I am a domestic Goddess!

Don't believe it!

I have disgusting and horrible pictures to prove it - so consider yourself warned and take action (or heed) if you can't stand photos of dirt.

But before I show the whole world that I seriously lack in the Goddess department let me show you one of the ghosts from my dungeon - the basement where ghosts from my past live a dusty and forgotten life.

One of them has made it up the stairs under the roof to my tiny and old appartment, it has been washed and ironed a little bit - all so that you can see what once was on the table - so to speak.

This was the tablecloth I believed was embroidered in Hardanger. Totally wrong. My brain is not what it used to be *sigh*
Obviously it is what I believe is called counted needlepoint (?)

Also - and this is even more important (or embarassing) - I did not make this. I thought I did, but no. A friend gave it to me many, many years ago and I have treasured it so much that I seriously believed I made it my self. But I know I made some Hardanger but I haven't got a clue where it is or what exactly it was.

Here it is - almost half of it hanging from my ironing board - a tablecloth made many, many years ago by a dear friend.
Such good memories:-)



And now to the filthy part. I warned you!

I have been doing more of that once-a-year-cleaning. Not amusing. And some times scary.
In the near future some poor guy will visit me to read the meters on my radiators. So - time to clean the radiators!
I have four of them. Remember I live in a tiny appartment - so bedroom, living room and kitchen were done without problem. But the radiator in my tiny, tiny bathroom is a problem.

A BIG problem. HUGE.
Here is why:

Yes. Som building-inspector-genius mounted the radiator under the ceiling!

I never use it. But that doesn't stop the darn thing from being filthy, gross and utterly disgusting!
There is no way I can clean that thing up there. The bathroom is 1,8 m2 and there is NO room for a ladder and even if there were I could not reach anyway.

I try not to look too close at it. I wipe dust and cobwebs with a broom and that's it.

And then I got that stupid idea to look a bit closer at the handle. The one in the kitchen - which by the way is very close to the stove I sometimes kick cook on.

OH MY GOD!!!




For heavens sake, woman!!!!!

 I told you it was horrible!!!


I don't usually stick my nose or bad eyes down to check handles on radiators for dust and ugly stuff - I wipe them down with a wet cloth on and of - but I never ever had the idea to check behind the handle in between those plastic ribs.

I'm absolutely sure thats what a true domestic Goddess would do.  I'm sure that YOU do it.

Oh - how I HATE this kind of cleaning.

It's supposed to make you feel GOOD when its finished but this just s*cks.


I need chocolate.
And peanuts.
NOW!

15/6 UPDATE: I deserve to show you a cleaned handle to prove that I'm not a totally domestic pig *lol*
Now - I cleaned them with cotton sticks and took pictures of the handles 3 times and each time the darned things STILL looked dirty on the photos!
Some things just can't be done perfect - a 90% clean radiator handle have to be okay!

Almost clean!

Paint your sofa

You can paint your sofa.

I'm not kidding.

For several years I've had a sofa that looks a lot like this one from Ikea:




Karlstad sofa. Ikea.dk

A very nice comfy white sofa, that fit perfectly in my small livingroom.
Notice the word "white".
It was not anymore.
After painting the walls in the livingroom the sofa looked gray and dirty and I knew I had to do something about it. All kinds of cleaning did not make it white again - I tried.

Long ago I bought some fabric for the cushions so they were not a problem to reupholster. I can sew those. But what to do about the fabric covering the shell of the sofa?
I could not re-opholster that. Firstly it would mean I had to disassemble the bastard completely (and for sure not be able to assemble it again!) and secondly my arthritic hands do not do things like that anymore. Bying a new sofa was not an option. Or a fitted cover as there was no one that fit my sofa - or sew the cover myself as that would be too heavy for hands and shoulders to manouvre in the sewingmachine. No - I liked this sofa - my own :-)

So -  the wallpaint was not put aside (lazy me)... and I got creative and painted a bit of the back of the sofa. Just to try it out.
It was gorgeous!!!
Superwhite - dried fast - and it was easy!

The fabric on the shell of my sofa is a coarse wowen cotton. I used un-diluted waterbased wallpaint and a small quite thick and narrow foam roller. Made sure the paint covered the wowen texture without being too wet and sink all the way through the fabric but sort of just covered the surface -without layering it too thick. I wanted to still see the wowen structure of the fabric. So the paint must be thick - no diluting.
Next day I painted those spots where the paint was not covering the fabric too well. Not too much paint on the roller but rubbing it gently in. Worked super. I believe I used about 1/4 liter in total.

