Patio solutions

We've been trying to decide on what material to use for our patio (above). We have been putting it off for years, waiting for our next door neighbour to do some work on their property that included bulldozing their way through our garden and leaving a huge crater where our outdoors sitting area was. This work was done last autumn and the garden was (kind of) put back together again this summer, but the decking is still not decided on. We have pebbles in that spot now. We need to fill in more pepples to raise it up to the level of that black plastic lining (protection from damp) and we also need to fix those ugly steps.

I was initally thinking of putting down natural slate slabs like these:
I think they are really beautiful. It's a costly job, though. And now I'm not even sure it's the best look for our house. We're also considering a wooden deck. That's the solution that most of the houses in our area have.

This house is from Danish interior magazine Bo Bedre. (It's a stunning house - click on the link to see more pictures.) I think the 'untreated' finish of these boards work well together with this kind of 60's architecture.

Then there's this idea, which I found on two different blogs over the last few days, both American:
Concrete slabs in different sizes, making use of the pebbles that we already have. This should be easy to put down, I'm thinking - a bit of DIY - and how much can it cost? But what about maintanance? (Do they 'stay put'?) If you have experience in this, I'd love to hear from you!

Credit: Picture with eggchair and cute little dog is borrowed from Happy Mundane blog, and the one with the fab orange chairs is from The Cottage Cheese blog, via Rearranged Design. All great blogs - go check them out.

Drawers makover, before and after

I found this old teak chest of drawers for nothing at my local flea market this summer. I really don't like painting over teak wood, as I love the color of it, but this one had so much surface damage that painting was the only remedy. The top plate was replaced by some nasty chip wood, so that needed covering. I was initially going to cover it with a special oil cloth, but tried out this self-adhesive fake rosewood instead. So, what you see here might not be the end result, but it will do for now.

Friday book tip

Friday again already. I've been busy catching up on my driving theory (I'm what you can call a mature driving student) and writing job applications this week, and now it feels like a cold is setting in. As long as it's not swine-flu, I will not complain.

I thought I'd tip you about a great book today, but unfortunately it's only out in Swedish... So, big apologies to all my non-Scandinavian readers, but I hope you might like some of the photos all the same. The book is called 'Daggs att renovera – Var rädd om detaljerna'. It translates to something in the region of 'Time to renovate – Be careful with the details'. It shows houses from the 1920s to the 1970s in existing villa areas (in Sweden), and deals with the different architectural and interior details specific to each decade, and talks about the importance of keeping with the original ideas, whether it's to do with extending a house, altering the facade in some way or just changing doorhandles inside. The book also has some examples where house owners have done just the opposite. There is a lot of that going on in my own neighbourhood actually, and I think it's a great shame as this whole area of houses (built in 1968) used to be very homogenous and 'clean'-looking. Anyway, here are some images from the book:

Oh, the horrors... What were they thinking?

I really love the sleek funkis-houses of the 1930s.




This is from the 1960s and in a similar style to the house I live in. I wish I had those long windows and the tiny balcony on the side of the house, though.

I really like the calmness of this interior. It's a beautiful house from 1963.