We didn't want to burn the floor

Since there are actually laws (if not recommendations) and common sense to dictate that when one has a fireplace, you should protect your wooden floor, we did try to invent something to put under our modern fireplace.

The idea also was to use the space under the fireplace to store the logs. 

We really didn't understand how one could use the fireplace without anything before. Wasn't it dangerous?

Anyway, since the fireplace is in some sort of copper, we went and ask Vinslövs Plåt to make a taylor-made piece of plate, in copper, to have there.

It looks so shiny now!

But the colors are beautiful

Now, we just miss a spark arrestor in cast iron. Not the easiest task on the planet, of course.

Bathroom enhancements

Although we have completed the bathroom renovation few months ago, we have taken our time for finalizing some details.
Slowly, we have added accessories for making the environment more comfortable and practical.

Panorama of the bathroom, as it looks today

We have added a curtain for the shower (bought at Åhlens) and few items of need, like a soap dispenser, a toothbrush holder and a toilet brush. I have bought them through Butik Öland, an online shop that sells items from different brands, including Miljögården. Unfortunately, the toilet brush broke spontaneously after 8 months. Butik Öland was very professional in handling the errand, while I was very disappointed at Miljögården for the lack of interest in keeping customers. Since the product was not of high quality and considering their approach to my request, I will try to avoid them as much as I can in the future.

Soap dispenser

Toothbrush holder

Toiletbrush

Noticing annoying water stains on the floor every now and then, especially when giving Isabella a bath, we have then bought a couple of carpets (Hemtex).

Carpets

Finally, considering that with the light on, everything is perfectly visible, we needed to put a curtain. We thought that a so called cafègardin would have worked fine, but pity, such curtains are not the most popular currently.
Thanks to some expert hands (the ones of Mattias' mother), we managed to put together a nice curtain that matches the tiles color quite fine.

Cafègardin

Lace detail

The pictures are worse than usual since the natural light in this period is scarce and my bad skills can't compensate such environment!

A Wallergård's nostalgia (and not only)

This has been for years Mattias' dream: to get hands on a Jetson armchair.
Why this obsession? Everything is connected to the memories of his childhood, when his grandfather (from mother side) used to sit on a similar armchair and play around with his grandchildren.

We have had the luck to finally spot two of the "right color" (to match our yellow senap wall in the studio) for a decent price, on Blocket and it was nice to find out that, although a bit torn by usage, they are from the 70s and not some newly produced items.

I can now realize that this was also Pico's dream...and we had no idea!

Pico, enjoying the Jetson

Do you want to find out something more about this armchair? You can read here or here.

Finalizing some light

Surely, the attention lately is about light and lamps. 

Since we got the hang of an electrician, we managed to do some small things, that I suppose many would address as trivial. 

Among such things, we have got up some lamps we bought through some Facebook flea market. 

The lamps on the side of the fireplace are two Orrefors wall-lamps, from the 60s, designed by Carl Fagerlund.

One of the wall-lamps

The lamps on the side of the fireplace

Still looking at some Facebook flea market, I saw on sale another lamp. Same style. It was indeed connected to these ones, so I just went and buy it and, since it was too small to be placed in the dining room, it got to be hanged in the veranda, so that there would be still a connection between the three lamps.

Orrefors lamp

Can you see where the lamp is? 

And, since we were at it, we finally found out why one of our auction-bought lamps wasn't working...

No wonder!

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...

Inge & Karin Edler

Among the people that lived in our house, we can name the Edler family.
Inge & Karin Edler moved from Ystad in Villa Bellevue with their four children 1958 and left it 1974.

Inge Edler was a cardiologist who worked at Lund University Hospital. He was friend with Hellmuth Hertz and if he invented the ultrasounds, Inge Edler invented, instead, the ecocardiogram, which is used in ultrasounds for showing the heart activity.

Inge Edler

Inge Elder and Hellmuth Hertz

While Inge had his disputation party at Villa Bellevue, his wife Karin had her study in the house, since she was an ophtamologist.
When they moved in the house, her oldest son, Anders, was already 18 and didn't live too much in Åkarp. The other three, instead, were the ones that grew up here and were the authors of the graffiti that we found in some of the bedroom.

