Bedroom colors

Let's be optimistic - it will be spring soon! Greyness will be replaced by colors. More light to take decent photos again. Nature will wake up. On that note, our bedroom has been in need of - well, something bright. We'd also need a new bed cover, the current one is simply boring (black), not very good quality and Urho's hair just gets stuck in it. While trying to decide on the cover (AVA room covers seem interesting and practical, experiences anyone?), wonderfully bright bed linen by Lemon Deco work beautifully to add some zest!

Summer

Summer

The world is full of bed linen, but each one of the Four Seasons pillow / duvet cover combinations is so surprisingly unique it is difficult to decide which ones not to want. For spring time and energy-craving state of mind, however, it is Summer and Autumn which are are screaming colour and thus hitting us home the hardest.

Autumn

Autumn

The design and photos of Finnish nature used in the bed linen are the work of Minna's friend Make, the man behind Lemon Deco (and Lemon Gay). Designing bed linen and other textiles is just one of his many talents, and in addition, Make is a great character to hang out with. He actually dropped by for a visit the other day and took all of the photos in this blog post. It was a fun few hours, spiked up with some great gossip, a lot of swearing on some unresolved mysteries of a new camera and deep discussions of dachshund's amazing life. Thank you Make, for the photos and especially for get company!

His Sausageness on Autumn

Being a fan of Urho Make could not miss the opportunity to have His Sausageness posing for a few shots. And as always, Urho collaborated eagerly knowing we would not hold on the treats afterwards.

Make from Lemon Deco

If you are in need of your favourite Lemon Deco season, you can contact Make directly via make.janhunen@kolumbus.fi. He will be delighted to help! 

And by the way, inspired by the colors and energy of Spring and Autumn, we are currently thinking mustard yellow or olive green (!) for the bed cover. Urho can have the old black one to replace one of his worn out sleeping blankets. 

Two beds - One dog

It is said that a bed is one of the most important pieces of furniture one should invest, as we spend one third of our lives in it. Despite of this piece of good advice, we have been sleeping in an old monster, which should have been replaced both for visual and ergonomic reasons a long, long time ago. For some reason, it just hasn't happened yet.

Then one day Pekka's cousin called and asked if we could "baby sit" his bed for an undefined time. He was moving, and the bed wasn't suitable for his new apartment, but he didn't want to get rid of it either. As we had been admiring his bed and thinking of trying to find something similar, we were happy to help him. So a few days later, the old monster was gone and the new arrival had moved in.

Master Urho's bedroom

The bed is called Bella Notte by a Finnish manufacturer Asko. Launched in 1962, it was designed by the in-house design team led by the technical director Frans Meltovaara. Meltovaara, who had been hired by the founder Aukusti Asko-Avonius in 1930's, was a prominent character in Asko's history. He was a "behind-the-scenes" man of action, who ensured the chosen designs were aligned with capabilities of the factory.

At his own time, he might have influenced Asko's direction even more significantly than the founder Asko-Avonius himself. Indeed, it was Meltovaara who first met the designers, such as Tapiovaara and Wirkkala, and decided which ideas would move further. It was also him who was responsible for the technical advancements at Asko. Eventually, Meltovaara retired from Asko with a special recognition given by the Finnish president for a person with exceptional achievements in the field of industry.

Original Asko label

Asko, established in 1918 adopted a functionalist approach similarly to its Scandinavian counterparts after the exhibition of Stockholm in 1930. The transformation from period pieces to functionalism was demonstrated for the first time in the 1932 Asko catalogue, which introduced several items with direct lines and flat surfaces by Maija Heikinheimo.

Also the key design driver of Bella Notte was indeed functional: modularity, in the form of a removable and changeble head board. A consumer could choose a bed with a specific type of head board, or change it later to something different if needed. In our bed, the serial number of the frame (6057) is actually different from the serial number of the head board (6076), indicating this head board is not the one launched in 1962, but another option launched a year later. Bella Notte bed remained in production until 1974.

Side table

One of the reasons the Bella Notte also appeals to us is the teak finish. In 1954, teak entered the Finnish furniture market and remained popular throughout the sixties. The idea of using this exotic wood came from Denmark, where it had been successfully utilized by the furniture industry for several years. One significant reason for the teak expansion was an increase in global availability partly attributable to the war in Indochina, where roads needed to be built and trees cut to provide access for the heavy arms.

