Heart of the dining room

We might have the most beautiful dining table in the town. We wrote about it earlier in this post: Carpenter's treasure. If you are intrested how the table was when we found it, check the post. The table has a history connected to the farm. The scratches and damages are telling us, that it was used in many things, also for working. We fell in love with these marks from the past, so we wanted to highlight them even more. Tobi sanded the old paint away from the surface, but let it stay in the deepest scratches. Then we used oil to make the gorgeous texture and color of the pine come out. Other parts of the table were painted white. The old bench had the same treatment and turned out just lovely. The first thing was to fix the broken parts. One leg was broken and one part to lengthen the table was missing. The table has two drawers and they needed also repairing. Little pieces were missing and one of them had lost one knob, so Tobi made a pair for it. After repairing we painted the front parts and made a oil treatment to the sanded surfaces. On the left can be seen the wooden surface at its pure color and on the right the oiled one. The drawers will come handy - we can hide unnecessary things fast from the table! Only one old bench survived from the old times, so we needed something to sit on to the other side of the table. We found these chairs also from the farm, but they are not so old, maybe from the 70's or 80's. The chairs are quite petite and simple, so we decided to give them a new look. After sanding and new paint Tobi covered the chairs with a turquoise textile, which was originally from Susanna's grandmother's cloth storage. She loved sewing and had a lot of different textiles for some reason in blue. We chose this one, because its tone and texture. The combination of the color, texture and material works well for us. Actually it was a coincidence, that Susanna's grandmother had similar tone of blue in the textile as the old paint of the bench. We really enjoyed to place the furniture to its place. After struggling with the kitchen almost one month, we made the dining room full speed in one and half weeks. The change from earlier felt overwhelming and the room became our favorite so far. It's not ready yet, but on a good path. We have already a few plans for it, so stay tuned!

Retro trip

One day we decided to visit the town Karkkila and found a charming little shop called Retro&Romu. Mostly of the products are used and from the 30's till 70's. The selection includes furniture, tableware, lights and also old bicycles. The prices are surprisingly inexpensive. We could have bought half of the things. So many cool products, that would have suite perfectly in the 50's farm house. Luckily we already have quite nice things, that we found from the house. Anyhow the concept of the shop is brilliant. All the marketing is done with Facebook, where the owners of the shop are posting photos of the products. Once in a week they are delivering the products to the capital Helsinki, where people can pick them up. Retro&Romu has almost 18 000 likes in Facebook, whereas the town Karkkila has only 9000 citizens. We were quite blown away, that there is such a cool shop in our village.
There are so many lovely retro lights. These ones above are out of glass. We have soon one similar in our kitchen. It was orginally there since the house was build. The glassjars are from Finnish company Riihimäen lasi. We found also these beauties from the farm, but not in such a good condition. Tobi has been dreaming of making his own beer, so maybe we will buy later these cute little glass bottles. Of course we couldn't leave without buying anything. This leather sofa was ours the moment we stepped in to the shop. We wanted it to our dining room to the corner for relaxing. The sofa is from the 60's and probably Danish. It is perfect for two and super comfortable. We need only to oil the wood parts and put conditioner to the leather and it will look almost like new. We recommend warmly to visit the shop if you are around. The opening hours can be seen at the Retro&Romu Facebook site.

Let's make it bright

We have been updating our walls and the floor in the dining room. It was time to say goodbye to the old wallpapers. We placed thin plasterboards on top of them. One reason not to remove them was that there might be asbest used in the wallpaper paste and it was faster this way. We painted also the ceiling, that had turned a bit yellowish with the time. We made new wall surfaces so even as we could by using filler and paper band in the seems. After the coating we started placing the fibreglass wallpaper. It was actually easier than we thought. Way more flexible as a normal wallpaper. The most exciting part was to paint the floors and for us the color is just perfect! We were first dreaming about rough paint surface, but ended up with the fibreglass wallpaper. Wooden house is constantly moving and we were afraid, that we will have there soon cracks. So we tought, that the fibreglass would give a little elasticity to the surface and it would stay longer good. It may not be the prettiest choice, but we think it suits well to the 50's house.
When the wallpapers were fixed, we painted them white to make the room brighter. We wanted also to highlight the cool original pine doors from the house. Now they are getting the attention they should have.
Also the kitchen floor got a new paint. We used a cold toned gray from Teknos floor paints. Painting was a lot of fun, but sometimes the speed was too fast. We got the end result we wanted, bright and fresh. Now the view from the room is popping out and the reflections from the old windows to the floor are just beautiful. We can't wait to place the furniture to the room!

Carpenter's treasure

When we were exploring the oldest building of the farm, we found a lot of wood. For our surprise among with firewood were also these beautiful wooden treasures. Furniture from 1800's, old wood working tools and some small handmade products like a walking stick, coat hangers and decorational parts from old furniture. We are planning to restore them. Some of them require more work, but for example the rocking chair above needs only a little bit new paint plus it's really cozy to sit. Hopefully we will see many of them in our home and in use again after so many decades.
This gorgeous table is going to be in our dining room with the chairs. We will start to work with them pretty soon, so stay tuned!
Many of the things at the farm might be made with these planes. The people from the past knew how to work with wood.

This wooden churn for butter making is from the 1905. We needed to google the brand to figure out for what this strange machine was used. The churn has been definetily in use, because it has been once repaired. The technics are looking pretty cool and are still working. Maybe some day we will test it, when we need lots and lots of butter.

This old desk chair is probably from the beginning of 1900's. The turnable function is made with massive wooden spiral. Unfortunately some little details from the upper part are missing, still the chair is a charming piece from the past.
Also the ladybug fell in love with the chair and the old leather. Old furniture has such a characteristics and that's why we want to have these beautys back in use. We like the idea, that the founders of the farm were maybe sitting on the same chairs and eating from the same table, that we'll be using. If they know our plans somehow, we hope that they are cheering us and smiling for us.

Eating out - updating in

It was about the time to start with the dining room! We've been literally eating outside, because of the little mess and lately cause the dining room has been emptied. The empty room is feeling huge - how do we fill all the space? Anyhow the days were quite sunny, so it hasn't bothered to eat in the garden. Tobi made one day this delicious Turkish delicacy Pide. Any kind of weather can't destroy a good food. Inside we started with renewing the floor. First we took out the old plastic flooring and noticed, that underneath weren't suitable floor boards. So we needed to take the old ones out and set the new ones in. A plumber helped us a little with the emptying by removing the heaters. We need new heaters, cause the old ones were too weak to give warmth to the dining room and the kitchen. Then the heater pipes got a new color, which should protect them from rusting. We were beginners making a floor, but it wasn't actually difficult at all. In addition it didn't took so much time, that for example the tiling took. Susanna also enjoyd removing the boards. All the renovation stress can be pointed towards destroying things. Actually we didn't destroy anything, but kept the old boards for a new use.
Tobi tested the new floor. It's very comfortable.
We will manage to have a dining room before the days are getting colder. As long as the Summer goes on, we'll enjoy our food outside. Along with us these tiny fellows from the garden were really pleased with Tobi's bacon covered salmon. Lets enjoy the good food and the warm days!