Kitchen + Dining Room Tour with a hint of before/after

Hey, dear non-exis (slowly I start thinking there's actually someone out there, especially after two of my humble pictures have been featured by the interior guru and big autumn lover Holly ).

Today you're all up to a kitchen tour. No excuses accepted.
Remember  this?

And this?

Well, there have been some changes.

A bit of cheerful blue goes a loooooooooong way. Our cleaning lady has recently said she was looking forward to every Friday when she could spend a couple of hours in our place :) 


Ib Laursen lamps I've been hunting for ages. Well, now they're in and we just need to paint the ugly stripe left from the previous, very hospital-like lamp (not in the picture in order not to hurt your aestethical feelings :)


I'm in love with our Non-Smeg's colour. It matches the stove perfectly :)

The kitchen is always so full of light!

And blue mugs, of course. And tea. As the autumn comes closer (and colourful leaves are turning in the air :)
I tend to increase my tea consumption by litres!

Now, let's move on to the dining room.

Here's some personal thanks to Margret, my boyfriend's mum. She's sewn ALL the curtains in our place (and that's a LOT!) and I just can't thank her enough! Margret, a big hug for you! Besser hätte es keiner machen können.


Still need to fill those niche shelves. We went to the flea market as sellers last week and got rid of so much ugly stuff! I'm very confident that one feels happier if he's surrounded by the things he loves.




As usual, Frau Müller says Hi in a rather suspicious way. She turned 3 last week! Congratulations, Vivi, you're the loveliest cat in the universe. We're so happy to have you! (Well, now this blog is a REAL Katzenblog!)
So long,
Fr. Mayer

A glimpse of the living room + a practical bonus

I guess I'll never manage to post regularly and tell long, emotional stories about the leaves landing on my balcony. Whatever. Here's a couple of (too dark) shots from my living room. This sofa makes me and everybody else living here totally happy. It's also a constant source of anxiety (Spots! Jumpy cats!), though.



I need a million of frames. The living room is still not cosy enough...


This is not really the living room - I just wanted to show off my door. And the wallpaper (it was one extreme experience, standing on the ladder, trying to get the stripes straight. Those ceilings are 3,80 high!)
This is not a pretty picture. However, this piece of furniture makes me extremely happy. It's three meters wide and holds just about everything that needs to be tucked away. And - for the first time in my life I have a decent closet. Everything fits! Bliss...

Blog chaos

I completely destroyed my old blog design. Just didn't want it to be 'shabby' any more.
Hope one day I'll have a lovely header and all those thingies every decent blogger gotta have. Not now...

My study: a little tour

I guess I'm ready to show a glimpse of my study. There's still so much to be done but if I wait until I'm finished there'll be no updates here for centuries. So, let's get started, dear non-exis.



Ikea + some DIY, I painted this cubby shelf white and covered Ikea pinboard with striped wallpaper. There are some washing pins on the wall holding my favourite postcards and the blue lamp by Lisbeth Dahl is a total highlight of the room. the pictures on top of the cubby shelf will go soon - you can't see but right behind me there's a huge plastic box full of frames and pictures in urgent need of framing. 15 more frames :) - and my art wall is ready to be set up. I'm also planning a massive Etsy splurge, so let's hope Euro becomes stronger.



Talking about the power of white paint. I painted wooden mag holders from IKEA and covered the files on the bottom shelf with a map (1 Euro, flea market) - as well as the little box on the top shelf. I'm a huge fan of paint chips, so I used those to make my mag holders look a bit more colorful.



A little bonus - what I see from my window every day. Usually, there are some squirells sitting on that roof and making Ms. Müller agressive.


A bonus bonus - the garden. No wonder Ms. Müller wants to go for a walk on the balcony all the time.


I'll see you all non-exis later. Due to a rather gloomy weather I can't show more but there'll be updates, I promise :)

Ideas to steal from the current House Doctor catalog and a weak vital sign from Fr. Mayer

Who doesn't love some House Doctor? Well, their catalog is a constant source on inspiration. And pinecones. And mushrooms. You know, I'm a total sucker for a mushroom, so if you want to attract a bunch of drooling Frau Mayers, just place a mushroom in your product and wait. Well, let's see what's in this one...

• Long candles, tied together with a bow. 
• Europallets on castors, covered with glass (go for it?) 
• Simple candles in a glass with beautiful labels/papers on them
• Pinecone garlands (totally easy! Gotta make one!) and pinecone wreaths (not easy at all. Need one anyway)
• Mushroom baubles (again! Gotta have my load of custom-made mushrooms soon :) 

A while ago I purchased a fireplace. A fake fireplace. Basically, it's just a frame. If the Ebay God agrees to be nice to me, I might even receive it soon. I'm prepared to trade it for my flu which is the second flu this month which makes me kind of sad because the weather's so good and we've been planning an active fleamarket (Us! Loading the car with all the .... and selling it for a bunch of money) for ages. I'm so sick of being sick but at least I have a couple of minutes to look at beautifully arranged pinecones and mushrooms now. And clean up the mess in my room. And order those frames. And prepare for the good times when I can go back to work and function normally, without being hit by some sly little virus.
Images: House Doctor

A perfect flat....

Just found this lovely article + a bunch of funny comments. Each of them describes Fantastic Flat.

Good to know!

Do you remember?

Do you recognize this piece of furniture? I invested several days of my life into making it blue and perfect - and now it's a blue dream came true. Everything's labeled, placed in themed boxes etc. Heaven!

Here's the left part of the cupboard which I like.

And the right one I'm not sure about. Please let me what you think (although I know none of you exists).




More impressions from my dining room. If you remember this picture, you'll certainly like this one! The blue picture has finally joined the party. Still have two more wallpaper scraps, lalala!

Please allow me repeat myself. A before picture.

And an after. It took me SO much time to finish all four of the chairs and the truth is that they're actually still not completely finished.

I have to reveal something. I have a tin fetish. Here's the proof. Watch out for more tins coming soon!



























Let's have a little sneak peek into my room. Got this beauty while passing a pharmacy. Saw an "everything for sale" sign. Stopped. Went in. Fell in love. Bargained. Bought. It's perfect for storing all my school stuff + there's place for crafty stuff, too.

The pictures are waiting to become a part of an art wall. The cubby shelf used to host CDs. I painted it white and haven't put too much effort into filling the cubbies yet. Recycling is everything.

Also, as a little extra to this quick update, I really need to vent some fury. You see, I love reading Neon. It's my favorite German mag. It's witty and seem to reflect on my lifestyle perfectly. But today they just went too far. "Especially the creative people seem to be shockingly similar when it comes to decorating. Mix old and new. Put a designer chair in front of an antique cupboard. Place an Apple computer in your flat."
I really wonder what their problem is. Is one supposed to live Ikea-only? Designer-only? Domäne (HATE!) only? Personally I think that old furniture brings life into flats. So does new when chosen right. I also do not think that my apartment looks like a typical shabby chic one. It does look like a mix of old new though. You know why? Because it IS a mix of old and new and it's SO not like any given flat of a "typical creative person". Grrr! Let me know what you think even if you don't exist. See you soon!

Bonus: Frau Müller saying Hi from the new sofa.