Detail shots

A few more gratuitous furniture detail shots, plus an even more gratuitous shot of Pim and me being shot from two directions while holding tools in the middle of the work-mess.

Buffet leg + knitting room terrazzo floor tiles

Are some of these cocoa pods?

In the living room. Formerly, and currently, still a kitchen.

Bedroom insulation

Aïda doesn't need a power tool

Cutting insulation + plasterboard: it is pretty hard

This one is easy to cut

Two layers

Girl with power tool

I really like the dark taupe ceiling

First layer around the windows

We covered the pipe with some brass tube, to match the tap

I am glad we got a tester for the wall colour, this one is too dark

Paint

Since we need to start painting behind radiators before we place them, even though generally speaking it is too early to start painting the walls, we have chosen and bought some more paint. We chose two shades of green (dark and light, dark for the ceiling, I'm having some sort of little obsession here) for the knitting and library rooms. Once we got home and I marked the pots of paint, I was happy to see I got quite a match with the younger and older leaves of the nasturtium growing between the concrete cracks:

Dulux Indian Ivy 5

Dulux Indian Ivy 2

A medallion for the bedroom primed white (will stay white)

Wide moulding for the bedroom primed white (will stay white)

Aïda priming the bathroom ceiling (some green mixed with the primer)

Bathroom

Bathroom. The ceiling is a lichen/sage green, but I figured a
primer in  the general direction of green would be good enough,
especially since we only got a litre of paint.

We thinned the paint with a little water,
and we had just a little left over that will
come in handy for retouches.
The green primer certainly helped.

Priming the bedroom ceiling with primer mixed with some dark taupe paint.

Priming the entryway ceiling with the same mix.
 I actually like this shade so will probably give
another layer of this mix for the last layer.

Laying central heating pipes and isolation in the knitting room.

Plasterboard attached to polyurethane (Eurothane  G)
for thermal isolation and finishing, plus a layer of
 rockwool (partywall) behind it for sound insulation.

Windowsill

Brackets for the radiator

Radiators

3 are up!

Living room

Entryway

Bedroom

It is a boost for our self esteem :)

New furniture - mostly a rant of a post, it happens now and then

I am ready to inflict dreadfullest pictures upon the world, once again! (You can as well skip all this and wait for some better shots I plan to take this weekend).

  

How beautiful is that? some bits brought to the house today

Excuse the quality of most of the pictures I have posted so far, taken with my phone. Most of the time I am around the house I don't bring the big guns. It will happen, eventually, promise. What is posted so far, and still will for a long while I guess, is mostly progress pictures of rubbly rooms that wouldn't benefit all that much from a quality camera, I'm afraid.

Anyway...

This last weekend I went flea-shop-hunting with my flatmate Aïda, looking for a simple chandelier for a DIY project. I did not find a suitable one, but, of course, you guess it? I found something else. Some amazingly beautiful oak, marble, mirror and glass furniture, of a relatively sober Art Déco influenced style that was very popular in this region. 20's to 30's. And for a good price (an apparent lack of interest in Belgium makes for cheaper prices than I'm used to). I snapped a few dreadful pictures (first two pics) with my phone (it performs in a  particularly dismal way in a dark environment), talked Pim into buying it (no small feat, to convince Pim in favour of yet more old furniture that we don't strictly need), and today he and Aïda (I work far away and would never get there in time) went to buy it and bring some pieces to the house (the rest will be coming in further installments).

Exquisite fluted details

Carving, the glass doors are beveled 

In the shop there's a whole dining room: chairs, table, console and vitrine. I know it is sad to separate furniture siblings, but it is sold separately, and we are not getting the table and chairs. They are rather uneventful compared to the rest, I honestly prefer the table and chairs we currently have, and I would place one and the other bit on opposite sides of the house anyway. So only console and vitrine it is. We will place them in the street side, ground floor room. Which needs to be named. Parlor? Sitting room? Living room 1? Living room 3? Front living? Really Cool Green Room? I don't know.

From day 1 this room will have Nice Furniture, except for an Ikea bookshelf which will be eventually replaced, and some day it will have a gas fire stove built into the Déco-ish marble mantlepiece. I think it will be my favourite room. I shall keep my knitting basket and many ferns there. Knitting room? I like that ;)

Hi! that's me

The bathroom (a bedroom originally) furniture we got a while ago is of the same style, if slightly less refined in my opinion. I have posted some (bad) pics before, but I am always ready for more, I hope you are as well. This is the closet for the bathroom:

Garden intermission, pole beans!

Ikea / Facq visit

The 31th of August we made a visit to Ikea. We are 90% decided we'll go for an Ikea kitchen, and wanted to have another look.

Vägad and Rutinerad, the microwave and oven I like, but we'll probably go
with black for appliances. These doors (STÅT) are also one of the two contenders.

Not a fan of open shelves (dirty) but I really like these

Loved this one as well, Pim is not a fan

The kitchen planner tells us not to put the ceramic sink next to
 a dishwasher (which isn't a cabinet, it is just sitting there)
 but we saw it in several places in the shop.
However, we should try to install the dishwasher higher up!

I really like cabinets built like this (to hide the kettle etc) but the total height
ends up higher than the fridge cabinets we need :( perhaps we could hack them...
These doors, Lindigö, we also like.

Still wondering if the single sink is maybe enough

We also went to Facq (bathrooms) next to Ikea. We were looking for ceramic (found none) or enamelled shower trays. We found enameled shower trays and a built in sink perhaps small enough for our antique bathroom vanity:

Upon close inspection, the vanity marble is in worse condition than I remembered.
The largest rust mark can perhaps be hidden by the sink (I want it on a side),
but there are other stains and numerous scratches.
Our marble guy said he probably can't polish this antique piece.