New treasures

Last night I was walking up my street when I noticed these old dining room chairs outside someone’s house. People around here place furniture and things in front of their houses if they want to give them away, turns out to be very convenient for me. As I walked past I noticed this very old piece with green velvet seating and I was immediately drawn to it. But since I was on my way to an appointment I said to myself that if the chair is still there when I get back, I will bring it home. To my utter enjoyment the chair was still there when I came back  4 hours later so of course I picked it up and walked the last 40 meters to my house.

I think it is such a beauty and it has so many potentials. Now I just have to familiarize myself with upholstering and when I get the courage I will tackle this baby. Until then it will live in my bedroom where I can look at it and dream of new looks for it.

I find this tradition of placing furniture outside your house that you no longer want or need  so great. It saves people the hassle of transporting things to goodwill or other places, since not nearly everyone has a car (we depend upon our bikes or public transportation, so great). As I walked past this house again today I noticed that the rest of the chairs were gone, so somebody else is smiling like me, all happy with their latest find.

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Antique wooden box

Last year I went to a flea market here in Copenhagen and bought a very old and kinda ugly wooden box, and actually the lady selling the box looked at me funny when I showed interest in this old thing. She even reduced the prize while I was standing there looking at it and thinking whether or not to buy it. In the end I just could not go home without it.

As you can see it was in a pretty bad shape. I decided to patch it up with some wood filler and after that I primed it. And like that the box stood around for a whole year, nothing happened, I didn’t touch it and basically didn’t really know how I wanted to proceed. Mainly I was stuck on color choices. At first I was determined to paint it white, but as time passed I came to the conclusion that a fun color would suit it better and somehow decided on a bright tone of blue.

Here the box is primed, sanded for the second time, primed a little more, and ready for it’s first coat of paint. I was a little scared to start the paint job since this is the first time I am painting a wooden object, but it was a good first start. I have big plans for an old dresser (shown in the photo below) so I thought it was nice to start off with something smaller. After two coats of paint, with ample drying time in between and some assembling the box now looked like this.

I am so happy with the result. It is very evident that the box is extremely old, it is not all smooth and pretty but I think that adds an extra charm to it. After finishing the paint job my biggest headache was what to store in it, it actually took me a couple of weeks to reach a decision. In the end I decided that it was the perfect place for my nail polishes and nail tools, and it gave me the opportunity to go through my nail polishes and throw out those which were old and ugly. Here is a little sneak peak inside the box.

All in all I am super happy with this project and it actually has given me a little boost to continue with my little to-do list. The weather is also getting quite good and that gives me the chance to go outside and do a little spray painting yay! I will share all the gloriness in due time.

Dancing inspiration

Salsa dancing is a huge part of my life. It is there for me whenever I need a little pick me up, an outlet for extra energy or just have the need to groove to cool music. I started salsa dancing in August 2010 and making the decision to sign up for a class has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I have met so many interesting, fun and challenging people, and also a whole new world has opened up. I never knew how big this dancing world is and how many “stars” there are out there that travel the world sharing their knowledge through workshops and inspire us by performing on stage. On youtube.com you can find endless number of inspirational videos and today I wanted to share one of my favorite shows. It is not a typical salsa show, but a variation called boogaloo. It is just so awesome and cool that the world needs to enjoy it. The dancers are Leon Rose (whom I have danced with once by the way, luck lucky me!!) and Noémie. Enjoy the greatness and be inspired!

Light up my life

I don’t think that I’ve mentioned my living situation on here yet. Well, as you might know I am an Icelander living in Copenhagen and in this beautiful city I am renting an apartment with another Icelandic girl. Therefore, I am sharing my home with someone else, a girl that I have only known for a year or since I moved in with her. Since she had lived here for two years before I came along she was all set in her ways and had the main living areas furnished, I have tried to put my little mark on things but only minimally. Our styles are very different, and also, she is not interested in interior design like I am. I try to incorporate my things, but mainly I keep my things limited to my own room where I am free to do things as I want, decorate how I want, organize things according to my needs and incorporate the colors that I like. As of now my room is a mess and a complete work in progress. I want to share with you my journey of how I will change things around, paint and redo. Hope everyone wants to follow along. 

