The nursery

I haven´t been showing much from my house lately and the reason is that we haven´t done much!

It´s not easy to get things done while you are pregnant and especially after the baby is born!

The last thing I did, was the nursery. Even though I am not a color gal, I decided to give my daughter some in her room. And since I am not into too much pink either, I decided to save that for later. I am sure she will have her princess period in a few years, as every other little girl I know :-).

Bought the old, repainted locker not to long ago. A perfect size for her qute little dresses and shoes.

The box on top of the old closet is from the series "Forest Girl" from Silly U, and the  rabbit lamp a gift from my good helper, Marcela.

Image of box found on Silly U.

Nursery photographed by Trine Thorsen

Flowers in bloom

The apple orchard outside my house is in bloom and it is absolutely breathtaking to look at.  Don´t you agree?

Even my run-down picked fence looks wonderful surrounded by the trees in bloom.

In a few days, the lilacs will be blooming, and the garden will be at its best at the yard sale this weekend. Fingers crossed for sunny weather!

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Back again!

 

Ten months has gone by since my last post, and time has sure flown by! I decided to enjoy my time as a new mom, and dedicated all my time that. Unread magazines piled up, no new blogposts were written, only a few new furnitures was made, and hardly anything new was done on the house 

(incredible how much time these little ones take...). Now, my daughter is nine months, and I feel that it is time to do a little bit of "my stuff".  Now it is back to work, reading magazines and searching for new inspiration :-).

Spring is here and a couple of weeks ago I "unpacked" all my gardening gear, pots and outdoor furnitures, and went to the nursery to buy some plants. Here´s the result!

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Busy bee...

I can´t seem to keep my promises and again there has been an absence when it comes to blogging (SO SORRY!!!).

My head and time has been filled with work, renovating and preparing for the little one that will arrive some time in August. Living in a house from 1920 there´s A LOT to be done... New bedroom, baby´s room, and hopefully a new bathroom later this fall.

Now, only a few weeks away, it is time to slow down and bloggging is a really good help to make me try and do so. Just need to find some interesting topics to blog about ;-).

Have to admit that I am spending a few hours a day searching the net and magazines for inspiration for our new rooms, and I have almost decided on the result. This is how I picture our bedroom will end up looking (a white and grey base), with our own designed bedside tables and closets. Can´t wait!

Image found on vtwonen.nl

Photography: Tjitske van Leeuwen

Styling: Marianne Luning

My porch

 

During the spring and summer months, in between renovating the house, photographying, photoshopping and whatnot, I spend as much time as I can on my wonderful porch. There, surrounded by lovely greens and my old nicknack, I am totally at peace. 

After a cold winter, it is now time to get my garden gloves and my things from the loft, and get the porch ready for yet another wonderful season.

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Styling: Christine Hærra

Wood works

I don´t there should be any doubt that my boyfriend and I are into wood these days... Tall and wide shelves, tall and narrow shelves, small shelves, tables, benches and consoles, we make it all! Common are simple furnitures with clean lines, mostly painted in white. Our favourites are the things we make to keep our logs in. Neatly stacked logs are so decorative, and with a piece like this you don´t need much more... Soon we will try and make a blog or a website with bigger images, sizes and prices. Until then, you´ll have to visit this blog for regular updates.

Photography: Trine Thorsen

New doors?

I have scraped and removed paint from three doors in the house, and I´ve already had enough of it. There´s about seven left, and even though I am not going to continue the project until next summer 

( it´s easier to do it outside in nice weather), I have already started to dread all the work.

I like old doors better than new ones so I either have to stick with the job and the hours it is going to take, or come up with a better solution. In the 70´s and 80´s people used to put a piece of plywood on the doors to cover the flaking paint, and to get a new look, and that is what the owners did in this house too. Underneath the plywood are some beautiful, old doors that just needs a little bit (or actually quite a lot!) of renovating.

Maybe I can do the same, and instead of having a boring plywood door, glue one of these wallstickers from Bolia outside? At least they have a little bit more paint on them than my doors. Don´t think they come in the exact door size though, so I might have to photograph one of the doors I have already renovated, print them out and glue them on top of the plywood.

Images found on Bolia.com

Busy bee...

 

 

 

Even though my boyfriend and have more than enough with work and the house, we have started on a new project, furniture making! Since I am so fortunate to have a very handy man, why not take advantage of that? Together we design and create simple and timeless furnitures in our workshop-the diningroom. Every week new furnitures are popping up around the house, and now we are even thinking about selling them. If we make it on time, we will attend DEJM (Designernes eget julemarked) on Dec.3rd.and 4th in Oslo, with a few samples and a lookbook of a few of the things we have, and can create. Our ideas is to make everything custom made of your choice, either it´s a bench, a kitchen shelf (or a table), a wood rack or a closet.

If this is anything of your interest, don´t hesitate to contact me by sending me and email.

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Cool closet!

For my birthday in August I got the nicest present from my boyfriend. A homemade closet!

The closet is a specially made for me, with the color of my choice and big enough to fit all my clothes.

I get so happy every time I open the bedroom door and the first thing I see is this great piece of work.

