Spring is green

Even if it is not all green outside yet, spring is the time when I definitely want something green in my home. I am not a big fan of green as a colour, but I love it on plants and the new green of trees and grass in early summer makes me so happy. I got so lucky with this apartment, since the windows are facing a park. On the other side there are more buildings. I definitely stare the green of the trees and bushes than the wall of another building.

I was a bit late to start growing the grass for Easter, so instead I decided to try out growing barley. The cat has definitely liked it better and has done some gardening to keep the growth in control. Not to mention how much I love the look of the green against my dining table. There is just something very pleasing about the colours together. Also, in the picture a candle holder I found at the flea market last week.

For the longest time I was against anything marble, but then with one kettle I bought came a marble trivet and once I set it on my new table, I found it very good looking. Perhaps I was traumatised with the marble printed kitchen tiles I had, so I couldn't think a thing made out of marble was anything else than butt ugly. Now I am eyeing this tray from Granit made out of marble. Would look rather good on my table there.

I am rather bad with plants, to be honest. Not many can survive with me. Soleirolia was a bit of a risky plant to buy, since it needs to have moist soil all the time. I cannot forget the poor plant, otherwise it will die. It was just too cute to pass.

I also have this plant I have forgotten what it is. It has managed with me for over a year now, so it has proven to be rather resilient. After the winter it has got a bit wild and started to grow in every direction, so it doesn't look so neat as the soleirolia next to it. 

I also planted a couple of plants myself and I will see if I can manage to grow them or if they just give up in my hands. I have couple of Zanzibar gems potted and even if they are supposedly very slow to grow, I read they are good for the indoor air. So if one of them starts liking how they are, I will move them to the bedroom. My all white bedroom definitely needs a splash of colour.

In my kitchen I have a variable selection of herbs and other plants for food. Right now I have grown some pea sprouts to put on top of my salads as a decoration. I like to put them on my bread and in my bagles too.

DIY dining table

When I visited the local wood shop asking for advice on what kind of materials I should be using on my dining table, they neatly had a piece of glued timber in a size I want. I needed a 80x80cm table, just enough for two, not more than four diners. 

This came along pretty quickly since all I had to do was to build the base and the legs and treat the table top before waxing the whole table. A bit of work whining about it on the previous post.

I brushed the top with a wire brush and sanded it to get the stripy look of an old wood. This way I was hoping the wax will soak in the way I intended, to mimic the board being very old. The wax was antique oak coloured.

Can I fave feelings for a table? I think I can. I love this table! It turned out exactly how I imagined it! Not to mention the fact that I have something made by me, which in itself feels incredibly good, it also looks so good. Also, now my black Tolix stools look like they belong. I am very pleased!

Some assembly required

I didn't have a dining table for the longest time, since it was so difficult to find a table small enough for my needs. My mom had a table that fit, so I took it as a temporary solution. An age old plain white butterfly table didn't really do it for me so I kept looking.

I found a table I fancied at my friend's house! She had bought the table from the previous owners of her new apartment and they had had it custom made from planks that were repurposed from some old barn or something. I knew I wanted something similar to that.

My problem was that my family didn't have a 100 year old house with 100 year old panels or anything I could repurpose. These days people who have 100 year old houses know the value of old doors and old planks. Those things are crazy expensive...

So then my option was to build my own table. I had a low budget, but very clear idea of what I want. I did some research and indeed, someone had done a table in a way I was thinking. Idea was found here.

I haven't done much woodwork before, so we will see how much I have to refine what I have come up with so far. This is very much trial and error, especially with the surface of the table.

My coworker, who used to build furniture, warned me about using too much glue since the wood might break, so I decided to use screws to hold the frame together. Also, this was way quicker to do like this.

The wood for the frame was chosen for me by the expert at my local wood shop. These would look the most similar to the table top I decided on.

The table top was glued timber. I was planning on using floor boards for this, but the wood shop just happened to have a piece of glued timber in the size I wanted as a left over piece, so I got it cheaply. The expert at the wood shop promised I will get the same result as with floor boards. It was a good idea, since it saved me completely the step of building the table top so I could just skip to the step of processing the table top. I sanded and used a wire brush to make the table top look striped as old wood does. Then I used wax to make it look old.

This is where I am at so far. The first layer of wax has been applied and the colours look pretty cool in my opinion. I am pretty excited about this!

Well planned...

Is well planned really half done? I am not sure. Still what I have been doing is to write down what I want to do and made some budgets so I don't go terribly over board. Easier said than done, when there is exactly something I want.

Little updates here and there and something I have wanted to get done since I first painted here and some newer ideas I have thought more recently, worth doing, I hope.

Livingroom

• Dining table - wood, wax, glue
• Curtains
• Deer wall sticker
• Posters on the wall

Bedroom

• Wall papers - wall papers ordered
• Foot boards 400x25x185x360x285
• Painting of the window frames
• Evening out the walls
• New mirror
• New table lamp
• Frame for grandmother's picture

Others

• Painting of the doors
• Stickers on the front door
• Paint the chair black
• Shelf to white
• Get the coat hanger from Nita

As the long Easter weekend is upon us, I got the ingredients for my table ready. I already managed to go over my table budget, but that was rather poor planning. I just hope it will be exactly of what I want. It has been a while I have done any wood work, so I am pretty excited on doing it.

My current table is not really doing it for me. It functions and I have a nice white background to take pictures with, but I do not like how it looks. I have been spending a lot of time just browsing through all kinds of tables but I haven't found one I have liked. Most of them were also way too big. I don't have a big lounge area, so I definitely don't want the dining table to take most of the space. Custom made was my solution and by now my fingers are itching to make something myself again.

Wish me luck!