Paper bags

Drawers

Bin

Ena 7

Ena 7 by Jura

Now it's done. We bought the coffee machine to our kitchen. This morning went with the instructions. I'll hope that next morning it will be much easier. :)

Now I'm happy!

About a bucket, a tap and a bench

We have two things what we want to accomplish with our sauna

1. Experience: relaxation and ritual

2. Ecology: decrease the water consumption

1. The experience, relaxation and ritual

It all started when we saw a picture of a spa hotel Yasuragi in Stockholm. The Japanese shower area felt like a spa though it looked a lot like the bathing area in an old Finnish sauna. There actually weren't any showers, just the tap, bucket and a bench.

We both understood why we love sauna so much. It's the experience that you need to make an effort to go there. You take your special sauna accessories with you, some food and drinks and it all might take a couple of hours to finish. Many Finnish families go to the sauna on Saturday. It's a Saturday night ritual and even more so in the old days. You worked 6 days, and then you went to the sauna to wash yourself properly.

Everything is nowadays so automated that you don't have “anything” to do in the sauna. In the old saunas you needed to carry the water outside from the lake, then you put it in the kettle to warm it up. After that you balance the water heat with cold and warm water, it’s almost an art form. To fill the void, people build Jacuzzis and other ridiculous things in the sauna. In my opinion concentrating into the small little things makes the sauna experience special and relaxing!

2. Decreasing the water consumption

We want to take part in decreasing water consumption in our family. The way we plan to do that is to go back in time and make our sauna a little bit ascetic. Instead of standing under shower sitting in bath it is going to be just a small bucket, a bench and a tap. When you wash yourself with a bucket you can decrease the amount of used water a lot!

Only 3 % of water resources are sweet water, water that we can drink and use for washing. 0,036 % of all sweet water in the earth is in lakes as an easily usable form. For example 10 min shower consumes around 130 l of water. I think that 1-2 buckets are enough to wash yourself. So that's around 10-20 l, that's a lot less than 130 l.

It's also wise to decrease the water consumption because when we move to a family house the water costs increases. The less we consume, the less we pay.

Conclusion

We'll build just showers inside the house for daily use and a separate wood heated sauna outside for relaxation. We want to make it as a ritual and decrease the amount of used water. In our sauna there's just bucket, bench and a tap. 

Picture of the hotel Yasuragi

Simple tap no:1

Simple tap no:2

Any how, after this blogpost we definitely are going to visit Yasuragi in the next couples of months to see if there's more ideas that are usable. I'll make a post when we are back.

Greenhouse all over?

Recently my friend posted this photo in his facebook. They just bought an old cottage and are about to  renovate it. This photo popped-up. I don't know what is this green house fixation that I have, but this terrace is so beautiful. I like the idea, that the stair doubles as a bench. What a great idea!

Kitchen chairs

Family Chair by Design House Stockholm

 

 

Just a mention to myself. These beautiful chairs were too small for my bottom. What a pity!

More windows

Doors to the balcony

Keepers

Sofabed and table by Harri Koskinen

Pocket by String Furniture

Kleo by Naoto Niidome

Bol lamps by Hella Hernberg

Kanto by Artek

Tolomeo by Artemide

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

We are gonna make our own version of the sleeping areas by combining the three ideas below. First we thought just to make small bedrooms to encourage the usage of  the common areas. We also wanted to isolate the bedrooms just for sleeping.

The idea of a small bedroom evolved to a new idea: to lift the rooms a bit higher level. You would need to almost climb to get there. Now that we have seen the Luukku made by Aalto University students, I think that our vision has come to completion. I love the idea that there's also a storage underneath the beds.

Y-House in Archipelago by Tuomas Toivonen

Elevated bathroom

Luukku by Aalto University

Espresso per me, grazie!

I have been dreaming of a good espresso machine which also grinds the beans. I want a quality machine which doesn't need that much of cleaning, but not a machine like Cafe Gusto. Any ideas?

Anyways, these are the glasses that I want. I used to have Iittala Koko espresso cups, but I'm bored with those.


Espresso per me, grazie!

Pavina by Bodum

400 vs. Bomba

I have two classics which are now competing to be The Arm Chair of my dream home.

What do you think?

400 by Alvar Aalto

Bomba by Hillevi Sepponen (1954)

New towels

Perfect sauna experience requires quality accessories. Such as these linen towels. Usually people buy big and fluffy towels, but these are the real deal.

At first they might feel itchy, but when you get the hang of it you are gonna love them. These towels also dry really quick!

Lapuankankurit

Lähde by Lapuankankurit

Kaste by Lapuankankurit

Dreaming about Kekkilä

Greenhouse Effect?

This picture is from Kokkola Housing Faire 2011. It's decorated by Susanna Vento but I'm not interested about that. The reason why I blog about this picture is the window. The window makes this kitchen feel like a greenhouse.

I also got an idea. What if our kitchen working table should move its place to the left side, like in this picture. Initially the idea was to have it in the back in front of the window. Let me think about it.

Kitchen chairs

Domus by Tapiovaara

First idea for our kitchen chairs.

Bulthaup part.2

Also this looks amazing. I don't care so much about the outside, but the drawers are awesome!

Mommyy! Can you buy me one, pretty please!

  

Bulthaup has a beautiful closet for kitchen tools and tableware. And I just love it! And the price, do I even dear to ask?