Unlike in Denmark where massive teak was preferred and carefully handcrafted by woodsmiths, in Finland teak was mainly used as a top layer of plywood veneer. Therefore, even if teak was a prominent wood on the surfaces of pieces of furniture manufactured in Finland in 1950's, the total share of teak used remained rather low.

Teak, of course!

So, to make a long story short, we are now sleeping much better than before. And the second bed?

Before Christmas, we heard Sofi really enjoys playing with dolls in day care. As she didn't have any at home, we helped her to write a letter to Santa Claus with a few wishes: a doll equipped with a bed and carriage. As Santa was a bit busy we offered him a helping hand and managed to find a 1950's doll bed from a Finnish internet auction site. The label on the bottom indicates it has been manufactured by Niemen Tehtaat Oy, which is the oldest Finnish family business established in 1898. The company still belongs to the same family, and remains as one of the largest furniture manufacturers in Finland.

Different bed, same dog

When Sofi isn't using the bed for one of her dolls, Urho may cease the opportunity and use it to support his nose, especially if the bed has been left in a place where the pipes of water floor heating create a nice, warm spot for him to lay down. That is, of course, if someone has first gently guided him away from his preferred place, the bigger one of the two beds. Fortunately, if all else fails, there is always the couch.

Sliding door

Little by little, we try to finish up with some upstairs odds and ends.

One of the most prominent missing pieces is a bedroom door. Based on the blueprints of the apartment, the wide doorway is not an original solution, instead there used to be a normal, much narrower doorway, which was then expanded by the previous owner. We very much like the modification, but every now and then there are moments when it would be nice to have some privacy in the bedroom - that is, for example when one of us has to volunteer to host Sofi's 5.30 am breakfast, and the other one would still like to enjoy a few more hours of sleep!

Some of you might remember while renovating the upper floor, Pekka constructed a frame around the opening and painted it black. In terms of the actual door, we have set our mids at a sliding solution, which will add again an interesting detail and be well aligned with the prevailing style of the apartment.

Bedroom doorway frame

Being an industrial designer, in his daily work Pekka conducts product development projects and thus has often access to a wide variety of exotic materials. This time it was no less exceptional than pieces of old composite floor panels of a passenger jet made of aramid fibre.

The door assembly

Aramid fibre, better known as Kevlar (one of the registered trade names) has a staggering weight to strength ratio. Because of this feature, it is used in for example body armours, satellites, jet fighters and yes, now also as a backbone of sliding doors! These one inch thick, composite floor panels have a internal honey comb structure and given its material properties, is very light and maintains its form extremely well. If we had actually had to purchase the panels, the door would have been one of the most expensive residential sliding doors ever!

Honeycomb structure

At the moment, we are still debating the other materials and/or colors of the door. Initial ideas include a variety of choices, including wood, metal and laminate. In our previous apartment, Pekka made a similar door with a wood panel finish, but this time we would prefer something else, as the floors and ceiling are already made of wood here. Therefore, we feel that using colors might add some character to the entity in question.

If you are at least a bit familiar with our style, the source of inspiration for the currently preferred door solution is actually quite obvious: the Case Study House 8, or better know as the Eames house, residing on the beautiful hills of Pacific Palisades. Our leading idea is to finish the door with red laminate combined with a black frame similar to what can be found on the outside walls of the Eames house. What do you think?

Sliding door to be

And...this is where we are at. It is somewhat anticlimactic to end the story here, with a picture of a bare door frame. But given the limited number of "available for renovation" hours in a day, the delivery time of the required materials, and the fact that we refuse to stress about schedules, it will take a few more months before the door will be finalised and is happily in place and sliding. Until then we have an inspiring, industrial-like piece of aramid fibre art decorating our bedroom. Ever wonder how trends are born?

Learning by doing

Elsewhere, other things are sliding. Earlier today, for the first time Sofi discovered she now possesses sufficient physical strength to open the kitchen drawers. And what could be more fun than to start organising immediately. Unfortunately, it will take a few more years before Minna and Sofi have a mutual understanding on the most functional order of Tupperware containers inside (as well as outside) the drawer!