We had the pleasure to get in contact with Anders and invited him over. He told us about what he remembered of the house and some stories about his family (like for example they had some little work to do with all the apple trees as well).
It was very interesting to have him over because he had quite good memories of how the house and the garden looked like.
Some notes:

• They spent almost half an year renovating the house before moving in. That included also putting new wallpaper almost everywhere.
• The "chauffeur" sofa in the hall was covered in red leather and was used by Karin's patients.
• There were no marble window sills but only wood ones.
• The radiator in the "tower" corner of one of the living rooms was substituted once, since the first one that was ordered had the wrong diameter and hence didn't fit in the space.
• In the kitchen there was a wall dividing the "kitchen" from a small corridor. In the kitchen the sink was placed by Inge's will as a little kitchen islands ("so that two people could do the dishes").
• The veranda was very drafty or had some problems with isolation.
• The en suite bathroom was actually a wardrobe (or a modern walk-in-closet) for the whole family
• The small toilet at the entrance was having white tiles and white floor. The same also for the bathroom at the second floor.
• He had no memory that in our most north placed bedroom there were a sink or anything similar.
• His room was first Isabella's room, then he moved into what is our guestroom, where there was not the built-in wardrobe.
• The basement was just in concrete, with nothing fancy, except all the apples stored during winter ;-)
• The garden was having much less trees and much more grass. Some of the trees we have today were planted then. The meridian was in the middle of the front lawn (now, it has been unfortunately hidden behind the garage).
• The hall was dividing in two rooms by a swing door (which luckily is still up in the attic).
• The name of the house was not visible on the facades.

It seems that some of the furniture belonging to the house was actually moved to the "Tre Musketörer" inn by the previous owners (Fru Krook-Friberg, who owned both buildings), but we cannot be sure of this information :-)

The only thing I am sad about is that he didn't have any pictures of the house. However, he promised that when he would scanned his slides pictures, he would share what he found of any relevance.

I hope that will happen! For the time being, I can dream of how the swing door was placed ;-)))

Airphotos of Åkarp, 1961 vs 1975

Ok, I am becoming an Åkarp postcards collector and it is becoming inevitable that right now, I am mostly speaking about postcards, than renovation, since at least the works are on hold for some long while.

The latest purchase has been an air-photo from 1961 which takes the same shot as one that I previously bought (and posted here), from 1975, instead.
Although our house is almost invisible - a little bunch of pixel in the ocean of houses, it is interesting to notice the differences between the two postcards.

Above, air photo from 1975, below, air photo from 1961

Lundavägen seems bending just after Möllegården, towards Malmö, in the 1975 picture. Hvilan Fölkhögskolan has a different color and a nice external stair on the rightest building. If the heart of Gamla Åkarp looks more and less the same, around it there is a huge bunch of houses that in the pictures from 1961 is not there. It is visible in the top part of the postcard.
Otherwise, in 14 years, it doesn't seem that there has been a big change.
Maybe Villa Hemmet looks different - but it is hard to say from the black and white photo from 1961.
For what concerns our house, Villa Bellevue looks quite well covered by the same amount of trees... :)

It was 1916...

and from Fölkhögskolan Hvilan, the houses in Kullavägen looked liked this

Postcard from 1916

Villa Bellevue, 1916

It is hard to see details of the house from this postcard, but at least, it seems things haven't changed too much on that side of the facade.
The only thing I can see is that on the north side of the house there was not just grass, but some path.

A rotten door

Among the different points that were identified during the besiktning (inspection) of the house, we had the balcony door on the first floor.
The door was clearly rotten and thanks to its state, the room that we decided to be the guestroom was quite cold and drafty.

The balcony door

Detail

We had decided to prioritize this, so that the state wouldn't degenerate under another winter season and we had already plans to have guests both in the beginning of November and in December.

Unfortunately, we never managed to get the process started before the first guest arrived and we patched the door with some towels (!!!).

We had already contacted Hellbergs snickeri though for fixing the issue: they gave us a great impression, very professional and precise and we decided to go for them in order to fix this door.

When they first came and give a look at our door they pointed out that it had already been (badly) patched probably during the 70s (if not earlier).

The patch

Basically, the original door was having the usual decoration (spegel) (in the first picture it is possible to see how it is in the inner part), however, when such a thing is placed outdoor the rain accumulates on the door and it is very common that the bottom part starts to rotten.

For avoiding this they possibly put such lovely patch, which helped in a very relative way.

They promised to fix the door and we were very happy it could be saved, but not only, they also added a fancy detail that would make sure that the door would not encounter the same issue and the detail was going to be in line with the typical style from the early 1900.

