When it gets dark, you need light

It's now past the middle of November. For most Swedes this is the worse month of the year.
I personally do not suffer with the same extent the "darkness" - although it would be nice to have 15 minutes more every day to get those two apples or more that are still hanging on our trees - however, one trick to survive is to have a lot of light indoor.
I think it makes it very cosy, and that, combined with candles make a very welcoming atmosphere.
Ideally, some nice old paraffin lamp would make the light softer, but we risk to have a fire or two with our cats jumping around.

Last year, we had serious problems in many rooms, due to the lack of lamps, especially in the stairwell. We have decided to postpone buying the lamp we want to hang there, for when that room will be redone, but we had to supply at least some compromise to avoid navigating in a pitch black dark in the evenings.

During the past months, we have been quite active in purchasing different lamps. Mainly floor lamps and ceiling lights.

In our dining room

The first is a beautiful Jugend lamp (better pictures on the link) bought via Bukowskis Market. The disadvantage is that we haven't yet managed to use it since it seems not working. We really need to get an hang of an electrician or somebody that can check this out.

Sometimes, one can be lucky also in the local "loppis" (flea market), especially the ones online, via Facebook.
It is there we bought this "malmkrona", a 6-armed brass lamp who maybe needs to be streightened in the arms a bit there and then, but it was definitely a bargain. It seems these kind of lamps are not that popular at all...

Our malmkrona in the studio

On the same wave of good price, we bought this floor lamp that, according to the previous owners, is from the 40s and works very fine in the "other part" of the dining room, where we are having a bit more 40-50s style furniture.
We have definitely been lucky with the colors, but I think that the lampshade is actually from the 70s, looking at its shape.

In a corner of the dining room

But one can be lucky also at the auction online. Then, the result can be discussed.
This particular floor lamp (better picture in this link) was definitely ignored by everyone but me.
When it arrived in our house, Mattias was almost horrified. It looked out of proportions, the lampshade was (and is still) a bit dusty and unbalanced and it seemed not fitting anywhere. However, I had an idea and as soon as I had few minutes free I implemented it, putting the lamp in the place I had in mind (and removing another lamp which should go in the studio, instead, in due time).
What struck me the most of the lamp, though, was the pedestal and only for that this lamp from the 20-30s is deserving a place in Villa Bellevue ;-)

The red room lamp

Its beautiful pedestal

Just to complete the touch in the "red room", we finally found the right lamp (in our opinion) for this room.
This time it was a very lucky shot. Once, we were driving with the car, I don't remember if it was the case that Isabella was sleeping or we were hoping she would. Anyway, we passed some remote road near Staffanstorp, in a place called Gullåkra. There we saw a small place indicating selling of antiques: Allmoge Gården. We stopped and we investigated the place. It had a lot of nice stuff on which we were drooling, however, we got stuck on this lamp and after several weeks, we went back to check also another one, but we still preferred this one, mainly for the colors.
We could have gone for something a big bigger, considering the room dimensions, but afterall, we are very satisfied of this purchase.
The lamp has also a very nice "lift" to move the lamp up and down(useful when your relatives are very tall) and it is a most likely electrified paraffin jugend lamp.

Jugend lamp in the red room

Finally, as I mentioned before we had tried to find something to lit up the stairwell without the need to buy the "final" ceiling light. Considering the most immediate need (which will be to create a cosy place to hang around at nights when "somebody" will be hungry), we needed a simple table lamp. We tried with a floor lamp but it wasn't working.
And with a small table, bought on Blocket, we are half way (or a bit less) to have that corner completed.

On top of the stairwell

The "funny" detail is that, if we are surely often aiming at buying old things, this is simple an IKEA lamp...Årstid.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures of this collection! We still miss of course a lot of light, but I think we are at least able to move around without the risk of stumbling into everything :-)

Jugend humidifiers

It has been definitely ages since one of us has written anything about Villa Bellevue.
This is not because nothing has happened. However, there hasn't been any major renovation work ongoing, but just fixing a lot of small and medium things.
I have realized too late, that I should have taken some pictures of the garden before some serious clean up took place, but now the "before and after" effect is completely spoiled.

We have done a lot of purchases as well and I guess that is what I will mainly pinpoint at, while finding some more wow-effect post to write.

When searching for some completely different item (which I even forgot what it was) I managed to find on Tradera (the Swedish Ebay) some old humidifier. Jugend. Turquoise, matching perfectly or our bedroom walls or our stairwell/entrance colors.

If our first choice was our bedroom (dreaming of a breathable air at night in wintertime), we had soon to resign the idea because the humidifier wasn't fittin the radiator. However, it was perfect for the ones in the stairwell.
And there it went!

Detail of the humidifier

In the right context...