Arrival of Toio

A few days ago Pekka came home and right away disappeared to the bedroom carrying something. Hearing the sound of a package being unwrapped and with her birthday approaching, Minna naturally assumed those two could be related. But how wrong could she be! Nearly always we find ourselves preferring the same style and items, but over the years there have been a few occasions when a suggestion from Pekka has received a definite "NO" from Minna. And now, one of those "NOs" had arrived in our bedroom. The Toio Floor Lamp. 

Toio Floor Lamp

The Toio is a strange, yet interesting looking lamp which by providing indirect light creates a curious atmosphere. It was designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos in 1962, and is currently part of the MoMA Design Collection. The Toio was born from assembling existing industrial objects with new applications. For instance, it includes a special 300-watt car reflector bulb, which is attached to a metal stem weighted by the transformer at the base pedestal. Furthermore, the electrical wire is pinned to the stem by fishing-rod screws.

Reflector bulb #1

Reflector bulb #2

Base pedestal and transformer

The Castiglionis are the most well known for their lamps (for example Toio and Arco), which were designed principally for Flos. The Castiglionis have described their design philosophy with the following three sentences: "Start from scratch. Stick to common sense. Know your goals and means". In other words, they seek to achieve good design with minimal intervention on everyday objects. According to their philosophy, the designer should not take for granted any previous similar object, must understand the reason for creating a new product or improving an existing one, and must be aware of the available resources. In addition, the finished product needed to be functional, easy to use and pleasing to the eye. 

Anyhow, the Toio is now here. Pekka loves it. Minna is still indecisive. And thus quite a few things remains to be seen. First, will Minna ever REALLY learn to love it (she already admitted it is not a complete disaster). Second, what will be the final location of this curious lamp. And third, what will be the next definite "NO" just arriving to our doorstep...

Behind the scenes

We have come to notice living in an apartment being renovated requires a certain kind of attitude. Basically, one has to make a choice. Either you can let everything get under your skin, or alternatively you can embrace these very special times as an adventure, a source of several good stories. And later on, when you put those few more or less chaotic weeks into perspective, it is such a short time. That being said, we wanted to share a few entertaining details of our everyday life...

Bedroom curtains
As all the windows in the apartment, the bedroom windows are quite large, and they face directly to the front door entrance. While waiting for blinds to be installed, we found a thin plastic tarpaulin to be a very practical substitute for curtains. Not so pretty, but very functional from the privacy perspective. Also as you can see from the picture below, we had the security system installed (and not only the stickers!). It will be interested to see if Urho operates low enough not to strike too many false alarms.

Bedroom curtains, serving their purpose

Kitchen
Where do you need a big kitchen after all? As long as one has a microwave, water boiler and a toaster, as well as an appreciation for noodles and instant oatmeal, there is not much else one needs. Also, it all fits into a very small space, and whenever you get a real lunch or dinner, it tastes like heaven. Oh and instead of a fridge, all the cold stuff is kept on the terrace - thankfully the nights are pretty cold already!

Temp kitchen 

Downstairs guestroom
Welcome all visitors! We have been so eagerly advertising all of the space we now have to host house guests. Just a minor little detail - hope you don't mind a bit of renovation equipment and waste in the guest room! You should also see the chaos in the study room upstairs - another final frontier of the renovating gear, entry at one's own risk only!

"Welcome! Certainly we will find a place for your mattress!"

The sill of a bathroom doorway
You know how many people put a little sign on the bathroom door to indicate this is "the door you are looking for"? Well, we prefer a hand written indication, and since we currently lack all the doors inside the apartment (they have been sanded and painted and are just waiting to be installed), the obvious choice was to mark the sill instead. So, if someone has ideas how to remove black marker from laquered wood (other than sanding), please be kind to share!

Easy-to-find bathroom

One more night

So, this is it. We are moving in tomorrow. Pekka finished up the master bedroom floor, the tiling in upstairs bathroom is done, and the apartment is organized and cleaned in a sufficient degree, so that the rest of our stuff will fit in. Needless to say the project will go on for a long, long time before even close being ready, but at the moment it is just fantastic to finally live in one address and not need to commute between the old and new. 

Finished master bedroom

Now, must sleep and gather our strength. We should be able to survive and succeed tomorrow with some help from our strong and able friends, who were lured in to help with the move with some beer and pizza. Looking forward to the days in the home with the olive green window!

