THAT ONE ANNUAL POST ABOUT SPRING

I guess we are at that point of the year again when small whispers and hints about a possible arriving spring start showing up in blogs on the northern hemisphere.  That, and the time when I start mentioning that I probably should wash my windows... But it's a big thing here, always, when the long winter ends and the light starts coming back (and it easily sounds all Game of Thrones when you talk about that..). We're at the yo-yo season where snow melts and returns again and those lighter shoes in the closet start getting restless but will have to wait. But at least we do have more light; longer days.

Like many others, I often get an urge to decorate and fix things up at home with the arrival of spring. Not really happening this year, as everything looks like shit still; we live in a labyrinth of ikea-bags and boxes after the move away from the city flat last November. The only decent looking and thus bearable (plus photographable) room is the kitchen, which of course means it is doomed to look like shit as well, because that's where everyone hangs out and leaves their stuff.

But it's the thought that counts (sort of, sometimes) and I tried my best and brought home a new pretty orchid, cherry tree branches and lots and lots of fruit for those more fresh springy vibes.

It worked.

PALE BLUE KITCHEN HUES

Today the dishes were matching each other.

WINTER WINDOW

I am staying in town for some time now; it's nice to be here for more than just a quick stop to pick up things or just sleep and leave. The view of open fields out in the countryside may be magnificent but I've always loved the view from our windows in town as well. The kitchen window with it's pine trees always remind me of a Pekka Halonen painting.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

Wearing warm and yellow. That's nice when it's grey and cold outside.

Put together a jar of home made granola from products grown on the farm only.

Our kitchen is full of new herbs and extra plants that the crew left behind after shooting a commercial here last week.

And now it's time to study some more pilates! Have an instructor camp and test coming up next week. (And you know, if you want to come to my classes you can do so Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings at out studio!...that still does not have it's website up and running properly yet. Uaaaa!)

BLACK CATS EVERYWHERE

My youngest sister gave me a set of Polkka Jam pastel cat prints for my birthday (she has a history of giving me cat-tings) that I now put up in the kitchen. I've always liked Polkka Jam's prints and I had always thought of putting something on that wall so these came in handy.


The theme of the prints also serves as a nod to our other kitchen, the one in the farm house, with the rugs and wood stove and so on.

And to the cats of course. But that does not even need to be mentioned.

THE PLAY KITCHEN

I got Dag a play kitchen!

I fixed it up in town during summer while the rest were on the farm. I bought hooks and a (shower-) shelf with suction fastening to hang stuff on and make the module more like a kitchen.

Dag loves playing with it. Or in it, whichever way you prefer.

Food tasting.

I have to try it too.

Dag got the vintage tin cups and -plates from his friend Pieter in The Netherlands.
The pots and pans and soft veggies and fruits are from Ikea.

The lettuce also doubles as a football on occasion. (The feet of the chairs made great goals.)

I  guess it will be dinner time soon!

BEIGE & BLUE

Chair & corner.

4 x IN THE KITCHEN

ROSES AGAINT ROSES

Fading roses with the ones that always bloom in the background.

A NEW VIEW / THE ROSEY CURTAINS

Here we have the Marimekko Ruusupuu (the Rose Tree) fabric. It has, among many,  been a favourite of mine for a long time. (picture source)

So I got curtains of the fabric in the apartment I had before moving to where we are now. 

Then as I moved the curtains got chopped off to hang in the study.

And now they are hanging in the kitchen! 

As the result of an unexpected little catastrophe actually; I washed the yellow gingham kitchen curtains and they shrunk with some 20 cm... Argh! Because I (finally) am in cleaning-and-organising mode now I thus can't stand things being "not ready" and as I would have packed the rose curtains aside anyway for a kiddo-set of curtains for Dag I made a quick save and hung these up.

Funny how a little fabric can change the whole feel of a room! I really liked it with the yellow curtains, but I am starting to think that this is not that bad after all.

