Saying good-bye

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, this will not come as a surprise... 2015 was quite the year for me - home wise. I did indeed decide to move !

Searching for a new home was quite the nerve-wracking experience (more on that another time), but in the end I did find an amazing new place. So selling my beloved "old" apartment turned out to be less painful than I'd imagined... But still, I lived there for over 10 years. It's the reason I started this blog. It's the place where I feel that I really became a (more or less) responsible adult. So before I start posting about my already much loved new home, I feel like I need to close this chapter and do one last post to honour my lovely 1950s flat.

Let's do one last tour, shall we ? I'm using the photos I took for the real estate ad (no, I didn't go through an estate agent - if you saw their "professionalism" over here in Brussels, you wouldn't either...). So everything is looking very much at it's best. Just imagine a bunch of stuff and a cat herd behind from where the pictures are taken...

Ok. I'll shut up now.

Enjoy.

And just for kicks (and to document every last bit for eternity), here's also my ad text :

Madou – Place Saint Josse - UE area : spacious and sunny 1 bedroom apartment (+/- 70 m²), incl. hallway, kitchen, bathroom with tub, separate WC, 1 large bedroom (17 m²) and a large living / dining room (22.5 m²) + 2 terraces at the front and back (east – west facing) + 1 cellar. Double glazing (except kitchen), electricity is in accordance with current building standards. No renovations needed ! Central gas heating (shared by building), individual water and electricity meters. PEB : F. Monthly building expenses (incl. maintenance, heating and savings) : +/- 150 eur. Building is very well maintained, incl. lift (savings are done to renew lift in 2018), quiet and nice neighbors. Very conveniently located within walking distance of city centre, international institutions, public transport (bus and subway) and numerous shops and restaurants. Visits take place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, as well as on Saturday mornings. Contact zzz@gmail.com (English, French and German).

And now I'm ready for new adventures in a 19th century garden flat !

Dreary February

I don't know how the weather conditions have been in your area, but around here it's been bad. Bad enough at least to not put a thrift lover outside...
So what does this here vintage lover do when being prevented from her favourite outdoor activities ? Document the changes undergone by the often neglected apartment hall. Of course !
Although I nearly gave up on that too. Seeing that the light in here is bad on the best of days...

This is the little nook in front of the bathroom. The hall gets larger here, but it's still a drag to find an appropriate set-up for this space.
I'm happy to have found this 1960s chest of drawers at my local antiques centre last summer. It holds all sorts of extra bathroom stuff, most of my handbags and catches all sorts of bits and bobs that never seem to have a proper home.

Now for your viewing delight, I put together a few before pictures. Although this area has changed so much over the year's - and not always in a good way - that I mostly gave up on taking any photos.

Oops, just three years back this massive cupboard was taking up most of the space. By autumn 2010, I had sold it on ebay and replaced it with this British antique bookcase - on the right. 
Hhmm, I can't have been very satisfied with this arrangement, as I only ever took this close-up...

Then you have the same area back in summer 2012 (on the left), after I had tried out - and failed - yet another cupboard (on the right here). Trust ebay to get rid of all your decorating mistakes !
I guess you also get why last summer's set-up didn't last more than a few weeks...

Back to the present tense. I feel comfortable that the current situation is the best so far. Confident enough at least to finally commit to some serious spending. Bloody hell. Those Muuto "The Dots" coat hangers are darn sexy, but 100 eur for a set of five... That required years of thinking.

I installed the other three btw in the former hall closet space. But that space was way too dark to capture with my meagre photography skills... Expect a report on them by summer !

Other side. Just because I love that WGP floor vase so much !

And some final light on / light off action.

You know what ? I think I'm almost reconciled with that annoying corner.

Although I still can't help thinking that there are some lucky bastards out there who have an average winter temp of 25°C, with no rain and a 10-days Modernism Week instead... Yes. Palm Springs, I'm looking at you.

Fleamarket finds

Fresh from this morning's fleamarket expedition. Ladies and Gentlemen. Drum roll. Collective uuhhing and aahhing, etc. etc.

I thought the Brussels fleamarket was all tapped out as far as WGP is concerned. But fortunately I was proven wrong...

Behold! One hell of a sexy, flashy and busty beast. And only 8 eur (haggled down from 15). Irresistible. At least by me.

This old camera isn't something I would usually pay much attention to. Being totally illiterate as far as photographic technique and history is concerned. Point and shoot is about the extent of my knowledge in this area.
But my dad spotted this little fella. He had exactly the same model when he was a kid - somewhere in the early 1950s. So he bought it and promptly gave it to me...