A day in a closet

Like some of you might know, being in a closet can be quite uncomfortable at times. Today, basically the whole day was spent in a box. Our extremely efficient and hard working team did a fantastic job. Sanding of all closets was finalized. Subsequently, they were all vacuumed, washed and rinsed. Finally, they are now ready to be painted.

Starting point

Paneling removed

Glue being removed with paint removal

Some fresh air, please! 

Sand(ing) man in the closet

Sand(ing) woman in the closet 

Freshly sanded entrance hall coat rack 

Due to the dusty nature of the project, today Urho stayed at home. Fortunately, the dedicated project manager will be back on site tomorrow to check the quality of the job done.

In to the closets

Today it was time to start working with the closets. The plan is to sand, wash and paint them. Sounds easy, but it is rather noisy, dusty and slow - once again. Thankfully, we got help - the absolutely cheapest way to do it - relatives. And not only relatives, but retired relatives.

Master bedroom closets

So far, about third of the closets have been sanded. To maintain the ability of our helpful relatives to breath and work, some hard core protective gear had to be obtained. Tomorrow babies and dachshunds are not allowed on site either, way too dusty.

Sand(ing) man at work

Few more hinges to go

Today we did some prep work for the coming week. The doors are going to go out for professional sanding and painting tomorrow, and for Minna's absolute joy we realized there were few more hinges which needed to be removed. Since this "hinge removal" is such a dear subject, we decided to include a progression of photos of this small but very important project. Thankfully, they are now all off!

Very ill-smelling and poisonous paint removal gel applied

Two layers of paint scratched off and screws removed

Finally, hinges removed

Pekka cleaned and organized the downstairs for the bathroom team to start working tomorrow. Also, he added an additional layer of protection on the kitchen floor. The day also included some further planning - of course the plans keep changing a bit as we go along with the project! And last but not least, Pekka did a fair amount of painting, of course. Just for the record, so far we have used up 4 x 10 liters of white paint. The master bedroom is starting to look pretty nice, as all walls have at least two layers of paint now.

Pekka painting the master bedroom

So what did Urho do? In addition to finding the sunny spots to relax and oversee the project, he at some point had a pretty close encounter with a paint brush. But what the heck, who cares, the two white spots in his neck only add to the little sausage's street cred!!

Urho's renovation look

The last red brick

Someone already asked - "so where is the olive green window"? If you look closely, you can find it in some of the photos posted earlier, but here is a close up. This amazing glass window is located right above and on the left side of the main entrance. In some of the other apartments in the same complex, this beautiful glass has been removed or changed, but we think it is unique and a definite keeper!

The Olive Green Window

Not surprisingly, today we did a lot of painting - again. The last part of the brick wall in the master bedroom, which had not yet been painted, finally got the first layer of white. To gain a finished look, the brick requires at least three layers, so even there is no more visible red left, there is still much painting to be done.

The end of the brick wall

The very last red brick

For lunch, we ordered some pizza. Urho, the little sneaky sausage saw his opportunity when we were working in another room, and couldn't resist temptation. Caught in action, he still managed to steal a big piece of pizza and as a result, received a lot of "constructive feedback". Lesson learned?

Welcome!

A bit more than a week ago we finally become the official owners of our new 1960's dream home. Now, it is time to transform this already beautiful place to our true dream home. It will take a considerable amount of time, money, sweat and tears, but the journey will be so worth it! 

Living room

When we first walked in we were so impressed by the huge living room windows and a beautiful brick walls. Currently, the place is mostly in its original condition. It has a lot of character, and we want to renovate it in a way that will honor the mid-century modern spirit of the apartment. The plan is to save as much of the original details as possible.

The view from the living room windows

Upstairs terrace

Some of the work (for example kitchen and downstairs bathroom) will be done by professionals, but there is a lot of work we will be doing ourselves. To give you and overview of the project, below is the floor plan, in which the numbers reflect to different projects - what will be done and where.

1. Hard wood floors - sanding and new laquer
2. Master bedroom - paint, new floor
3. Kitchen - complete makeover
4. Bathroom - remove tiles and paint walls
5. Balcony - build glass ceiling and wall
6. Bathroom - complete makeover
7. Living room lighting
8. Electricity
9. Entrances to storage spaces

So far, the old kitchen has been removed, and the floors have been sanded and laquered, and part of the brick wall painted...