Recently I did a minor update to my room, I changed out the light fixture, and what a difference that little change made! I always read around the web that people love all the small changes that they make and boy were they right! Before, I had this old shade that some previous renter had left behind, it was boring and very dirty. 

(I apologize for the bad picture quality, but it is hard to snap a proper picture with my old camera and the bad winter lighting, basically no natural light going on.)

As you can see the shade is very dull and nothing exciting going on. It also bothered me that I was putting up with a fixture that I hadn’t chosen myself. On top of my bedroom closet I had sitting a light fixture that I bought a few years ago (6 years to be exact!) and never gotten around to hanging up and enjoy. It is actually a shameful thing to admit, but as they say, better late then never! 

 

It was all wrapped up and it had accumulated dust from the past years. This light fixture was bought in the US (West Elm to be exact), travelled to Iceland at the end of the vacation, and when I moved to Denmark over 3 years ago it came along, but it never had the honor of being hung up. Well, now it was time! First I had to unwrap all the shells, not the most fun of tasks, but well worth it, because it looks oh so pretty in my room now. 

 

This little switch-a-roo still makes me smile whenever I enter my room, and also the light in my room has increased, win-win! There is a down side to this new light, of course. I have neighbors above me and whenever their children run around or they stomp the floor the light makes a little clinging noise. Thankfully, it is only for a limited time every day, and sometimes not at all so I live with it and have actually learned to ignore it, everything for the pretty light. 

As you can see in the photo above in the window I have an old roman shade which looks horrible. Again, someone living here prior to me left it behind and therefore I have just put up with it, but I don’t know for how long I can. It is so dirty and grimy and boring! On the bright side this is a fun project for me to tackle sometime in the near future. 

 

Holiday Greetings

Happy holidays. I’m an Icelandic girl who lives in Denmark, so for the holidays this season I decided to travel home. It has been such a wonderful break from the every day life and being able to spend time with my family and friends. The unconditional family love is the best in my opinion, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I have been enjoying the great food that comes with this seasons, all the Icelandic sweets and cakes, along with the crazy weather and non-stop wind. I don’t mind the crappy weather while here because I have a car to get me from place to place, but in Copenhagen I rely mostly on my bike. If this type of weather was in Copenhagen all the time I would not be such a jolly girl!

I got some great gifts this christmas, but the best one was from my best friend, who gave me two books, Jonathan Adler’s 100 Ways to Happy Chic Your Life, and Young House Love. Both books are so fantastic and different, and I am such a happy girl. Look forward to start improving my life and surroundings in 2013, inspired by these two books (along with everything else positive and inspiring in my life).

Merry Christmas to all!

The tree at my parent’s house as captured by Instagram, looks very retro and has been the same since the 80’s, love it.

Time to go public

I’ve walked around for a while now with the thought in my head to start blogging, but I’ve always repressed it. Well, now I think it’s time I started writing my thoughts, ideas, projects and general ramble-ness down and publish live on the internet for all to see. I don’t really know why I suddenly want to start blogging, but my gut feeling tells me that I have to get all the thoughts out of my head and down on “paper”. Even if no one will ever read this, at least I have contributed a little to this magical online world. 

When it comes to inspiration for blogging, there are three blogs out there that have completely captivated me and opened my mind, everyone in a different way. Those bloggers are Young House Love, Bower Power and Making It Lovely. If I ever get to be half as cool and fun and imaginative as those three (four, since Young House Love are two awesome people) are, then I will be very, very pleased with myself. But only time will tell if I ever reach that stage, at least it will be a fine outlet for my rambling. 

What I will write about I do not know for sure, but mostly I will talk about things that I find pretty and inspirational, decorating ideas, organizing projects and dancing. I know dancing is a world away from decorating, but it is one of the most magical thing in my life and the one thing that makes me happiest. There is hardly anything out there in this big world of ours that compares to a great dance, when you get on the floor with a partner that spins you around and makes you come alive. It is total magic, and I want to share that magic with other people. But all in all, this is just going to be an outlet for me to express myself, and share a bit of my life.