A flowerish lamp for Isabella

We often have been discussing lamps and this post will be about a lamp.

This time it is for Isabella's room. 

Many years ago, like probably 20 or more, we went to some second hand shop in Tyringe for some reason. There we bought some chairs and also a lamp. 

Details of the lamp we bought back then

In our previous apartments, this lamp had been placed in our combined office/guestroom and then in the guestroom that became Isabella's room. Eventually, in our house it was kept in Isabella's room.

Now, I think the lamp was lovely anyway and fitting in the room.

A very bright picture of the lamp

A very "evening light" picture of the lamp in Isabella's room

Then, on Facebook marketplace, I saw an handmade lamp that I believed would be fitting in her room colorwise better and also for the style. Now, unfortunately both Isabella and Mattias believe that the lightbulb works - I do not think so, but we will live with it a bit longer, I guess.

The new lamp, flower shaped

I am really not sure of the lightbulb

How the lamp fits in her, a bit crowded, room

Progresses for the pool house

Every spring we state that "this summer we are going to focus on the pool house". Then we realize (sadly) that summer is short and our time goes into travels/cutting hedges/do regular maintenance and that the extra work progresses way too slow to be perceptible. In this case, the pool house is still a skeleton waiting for doors, windows, some better paint among other things.

At least, we made some more visible progresses recently.

We managed to get mounted the external lamp that I have bought few years back at a auction, hoping it would work out, both functionally speaking, but also aesthetycally.

I wanted to get a lamp close enough to the one we have on the main entrance.

The main entrance (as it was 2012) with the lamp lit

It seems at least reasonably ok. Now, we "just" have to finish the rest. Next summer, maybe?

Lamp, view #1

The half finished pool house, with the lamp

Lamp, view #2

Lamps - an old subject

Some typical subject for this blog has been lamps. 

We have though lived in the house for about 12 years and still, there are plenty of lamps to fix. One of the rooms that have deserved a bit of love "lightwise" is the kitchen, as when the sun goes down, it is basically impossible to cook (and still it is, on the southwest side of it) as it is dark, no matter which lights one has turned on.

I have had hard time thinking what kind of lamp would suit in the kitchen. The current kitchen is not what should be the "final" kitchen and the idea I have in mind for that one is closer to a modern interpretation of a turn of the century kitchen (we are talking of the beginning of the 1900-century). 

The kitchen spot that needed a lamp/light

I should have therefore been thinking of some wall lamp in Jugend style, but I never managed to find any that would convince me. Also, we had at the same time to provide some form of lamp in the pentry. 

When we came to view the house when it was on sale, there was a nice globe there. When we moved in in the  house there was just a lightbulb. I was hoping to find something that would fit that without having to make drastic changes, but that was not really possible.

The lightbulb support that was in the pentry

I had a thought in mind on how we should fix both places, but at the end I bought something on some Facebook private advertisement which was at least cheap and retro. It would work great in a beautiful kitchen (or bathroom) from the 40s-50s, in pastel colors, but well, it works for now at least. 

One of the two lamps (looks like Mumin) before being mounted

The one in the pentry became even less optimal. The cable positionin was not allowing the lamp to be mounted where there was the lightbulb and now I have a memory of the fact that the globe vanished before we could move in. I actually wonder if it had been on that wall for a while...

So, be light!

A less perfect implementation of my idea

Tiny Steps Forward

This is probably not just a tiny step, but quite a progress!

Now, both lamps are up and running at the gate and what is left is to fix the marks from the previous lamps.

These lamps really melt into the environment!

Now, it will be interesting to see if their IP classification will make a difference for the lightbulbs consumptions. The previous lamps, apart from the low aesthetics, had also the feature of forcing me to replace lightbulbs fairly often. I think they were simply not made for being outdoor.

Changing topic completely, there has been also a micro step forward towards making the "curtains in the living room project" complete. 

I am still waiting for some holders for the side curtains as I thought I could find something online that would fit, but it didn't really work out as I thought and realized that it'd be better to have something handmade by the blacksmith that would fit with the rest of the other details.

So, as he is a bit evanescent, I am waiting patiently that he will produce those side curtain holders, but as I had managed to get him to make at least the central, double one, I made sure we would get it mounted. Also, we have finally put back the curtains, pushed by another reportage on a newspaper, as the small cats are probably less wild (I hope for the best here) and the risk to have climbing spider-cats on them should be minor. This is also needed as spring is creeping in (or rather exploding) and soon the light and the sun will make playing the piano an extreme activity.

It is nice to see the "complete" picture getting more and more complete.

The curtains behind the piano. The central ones now are held together when needed.

Details of the holders

The holders have the same style as the curtain rod holder (as one can half see in the pictures).

A nice touch, I think

So be light

 I believe the last "previous owner" liked to mix modern fancyness, modern cheap solutions and jugend all together. 

Our gates, which have a strong art deco feeling, have substituted the original in wood (there was just one) and they mostly dominate with the white pillars that define the entrance to the garden/our premises.

One set of pillars have been equipped with some lamps that, well, could have had a better style. 

The original lamp

Apart the form, shape, color, style (which I believe are questionable and do not fit with the rest of the house), we had a painful problem. Probably the lamp is not made for being outdoor, so I had to often switch lightbulbs, until I had enough of it.

Since I wanted to be sure that we got something that would work, I went and search for some newly produced outdoor lamp that would at least fit semi decently despite not being from 1910...!

Once the purchase was made, of course it took few months before we even opened the box with the new lamps. 

