Tippi+Ella

bergen houses

2009-02-25T10:36:00.009+01:00

I absolutely love all the old 18th century white wooden houses that are so typical in the area I'm from. They come in many shapes and sizes, from the tiniest one-bedroom houses tucked away in cobbled alleyways, to the comfortably sized townhouses, to the large, elaborate villas with gardens. And everything in between. I dream of one of those villas, but the first kind is more within my budget. ;)
Here are some real-estate pictures I've collected:

Photos: finn.no

virtual home tours

2009-02-24T12:06:00.005+01:00

Photo: thenest.com
Are you familiar with The Nest? I recently discovered, via This Young House, that they have a whole section dedicated to video clips featuring styling tips and tricks, diy ideas, and virtual house tours! Definitely worth a look! My favourite of the house tours is Lauren and Derek's (owners of the quirky Curiosity Shoppe and writers of the diy column over at Design*Sponge), I love all their artwork, and how they make so much themselves and repurpose things. Notice the birdhouse turned lamps that they show in their shop, I might be stealing that idea! Click here to see. :)

birdies by tamar mogendorff

2009-02-18T14:19:00.000+01:00

I have three lovely little birds living with me and I am crazy about anything bird-related, so I fell completely in love when I saw these little houses by Tamar Mogendorff! I want some!

The owls and turtledoves are pretty cute too:

♥

pretty in pink

2009-02-17T17:15:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was an exceptionally (or perhaps not) dreary monday, the rain was back and had started to wash the snow away and the world was rather grey and depressing. Something bright and colourful was definitely in order, so I picked up a boquet of pretty pink chrysanthemum, a bowl of candy (as opposed to the usual chocolate bar), and the Mamma Mia dvd to add a little cheerfulness to the day. It definitely worked. :) I haven't been too anxious to see the movie as I'm not really an Abba-fan (nor am I generally a big fan of musicals either), but I just couldn't resist the bright, summery pictures on the cover! I thought the movie was ok, not spectacular but enjoyable enough, but I have to ask you: how many of you felt the urge to leave the dark cold behind and go off to run a cute little hotel on an exotic island somewhere when you saw this movie?!? I definitely did, sigh!

still alive!

2009-02-17T14:41:00.003+01:00

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I updated this blog, time really flies! I'm sorry for my long absence, it seems most of my time on the computer lately has been spent working on my website with not much energy left for blogging!

We've had some beautiful winter weather here these past weeks, it's very rare that we have snow that lasts for more than a couple of days here in this rainy city so it's been wonderful! ♥

winter bedroom

2009-02-05T13:52:00.004+01:00

Photo: LivingEtc.

The current winter-y weather sent me searching in my inspiration folder for a picture of this bedroom, so perfect for a cold February night. It's all white and neutrals but the textures of that bedspread make it seem so warm and inviting (and if any of you know where to find something similar, please let me know! It would be perfect for my bedroom!).

Oh, and another question: I've only just discovered the wonderful world of audiobooks (how fantastic to be able to "read" while doing the dishes!), but the quality seems to vary greatly. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend some good ones?? :)

snow day!

2009-02-04T13:40:00.001+01:00

Things have been feeling so very light and spring-like lately, so much so that we actually considered taking a trip to the summerhouse yesterday. And then today we wake up and find the world looking like this! I do quite like the snow though, it makes everything all soft and pretty and quiet, and the light reflected in the white snow makes the apartment look so nice too. Let's hope it stays for a bit now that it's here! :) (even if I am currently desperate for a vacation somewhere sunny and exotic!).

hotel weekend

2009-02-02T22:30:00.004+01:00

This weekend I spent a night at the lovely Solstrand Hotel, celebrating a family birthday. This historic hotel is situated in the most beautiful surroundings overlooking a fjord and a glacier, and also offers a variety of spa treatments and wellness facilities. Unfortunately there was no time for us to take advantage of that this time, but I would LOVE to go back there for a spa-weekend some time! All of our rooms had views of the fjord (two of them panoramic views and spacious balconies) and the heated outdoor pool (soo tempting!).

Go here for pictures and information. :)

dreaming of blue skies

2009-01-30T23:54:00.005+01:00

Photo: finn.no

This picture makes me miss our old apartment where our bed was placed just like this, under the sloping ceiling/windows. It was wonderful to wake looking up at blue skies like these (although where I live that is quite rare, usually it would be rain hammering on the window!), but this room is a lot prettier than ours was. ;)

our bathroom remodel on apartment therapy! :)

2009-01-28T13:37:00.006+01:00

A few days ago, after making a post about our bathroom remodel in a design community, I was contacted by one of the editors of Apartment Therapy Chicago, asking if they could feature our story on their site. Of course I agreed, and this morning I found it posted here. Thanks Sarah! :)

Here are some pictures of it in its current almost-finished state, but click over to AT for more details, as well as the gross before-pictures!

A funny fact is that our current shower area was originally the pantry! Our building was built in 1921, originally as workers' housing, so all the apartments were small and had simple standard. There was a living room, a kitchen (with pantry) and a small toilet, but no bathroom, obviously. Previous owners had turned the old pantry into a tiny bathroom, and had taken a small part of the kitchen to use as a laundry room. Today the former kitchen serves as our bedroom (with an open-plan kitchen/living room on the other side of the apartment), and during the bathroom remodel we tore down the wall between the bathroom and laundry room to create a more spacious ensuite bathroom.