Btw another little funny thing,  Marimekko fabrics / patterns are probably one of few in which it is considered totally alright and normal (and rather fancy too as   'it is after all Marimekko' ) for someone to show up to a, say, wedding in a dress of the same fabric as your tablecloth. Hipsters and old ladies alike.

PS. there is a Finnish survey about blog readership popping up here (once per ip address) on the blog. In Finnish. Thus not useable for many of you, so choose the "ei kiitos"option then to close it.

A WIRE HANGER IN THE KITCHEN

I never seemed to find a suitable hanger or stand for the kitchen paper towels so I made one out of an old wire hanger that hangs from a small nail-turned-hook. I obviously had to cut away a couple of cm n the middle to be able to fit the roll, but just a little bit though - too big a gap would make the frame too weak to carry the paper roll when in use.

THE FARMHOUSE KITCHEN

I never really made a proper post about how we finished the renovation in the countryside kitchen,

which we started fixing it up a little over a year ago. Well mainly because there was always something small left to do (and still is)... 

I was used with renovations in flats, - having done a couple before-  that take a few weeks up to a  month max two and didn't really realise that renovating a (old) house takes so much more time... Our kitchen was ready a little before summer, but as we did lots of other things too we finished up some details as late as August. Or, as I've said before, few thing are ever really ready in an old house.

Since the house is from the late twenties we wanted the style to be somewhat that, although still look kind of timeless. And as this is a farm house it could indeed look like a farm house kitchen, full of stuff, but then again I did not want it to be too "countryside romantic", shabby chic or so...

We originally intended to paint the floor with checks in grey and white, but as the hallway also got such a painted floor it would have sen too much (phew! And it saved us a lot of work.)

It's a big kitchen, and we didn't want to fill it with a lot of fixed furniture so that it'd get too "heavy" but stay airy and with a lot of work space. The old one actually had quite little work surfaces. We have a long oak board that we tinted black with natural wax. We had to custom order it to get the right depth and length, and shape, as it sort of includes a little windowsill.

So instead of fixed cupboards underneath the work surface I got carts behind the curtain that can easily be moved around to where the stuff they carry is needed. This is the same kind of cart that I have in our bedroom in the city in mint green; Råskog from ikea. I think many things easily get lost in deep cupboards. But not when you keep it on wheels! Muahahaha.

The curtain also hides our dishwasher. We didn't replace it with a new prettier or integrated one as it was still totally functional. In order for the system to work effortlessly we made our work surface a few cm deeper than standard size, so the curtain hangs far away enough for the dishwasher door to open easily. We also keep the micro wave (which we almost never use, but you never know)  hidden next to the dishwasher.

And I'm super content with the "walk in" storage space. It keeps all the food plus some extra pots and pans. I wanted the shelves quite shallow, so that everything is easily visible and not hidden and forgotten in the back. No outdated cans or jars there!

The trash and recycling buckets are inside a wood crate that we put wheels on. Works well!

Generally Finnish kitchens have lots of closed cupboards - it is after all more practical, I confess, less dust etc- but, apart from one cabinet for plates and glass,  have mainly open shelves.

I wanted the shelves to be kind of "rough", so they are made of floor boards we painted with linseed oil paint.

We had the stove unit built by adding pieces from here and there. The old wood stove is next by; we use it occasionally.

Pretty much everything was custom built in, or ordered for the kitchen. In some cases that can get rather expensive, but then again the solution with less fixed cabinets and pieces also meant less material and thus tured out to be quite economical. And in some cases custom made by a carpenter or handyman isn't necessarily more expensive at all, like with the piece we had made in the kitchen in the city, or here with the stove and shelves, for example.

The cabinets we have are from Juvi, they're all wood and painted with linseed oil paint.


 I made some faux-roman blinds for the windows. I wouldn't really ever close the curtains anyway.

And in usual manner it is full of small hands and cats.

RED SHADOWS, RED LIGHT

The low November sun hits the refrigerator in the kitchen and the reflection colours everything red.