And day 3 I got the sandpaper out.

Yep. You'll need to sand the darn thing. Just a bit and with very fine sandpaper. Otherwise the surface of the sofa will rip aunt Jane's nylons next time she's around for a snack and a movie.
The painted surface gets a bit coarse and stiff, the sanding makes it smooth. But just a tiny workover with the sandingpaper - don't go bananas - you don't need to. Oh - and my sofa has cushions around the armrests, so I will practically never ever touch the painted areas using the sofa. You will have to think about this as the painted areas do feel a bit funny:-)

It does not smell. At all.
It does not flake. At all.
It does not break or crack. At all.
It costs litterally nothing - very cheap.
It looks great - and superwhite.
AND - you can wipe it down with a damp cloth - Yeahhh!

The only thing I wonder now is:

How about painting it orange? Or Lavender?
Or maybe use some ducttape and paint a plaid pattern on the thing? Or cover it with painted stars?
Hilarious!

Next time;-)

Note:
I read somewhere that very creative people in the US had painted their sofa with latex paint. A US store sells latex paint in spaycans - but as far as I remember this was meant for painting leathersofas. My paintshop did not know about that kind of paint. The guy in the shop advised me to go to craftstores to get it - but I did not, so I don't know if they carry that sort of paint at all - my sofa just had to get painted right away, so I went for the wall paint. All regular normal white wall paint. Water based, of course.
Latex paint contains some sort of elasticity so it does not crack on fabric. Apparently it is very good for painting cotton rugs - take a look here and here but I have not been able to find that sort of paint here in dk.

edit feb.20:
I took a photo of the back of the sofa - just to show the rather shocking difference before/now.

from beige to white

Ombetrækning af spisestuestole

Jeg har længe ønsket mig nogle helt klassiske dansk/skandinaviske spisestuestole og var blevet forelsket i Erik Buch's model 49. Denne type stole var helt almindelige i danske hjem i 60'rne og 70'rne, men er nu igen blevet moderne og har fået en velfortjent renæssance. Jeg har især bemærket, at stolen er blevet meget populær i USA, hvor de "ægte" arkitektegnede (og signerede) danske møbler sælges for uhyrlige summer:

Foto fra Deconet 

Jeg fandt 4 stole på et loppemarked, der lignede utroligt meget - de var i perfekt stand, mørk lækker teak og uden skrammer men beklædt med det her temmelige ulækre sorte vinylbetræk, som jeg tror, de fleste kender - det, der 'klistrer' til lårene, når man har siddet på dem i få minutter og gør det ulideligt, at sidde til en tre-retters middag.

Så jeg måtte finde noget stof til ombetrækning - og da jeg ville ha' noget lækkert, klassisk og holdbart stof, tog jeg en tur ind til en af Københavns mest eksklusive forretninger Livingplus hvor jeg valgte et smukt, varmt gulgrønt, lidt nopret stof fra Designers Guild.

Her er nogle fotos fra hele ombetrækningsprocessen:

Ryglæn

Sæde

4 sæder og 1 stol færdige

Stolene var nemme at ombetrække - det værste var faktisk, at jeg var nødt til at gøre det i min lille stue - og da jeg ikke er havnens hurtigste knallert, så tog det sin tid:-)

Jeg er meget tilfreds med resultatet - ikke mindst den gode vejledning og super gode service jeg fik hos Livingplus.

Chek hjemmesiden ud - og nyd de lækre stoffer og fotos af forskellinge indretningsløsninger, som butikkens ejer har udført for sine kunder.

Forretningen har også onlinesalg, er på Facebook og indehaveren har for nyligt påbegyndt en blog, der bestemt er værd et kig.

Stolene kostede 50,- stykket, stof, lim og hæfteklammer løb op i ca. 800,- kr - så jeg fik 4 superlækre spisestuestole for 1000,- kr.

For my english readers:

I thrifted 4 of these chairs for my dinnertable and they were in excellent condition. Teak, no schratches, sturdy, cheap but they had this ugly black vinyl, that gets hot and sticks to your thighs so they needed to be re-upholstered.

I bought the fabric - a nice, varm yellow-green from Designers Guild - at a wonderful store, Livingplus - check out this gorgeous shop or even better: go visit when you come to Copenhagen - this is truly a mekka for all interested in interior decorating.