By using the height of the space what previously occupied a whole room now only takes up a small corner; the water heater, a washer and a dryer are placed on top of eachother behind the curtain there. The driftwood ladder which you get a glimpse of to the right is used to reach the dryer on top of the laundry tower; perhaps not a practical solution for everyone but for us it works perfectly!

The all-white scheme seems to be a bit controversial for some reason, but I really think it makes the space feel so much larger, and I couldn't be happier with it!

I should also mention that we did everything apart from the electrical work ourselves (and by that I mean that I said what I wanted and then my boyfriend did it, while I made coffee and hit the flea markets. ;) I did come in at the last minute to do the painting though!). We also operated on a tiny (almost non-existant) budget, and I think the bill for the electrician was more than we spent on everything else in there put together. The building materials (drywall for refinishing some of the walls and the ceiling, wood for building the laundry tower and the laundry hamper, and the sliding-door system for customizing the old door into a sliding/pocket-door) were all found/repurposed/recycled from other projects, and the furniture is from Ikea and flea markets.

café

2009-01-26T10:56:00.002+01:00

Photos: Inspace Locations

Imagine owning a sweet little café like this, so cozy! It looks like the perfect place to have lunch on a sunday after visiting a flea-market. :)

weekend brunch

2009-01-24T14:48:00.000+01:00

I have an obsession with sandwiches at the moment, my favourite is this simple one: two slices of bread fried in olive oil, a little bit of mayonaise (ok, a lot!), lettuce, tomato, red onion, a slice of ham, and a little bit of cheese. Cut in half and put little flag toothpicks in to make them pretty. ;) Yum!

margaret m. de lange

2009-01-23T22:17:00.000+01:00

The lovely home of photographer Margaret M. de Lange is featured in the latest issue of Norwegian magazine Rom123. Margaret, who lives just outside of Oslo and works with advertising and interior photography, says she likes her home to be a calm, neutral oasis, and prefers decorating in shades of black, white, and grey. I love it! :)

My favourite is the bedroom. They chose to not have curtains so that they could wake with the natural light.

Go here to read the article (in Norwegian) and see a few more pictures.

inspiration

2009-01-22T23:37:00.000+01:00

Photo: Elle Interiør

I've had this page in my inspiration folder for ages, torn from a Christmas-issue of Norwegian Elle Interiør years ago (my guess is it's from 2005, but I can't remember). I love everything on that page, the colours, the shapes, the materials, sigh! It's just how I want my world to look. I sometimes wish that my style was a bit more funky and colourful, but I can't help it; what really makes me happy is neutral, monochrome, natural, earthy.

P.S: I've been lusting for a capiz chandelier like that since the first time I saw it in a design mag about a million years ago, but for some reason (I guess because they were everywhere) I convinced myself that it was just a fad that I would get over before I knew it, and I didn't buy it. I still dream about it hanging above my sofa today though, but for some reason I still keep telling myself the same thing; that I will soon be over it. I should just cave and get it already, the fact that it gives me butterflies should be reason enough don't you think? ;)

real estate

2009-01-22T14:11:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite pasttimes is browsing real estate pages, not because I'm looking for a new place but because there are few things I love more than seeing how other people live (which is also why I obsessively read interior magazines and blogs and can sometimes be caught trying to sneak a glance through people's windows when walking past in the evenings! ;)
I have pictures of dozens of lovely houses and condos for sale saved on my computer, this one from Oslo for example has such a nice, warm atmosphere, don't you think?

Photos: finn.no

wallpaper

2009-01-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

Photos: finn.no

Browsing real estate pages I came across this kitchen featuring a wall covered in newspaper pages (or perhaps it is actually a wallpaper?). I kind of like the look. ;)

kitchen inspiration

2009-01-21T15:28:00.000+01:00

We are currently in the process of opening up the wall between our kitchen and living room to get some more space in our miniscule kitchen (seriously, right now there is room for nothing more in there than a fridge, a sink, a stove and about 30 cm counter space). It's not in our budget to buy a brand new kitchen, but we hope to find a used kitchen on finn.no (similar to craigslist in the U.S) and paint the cabinets, and spend our money on a new countertop and dishwasher (though eventually I would love to have new glossy white cabinet doors!). I've been looking through old magazines and my inspration folder on the computer, and what seems to be a common theme for me is lots of white, open shelving and glass fronted cupboards. Even though I'm dreaming about clean lines and glossy white modern cabinets in my own kitchen, I seem to have a thing for old fashioned, kind of rustic kitchens as well. Perhaps the end result will be a mix of the two. Here are some kitchens I love:

Pictures from alvhem, haus maus, styleroom, boligmagasinet, boligliv, apartmenttherapy, selina lake, livingetc.

hello :)

2009-01-21T15:25:00.000+01:00

I made this little blog as a place to write about my life, about renovating and decorating my little dollhouse, and to share with you the things that inspire me.
I live in a tiny 41 sq m condo (which I share with three little birds and my own personal handyman who, as I am writing this from my bedroom, is busy knocking down a wall between the kitchen and living room) in a building from 1921, and I thought this might be a good place to share my experiences and challenges with making the most of a small space on a tight budget.

Welcome :)