Okay, now to the trigger for today’s topic: The weather (this promises to be a boring post, doesn’t it?)! Since it’s really rainy and rather cold at the moment in Karlsruhe and it’s quite hard to shoot good pictures if the light is so dimmed like today, I flipped through some photos I shot a few weeks ago and found these two from our balcony.

I struggled with our balcony nearly every year. In spring I always bought plants and flowers en masse and when it came to July/August, I got tired of always having to water the flowers every day. Furthermore I found it quite dull, despite all the plants that had grown. But the floor was grey, the walls have this dirty light yellow and the rest is in this horrible dark brown. So that was how it was all the years and this year I finally made up a small plan: less flowers and something for the floor. So I bought this pink plastic rug (it’s by House Doctor) and less flowers, a small cherry tree and these two pink lanterns and now it looks like summer even if it’s raining.

This time I will not tell you which projects I have been working on over the last few weeks (nearly none), or what my plans are for the summer (we’re finally going to go on a “real” holiday, taking a plane to a foreign place and lying at the beach for hours just doing nothing; this will be my first holiday since nine years), but I want you to tell me, what you would like to read on my blog.

I started blogging nearly two years ago, because I had quite a lot of projects done that I wanted people to tell about. I had just started reading some interior design blogs and was quite inspired and thought that maybe I could be an inspiration for someone else, too. Now, two years later, I’m still reading blogs, but the number definitely decreased to a handful. If I look at the ones that are still in my feed reader, then all of them not only inspire me but I also feel somehow “connected” to them, because they not only blog about the projects they’ve done but also about bits and pieces of their private life. And this is something, that I nearly never did on this blog. I think it’s a fine line between posting random boring stuff that isn’t really interesting to you at all since this blog is still a interior-diy-Kathrin’s-renovation-her-appartment-blog and I guess you’d be bored to death if I’d start blogging about my work as a software developer and if I cleaned the kitchen today. But would you be interested in reading some more personal things? Like, what did we eat today (even if it’s only spaghetti with tomato sauce – I’d eat spaghetti with tomate sauce every day if Max wasn’t there), which places did we go to, and who are the four bunnies who live with us? ;)

I’m asking because I had been quite busy lately, especially with work, and there just isn’t a lot of time to work on new projects. I do sew and crochet and paint and move furniture around from time to time, but it’s just not that much that I could post about it every week. I mean, I could, but I think it would get quite boring. ;)

So, again my question to you, dear readers:

Would you like me to start blogging on more personal stuff (I’d promise to spare you with only-text-posts! I’m quite a visual person and only-text-posts always quite disappoint me.) and have blog posts more regularly? Or is it okay for you if I only blog like once a month but then only related to projects I did?

And to finally add some pictures to this thread:

Again: new cushions. Fabric is “Dolce” by Tanya Whelan.

Somehow shocking, isn’t it? I couldn’t decide if I liked it until I got used to the colour, but now I know: I LOVE it!

The other side of the room is quite plain and simple:

The big mirror is from IKEA and the coatrack is by House Doctor. It looks a bit like the Eames Hang it all coatrack and I also thought about buying the original one, but decided that I like this imitation better. What’s still missing is something we can put our shoes in/on and another chair than this one. I thought of another Eames side chair, but the dsr, and not the dsw? Or maybe a tulip chair?

This dresser moved in our hall several times, now it found its place opposite to our livingroom door. See the wire of the lamp? When we moved in here we bought three of these very basic IKEA lamps. I actually wanted to throw them away and buy new ones but since I couldn’t find any that I really liked, I had the idea to paint the wires of the lamps. I painted them blue, yellow (the one in the middle) and pink, just as the bathroom door.
The two photographies in their frames on the dresser wait that I finally hang them up the wall (you can see a small part of it in the first picture). I’ve already put up a few, but there are still quite a lot to go and I also need some more frames. Probably that’s what my next blog post will be about!

I had been looking for an old lamp on eBay or at the flea market, but didn’t find one until I discovered this one on eBay (I unfortunately (but as always) only have a quite poor before picture).

This was my first try making a new lamp shade and this was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I had bought extra foil for lamp shades and I managed cutting it and getting it on the fabric, but when it came to fixing it to the wires of the lamp shade, I was pretty clueless. I’m not even sure if there isn’t a solution that’s much easier than what I made up now. Or at least one, that isn’t as painful as mine. I sewed the foil to the wires by hand with a needle and a rather thick cotton thread. And getting the needle through the quite thick foil is not that easy which is why my fingertips are totally ruined (it actually hurts to type!). Im pretty sure, Beauty knows no pain. was actually meant in another way but it suits this situation as well. ;)

Every time I’m taking pictures from this perspective I realize how much I need a new print for the IKEA frame. Unfortunately I still haven’t found one that I really liked and that had the right size (the frames for 30×40cm pictures).

And here’s a close up. I’ll have to figure out, how to sew the fabrics and make a proper and matching edging, but apart from that I’m quite happy with the outcome.

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.

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

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 feel the long wait for the chair just made me even more in love now that I own it. I just couldn’t resist dedicating it an own blog post. Without content.