DIY & Go Green!

 Yesterday I took these green paint samples at a shop (oops). I was a little embarrassed, but I wanted to use them to make this green mood board :) With handwritten paint samples, masking tape and inspirational photos you can make great mood boards. Of course I did it with green colors. See my other post: 50 shades of green.

 

I don't have much green in my house, but since a while I have some mini plants in a green house. I did an easy DIY with these terracotta pots today. I made them look older. Like they have been in my garden for a while. You can paint them with white acrylic paint and water.

 

In our house the main colors are black, white and grey with a touch of color. Not so much green for me... 

 

But I l do love the Go Green trend like this: urban farming and plants and flowers in your interior.

I'm doing some urban farming myself: trying to grow radish, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, strawberries, lots of herbs, lettuce, blackberry, fig, grapes and artichoke in my garden. It's great to do with children too :) .  If you want to read more about urban farming: you should check out this blog post of Zilverblauw about her Urban Garden. I love her beautiful blog, photos and style.

 

Do you have green in your house or do you grow your own fruit & vegetables? I would love to hear your comments!

 

 I want to wish you a nice weekend, because I'm going to enjoy the beautiful weather today!

 

Quote inspiration and magazine vtwonen June 2013

Photos Margreet de Vries

Nature in a bag



When I was in a garden centre today, I saw these bags of photo 4 in dark grey (in fact it were very small black and white squares). Unfortunately I already bought new pottery for my garden, so I didn't need them... but I love this concept so much that I decided to make this blog post!

 

I like to work in my garden although it's a lot of work sometimes and I would love to grow some herbs, fruit and vegetables in bags like these ones. The advantages of these bags are: they are light, easy to clean, low in maintenance, easy to store and of course they look great on a balcony, terrace or (city) garden! I have bought some seeds for carrots, strawberries, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, radish and a lot of herbs, that I will try to plant and grow in my black plastic pots. Definitely I will put these beautiful plant bags on my wish list.

 

Sacky bag comes in different colors (denim, white, black and patterns) to use in- and outside 

Bacsac is light, 100% recycable and in lots of different sizes and colors

Bacsac

Cheaper alternative than bagsac: Zigg Zagg bags in taupe or grey and different sizes

Authentics Urban Garden

 

Happy Friday!

 

 

Blue monday

Enjoying the wonderful blue sky today I'm into the blue shades. I'm in love with these batik fabrics, denim, blue decorated ceramics and all shades of blue mixed together.

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 From left to right source 1 2 3 4

Beach colors







Today I love

 

 

 

Today some instagram inspiration with my shells, some green glass I collect, a detail of my boyfriend jeans, a dark grey vintage vase, flowers in my garden, old wooden spoons and the words are from vtwonen magazines. Photos made by iPhone Margreet de Vries

-XO-

Tie dye pillows DIY



I hope you all enjoy the weather... It brings me much more alive! Today I want to show a piece of my bedroom and a DIY with pillows. I added some items that I thrifted. On the tray you see a thing that I really love: macaroons and they look great on a photo :)!



 

 

 

 

 

Last week I made these tie dye pillows and I'm going to explain how I made it. Tie dye and dip dye products are hot at this moment and I love them! Check here on the blog of 101woonideeën for some great examples. I thing they look great in my bedroom. I also painted the wall (just the part where the bed stands) with chalk paint.

What do you need to make these tie dye pillows?

• white pillow covers  - I bought them at Hema for € 3,50. It's important that you use a natural fabric like cotton, silk or linen for the paint
• plastic gloves
• fabric hand wash paint - Velvet Black from Dylon is what I used
• rubber bands - I used the most simple ones that you can see on the first photo, but I strongly advise you to buy larger and stronger bands
• salt (you can see on the package of the paint how much you need)
• large pan or you can use your kitchen sink like I did
• large spoon to stir
• wear old clothes - you don't want to get stains in your clothes

How to start?

1. it's important to wash the fabric first, before you paint it. When it's washed and dry, you can start by putting the rubber bands as you like it (I made one pillow with circles and one with stripes) but if you google tie dye you can find a lot of ideas. Try to tie up the bands as much as possible
2. mix the paint with the right amount of water (look at the instructions of the paint you use) I mixed the powder with 6 liter hot water and follow the instructions on the package (you have to keep stirring)
3. I took half the time, because I wanted a worn effect
4. rinse it with the rubber straps until your washing water is clear again (the same as you paint your hair)
5. remove the rubber straps
6. wash it with (hand-) dish washing detergent
7. let the fabric dry (do not let it dry in the sun and do not wash it with other fabrics for some time)

I hope you like it! Have a happy week! 

Ethnic vibes

I hope you had a great long weekend! I had a wonderful time with my family in Friesland and yes it's a long drive... The sun was great yesterday and I'm so happy with the sun today... hopefully we can get rid of our winter coats soon...

 

I am IN LOVE with ethnic stuff. I love to mix styles up and I like the combination of ethnic, design,  vintage and industrial like at the home of Marie Olsson (photo 4, 7 and 8), and the great home of stylist and photographer Paulina Arcklin. Paulina loves to mix new & industrial with an ethnic touch. Her house is mainly white with some grey and black accents. She has such a great taste and if you don' t follow her blog yet you should check it out! Click here to go to Paulina's blog. 

 

You can easily create this ethnic look yourself with a (vintage) rug like on the fist photo and antlers, painted feathers or wood, leather ethnic poufs, baskets and a framed photo wall (photo 8)!

 

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Shopping time...

Have you seen the new H & M Home products yet? I made a selection of those I love...

Check here to see them all at H & M Home.

  

 

Number one on my wishlist!

I'm looking for 4 new chairs for our dining and I have a big crush on thonet chairs. I like them combined with tolix chairs -as you can see on the second photo- or with eames chairs -see third photo- from a blog I love: AMM blog. Al tough I don't think they are very comfortable, I still want them. Maybe I have to look for a thonet chair with a wooden seat in stead of wicker and of course will I have to convince Jörgen too..;) He likes comfort... I think a mix of chairs would be best. What do you think?

 

Some history...

 

'Thonet today, as in the past, is considered a pioneer of furniture design throughout the world.

The company was established in 1819 by Michael Thonet to produce his own designs, using the then new bentwood process, which he developed. Within a short period of time it became a major furniture manufacturer with a global distribution network' (source here).

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All photos are thanks to these blogs I absolutely love to read (you can find the links of the concerning blogs under each picture): mariaemb.,  J. Leveau blog, amerrymishap, vtwonen and Lotta Agaton

Enjoy your evening!

p.s.: did you enjoy the weather today as much as I did? I worked very hard in my garden today and it felt so good!