Some collect stamps, others shoes. I collect cushions. Lots of cushions. And when I’m really honest to myself, I’m not collecting them, I’m addicted to cushions. I had a day off today and wanted to go window shopping and maybe just buying some small things, but I ended up buying five new cushion covers.

Bei 5 Euro pro Hülle konnte ich aber auch wirklich nicht Nein sagen.

But seriously, they cost 5 EUR each. How could I NOT buy them? (I’m actually thinking I should have bought more than five – crazy me!)

And I bought some flowers for our living room. And started to cut into the Nicey Jane fabrics in order to start a new patchwork. I don’t know if it’s only going to be for cushion covers (of course) or if I’ll make a whole new quilt, but it’s always good to make a start.

Furthermore we decided to have our kitchen have a make over. This is going to be such a lot of work, but since I spent more than half a year now thinking of but not really having the heart to renovate the kitchen, we now just made the decision. It will be a complete make over with new floors and new colour on the walls and new kitchen shelves and a new table and I’m so looking forward to it when it’s finished. I’ve got quite a concrete plan and vision. Nevertheless I’m really scared because it is just SO much work. Maybe I’ll post a plan and some pictures of what’s in my mind.

My Nicey Jane order arrived a few days ago and I just placed another order, since the fabrics are just as gorgeous as on the pictures. Here’s what I’ve done so far with the fabrics:

The cushion in the front has a crocheted trim, inspired by rose hip’s great work!

but I think, I’ll change the look of our living room – again. Not dramatically and not the way I did it the last time, but I’m quite fed up with all the flowers and the red in the room. And I’m a bit in love with Heather Bailey’s new collection “Nicey Jane”.

Okay, I admit, I’ve already ordered the fabric and I’m so looking forward to decorating the room with all these springy colours. I’m just a bit sceptic when I think of the red bookcase and if it will still fit in the living room in red. But if not, I’ll just give it a new coat of paint.

I finished the cover for the rattan stool.

Approved by the Hezlein herself.

On the table is my new project. I’m going to reveal what it is and what I’m crocheting it for next week!

We’re going to spend the next few days in Braunschweig, in Northern Germany, and stay with my family. In order to post at least a few new facts about our living room, here is another sneak peek.

I bought the chest of drawers at eBay two weeks ago for 40 Euros. The seller was a turkish woman who told me that her husband had driven the piece three years ago all the way from Turkey to Germany. And now they’re moving back to Turkey and he refuses to drive all the way back by car just for this chest of drawers.

Although I’ve got quite a weakness for painted furniture, I like this chest of drawers just the way it is and therefore won’t change it. In the course of this week I’ll try buying some fabric for our curtains and hopefully will be able to start with the corridor without having a bad conscience.

See you next week!

It’s kind of funny how dominant the color red is in our living room. I would have neither ever considered red one of my favourite colours, nor have planned including so much red in the room. Everything started with the cover of our armchair that I changed from IKEA Rosali to red and white stripes (yet still from the IKEA Rosali(nda) collection), as the flowery pattern didn’t really fit to the new grey wall color.

The day befor yesterday finally arrived the Keep Calm And Carry On poster, this time it has the right size and I instantly framed it and hung it.

The chest of drawers next to the armoire might look familiar to some of you – it changed it’s place in the sleeping room with the white glass cabinet which now stands next to our bed. The glass cabinet didn’t really look good next to this quite huge armoire but definitely brings some colour in our living room and has already brought some new ideas to my mind.

With the letter cushions I am quite pleased. I think they look so much better in the arm chair. In front of the old light violetly painted walls the colours of the cushions looked a bit pale, but now they seam to shine.

Still, there is a LOT to do and I still haven’t done everything I wanted to (Will I ever have? I’m dropping the same phrase in every post again and again …),  but hopefully I’ll have some time soon. At least the Hezleins are now living in their new bunny hutch, even if it’s still a bit provisional.

In three weeks I’ll finally have my well-deserved holiday and in order that I won’t be bored I ordered a bunch of fabrics so that I can try to sew my first quilt. In addition to the usual renovating of course.

May I introduce to you?

