Old Baptist orphanage from the 17th century

Posted on January 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

In the Dutch city of Haarlem the old ‘Weeshuis der Doopsgezinden’ (Baptist Orphanage) has been remodeled into several city apartments. The building, dating back to 1634, is located in the very heart of the historic city center.

One of the apartments on the top floor is for sale and the owner(ess) granted me permission to share it with you.

The apartment is not very big, about 75 square meters, which is about 810 square feet.  But because of the high ceilings, the light and the clever lay-out it feels like a lot more. The ceiling is still pretty much original with exposed beams. This allowed the architect to create a small room/entresol overlooking the living room and kitchen.  To get acces to this, he designed a modern and basic flight of stairs which do very well in these historic surroundings.

entresol

entresol

The kitchen was designed especially for this flat.  It’s woodwork is finished in absolute white. The surface is solid granite slate. Together with the top of the bill appliances brands, this kitchen is a dream for wannabe chefs.

towards the kitchen

towards the kitchen

 
New skylighhts and clever use of existing windows make this a very light and spacious apartment. This compensates the fact that there is no balcony. However, very few houses in Dutch cities do. And often city councils like to keep it that way especially in the case of monuments. It will therefore likely not be possible to create one here.
A spacious double bedroom and bathroom with shower and hook-ups for washer/dryer further complete this flat.
light and spacious

light and spacious

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Funny little table. maybe create a padded stool?

Posted on January 15, 2009 | 1 comment

On garbage night when we were walking our dog Lola, we found this small quaint little table between someones trash.

funny little table...someone loves carpentry ;-)

funny little table...someone loves carpentry 😉

It looks like it walked out of a childrens book. It has black details on the legs and on the side of the top. A funny feature is that it opens up to reveal a box shaped storage unit. Great for knitting needles or the remote control of your TV (and in our case VCR/VHS, DVD player, UPC digital set, stereo)

Storage!

Storage!

I think I will try to paint it warm grey or black and maybe pad the top with a grey-ish floral pattern or a lush velvet. I would just need to buy some round shaped padding foam and fabricated pins.

A bit like this.

A bit like this.

Only I would leave the bottom bit wood I guess. It might be too small to pad the entire thing plus I really like the legs. I guess I could draw fake milled lines in a slightly darker colour on the legs to make it looks more rich?

I would end up with a more classic version of the well known skai/faux leather knitting poof our grannies loved.

I had one in green in my room in college ;-)

I had one in green in my room in college 😉

Any suggestions? Let me know. I will make sure to post the final result on here.

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Upholstery tips

Posted on January 15, 2009 | 2 comments

I could do with a bit of advice.

My husband and I have 6 dining room tables that we love. The current upholstery however has seen better days. The colour is still fine, and it looks OK from a distance, but a closer look learns that it might be time to have them redone.  I myself am thinking of a velours or heavy cotton/wool type fabric with a rich texture in a light or maybe dark grey.

Dining room chair

Dining room chair

Then we have this antique arm chair. It came from my parents old house and they don’t have room for it in their apartment. I believe it used to belong to my late grandmother. We love the wood and style but are not too pleased with the colour of the fabric on the seat. I think a big floral pattern in maybe a heavy silk or rich cotton mix in blue/green/grey or, to match the red corduroy sofa, a red floral pattern would look great.

arm chair

arm chair

What do you guys think?

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Borat’s brother’s house?

Posted on January 14, 2009 | 2 comments

On Youtube there are tons of video’s of proud home owners sharing footage of their humble abodes.

Some are amazing, stylish, chique, trendy, quirky, crafty and cute. Other are.. well, just different…

Borat’s brother?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C5tzhNC4NM]

(somehow the youtube window doesn’t appear, so try copy-pasting the url in yourt browser)

I do like the dining room chairs and, obviously, the pool but the rest of the decor is missing a certain je ne sais quoi..Maybe he just moved in? If not, let’s hope he’ll discover the joys of decorating soon 😉

This house obviously shows massive potential!

I will ask whoever posted it to share the final result with us. The floor and view alone make for a fantastic home. I bet it will look smashing once everything is renovated and done up. Can’t wait!

Then there is this post of someone’s new home in Raleigh North Carolina USA.

The music is a bit too bombastic and, quite frankly, scary for the nice outdoorsy feeling you get from watching the video.  I never knew it could be fall like that in North Carolina, thought it was too far south for that. I do hope they put up some sort of sound wall along that highway there. The house seems to be pretty close, and judging from the video the deck is facing the highway.

The street looks like it is a dead end street which will limit the traffic in front of the house. And I think you can walk towards the creek from the garden? The fencing and barb wired structures on that bridge  just scream “please don’t jump” don’t they?

Check out Youtube yourself and type in ‘my new house’ or ‘our new house’.

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