We have three reasons to write this post. Last time we wrote about our renovation plans. Reason no 1. The workshop renovation has been a while already finished, so we thought to share some photos with you. Reason no 2. This December has been so beautiful. We didn't have to worry about the darkest time of the year because of so much snow. Reason no 3. Our small business has come to an end. The dream of working here as a creative professional has taken another direction. For the past five years we have worked a lot and tried many things. The work has been creative and intensive, but not profitable. Now we want to give us the possibility to think, which direction to go. Business operations will be stopped for at least the entire year 2023.
The first photo above was taken in November 2021, when we were standing proud in front of an almost ready workshop. We wanted to embrace the moment by walking on a red carpet. Below are some work in progress photos.
Starting point of our small shop space.
View to the upcoming wood workshop through a hole for the heating pipe.
Covering the walls with a mixture of chalck paint and cement.
Making of the floors.
Old silo becoming a showroom space.
Making of the ceiling for silo.
View of the renovated jewelry workshop.
View of the new wood workshop in 2021.
View of the small shop space in 2021
View of the small shop space in 2022. We added some green.
The view to the silo in 2021.
The ceiling of silo in 2022.
The barn from outside photographed today.
The amount of snow this December!
We hope that pausing the business will bring us new energy and our dream is still to work fulltime as a creative entrepreneur. We are optimistic about the future. Hopefully you are doing fine too. We wish you happy holidays and all the best to the year 2023!
Hello there! It has been a while since we wrote here. About five years ago we moved to Koivisto's farm and started to renovate the main building. The years 2016-2017 were quite intense and we make the most of the renovation during that time. Our first post was called The Dream of a Home(you can read it here: https://koivistoblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/blog-post.html) and we fulfilled that dream with the help of our friends and family. Now it's a start of a new era. We have a dream to make the old barn as a workspace.
We have our small design studio Koivisto Studio here. In Summer it will be 4 years old. Things has changed from the beginning and our current workshop is getting too small for us. In addition we want to have another direction. We want to hold courses here and give our knowledge of handcrafts and design further. In the future our plan is to offer the workspace for other creatives to use too. Beautiful countryside and nature surrounds us here and offers an endless source of inspiration. It's also peaceful to work here.
The barn is iconic to our farm and now we have started to renovate it. We are trying to keep you posted, how the renovation is going further. Wish us luck. Happy spring greetings from us!
Spring is early this year. Yesterday we were swimming in the river without going first to the sauna. It was so hot day! The renovation is going further. We are finishing the main floor (the floor where we are sleeping and eating) by renovating the corridor and restroom. The amount of light is already mesmerizing. It gives its own boost to get things ready. We want to have the main floor ready before summer and it's also going to happen.
The walls in the corridor had the same treatment as almost everywhere in the main floor (see the post Let's make it bright). Susanna's father helped us to place thin plaster boards on top of the old wallpapers. Then we fixed fibreglass wallpapers and finally we painted them white like in the dining room, living room and bedroom.
The nature is like a big green explosion. Every here and there are blossoming.
Luigi has been curious to get to know new flowers and how they smell.
The cranes have returned among other birds.
The preparations for the fields have started. Our neighbor is taking care of our crop fields.
The birches are early this year with the leaves. What a intensive yellow green color!
Tobi did again great work with the toilet by laying tiles on the walls and on the floor.
For the walls we used light gray and blue tiles, which both were left overs from another construction. The seems aren't done yet, but they will have a dark gray color.
We wanted also tiles for the corridor floors, that it is easy to keep clean when it's rainy and muddy. The chosen tiles are gray brownish with a little texture, so that they are not slippery. There's coming a new post, when the corridor is completed.
Next week is the first of May and we have prepared us by making Sima. Sima is traditional Finnish drink, which belongs to the 1st May celebration. Our plan is to relax a bit and enjoy the nature's wonders. Spring is a amazing time to follow and explore the growth of everything. We wish you sunny and happy spring days!
