...SUMMER KITCHEN AFTER...

Even the summer kitchen looks better... the sink table got a black weather guard coating and I added the old table with new brown coating to give more space to prepare food for the BBQ down at the pier. Now we just need nice sunny weather to enjoy all that...

.

...AFTER...

The new look of the deck chairs... please come and sit down.

...AFTER...

The big plastic box has gone...and now the entrance can welcome our guest...

NEW LOOK OF THE STAIRS

The stairs at the entrance

..."SAD ENTRANCE TERRACE"...

The entrance terrace before "the lifting"

...BEFORE...

The summer kitchen two days ago...

WHAT NEXT...

Two days ago on Monday, I was thinking of my next posting on this blog. So in the afternoon when I got back from town to the chalet, I noticed that my entrance terrace with stairs needed some upgrade. There were still some unfinished weather guard coating missing on the two wooden poles and under the roof and the terrace looked "triste" (sad).

So I took a walk around all the terrace areas around the chalet and found out several things that needed my attention. Around the Sauna building by the sea the terrace still needed the weather guard coating and my summer kitchen was asking for some maintenance. On the pier the two deck chairs looked miserable with the fabric that ones was black and now it had turn to grew with the sun light. All our wooden garden furniture on the pier and on the upper terrace where dry and grey, so they needed some furniture oil to get their natural colour back. During two days I was working hard to give a new look for all the furniture and surrounding terraces.

PAINTED STRIPES

Opposite side of the light grey wall behind the bed head I have painted stripes on the white wall with two pink and two grey colours.

PINK, GREY AND SILVER...

In my daughter's bedroom I have chosen grey and pink as the main colours. So the silver colour frames goes well with the grey shades. In the frames there are lovely postcards that I found in Scotland. The frames are on the top of the photo shelve that I bought from Ikea. On the top of the bed head there is SHHH... for silence with wooden letters. The bed and the drawers are white and the bed side table has metal legs with glass top. I have painted the wooden round boxes with metallic silver paint.

...MORE FRAMES...

The right side of that mirror, two postcards of Caudi's design that I bought in Barcelona, in the small frame a postcard from Maldives, our honeymoon destination, 20 years after our wedding, but it was worth to wait. And at last but not the least is my hero Nelson Mandela. Our "Madiba", like they call him in South Africa which was our home country during so many years.

FRAMES

I am not an art collector. I like simple frames. I frame postcards that I have bought during my traveling. I have special things in frames that are important for me. I don't have many family photos in frames, the family travels in my heart.

At the entrance of our chalet there is a large mirror on the wall in the middle of the corridor. Both sides of that mirror there are four frames on the top of the long shelve. On the left side a frame with a date, a special date when my husband and I met for the first time. Then next to it there is a poem about our daughter and me written by my husband. In the small frame there is some Moomin characters and the white frame has white wings - the wings that carries my dreams...

A RAINY DAY BLISS

A rainy day in Turku Archipelago can be a bliss.

Walking in the forest with warm soft rain is one of those moments I enjoy, since I was a child. Very relaxing and the rain deepens all the green colours, a real green therapy. In July you can find blueberries and Chanterelle mushrooms in the most of the forest areas. This year blueberries are really everywhere but to find mushroom you need more patience, they can grow half hidden in the moss, soft grass or old leaves. Chanterelles are one of my favorite mushrooms, easy to identify and their flavour is the best when freshly cooked. The best way for storing them, is drying.

DECORATION & LIFESTYLE EXPO IN AIX-EN-PROVENCE, SOUTH OF FRANCE

A meeting in middle of June for all those in love with the decor of the south. Deco magazine Maison Cote Sud organizes an expo in Park Jourdan in town of Aix-en-Provence. The expo is open for public and you will find quality producers and manufactures of furniture, art, ceramic, all kind of deco items, local delicatessen, etc. I visited the expo for the first time this June, it was their 11th expo and since they started. You can find it on http://www.vivrecotesud.fr/ at the end of website page you can click for English version.

Storage place with stairs. Oak stairs that takes us to the
mezzanine. Metal hand rail and protection cables are made
with curtain cables.

On the other Stockholm series table from Ikea I have set up the Pentik silver reindeers, which are candle holders, two vases and three little tea light imitating the back ground fabric on the wall.

Square glass vases filled with sea shells and fresh flowers. Opaque ones are lights and my favorite bowls are Maribowls from Iittala, in Finnish Mariskooli. You can find all existing Maribowl colours on www.iittala.fi or www.marimekko.com

My favorite colour is the rose /olive, it is the mix of these two colours and the colour change according the light you have in the room. The Maribowls are a real collectors items and it can be used in many ways.

GET CREATIVE!

I read a lots of different decoration magazines. I follow UK, Finnish, French, Australian, South African and Spanish magazines. To keep all ideas from wall painting to accessories and all what comes to decoration, I cut pictures from the mags and keep them for a while. Then when I have piles of pictures, I will sort them out in some kind of order, bathrooms, kitchens, colours, accessories etc. Then I will glue the pictures on big visual diaries or sketch books with plastic covers. The blank white pages fills up fast with all kind of pictures that I want to keep, I don't write much on those pages, the image will tell more than words. I have made plenty these type of books; one for colours for painting ideas, country style, rustic style, modern African style, I even have one book for Christmas. I made even a special one, when I was looking for ideas for our chalet. You can have plenty stylish ideas for your home. When ever I am short of tricks for accessories, the best way is go back to my pages and I will always find something new on them.
Doing these books are one of my favorite pass time on a rainy day.

TV CORNER In the Chalet

A cosy corner with Marimekko fatboys.

The light coloured wall is made of birch wood, behind the 1,2cm thick wooden sheet there is a black fabric.

All design by me.

Our holiday house is called "Kurjenlento" meaning "the fly of the crane" is situated in Merimasku on the Turku Archipelago in Finland. It is a true dream come through for me. Most of the design was made by me and some professional help of Honkatalot, a Finnish company that sells different type of houses. It is a eco house that me and my husband built with help of some very handy carpenters and few good friends.

We spent here part of our summer every year. It is a place were we enjoy the sea, sauna, fishing, boating, cooking food on the pier, friends and family and watching the sun that never really sets in summer time in Finland.