

3. Now place your wrapping paper on the floor with the back side facing up.

4. Use a ruler to draw a line across the top of the paper. This will act as a guiding line for your frames, and later also to make sure that you get them straight on the wall. Then take out your frames and start placing them on the wrapping paper, trying out different combinations to find a look that appeals to you. At this stage you don't have to measure for alignment and exact distances. Your main objective right now is to find a grouping that you like. As I used identical frames all I had to do was to decide how many I wanted on each row and how to arrange it so that there was a balance between portrait and landscape photos. Take your time and step back from the floor from time to time so that you can see the whole thing from a distance.

5. When you are happy with the grouping of your frames it's time to whip out the ruler and pencil again. If you are like me - anal - it's important that the distance between each frame is the same. Here's where the ruler comes in handy. If you have problems keeping numbers in your head like I do sometimes write down the measurements that you decide on, both between frames on one row and between two rows. If you have decided to go with a less strict pattern for your grouping you might not feel as compelled to measure and align. That is fine too. It means one less thing to worry about.

6. Once you have your first frame measured and aligned with the top line you drew earlier then trace along the sides of the frame. Repeat with the rest of the frames. If you are going with a free form grouping then trace along the frames after placing them where you want them. This step is important. Do not skip this step!

7. When you have traced all the frames it's time to remove them from the wrapping paper. Pick up one frame and have a look at the back. Measure the distance from the edges to the hole where your nail will go once you hang it. If you are like me you will want to write these down too. If you are using different frames you need to repeat this step for each different frame. Now on each of the the traced frame lines on the wrapping paper use your measurements to mark the center of the hole. This step is also important. Do not skip this step either!

8. OK, by this time you should have lots of traced lines on your wrapping paper with marks for the holes inside each traced line. If you do, you are good to go. If you don't, please go back and review.

9. Now it's time to get the wrapping paper up on the wall. If the wall is very wide you will probably need help from a second set of hands. Either that or you are a stubborn type-A personality who are adamant on doing everythin yourself, and perfectly too. That was me. Tape the wrapping paper to the wall, making sure that the top line is completely level. You can either use a level or use your ruler to measure from the top of the wall (assuming your ceiling isn't round).

10. When the paper is up on the wall step back and look for a while at the lines. This will be how your wall will look. If you aren't happy with the look, take the paper down and start from the beginning. If you like it go get your hammer and nails.

11. Put a nail right where each mark for the holes are. Make sure the nail goes in at the center of the mark. Once you have all the nails in the wall you are ready to take the wrapping paper down. If the paper is thick and sturdy you need to be gentle so that you don't rip the nails off as well. If you used really thin and cheap paper from IKEA, again like me, you can just rip. You will now have perfectly placed nails with no marks on the wall to clean up or paint over.

12. Take your frames and place them on your nails.

13. Step back and admire your work.

And that's it folks. Easy peasy, right? ;)

Framed art for the office

A little while ago I decided to spruce up one of the office walls a little with some home made art. The colours in that room are grey, silver, and red and I have somewhat of a theme going with circles (and dots) and letters (with an emphazis on R). So I made two pieces in red and framed them in silver frames. I haven't gotten round to hanging them yet - seriously need to get the drill out this week - but today I propped them up on a picture shelf to at least take some photos of them.

The first one I made all by my self by putting together red dots in different sizes into the letter R. I am so in love with how this came out. The funny thing is that the other day I saw a snippet of a rerun of an Oprah episode and there was a logo of her O that consisted of dots in different colours. I swear I made mine before I saw that though! ;)


The second piece I made is of the Swedish alphabet in different fonts, with a few numbers and a snowflake at the end, just for good measure. I am thinking about redoing this. I am not 100% in love with it. But yeah, it will do for now.




I have a bunch of things to catch up on; I know I promised the wordart last week, two P52 photos, and also some ideas for Valentine's that I wanted to share with you, as well as a mini tutorial for my way of doing a photo wall, but I am putting in a lot of overtime at work at the moment, so please have some patience with me. :D