This is Dr. Apel. He belonged to my father when he was a little boy and then I got him when I was a child. Dr. Apel used to wear a white baby undershirt that looked like a small doctor’s overall. So what would have been more obvious than naming the teddy after the only man I knew that wore a white doctor’s overall, my pediatrician? Dr. Apel is even christened. My sister and me were relatively old when we got christened, I think I was five and she was three years old, and we both brought our dolls and teddies with us what led to the fact that our dolls Julius and Lucie and the teddy Dr. Apel were christened as well.

Originally I didn’t want to tell you about Dr. Apel but about our living room that gets more and more homey. There are still a lot of things missing until I can show you the whole room. Today the ordered photographies by Yvette Inufio arrived and I already hung the four smaller ones, for the bigger one I’ll need a new mat.

On the picture you can already see the new chest of drawers I bought off eBay. It was glazed in a horrible dark blue, so I decided to paint it white and staple the top with another GreenGate oilcloth and now am quite happy with it. As soon as I’ve hung the other photographies I’ll take a bigger picture of the chest of drawers.

Apart from that I really have to pull myself together that I will not start to paint our corridor, althought I would really love to. Nevertheless I don’t really have two unfinished projects in our apartment. Not only because of this fact I really want to hurry up with the living room and I hope I’ll can take a few more pictures by the end of the week.

The second display cabinet I bought on eBay a few weeks ago seriously worried me. First of all it was in a really, really bad condition. Three out of four legs were broken off, the surface had several dents, scratches and holes and it looked as if the cabinet had been standing in the rain for weeks. In addition the surface somehow extremely marked off. I tried to paint it white but every single coat of paint turned from white to somehow-yellow-brown as it dried. I therefor first needed something that is called “Sperrgrund” in Germany, it’s a sort of paint that, once dried, protects the underground from shimmering through the paint. And as I didn’t want to take any risks, I didn’t use the Sperrgrund based on water but the one with syntetic resin, which stinks and takes hours to dry. And then I had to paint coat after coat after coat and … phew.

When I bought the cabinet on eBay for only 30 Euros I actually thought that I got it for a really cheap price. Compared to the work it needed to be done, I don’t know if it really was a bargain buy. Nevertheless it’s always a great feeling to have something individual that you have (re-)designed just the way you wanted it to be. And in the end all the work of the last five evenings really payed off.

And that’s it, in its second version. I laminated the back board with a green-white gingham wallpaper. After I had painted the cabinet in an off-white from bottom to top, I actually did like it but as well thought that it was totally colourless. And as I had thought about painting it red before but didn’t really had the guts to do it, this time I just gave it a try. So I spontaniously bought red paint and put on three more coats of paint on the outside. I have to admit that I wasn’t sure about the colour until I put in the books and put away all the newspapers and dirt around it.

I am so relieved that the outcome is such a beautiful eyecatcher in our living room. I’m totally pleased with my decision and now think that all the work was worth it. Sometimes you just have to take risks, give things a try and trust your instincts. And maybe this 100-year old bookcase will now survive another 100 years.

Step by step our living room gets back to normal. There are still a thousand things missing but it’s not this complete mess anymore. Still to do:

• fix the TV cable
• adding another electrical outlet
• fix the baseboards
• sandpaper and paint the display cabinet
• build the bunny hutch

I just recently added the last point after we had decided that the old hutch was a) ugly and b) not really practical. So this is going to be our third try in building a bunny hutch and this time we don’t only want to build one the Hezleins are happy about, but we as well. I already got some ideas in my head which we will (hopefully) bring to life this weekend.

Apart from that I changed the “colour scheme”. I originally wanted mainly shades of blue and green in the living room, but I actually really like the white/red of the arm chair in combination with our new floor and the grey on the walls and will probably go more in this direction.

Today arrived to cushion covers I bought in the GreenGate sale.

I hope I’ll get the smaller one a second time as the back of the cushion is just as lovely as the front.

© derder.etsy.com

And I ordered the Keep Calm And Carry On poster, but not in lime but in red. I hope I’ll like it, I am still a bit unsure about the colour, but I’ll just give it a try.