Friday 27 February 2009

Little Sister, on the Couch

This week I've contacted 5 ladies from Etsy to share their pictures of their favorite chair or couch, apparently couches are more in fashion as all of them sent me pictures of their couch. I can imagine that a couch is more comfortable and pretty, unfortunatly in our house it has become impossible to sit on the couch as it is always occupied with atleast one doggie, as you can see here.


Yasmin of YasminBochi moved from Belgium to the UK in november and lives with her fiance. The first 2 months they only had an inflatable bed as furniture, after that they bought the couch, one of the few items that is actually new in their apartment as mostly is vintage, recycled or restyled. Her shop is full of revamped vintage bags, so no suprise that vintage comes back in her home.
The couch is soft and comfortable, perfect for a TV night or just to relax or read a book.
Beside her beautiful bags Yasmin makes unique jewelry, you can find that here.
She has a lovely blog about vintage, trips and more here.


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Tina aka theprincessnextdoor lives with her husband and two little boys in Athens, Greece.
She took pottery lessons for 2 years, painted children murals and furniture and occasionally made jewelry. But 3 years ago she refound the pleasure of making jewelry, you can find the results in her shop.
Tina has quite a story about her couch:
'It belonged to my grand mother who had bought it from a decadent egyptian princess in the 50s in Istanbul. Were there princesses in Egypt? Anyway that's the story I heard and it suits me, I like to think I sit on a principal couch. I like its shape, I find it elegant. I changed the fabric when I brought it home, the man who upholstered it for me told me it was the heaviest couch he ever lifted. I guess it is very well made, the way old things were made. In the picture it's obvious that the fabric has faded and the lower part has lost its shape. It's made in the old way, springs, so it's natural after 8 years of constant use to "sink". I want to have it repaired and also change the fabric. If you could see closer you would also see a lot of stains and marks, the result of my couch's acquaintance with my children. But I think Ι have to postpone the repair and re-upholstering for some years and be content with a throw since this is what happens every day (second picture). I let them have fun for the moment. When they are mature enough to understand how to take care of our things I'll do it, I hope it won't be too long from now.'
Tina is also in the middle of deciding of what to hang above her couch, any ideas? She has a great blog too.


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Everyone who knows Renate aka Kreativlink, knows that she dreams of a house by the sea, she will buy it as soon as she wins the lottery (send her some luck please!!). In the mean time she lives in the middle of Austria without any water near her, in a little house with her husband and son. Her cozy living room has everything she needs:
' Our couch is in our tiny livingroom with a lovely view and already well loved. As you can see, I have all the very important things within reach there. The tiny laptop, drawing stuff, books, TV, the old playstation I got from my son, some shells when I want to "hear the sea", dying flowers for when I feel too happy (okay, that's stupid), alcohol (that I don't touch usually), a big warm blanket, some board games ....Okay, the only thing missing in there is a fridge. I would not have to leave that room ever again! ;)'
If you would like to help Renate making her dream come true of a house by the sea, it sure will help to check out her wonderful shop with handmade journals! :) (You can see my Kreativlink journal here). And here you can find her lovely blog.


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After seeing tiny colorful mouses (handmade by Anna of felt) all day Anna aka TheHouseOfMouse obviously needs a calm living room to relax with her cat (!!?). Anna moved from the UK to the Netherlands with her husband a few years ago, but is planning to move to a warmer climate.
She says: 'Most of the chairs in my house are more practical than beautiful, this one is my favorite because it is the place I go to relax and read when I have time. Within 5 minutes of sitting down my cat Nicki is guaranteed to come and curl up on my lap, giving me a very good excuse to stay put. '
Please check Anna's shop, full with the cutest mouses, all with different caracters. She also blogs and give great tips and info about making your Etsy shop successful.


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Heli has a yummy bag shop and a shop full of little lovely things (I purchased some wallhangings of her for mums birthday, they are even better in person!). Heli is a Finnish woman living in Istanbul, Turkey for 3 years now. She has studied ceramics and visual art therapy back in Finland (has a degree in both) and now doing all kind of things handmade.
She gave her couch a complete makeover a few months ago and this is the result. You can see the before and process picture here below.
This is her story about the couch:
"We got this couch from my mother-in-law when we moved to our first apartment. It is an old couch but I love it for some reason, hubby would have rather left it but I insisted to take it with us. I didn't like the upholstery at all and from the very beginning I started to think to cover it again. Well it took 2.5 years until I finally covered it with my own little hands. The hardest part was to rip off the old upholstery...my poor fingers! I am quite pleased and proud with the result though I wish I had found a more calm and light colored fabric, even though I know the darker the better in our messy family :) p.s we don't have kids "
She has a lovely blog, don't miss her Friday is my day posts!


Next peeks, next week!
Thank you Yasmin, Tina, Anna, Renate and Heli for sharing your photographs and little bits of your lifes!

21 comments:

  1. Wonderful to peek at these bits of life represented by these seating arrangements!

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  2. Oh how lovely to to peek everybody's houses :)
    Thanks star for visiting me!
    Come back again ;)

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  3. All couches look comfortable and nice! But I like K's corner much more:)It fit for me:)

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  4. Ha! Fun to see our old TV couch here! Thanks for featuring it! :)

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  5. ooh, fun to read about the couches and the stories behind it!

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  6. very cool to have a peek into everyone's houses .. gorgeous couches!

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  7. Oh, what a fun read this is!

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  8. Always a joy to read about fellow artists' life style! Very well done:-)

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  9. Thanks for visiting! I loved reading this :)They all look like cozy couches! Tina's princess sofa is fascinating and i love heli's reupholstered couch...great job!

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  10. This was interesting to focus down to one specific area (couch or chair). I find this series of posts to be quite enlightening!

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  11. Lovely post, I m'very happy to be part of it and also have the opportunity to have a look into my fellow artists' living rooms and lifes. Thank you Star, I enjoyed it.

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  12. Super! I wish I could go there and sit in all of those couches chatting with every one of these ladies! :)

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  13. I want to lay out on all these coaches...and rest my body...:) cozy and great post Star!!!

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  14. I love to peek into other people's houses... Great read!

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  15. Thank you all for having me looking inside your own place of the world.
    I love it!
    And again, you all are such artist to decorate your homes - and it's clean ;-)
    Lovely to read the history of your furniture.

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  16. Fun theme and great to see a little glimpse of people's living rooms.

    Heli has accomplished an enourmous job with her couch, congrats!

    -minna

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  17. I love this series! Thanks Star!

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  18. What a great collection Star, like looking through Better Homes and gardens magazine!

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  19. Oh, so nice to see sofas of others. Inspiring! Looking at Heli's reminds me I should revamp mine too, but still indecisive, which fabric I should use (I have now stacks of different fabrics for the sofa, but still don't think I've found the right one).

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