It consisted of a panel och droppnäsor (a panel with some sort of "gargoyle" which is however far from the fantastic animals usually put to divide the rain flow).

The result

The result became terrific, considering also that just one hand of paint has been given to the door (it is something we are going probably to fix in 20 years...). The door looks like new, but it has a "old look" style and hopefully, it will survive hundred years more...

A bathroom extreme makeover, final chapter

For us, it has been almost like a long saga, started the end of last spring and almost finished at the end of this winter (yes, almost because we are not yet 100%, of course ;D).
What is now missing is to buy things to decorate and not the bathroom, from the shower curtain, to a carpet etc. but otherwise, the biggest job has been finally completed.
And for us, this is an immense satisfaction, because the bathroom became exactly as we had in mind and because, despite all the obstacles we have accomplished our goal, and we have also learnt a lot.

But were where we...

The tiling is almost completed

After starting with the wrong foot, the tiling went slow but very accurate. We think the work has been done beautifully (except for two micro mistakes, one wrong decorative tile placement and a ruined tile placed on the floor).

The wall around the bathtube

An handpainted decorative tile

We are obviously very proud of the beautiful victorian tiles that we chose and the pattern made both on the floor and on the walls.
But a bathroom is not just about tiles, it is about lamps, sink, taps and accessories...
And for each element we searched a lot, trying to aim at a good compromise between cost and quality, but also it had to look in an old style.

Yes, we have a bidet!!!

The toilet and the bidet are both from Burlington. Indeed, the British can do things in old style and very well. Both items are hanging on the wall, despite the appearance.

The sink and its commode

Over the sink there is a mirror ;-)

98% of the mirror

Mirror, sink and commode are from Qvesarum and we are only disappointed that the marble surface has been delivered to us slightly "patched". Pity though that we have been so stressed and unexperienced to pay attention to this and we think now it is too late to complain...

The shower set

Detail of the shower set

We are still very amazed at the beauty of our bath-shower set. It's done in English style, but it is made in Italy by Huber. 

The tap

Both the taps of the bidet and the sink are made by Bugnatese. We could have gone for something more traditional, with one control for warm water and one for cold, but we choose comfort (of having the water at the right temperature without big troubles) to beauty, in this case. 

Bathroom lamp Topelius, with lamp shield Drop

Ekelund lamp with lamp shield Divine

All three lamps come from Karlskrona lampfabrik.

Double hook for towels

Ring for the towel, together with sockets, switches and  floor-heating thermostat

We do take care of details: even of the buttons for flushing the toilet!

Finally, there are a lot of small items that do take a lot of time.
We kept the same style that we have been using in the rest of the house (but this time in white) for the sockets, switches and the floor-heating thermostat. We have chosen once again the cheap and plastic line from Renova.
For all the accessories for hanging towels and put toilet paper (etc.) we have instead decided, after discarding the more expensive "byggnadsvård" selections, to go for Smedbo. In reality, the idea was to reuse what was present in the bathroom that we had dismantled, which were exactly several pieces from the line Villa from Smedbo. Unfortunately, at least for now, it was not possible to reuse them since the connective part  for the 20 years old components were not possible to be found. However, we liked the line and thought it could work once again in that bathroom and considering that it looked great after 20 years, it surely was a timeless piece!
Also choosing the buttons for flushing was not easy. Ok, the choice was limited also because the majority we could see were big, modern and giving us a very plastified sensation. The only item that did match our taste was what we bought and comes from Geberit.

And now, it is over! And maybe, next time I will take a panorama picture to give a better overview of the whole bathroom :)

A postcard from 1918

One of my occupations, lately, is checking if it is possible to find/buy postcards of Villa Bellevue from the past. It is not always easy (last attempt, the auction went up to the sky!) but sometimes, I actually manage to find something that has a pixel of the house shown somewhere.

The postcard from 1918. Nothing in front of the house

Villa Bellevue

There are few differences respect to how the house is today.
1) The balcony is "shorter" than today. But we have a map from 1953 and it seems there it has already the same dimension as today.
2) There are windows on the tower. And we know that 1958 there were no windows there.
3) The house name is written on two sides of the facade. And we know that in 1958 it was just on the front side.
4) We can see the original windows. Unfortunately, the ones on the front of the house have been all changed.
5) There is a white fence, with a gate. The gate is in our garden, probably rottening away. The rest of the fence has been changed with a net and a lot of bushes.
6) There is a pole for a flag. But that is something we don't want to have :)