Rye bread must be the most common food to eat in Finland. We love it too and lately we have trying to make it on our own. We started it by making a mother dough. In Finnish it's called 'taikinajuuri', dough with roots. Quite a nice word. A farm with a long history and roots should definitely have an own dough. Water and flour are the only ingredients needed. The process takes about five days until the dough is ready. However at the beginning our bread was quite flat. It needed many tries, baking and testing. After one month we had enough experience and maybe the time did its magic too. A dough for a bread with a perfect texture and airiness.
Making the sourdough:
Day 1. Mix 100g flour with 100ml warm water in a large bowl and place it in a warm place covered with a plate. After 12 hours stir the dough briefly and let it rest.
Day 2. After another 12 hours add 50g flour and 50ml warm water to the dough and mix it well. Cover the dough again and put it back in the warm place. This time, let the dough rest for 24 hours. You can already smell, that the dough is evolving and it has some bubbles.
Day 3. After 24 hours add again 100g flour and 100ml water to the dough and mix it well again. Cover the bowl and put it back in the warm place, stir the dough again after 12 hours and let it rest again.
Day 4. After another 12 hours add 100g flour and 100ml warm water to the dough and stir the dough. Cover again and put back in the warm place and let the dough rest for another 24 hours.
Day 5. The dough is ready to use for baking. Store the dough in a fridge in closable glass jar.
Now the actual bread. Our favorite ingredient, which gives a nice flavor to the bread is caraway. Otherwise you can add come seeds to bread or just make it pure only with the sourdough, water, rye flour and salt.
Add a cup of mother dough.
Mix it with water, around 300ml.
Add rye flour, around 500g. Add the flour in small parts, feel the dough. Sometimes it needs more flour, sometimes less.
If you like add some sunflower, pumpkin or flax seeds. And for the nice flavor, add caraway.
Don't forget to add a little bit salt.
Remember to feed the mother dough with new flour and water after using it for baking.
Let the dough rest couple of hours before making the bread.
The dough is ready to become a bread.
After forming the bread it needs to rest again about an hour. Cover it up with a kitchen towel.
When the bread is ready for the oven, put the oven to a temperature of about 225 degrees (electric oven). Bake the bread for 20 minutes and then lower the heat to about 200 degrees. Continue baking for less than an hour. The bread is ready when knocking the bottom has a hollow sound.
Our tasty bread is ready! The tiny bread has the shape of a traditional Finnish rye bread, made from the rest just for fun. Unfortunately our oven is currently broken and the baking has to wait. But we have also good news! The renovation is getting further and the second floor will be completely renovated before summer.
Our path is still going forward! A new blog post is finally a reality. First of all we want to wish Happy 2019 to you our friends! Thank you for believing in us and liking and following our projects. This post is dedicated to winter and snow. It has been snowing a lot and it's not going to stop yet. It's truly a winter wonderland this year here up in the north. And then to our New Year's promise! We want to write more about our countryside life and all its wonders. We think a post in month would be a great goal. How it sounds to you?
The barn and the sauna house at a cold winter morning.
All that snow!
Trees with the snow. Such a beautiful sight!
One cold morning our river had these huge ice flowers on it.
On a cloudy day the view is so graphic. It's almost like you were walking in a black and white world.
One of our farm visitors filmed our yard and the forest from the air. All looks so pure and white.
We did some ice lights to lighten up our yard and to give light to our minds to too. There's still a lot to renovate and lot to do with growing our business. Every year at the farm has brought new experiences with the surroundings and the wonders of the nature. We are excited, how this year is going to be. Now back into the snow to enjoy the winter in all its glory!
Hello there! We are a Finnish-German designer couple living in Karkkila, Finland. Koivisto blog is about our renovation projects, secrets of an old farm and some countryside vibes. Warmly welcome!
