Sep 30, 2013

From old to vintage: Our Bed


It makes sense that we had a dresser and balcony furniture before having a bed, right? Priorities!
Nah, the bed took a while, because it's a few centuries old and had to be restaurated carefully. It's from the 30s/40s and once belonged to my parents old landlord & landlady in Berlin. It's a so-called matrimonial bed and it had two mattresses divided by a wooden board in the middle. Since we live in the modern times I wanted to find a way for it to hold only one mattress.
But let's start at the beginning:

The first thing we did was to rid it from spiders webs and dust, because the beds resided in my parents attic for quite a while.
Then we used wood stain on it to mend dents and darken the wood a bit. Age has lighened up the wood and it took a couple of coats to bring out that nice dark pattern.
 
Then we added wood blocks to the already excisting blocks on the sides that hold up the spring bed frame. This ensured that the mattress would lie on top of the bed without bending in the middle, because the frame was moved up.
The spring bed frame still had its label on it. Unfortunately it didn't say exactly when it was build, but I'm sure the 25 years guarantee are long passed.
As a final touch I oiled the bed to seal the wood stain and for protection. I let the oil sit for a day before putting the mattress in and putting sheets and pillows and blankets on it. So far it hasn't stained anything, so it was enough time to soak into the wood. The oil also darkened the wood a little more and made it shine all prettily.
I'm pretty satisfied with the final result. It is a huge bed and a huge improvement to our sleeping couch we had for the past 3 years (an interim solution that lasted...). I also like the contrast between our modern dresser and the vintage beauty of that bed. Now I only need to get my mother's vanity from the attic and the bedroom will be finished. Feels good to hear that. Moving is no fun, but new is good and goodness takes time.

This post will be part of Nina's Upcycling Tuesday and the Creadienstag.

Sep 23, 2013

Nail & Thread Art Workshop @ Dawanda Snuggery


Last Thursday I went to another workshop. This time organized by Dawanda, an online shop for homemade goodies. The workshop was hosted by the lovely Fräulein Tong Tong who sells a bunch of awesomeness, so check her out.

I prepared for the workshop by printing out a few possible stencils for my project. The Name Krowns is a combination of my future husbands and my last name. And if the US embassy is willing it'll be our name from next year on.

With the help of Fräulein Tong Tong I chose the comic like writing, because it was the thickest font and easiest to thread around.

My good friend Romie joined me for this workshop.

Representing Dawanda was the lovely Lu from luloveshandmade. It was a pleasure to meet her in person!

Busy fellow workshoppers & a peek at the Dawanda Snuggery.

Hammering the nails was much more exhausting than I would have thought. Especially because you really have to put a nail on each corner of the letters and multiple ones on round letters to make the fully visible.

Hours later: tadaaa. I love it! It'll be the centerpiece of our wedding table.
This is what my mate Romie accomplished! The ampersand was drawn from memory and by hand.. jealous!

Of course I forgot to take step by step pictures at the workshop, so it was a good thing I didn't finish both of my projects at the workshop. I was able to paint two pieces of wooden shelf at the workshop. I mixed the colour myself, creating the first wedding theme colour, I believe.
The heart was drawn with a folded piece of paper (because I'm terrible at drawing).

I tried to hammer the nails into the wood as evenly as possible and about a third of the lenght in. You can check if the lenghts are even by looking at the boeard from the side.

Then I removed the paper. If it sticks in between the nail and the wood you can try to pick it out with tweezers or make it wet and rub it off.

Then it's time to thread, thread, thread. You can thread it any way you like. I tried not to connect two of the neighboured nails, but that's just me.
Finished! I really like both pieces of art & enjoyed the workshop immensely. Definitely something I would like to do again very soon! It's always great to try out a new craft.

This post will be part of the Creadienstag.

Sep 19, 2013

Picturesque Friday ~ 20. September 2013

It's been a while since the last picturesque friday. This week Steffi from ohhhmhhh.de asked us what we will be watching this fall. This time it's the moving picturesque friday!
Let's see here:
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Technically it will be out in winter, but it's my no. 1 movie to watch this year!
The World's End
Thrird movie in the Cornetto trilogy. Definitely worth watching it another time!
Game of Thrones Season 3
Once I am done reading the books I can finally watch the third season and be all like "omg, that red wedding was so outrageous!"
The X-Files - The complete series
I got the future husband all the x-files series for his birthday. It'll be a long fall!

Speaking of fall:
Sherlock Season 3
I'm hoping, praying that it'll be out this year, gonna throw a tantrum if otherwise!
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