I have "ordered" more, but in different sizes and colors. One to go in the diningroom and a few more to go elsewehere. I also found some great antique hooks at Vestkanttorget last Saturday, so maybe I have to beg for a shelf too...

If you would like a specialmade closet just for you, send me and email and I´ll pass it on to the cabinet maker :-).

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Working girl!

The past few weeks have been hectic with loads of work to finish before everyone´s taking a few weeks off from the office. I started mine last Friday, but I have to say it has been all but a relaxing week. As a owner of a large renovating project my summer holiday is being spent working on the house. So far this week I have been painting a few windows, removed three layers of paint from an old door, started renovating our so called bathroom (which is still in an old washing room in the basement) and getting our dining room ready to be wallpapered (plastered, sanded and cleaned). In between some gardening that is... Phew!!! In addition, I´ve had my in-laws visiting which also means a whole lot more cooking and socializing than ususal. So, I hope I´m being exused for my lack of blogging ;-).

I will be continuing in the same vein a few more days, but if the weather permits it (doesn´t look so bright this coming week...), I will be treating myself to a few days off and hopefully a trip to the beach or two for some tanning and a dip in the ocean.

An a few hours in bed blogging of course...

:-)

Image found on Ana. Gr´s photostream on Flickr.

Thinking...

My new kitchen is getting there, but there´s a few things still missing. I really need a new picture to go above my kitchen table and would really like an image with a food theme... I am thinking about a large one, app. 90x160 cm, or a triptych- a serie of three images. The cheapest is of course to create one myself, but it would also be fun if I found an image taken by a fellow photographer (I have seen a few that I like!).
Large format prints are quite expensive, so I have to be sure that I have chosen the right one before I go ahead and have it made.

Right now I am considering this one...Maybe this can help me get a love for baking?

Photography: Trine Thorsen
Styling: Tara Ballantyne

Going for green!

A dash of green is a great additional color to all the dark furnitures I have in my home.

Wouldn´t mind adding the table and chairs too!!! Think it could go very well the rest of my stuff...

Hmmm... guess I have to start saving once again :-)

Great textures and trendy buys now showing in Elle Decoration, Norway.

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Styling: Tara Ballantyne

My style...

After getting my things up from the basement and down from the loft, I guess it´s time to show you my style. Not a very colorful palette is there? :-) The walls are desperately waiting to become white, so is the floor, but I´m afraid that has to wait a little longer. Now I just want to enjoy having a livingroom without a kitchen area for a while, before I start tearing things apart again...

Photography: Trine Thorsen

I´m back!

My blog has definately been put aside lately, I have had too many projects going on so there hasn´t been much time. I´m sorry!

Here´s what happened...

My boyfriend went away on a three weeks trip to L.A, so I decided to get things organized while he was away (I guess to be nice, but also because I was fed up living like we have been the past 1 1/2 years. I took some action without him knowing... Oops! With great help from my wonderful mother we began working. The following three weeks we sanded and painted windows in the kitchen, unpacked tons of boxes with kitchen stuff, hung up lamps in several rooms, washed down walls, moved furnitures around (with help from great neighbours), sanded and painted the new built toilet upstairs etc. etc. It was hard work, but great fun to see the all the changes. Finished the last coat in the new toilet upstairs right in time, just one hour before my very tired and jetlagged man came in the door, and a very tired me kissed him hello and goodbye and left for Paris.

There´s still things missing (like cupboard doors, mouldings and the right countertop), but that´s ok. It´s definately a whole lot better than cooking my dinner in the living room and having to go down to the basement to get some water ;-)

My creative workspace

Det første rommet som ble pusset opp i huset var det som skulle bli mitt hjemmekontor. Med masse utklipp og bilder til inspirasjon hadde jeg sett for meg at det skulle bli et rom på høyde med disse. Jeg drømte om en kreativ og visuelt vakkert arbeidsrom der veggene skulle være fylt av lekre og inspirerende utklipp, en gamle kontorstol til å sitte på, og industrilamper på skrivebordet og i taket. For ikke å snakke om alt det gamle kontorutstyret jeg har kjøpt og samlet på de siste årene, som møysommelig skulle danderes og styles på skrivepulten. Det jeg glemte i farten var at jeg som fotograf er avhengig av en 30 tommers dataskjerm når jeg redigerer bilder, en god stol når jeg sitter timer foran skjermen, og mye plass på skrivebordet til alt papiret, huskelappene, "to do" mappene etc. Følelser hadde tatt overhånd for fornuften- igjen! Etter et par uker på en gammel, knirkete (men gud så fiin!) rusten kontorstol som hverken kunne justeres opp eller ned, en overfylt arbeidspult med altfor mye "stæsh", måtte jeg bare innse at slaget var tapt. Misfornøyd byttet jeg ut stolen til en mer komfortabel (og billigere) variant fra Ikea og ryddet overflødig stæsh vekk. Det eneste som fikk lov til å være igjen var industrilampene og utklippene på veggen.

