Spring

 

Yesterday I redecorated some of the kitchen cabinet shelves. 

 

It feels so good to bring in spring blossom branches.

 

 

I grouped some of my chinese celadon plates together with my Syrian vases.

Last week the painters painted the inside of my kitchen cabinet niches in a more ‘verdigris’ color . I love the new color in combination with the oak shelves and celadon pottery. Don’t you?

 

And I brought in a new slipcovered chair.

Libeco linen of course!

 

A few days ago we went to visit Jan’s daughter and son-in-law and their children Alexa & Tristan. Because they live rather far from our place, we don’t see them that often. So it is always so nice to visit them to see the grandchildren growing!!! And Alexa, who is almost 3 years now, has made us some beautiful drawings!

I scanned and resized them to fit in these photoframes.

Lovely isn’t it?

 

Our sweetest Alexa & Tristan.

 

Brother and sister are hugging!

 

My husband and his dearest granddaughter! 

 

Do you also feel these spring tickles?

To end this spring post, a beautiful saying :

“Spring is nature’s way of saying : let’s party!”

(Robin Williams)

Hope you will all enjoy this new week!

xx

All pictures by me.

Orangery redo – Final version

 

I am pleased to share with you today the pictures of the finishing part of our orangery-redo. The pictures are taken by me with a cybershot Sony camera, so forgive me for my unprofessional photographie.

Enjoy!

 

 

Coffee table executed by our company Lefèvre Interiors.

 

The existing sofa is slipcovered with the identical linen as the upholstery of the new large sofa opposite.

BeforePhoto credit : Fotografie Claude Smekens

The color of the lime paint is much warmer than the flat cool grey painted walls before.

Before Photo credit : Fotografie Claude Smekens

 

At the upper part of the chimney mantelpiece we hung a group of antlers.

 

To obtain a more straight and clean look, I have chosen for a fixed upholstered large sofa.

 

 

 

This will be my new reading corner!

BeforePhoto credit : Efi De Grande

I just love the color of my antique vase I placed on the chimney piece.

 

 

 

 

The orangery is much warmer, lighter, much airier and more peaceful than before. Aren’t you agree?

For my readers who have missed the orangery-redo in progress and who are interested in reading about it, click here, here and here.

 

Custom made furniture;  seating & decoration : Lefèvre Interiors

Linen fabrics : Libeco

Painting : Dankers Decor

___

I am curious about your thoughts!

xx

Orangery redo – Part III & Gardening Belgian Style at Providence Ltd.

 

 

First of all a huge thank to my friend Mona of the beautiful blog PROVIDENCE LTD. for posting an interview with me about the Belgian style of gardening! Mona has put a lot of work in this post! Thank you so much Mona for asking me to talk about this subject! I really feel honoured!

If you are interested in this interview, please click on the Providence Ltd. logo. 

Our garden (picture of last year).

___

 

ORANGERY REDO - PART III

Today a quick post about the process of our orangery redo. For those who haven’t read Part I & II and want to know more about it, please click here (Part I) and here (Part II).

Part II ended with the plaster coat.

The painters started to paint the plaster coat a first time, as you can see here.

 

And the day after it looked as this.

After our painter R. had made us some samples to be able to choose the right finishing patina…

 

…he moved on with the finishing and of course the most important part!!

The application of the final and definitive patina!!!

 

Our lovely painter, B. was giving the lightswitches and plates the suitable paint color.

 

A final check up with the chosen upholstery fabrics.

 

And here you can see the result! Jan and me are really excited about it!

We are really happy with the patina that matches, in an excellent way, the stone of our chimney piece.

 

 

A huge thank to the painters R. and B. for their incredible effort to finish our orangery room according our wishes! 

Thank you guys, you are the best! You can be very proud of your job!

 

The orangery is awaiting to be furnished!

TO BE CONTINUED…

xx

Orangery redo – Part II

 

For those who are interested, I love to give you a quick update about our orangery redo. (To read part I of the orangery-redo, click here.)

This weekend we prepared the orangery in order to start painting on Monday.

Shelves before

As I wanted the shelves to have a more solid look, Jan made us new shelves and Anthony was assisting Jan to install the new ones.

Shelves after

 

Ralph has his thoughts about the redo of HIS bedroom!

Monday

On Monday morning the painters arrived and started to give the walls a first coating.

At the end of the day the first coating was finished and it looks as this. A very light-colored layer.

Tuesday

After having mixed several materials, the painter started to give the walls a coat of plaster. And I was chocked!!! It looked SOOO dark!!! And I wanted to have the walls to look more or less as the color shades of my Syrian vase!!

But he assured me that it would be totaly dried up the next morning! And besides, it was only a first plaster coat he had to start with and that definitely is required to bring on the next layers to end up with the limewash finish.

And indeed! This morning it looks as this (picture above)!

So this is the Italian plasterwork that is seen on the walls of old Italian houses.

Today (Wednesday)

This morning the painters are finishing the plasterwerk. You can see the difference in color of the already plastered wall (windows) and the part above the chimney piece that isn’t plastered yet.

I am so curious about the paint layers which have to be brought on this plasterwork in the next coming days…! At that point we will have to decide about the final shade of color!

 

I might presume that finally it will looks more or less as the wall on the picture here below.

image source : here

It all made me thinking of the colors of these Venetian houses.

source : unknown

And Italian plastered walls as on these pictures.

source : unknown

image source : here

image source : here

 Axel Vervoordt   image source Architectural Digest  photo credit Mario Ciampi

 

AD cover issue April 2011

The cover of the April issue of Architectural Digest looks very promising! The plaster technique on the walls looks gorgeous!

I will share more of the redo in a later post! I hope you liked this orangery-redo story so far?

 

If you want to know more about the Belgian paint company at work here, please email me at greetlefevre@hotmail.com.

 

xx