Macedonia - Krushevo and Macedonium

At the end of summer last year I visited Macedonia. We visited Krushevo - the highest town in Balkans. It is a very special place with its beautiful views, old town center and monument named Macedonium.

I love this page.

Carpe Diem,

M.

House Renovation Series - My Wardrobe

When I moved here I got these two brown wardrobes with sliding doors as a place to keep my clothes. I hated them, because of the small sliding doors I was able to see only 40 cm of my clothes at once. There was also not enough space for everything.

This were the photos on the opposite wall.

BEFORE

As soon as I was able to I designed new ceiling high built in wardrobe.

AFTER

Yes, I've hung the first page of my first scientific paper and a photo of immunostained embryonic stem cells - my PhD work:-))

The hallway just went from dark and narrow to bright and spacious. Im still surprised by the illusion of space and the light the huge mirror brings in. When I was arranging clothes in my new space I discovered many items I forgot to have. Its much easier to get dressed in the mornings because now I can see all my clothes:-)

Carpe Diem,

M.

My Bedroom on Apartment Therapy

My bedroom was published on Apartment Therapy site. Yay:-)

You can see my entry here.

Carpe Diem,

M.

Before/After - my room in the US

Some ideas how to decorate with a very limited budget and when you know you will not be spending long there and you will not be able to bring home more then one suitcase.

I spent 2011 in the US working on my PhD in a town near Boston. This was my room. I know it looks very collegey:-) but I really liked it actually. I think the budget for decorating this room was lets say 80 USD (not including the cost for the bed which was somewhere around 200 USD) .

First night. Its not bad but it looked empty and impersonal. I bought the bed and borrowed everything else from friends.

So I used my clothing, posters and some things I found as a decoration. 

And this was my room for the last 3 months when I moved into smaller room in the same apartment.

Carpe Diem, M.

House Renovation Series - Pixel Art

This was a very fun project. Because the bones of our apartment are in neutral colors I added the interest and color with books, art and various objects in fun colors - especially pink, yellow and mint.

I made a picture for the living room out of paint swatches. Here are instructions in photos.

Don't just throw in all the colors, it look to random. Choose just a few colors or make gradients like I did and put similar colors together. 

Of course, its not completely perfect up close:-)

Carpe Diem, M.

House Renovation Series - Computer & Music Room

The final touches in this room were my favorite project and probably the biggest visual transformation with very little work.

This is how it started. 

BEFORE

We tore down a wall. On the left you can see the doors to the bedroom - the small room behind the hole in the floors (where the cat is) was a small dressing room adjacent to the bedroom that I've already mentioned. This way we gained a bigger and brighter room. The previous two windows in this room are on the north wall and the room always felt dark and cold. After demolishing the wall we added a third window that opens to the west. Now the room has beautiful afternoon light.

After my boyfriend finished the walls everything looked like this.

It was ok, but because the room is very long and narrow it didn't feel comfortable and nice to me. So after searching online for the ideas I decided to paint the wall with the window dark grey and to hang some 25 years old commercials from the Rolling Stone magazine on the wall next to it.

AFTER

The gray wall really visually brings that end of the room closer. Its such a difference. 

And I adore this gallery wall. Bonus points, because boyfriend likes it too:-) (98% of the time he does't care about my decorating decisions).

I bought him a coffee plant. Also this is the first plant he cares about and will maybe survive my absence:-)

My US flag finally has a perfect spot (boyfriend doesn't mind its in his room).

Expenses:

- Materials for the wall 100 EUR

- Desk 45 EUR (used)

- Grey paint 8 EUR

- Frames 26 EUR

- Grey baskets, plants: 40 EUR

We've already had everything else.

Two weeks for the walls, one afternoon for my final touches.

Carpe Diem,

M.

House Renovation Series - The Porch

Our apartment has an amazing porch accessible form the living room. In the past it was a little neglected so we needed to paint all the wood that is supporting a 15 year old wisteria growing over it.

And finally painted.

Additional bonus? WI-FI  and hammock. This is basically my office in the warmer months.

Time: 2 weekends and some afternoons

Cost: 70 EUR for the paint and 10 EUR for the sanding paper, everything else we had at home

Carpe Diem, M.