I'm in an uncluttering mood today. I spent the larger part of the afternoon in my oh so uncluttered farmhouse, and if it is going to stay that way when we move there permanently, I need to get rid of stuff. We are downsizing quite a bit, and I have no idea where to put all of our junk, really. So, I've started an uncluttering frenzy at home. I really need to purge this house. And I also need to get rid of the dead ugly 1970s bookshelf in the living room. It has driven me half crazy for the last ten years with its sheer ugliness, and I can't for the world believe that I haven't thrown the hideous piece out earlier. However, this evening, I emptied it out, completely, and tomorrow, even if I'm going to have to drag it out myself, it will be gone.
Uncluttered farmhouse, it is. We haven't put in any big bucks out there, and we are far from finished, but there is one room that feels done. The bedroom. It's completely done, it's light, airy, didn't cost much, and I love it. So, how about a tour?
The bench is made from reclaimed wood, and it only took me a couple of hours to build. The photos on the wall are fastened with patterned masking tape - very easy to remove if you grow tired of them.
Don't you just love feathers? All of these but two have been found on our property. Most of them are from Common Buzzard, but there are also feathers from pheasant, hawk, and one of them may be from a Red Kite, speaking of which, we had some really close encounters with both kites and buzzards this afternoon. Our meadow was being mowed today, and the tractor probably scared a whole lot of mice and other rodents out of their holes, making the meadow a proper smorgasbord for the birds of prey. Thus, no less than five (!) red kites kept circling over the farm, accompanied by at least one buzzard. The kites came so close to us, totally fearless, trying to hover in the wind. It was just an amazing sight, really impressive the way they use their wings and tails to steer through the air. And they are HUGE. Then, on our way home, all of a sudden a buzzard landed on a fence post just as we were passing by. I stepped on the break, so that the kids could watch it a little closer as it looked right at us with its fierce eyes and spread its wings and took off again, only a couple of meters from the car window. They are such cool birds, so majestic!
I have been wanting to wallpaper an entire wall with book pages. I started with this little wall, on the side of the closet, and I really love how it turned out. This is poetry pages from one of my favourite poets - Gustaf Fröding. The chair was in the house when we bought it, and it is so perfectly worn.
The curtain rod is kind of fun, I think. Back in the days, they used these wooden poles to build hay racks, and I have a barn full of them. P said he might use them for firewood, or sell them, but I don't think so. I have plans for each and every one of them, both inside the house and in the garden, so I claimed them right away.
Here's the bed. The mattresses are placed directly on top of wooden pallets (which unfortunately didn't fit into the photo). The chairs used for bedside tables were also left in the house by the previous owner, and we're extremely happy abput that. The room is so narrow that our old bedside tables wouldn't fit, so we might just keep these chairs. They are too wonky to sit on anyway, so this is the only way we could use them.
This pillow cover is very special to me. It was part of the bedding in the bridebed for my great grandfather and my great grandmother. His name was John and her name was Jenny (like me), thus the monogram JJS. It's quite beautiful, isn't it? I have a matching quilt cover too tucked away, and (I think) my sister has got the other set.
The ladder was also made from hay poles, and I use it to hang blankets and clothes, and the dresser was a gift from P's parents. My initial thought was to paint it white, but I have kind of grown to like the chipped grain painting that is on it now. Soneone put a lot of effort into painting it like that when it was new many, many years ago, and I love how it looks so old and worn. So, it will stay in this shape for now. Maybe I'll grow tired of it later and paint it.
And now it's past midnight, and there will be no more uncluttering tonight. I'm going to go up to my not-so-bright-and-airy bedroom in this house (it's got dark blue wallpapers... which was so in style when we renovated this house back in the late 90s) and try to get some sleep so I can get back to my uncluttering business tomorrow morning again.
Take care!