I paid 32$ for the chairs at the thriftstore and about 130$ for the fabric, glue and nails for my nailgun:-)   

Vintage - eller gammelt skidt?

Set på auktion for 950,- kr

Jeg har i flere år samlet på og købt en masse "skrammel' på diverse loppemarkeder og i genbrugsforretninger.

For nylig har jeg fundet ud af, at alt det jeg så godt kan li' - som jeg synes har kvalitet, originalitet og charme - kaldes "Vintage" og er ved at blive store samlerobjekter. Alt fra vaser, tallerkener, bestik til ovnfaste fade, kasseroller og kaffeservice, som er ældre end 30 år er "Vintage". Ikke gammelt og ikke antikt - men "Vintage". Så er det vist slået fast *g*.

Jeg har fx fundet ud af, at min fine kopper og tallerkener fra Arzberg hedder "Filligran", sælges/købes for en formue og er næsten umulige at opdrive.

" Filligran" Arzberg. Underkop

"Filligran", Arzberg. Middagstallerken

Gamle ovnfaste fade af Pyrex-typen, som var helt almindelige i ethvert hjem i 50'rne og 60'rne sælges nu til rimeligt høje priser og kan være svære at finde. Og helt galt er det med det gode og fine ovnfaste stentøj fra de kendte svenske mærker.

Her er fx. et helt sæt fade - "Picnick" fra Rörstrand, designet af Marianne Westman i 1956 - mit fødselsår. Jeg synes det er helt unikt smukt - jeg er vild med farverne og de søde, stiliserede billeder af diverse frugt og grøntsager.

"Picnick" Rörstrand (1956)

Eller hvad med disse kopper - alle designet for over 50 år siden:

"Mona", Rörstrand

"Spinett" fra Gefle

"Skotte" fra Gefle

"Balder", Rörstrand

"Fiesta"

"Fresia", Rörstrand

"Red Top", Rörstrand

Jeg er ikke indehaver af den viste smørkrukke - men til gengæld har jeg en ovnfast kasserolle i samme mærke. Dog uden det røde låg, som ikke fulgte med og som var en fin overraskelse for mig, da jeg så at alt køkkentøj med navnet "Red Top" havde et rødt låg - og dermed også forklarede navnet.

Så jeg må på jagt - efter røde låg og skønne, dejlige ting fra min allertidligste barndom.

Om jeg bruger det? Ja, da - selvfølglig!

Og.. æh... neeej... jeg er der ikke helt endnu. Ved forklædet. Det er nemlig osse blevet et hit og et "Vintage"-fund - men flæser har jeg aldrig været fan af, så der stopper festen :-))

Plads til kreativitet

Efter lang, lang tids grublen og spekuleren over, hvor i alverden jeg dog skulle finde plads til at sy og samtidig få alt mit sy-grej, stoffer og nicnacs placeret i nærheden af symaskinen, har jeg endelig fundet en fin lille plads i soveværelset - nær vinduet.

Der er et dejligt lys, det vender mod vest, så det er skønt at sidde der om eftermiddagen. At bruge soveværelset er ikke optimalt - sengen er flyttet meget tæt på garderobeskabet - til gengæld har jeg inddraget en stor reol til stof etc og over stolen er der en lang hylde, hvorpå der allerede nu står æsker, dåser osv med tilbehør. Under bordet har jeg 3 meget store æsker fyldt med stof og visse... hmm... ufærdige projekter - men det er utrolig dejligt at ha' det hele indenfor rækkevidde.

Symaskinen står på en stor skæremåtte og skal jeg skære små dele skal jeg bare rejse mig og bruge den modsatte side af bordet, hvor den lille skæremåtte ligger. Det eneste umiddelbare minus er, at jeg simpelthen ikke kan finde plads til .... TADAAA! - strygejernet! Jeps - jeg er en stryger. Så det må stå i stuen og jeg må rejse mig hver gang. Det ville være praktisk, hvis jeg bare kunne vende mig en smule og lige stryge en søm - uden at skulle på tur til stuen. Men ok - så får jeg rørt mig og det er jo sundt *G*
Jeg har planer om at sætte en inspirationstavle op lige bag stolen og under hylden - evt. beklæde den med fleece, så jeg kan sætte quilteblokke op og rykke rundt med dem. Fleecen holder på dem, så jeg ikke behøver at bruge nåle.

Mnnnjaa... og så skal der jo nok støvsuges ekstra meget i soveværelset - men det får være. Det er blevet en skøn lille syplads, som jeg nu endelig har fået lavet!