Substituting the old lamps

Without rush (we really don't have that style), one lamp got removed and switched to the new one. 

It is soon time to see also the second appearing on the second pillar.

The new lamp is shining in the dark

The new set of lamps is at least having some resemblance of old style and it matches in color with the house roof and the gates. 

It looks quite ok - and at least, definitely better than before! 

I was welcomed by the light

Naturally, as in every of our projects, a small change requires an longer chain of patches and fixing than one thinks. We need, indeed, to seal up the holes from the old lamps and paint the pillars as well...

Next century?

So be light

Having the right amount of lights and the right type of lights is of course a science on its own, also for us.
I think we have made good progresses in the light sector, but of course there are still needed improvements (some depends also on rooms that still after 7 years are waiting for a restoration).

One of the critical spots have been the "reading" light in the guestroom. We have had a relatively big lamp (belonging to Mattias' family), in a late jugend style. In search of some form of more practical light, I have put a Jugend table lamp, with a beautiful big orange shade, that can still be too far off to reach when in bed.
(And by the way, the shade is actually not secured whatsoever, so when I clean the room I am just worried that I will hit that nighttable a inch too much and I will have opal orange glass shattered everywhere - I bet I jinxed it now!)

The orange Strindberg lamp 

I have been having in the mindset for a long time to have some wall mounted lamps as reading lamps.
And then I stumbled over an online auction which sold the perfect ones (except the electrical cord being horribly brown and 70ish). I succeeded in winning the auction and after "just" three months we actually got the lamps on the wall!

The newly mounted reading lamps

The beauty of them is that of course they are jugend as they should, but they even match the big lamp that has always been in this room. Not a super perfect match (these ones are in copper style, while the lamp is in brass), but I think the differences are making a good combination anyway.

I think we can improve the cord and maybe put the lightbulbs in :)

Time to go to bed...

When a cord matters

In our home lamps and candles are very important. The house is big, with big areas and when the winter darkness reigns, having small sources of light make the environment warmer and cozier, of course.

I believed that I did put up this lamp already on the blog, but obviously that happened just in reality.
This summer I put down the lamp, bought at Erikshjälpen, hoping that it is at least resembly in the stile some jugend window lamp, because when we bought it it was connected with a dreadful white plastic cord.
We also managed to misunderstand each other, so it got cut pretty short and it hanged horribly on the window.

The lamp is shining at the window

I went and bought a more "old fashioned" looking electrical cord at Byggfabriken and finally, after several months and a bit of reminders and nagging, it was fixed by the local electrician (Mattias) and it got back to its place.

A close up

When doing this the base for the lamp of course broke. So, we have still some minor tasks left for completing this operation: fix an old fashioned plug and get a new socket for the lightbulb.

I accept bets on when this will be handled :)

Small projects

Our life in this house is constituted by a lot of ongoing small and big projects. Also the small ones require quite some time to be accomplished (even when we try to focus on exactly that one) for a reason or another.

A perfect example is finding the "right" furniture.
This lamp has been waiting to be found for about 4 years (and by the way, I would have wished to have it with three arms).
We have added some new furniture in the house since I was more active on the blog. Some of them were pieces that we had been longing for for a while.

Lamp from the 40s or 50s

A project that has started two years ago is the outdoor dryer. You can read about this here.

We (well, actually, Mattias), finally started to play around with it and made good progresses.

Next step is to finish the sawing of the decorative part and I have to oil everything.

Mattias is in action preparing for some sawing

Look! His hands are so fast, it is impossible to take a pic (or I simply took a blurred one and I am trying to be funny)

One of the pillars is waiting to be oiled

Considering the people in action and long projects, we have our blacksmith doing a lot of small and big things.
One of them is trying to fix the handle from the garage doors (see here to read how did it broke).
His first attempt was unsuccessful so I went and harass him again.

Preparation...

At work!

Now, tomorrow I need to go and visit him and see if he was really successful this time...

Playing in the dark...

Has't been very funny.
Not that the lights really help very much when it is pitch black, but one has, with some fantasy, the possibility to guess what there is on the piano score.

The wall sconces are shining in the tower room 

As always, what we try to do should have some form of old style. Of course, I'd prefer to go around just with candles and kerosene lamps, but I would really need a maid then...(which I'd need anyway).

Anyway, electricity did come to Åkarp 1912, so we can assume at least a century of lamps being used.

In the specific, I have managed to find on the online flea markets two wall sconces old style. I don't know how old, but they looked nice enough (sometimes, it is just too time taking to find the right item and one has to get happy with a good mixture that compromises aesthetic, price and style.

One of wall sconce

The big effort we made was in finding relatively good looking lightbulbs, cord and switch. 

The bulb was not straightforward. But we decided to go for a LED lightbulb (dimmable!) with an old-ish look.

The switch

Cord and switch was bought at Byggfabriken. A nice bakelite switch with a black textile cable, which I chose to be in black. I thought it'd work beautifully with the colors of the room and especially, with the grand piano.
One should mention though that I managed to have to return twice to the shop (which is one of my favorite, of course!) since I had bought the set only for a sconce and not two!!
What a pity! I had to go back and fix the problem!

The place for a lamp

By chance, we did buy two similar lamps, probably old kerosene electrified lamps. One of them we have put up some time ago (see this post).
Today, it was the turn of the other one.

Lamp has been put up over the alcove with Richard Björklund's painting

 It took just two years after the other one...

Original lamp on the left side, picture from 1909-1910. In the picture there must be Anna Ingemansson's father