I love the glass doored cabinets in our Swedish kitchen.  The trouble is, I had nothing to put in them!  On a trip to Anthropology, I saw some cute cut-out letters and thought that would be a simple solution, but what letters?  Our initials seemed kind of weird.

Then it hit me–why not write “kitchen,” but in Swedish.  The word is kök–just three letters.  And there were seven cupboards–three above window.  I went to the craft store and had to get creative to get the two dots above the “o”.

I bought some red paint and gave everything a couple of coats.

I found this scrapbook paper and decided to do some decoupage.

The cutting out was a bit tricky.

But the decoupage was fun!

Bob made some great bases for me–and eventually figured out how to mount the dots above the “o”!

Of course, when I got back to Sweden, I found I could have bought letters there–with the appropriate characters.

The letters worked out great!

It was tricky getting a photo without glare on the glass.

But, the letters served the purpose–filling up some space!

 

I found an inexpensive airfare to Sweden in March and decided to take a quick trip over there to look for some furniture for our Swedish house, primarily a bed so we’d have someplace to sleep this summer.  Instead, with Torsten’s help and encouragement, we remodeled the dining room!

Here’s what it looked like in the real estate listing photos.

The ceiling was natural knotty pine, the walls had plywood panelling….

…and there was a wall of built-ins along one side of the room.

It isn’t a very big room, so we removed the built-ins.  Since you can never have enough storage, we’ll find someplace else in the house to use them.

Then I pulled the moldings and plywood paneling off the walls.  The old glue was quite dry, so they came off easily, but it took a lot of sanding to get rid of the glue that was left on the particle board.

Now we had a bare wall where the cabinets used to be.

And we just happened to have an extra window that we took out of the kitchen when we put a smaller one in there.  So, Torsten cut a hole in the wall and, voila! A new view!

It even makes the outside of the house look better.

I put a coat of paint over the particle board to seal it and mudded the seams–all in preparation for wallpaper above the wainscoting.

Torsten nailed up the wainscoting…

…and I painted it the same gray as we used in the kitchen.

All of the moldings were painted white.

The ceiling got four coats of white paint.  This is my “three-ladder-method” for ceiling painting.  Luckily the room wasn’t any bigger, or we would have needed more ladders!

The old flooring was a yellowish brown sheet vinyl.  It didn’t look so great up against the gray Marmoleum in the kitchen.

The solution?  Winter Oak Pergo!  Here it is, laid out in the bedroom acclimating to the house.

I loved it from the minute we started putting it down.

What do you think?

Then my favorite part–wallpaper!

Torsten is a saint.  Not because he can do everything, but because picking a geometric wallpaper for an old house would make most people swear like a sailor!

He didn’t utter one cross word, and it looks terrific!

The previous owners left us the dining room table, so of course we had to have fika in the newly finished room.

There are still some things to do–like paint the table and the corner cabinet, and put up window coverings, but I think it looks pretty darned good for two weeks work!

And, oh, I did buy some furniture.  On the last day before I left, we went to Ikea and bought a bed and nightstands–and this cute rug for under the table!

I’ll be ready to host a dinner party before long!

 

With beautiful weather predicted for this weekend, the time seemed right to open the Swedish cabin for the season.  The cabin is my little piece of Sweden in the woods behind my house.  A perfect retreat when I can’t be in  Sweden.

There’s the typical herringbone door…

…with hardware I brought home from Sweden.

Everything was in the middle of the room, where we’d stacked it last fall.

I bought this sweet doorstop at the hemslöjd (handicraft store) in Dala-Järna.

This horse is a Nås horse, from the village where our house is.

This wallhanging, made by Berit, commemorates my first visit to Sweden in 1981.

Lots of mementos from different trips to Sweden.

This iron candlestick is based on a very, very old design and has lots of religious symbolism.

There’s no power in the cabin, so I have lots of candle holders!

The sofa bed sports a special vintage quilt.

Above it is this stitchery I brought home from a Swedish trip.  The text talks about the childhood cottage.

This fabulous chair, with it’s original paint, was in the beach house my parents bought in 1963.

I have wonderful relatives in Sweden.  Gunnar packed and shipped this corner cabinet to me after I bought it in an antique shop in Gagnef!

These iron candlesticks are sharp and stick right into logs of the cabin.  They were made by a local blacksmith.

A little rooster candle snuffer.

Another wonderful wallhanging woven by Berit.

The stairs to the loft are cut from a single log.

These were bought from the basket maker in Tällberg.

This flour box is very special to me.  It was given to me by Skräddar Anna, who, along with my Aunt Evelyn, kept the contact between Sweden and America after Anna Lena’s death.

The loft is a perfect place to get away from it all.

This little bench is also from my mom and dad’s house.

The kubbstols on the porch came from the same log as the stairs.

There aren’t many flowers blooming right now, but miner’s lettuce made a sweet bouquet.

Every year I plant two more birch trees.

I baby them along.  Someday I’ll have a whole birch forest–when I’m about 120!

After Bob accidentally cut off a birch branch,  I was able to decorate with it!

Last fall Berit and Gunnar gave us this flag for the cabin.  It’s the symbol of Dalarna.

Bob put up the wind vane, too.

It was a great day!

Recently I wanted to make a quilt for one of my Swedish relatives, Torsten.  He has been so wonderful to Bob and me, helping us with our new house there.  I fell in love with a quilt I saw at the Wild Rose Quilt Shop and bought the pattern and fabric.

Of course, when I got home, I thought, “Gee, I have some fabrics that would look good in here,” and started digging in my stash!  Before you know it, instead of using two reds and two neutrals, I had six or eight of each.  I couldn’t wait to get started–and whipped up a sample block.

Notice those four little light triangles at the base of the diamonds.  Those were made by sewing and flipping a white square on, then trimming the excess.  Well, that “excess” was too big to throw away!  I discovered if I put four of them together, I could make an adorable pinwheel block!

I was barely started on the first quilt and already thinking how I could  make another quilt from the leftovers!  Perhaps it would be fun to make a quilt for Emmy, Torsten’s daughter, too!

So I kept on, making the regular blocks and the “bonus” blocks.  I was really pleased with the way Torsten’s quilt turned out.

I was a little surprised when I put it up on the design wall, though. The look totally changed.  Instead of seeing stars, like this….

When it was all put together they looked like wheels!

Funny the tricks your eyes can play!

So, the pinwheel blocks were pretty small.  In order to get a decent sized quilt, I put them together with a pretty print to make nine-patches.

Then I added some more of the print as setting squares.   On to the quilt machine and before you know it…

…I had two quilts!

But then, you see, there were these strips left over.

This is Nora.

Those strips were just perfect to make a quilt for her, too!

Everything got wrapped up and sent off to Sweden for Christmas!

I hope you noticed the paw print ribbon on Nora’s package!