I don't know if it's still functioning or if you can even still buy film for these cameras. But anyhow, it works very well as a decorative object as well.

And finally the new vase in its new suroundings. As you can see it's the perfect big brother to this ebay find. And in light of today's score, I'm already kind of regretting paying 23 eur for the litlle one...

Ebay find

Ha ! I finally found a companion for the flashy floor vase that was feeling very lonely, adorning the Kewlox shoe storage cabinet all by itself.


I was the highest bidder at 16.75 eur, to which I however had to add 6 eur for shipping. Not exactly a score, but West German vases have been increasingly hard to find lately. At least, those with a decent price tag.

I particularly blame this BBC program for this unfortunate situation. They did an episode on the Brussels flea market a while back and one of their ceramics experts kept repeating that "West German ceramics are the antiques of the future"... Dude ! Keep your mouth shut ! And don't ruin it for the rest of us.

As a result, sellers are now asking outrageous prices for even the ugliest specimens.


Anyway, when this vase arrived, I was a bit disappointed at first. It had looked a lovely red in the seller's photos and I had high hopes of adding it to my red collection on the living room sideboard.

But in reality it turned out to be a dark orange, which annoyingly didn't go with any of my WGP arrangements. That is until I remembered the floor vase in the hall. As I said, the poor thing had been so lonely that I kept forgetting it's actually there... Voilà, the two are a perfect match. And they lived happily ever after !

Hall closet before & after

Are you ready ?

Here we go...

Way back in January. No comment...

The hall decor consisted mostly of clutter. How embarrassing.

And the inside of the small walk-in closet was even worse.

The last of the dreaded yellow - and some paint samples.

Mr Messy would feel right at home...

And then February brought : ebay success (coat rack is now sold),

... some much needed decluttering,

... also some harassing paint work,

... and finally, some rewards, aka new furniture and accessories.

A Kewlox wall cabinet is now holding all of my shoes.

A Charley Harper poster from 1977 is cheering up the entry. And of course, a little West German pottery never hurts.

The whole closet is now a sparkling white.

In the future, I'll probably be buying some Ikea boxes to make better use of those built-in shelves, but for now I just randomly dumped most of the closet stuff back in there.

Even the inside of the door frame got a fresh coat of paint. Although you have to dangerously twist around to actually see it. But what can I say, perfection is my middle name.

So to sum up, I used the Little Greene "Shirting" (left over from painting the hall last year) for the walls and trim, and Farrow and Ball "Pavillion Gray" (left over from repainting the kitchen) for the accent wall.

I confess, the Kewlox cupboard at 210 eur blew a bit of a hole in my budget, but turned out to be the only option given that this space is exceedingly narrow. So anything with drawers and doors other than sliding ones was out of the question. I did consider the Ikea Aspvik wall unit for a while, but it would have been less partical for storing shoes, as it does not come with a middle shelf. And for once, I did not want to wait for anything vintage to turn up on ebay.

So Kewlox it is ! And I'm very happy with my choice. I very much like how the checkerboard doors add some extra punch to the space. And in any case, being greeted by anything other than a complete mess when you enter my place, is a very nice change :-)

Hall improvement

Dear readers (if there are any left).

Fear not. A blogging comeback is imminent. I can feel it.

But yes, during the last months I have mostly been idle. Just a few small project here and there. Few and far appart. Like this.

This is what my front door used to look like. Before I started working on the hall, more than six months ago...
And this is the Ikea Spontan magnetic board. Purchased about six months ago as well...

Now with the help of my good friend Laura I finally managed to bring the two together.

Normally the Spontan board is supposed to be drilled into the wall with srews. But since I wanted the board to go up on the door - which is a hollow-core construct from the 50's by the way - I could hardly see myself drilling into it. So my friend suggested gluing the whole thing up.

Now we did not use super-glue for this, but rather something called "colle de montage" (construction glue) that Laura had left over from her house reno. This type of glue is used by professionals to stick together almost any construction materials. In fact, most of our houses here in Belgium are probably only holding up because of this concoction.

Anyway, Laura really applied herself and skillfully spread the glue.

And voilà ! After only a few minutes of pressing the board against the door, everything is securely in place.

Of course I also got some Spontan magnets in red and white to go with the board.

And there you have it. Improved front door and new board ready to hold all sorts of loose papers.

PS. Don't forget the giveaway right here. If you would like to win a set of vintage BFK bowls, all you need to do is leave a comment. I prolonged the deadline and I am going to announce the winner somewhere in early January, instead of mid-December as initially planned. Sorry folks, I just can't face the queues at the post office right now. Yeah I know I totally suck...