:-(

The first room we redecorated in the house was the room that was to become my homeoffice. With tons of of lovely images in front of me, cut out from miscellaneous magazines, I had pictured my room to be just like one of these...I dreamt of a room with a desktop overfilled with the old office utensils I had collected over the past years, inspirational tearsheets on the walls, and old industrial chairs and lamps. What I forgot was that as a photographer I am depended on a large LCD screen to work on my images, a good, comfortable chair to sit in the hours I spend in front of the computer, and a desk with room for all my papers, Post It notes and "to do" lists to remind me of what has to be done (getting old here...). I guess feelings came before my senses- again! After a few weeks on an old, schreeching (but oh sooo beautiful!) office chair, an overfilled with way to much stuff, I had to admit that my "battle" was lost. I sadly exchanged the chair for a more comfortable (and cheaper!) kind, and cleaned the crowded desk for beautifully styled stuff. The only thing that I kept behind was the industrial lamps and and the tearsheets on the wall... :-(

All images found on Rum.dk

Sneak preview: The kitchen...

That was then....

This is now!

Kjøkkenet begynner å ta form noe som er veldig stas! I forrige uke ble gulvene beiset og oljet, i helgen blir listeverket grunnet og malt og i neste uke kommer elektrikeren for å sette opp det elektriske.

Det er fremdeles mye frem og tilbake når det gjelder kjøkkeninnredningen... Planen var å bygge den selv, men etter mye om og men, diskusjoner (for ikke å snakke om krangler!), utfordringer, mangel på verktøy og ikke minst tiden det vil ta, har jeg begynt å miste lysten. Jeg vil ha et kjøkken nå! Problemet er at jeg er litt sær, og liker få av de tingene jeg ser som er ferdigprodusert og som passer vårt budsjett.

Så nå tar jeg en runde med alle leverandørenes 3D planleggingsverktøy og ser om jeg finner noe som passer i smak, stil og ikke minst pris!

På tide å vinne i Lotto!

The kitchen is starting to take shape which is veeery exciting! Last week the floors were whitewashed and oiled, this weekend I will paint the mouldings. Next week the electrician will come and install lamps etc.

It is still a lot of back and forth regarding the kitchen interior. Our plan was to build the interior ourselves, but after hours of planning, discussing (and arguing!), we are now reconsidering. The challenge with the tools we have in possession, the time it will take build it and the big investments of tools to finish it, has made me dreading it. I want a kitchen now! The only thing is that I have a hard time finding a kitchen that suits my taste and budget.

So my next step will be to download all the kitchen suppliers 3d planning tools and see if I can find something that suits my style, taste- and not to say the least- my budget!

Time to win the lottery...

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Waiting...

Det har ikke blitt så mange bilder av huset og oppussingen her på bloggen som jeg hadde tenkt. Tanken var å vise før og etter bilder, men ting går som vi vet ikke alltid helt som planlagt (mye overaskelser i gamle hus!).
Da det regnet som verst i sommer oppdaget jeg til min store fortvilelse vann som rant fra loftet og ned i soverommet. Brått stoppet prosjekt bad opp, taket måtte skiftes.Vi har i flere måneder ventet på en lokal (og veldig populær) snekker som først sa han skulle komme i september, så i oktober, så november, deretter i desember, men nå med siste beskjed januar.

I tillegg venter vi i spenning på en visstnok fantastisk ny type gulvolje (bestilt fra Tyskland) som vi skal behandle det nylagte gulvet på kjøkkenet med.

Det blir nok ikke noe ferdig kjøkken til jul slik vi hadde håpet (vi håpet på det i fjor også men det er en annen historie), men som vi alle vet; den som venter på noe godt, venter ikke forgjeves...

I haven´t been showing you too many images from the house and the renovation as I planned, but we all know things don´t always turn out the way we want them to. During a heavy rainstorm this summer, I noticed water dripping from the ceiling in our bedroom. The roof was leaking!
Suddenly "project bathroom" stopped, the roof had to go first! We have for several months now been waiting for a local (and very popular) carpenter who first said he was coming in September, then October, then November, so December and the last thing we heard- in January. In addition to that we are waiting for a fanastic new organic white oil (coming all the way from Germany) to go on the new kitchen floor. So I guess there won´t be any new kitchen this Christmas either (we hoped so last year too, but that is a whole different story!). But as they say; all good things come to those who wait...

Image by Trine Thorsen

Tadaaah!!!

I april i år viste jeg en bitteliten snikktitt på en sak jeg hadde gjort sammen med stylist Kirsten Visdal for Bonytt. Foto opptaket ble gjort hjemme hos meg, i det kaoset det blir når man pusser opp et gammelt hus. Foruten det Kirsten hadde med seg, brukte vi det som var ledig av hjørner, rom, ting og møbler for å få den rette stemningen. Resultatet ble slik!

In April this year I showed you a tiny sneakpeak from a feature I did with stylist Kirsten Visdal for Bonytt magazine. The photoshoot was done at my place with the chaos that comes along with redecorating an old house. We used what we had of empty corners, rooms, props and furnitures to create the right atmosphere. The result is here!

Photography: Trine Thorsen