Spring is early this year. Yesterday we were swimming in the river without going first to the sauna. It was so hot day! The renovation is going further. We are finishing the main floor (the floor where we are sleeping and eating) by renovating the corridor and restroom. The amount of light is already mesmerizing. It gives its own boost to get things ready. We want to have the main floor ready before summer and it's also going to happen.
The walls in the corridor had the same treatment as almost everywhere in the main floor (see the post 
The nature is like a big green explosion. Every here and there are blossoming.
Luigi has been curious to get to know new flowers and how they smell.
The cranes have returned among other birds.
The preparations for the fields have started. Our neighbor is taking care of our crop fields.
The birches are early this year with the leaves. What a intensive yellow green color!
Tobi did again great work with the toilet by laying tiles on the walls and on the floor.
For the walls we used light gray and blue tiles, which both were left overs from another construction. The seems aren't done yet, but they will have a dark gray color.
We wanted also tiles for the corridor floors, that it is easy to keep clean when it's rainy and muddy. The chosen tiles are gray brownish with a little texture, so that they are not slippery. There's coming a new post, when the corridor is completed.
Next week is the first of May and we have prepared us by making Sima. Sima is traditional Finnish drink, which belongs to the 1st May celebration. Our plan is to relax a bit and enjoy the nature's wonders. Spring is a amazing time to follow and explore the growth of everything. We wish you sunny and happy spring days!
Rye bread must be the most common food to eat in Finland. We love it too and lately we have trying to make it on our own. We started it by making a mother dough. In Finnish it's called 'taikinajuuri', dough with roots. Quite a nice word. A farm with a long history and roots should definitely have an own dough. Water and flour are the only ingredients needed. The process takes about five days until the dough is ready. However at the beginning our bread was quite flat. It needed many tries, baking and testing. After one month we had enough experience and maybe the time did its magic too. A dough for a bread with a perfect texture and airiness.
Now the actual bread. Our favorite ingredient, which gives a nice flavor to the bread is caraway. Otherwise you can add come seeds to bread or just make it pure only with the sourdough, water, rye flour and salt.
Add a cup of mother dough.
Mix it with water, around 300ml.
Add rye flour, around 500g. Add the flour in small parts, feel the dough. Sometimes it needs more flour, sometimes less.
If you like add some sunflower, pumpkin or flax seeds. And for the nice flavor, add caraway.
Don't forget to add a little bit salt.
Remember to feed the mother dough with new flour and water after using it for baking.
Let the dough rest couple of hours before making the bread.
The dough is ready to become a bread.
After forming the bread it needs to rest again about an hour. Cover it up with a kitchen towel.
When the bread is ready for the oven, put the oven to a temperature of about 225 degrees (electric oven). Bake the bread for 20 minutes and then lower the heat to about 200 degrees. Continue baking for less than an hour. The bread is ready when knocking the bottom has a hollow sound.
Our tasty bread is ready! The tiny bread has the shape of a traditional Finnish rye bread, made from the rest just for fun. Unfortunately our oven is currently broken and the baking has to wait. But we have also good news! The renovation is getting further and the second floor will be completely renovated before summer.
Our path is still going forward! A new blog post is finally a reality. First of all we want to wish Happy 2019 to you our friends! Thank you for believing in us and liking and following our projects. This post is dedicated to winter and snow. It has been snowing a lot and it's not going to stop yet. It's truly a winter wonderland this year here up in the north. And then to our New Year's promise! We want to write more about our countryside life and all its wonders. We think a post in month would be a great goal. How it sounds to you?
The barn and the sauna house at a cold winter morning.
All that snow!
Trees with the snow. Such a beautiful sight!
One cold morning our river had these huge ice flowers on it.
On a cloudy day the view is so graphic. It's almost like you were walking in a black and white world.
We did some ice lights to lighten up our yard and to give light to our minds to too. There's still a lot to renovate and lot to do with growing our business. Every year at the farm has brought new experiences with the surroundings and the wonders of the nature. We are excited, how this year is going to be. Now back into the snow to enjoy the winter in all its glory!
