Stairway : luster

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Remember the discussion in my last post about where to hang the old and the new luster ? The old small lamp that we got with the house should hang again - like shown in the photo below - in our small entrance.


For the new luster I got a new idea ... please follow me upstairs :

 

Yes, just some more steps and we arrive at the primo piano, the 1st floor (BE) or 2nd floor (AE), where the space opens up a bit :


Here (above) you see some people happily together discovering the house (in August 2006), me on the left with our son.


And here we could hang the new luster.


The actual lighting would be replaced and the new luster could have a better effect here than downstairs at the piano terra, ground floor (BE) or 1st floor (AE). 

But how does this new lamp look like that my parents-in-law got from a fleamarket in the Veneto region ? I have only very poor photos, sorry, my mistake, did not set the right modus for the camera. So two blur pics :


It does look a bit better in reality.

To show from the outside of the house the two different areas of the stairways where we could hang the old and the new luster, I have prepared this photo :


Although the main door seems impressive, the main entrance really is a small area. The stairs starts almost right away. But upstairs the stairway widens up and leads to three spacious rooms and to small stairs that leads to the mansard and roof terrace.

As you are here to see the progress of our Italian renovation project, (me too BTW !) I will post before and after pics of the balcony of the stairways and the facade of the primo piano :

BEFORE

AFTER

Preserving the entrance luster

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The entrance luster - Part I



The only "interior" that came with the purchase of the house is a small old luster. As you can see in the pictures above and below it consists of a simple yellowish glass sphere and a wrought iron fitting. Nothing precious. Probably not even 'antique'. But special to me.



The small old luster is hanging in the entrance of our house. Althoug the house is called 'palazzo' in Italian, the entrance of the house is not an 'entrance hall' - it is a fair small entrance and this small luster fits perfectly here.





During the renovation work in the house last year, someone took the luster down. And as you can see it did not become prettier over the past three years. It became more rusty, got some paint on it and a lot of dust.

During our summer holidays we never really can go ahead with remodelling or renovation work, not even with much planning or choosing material as everything closes down in the South of Italy in the month of August.

But this rusty luster was in the storage room where we stayed. And one day I decided to not go to the beach and instead to do a tiny tiny restoration project : "preserving the entrance luster".



I cleaned the glass sphere and the wrought iron fitting and bought paint suitable for iron. The name of the paint was 'ferro battuto' (wrought iron) and looked almost black. However, it turned out a bit too grey. But I decided to leave it this way for now and to put it away, back into storage.


 

The entrance luster - Part II

This winter in Venice, my parents-in-law had a surprise for us: A luster !  Antique for sure and nicely elaborated. A flea market find from an antique market in the Veneto region. For the palazzo in Pizzo.

"But not for the entrance" I heard myself, the ungrateful daughter-in-law, saying.
"Molto bello, grazie , maybe for the dining area" I tried.

They were quiet disappointed. I gave up - with a smile - knowing my father-in-law, who probably will install this luster before our arrival in summer ...


flea market find -  to hang in our house, somewhere

Luster no. 2  is about 3 x bigger than luster no. 1. - Probably it would suit the entrance of a palazzo better than the small luster (although the entrance is small). But still I am attached to the first, the original one. It was the only interior object we got with the purchase of the house. And as we do a lot of remodelling I thought to at least preserve the entrance luster at its original spot, in the entrance. - What do you think ? Should I give the second luster a try ? And find another place for the 'original' luster ? Or vice versa ?

Guest Blog: brighten up a rental with paint

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Welcome to the very first guest blog on 'Palazzo Pizzo':
Text and pics are by Yvalie who has moved with her family of four from the US to Germany just recently.  I have met her through my blog as a dear reader and commentator. Over the time we became friends and each other's "interior coach" (amazing blogging!) . 
Here is Yvalie with her before and after story of her rented house :

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AFTER: the Art Nouveau Style entry after painting


BEFORE: the entry before moving in

Touching up a rental is not always easy if the landlord's answer to all your begging is "no". Well, I guess we were really lucky and were able to do some major changes just with some paint (and some flooring).

The house was built in 1905 featuring the Art Nouveau Style that was so popular in Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

The city of Dresden, located in the very East of Germany was heavily bombed during WW II. Those houses which still existed after the huge destruction had usually been neglected during the socialist reign of East Germany. After the German reunification in 1989 the real estate market boomed and everyone wanted to wake a sleeping beauty for a dime. Well, a lot of people were lured into investing and lost huge amounts of money. Others were more succesful and scored some fantastic architecture.


The authorities placed a lot of those old house under preservation order to protect what was still there. Until today you have to be in line with their rules for renovation. As annoying as this might seem, it does make sense though.

Since our paint color was not the original one we had no problem changing it.

We wanted to apply the same color scheme thru the whole house and started to settle on two different colors to paint the wooden trim and doors. So many people were helpful and offered tours thru their (similar) houses to help us make up our mind how to approach this kind of house.

We achieved another big impact by changing the lighting.

In Germany houses do not come with light fixtures. As a renter you can either bring your own or might be able to snatch a good deal from the previous tenants who don't want to bother taking all their fixtures down. We started our project with bare bulbs in every single room, bath, kitchen, basement, you name it.

Well, and then finally the biggest change was to bring in our furniture we have been collecting over the years and spruce it up with some IKEA and flea market finds.


When entering the house before it felt like entering a cave - so dark (see above 2nd pic). And I also did not like the busy tiles. They were not original anyway so we opted to cover them with a custom seagrass rug to match the one on the stairs. The Chinese console table is from a fleamarket. A guy travels to China three times a year and brings back those treasures to sell at various outdoor markets.


The dining room - before & after:


BEFORE Yvalie's changes


AFTER brighten up with colour


AFTER adding fresh colour

I tried to be very brave here and opted for a floral wallpaper in beige. Once up - I hated it! So after a few weeks we decided to just paint over it, since our budget did not allow to change it yet again. I have to say it turned out fine now. The wooden figures are from the artist Ingrid Wild www.ingridwild.com and represent our family.


The dressing room - before & after:


BEFORE : a bedroom before renting


AFTER: carpet and curtains out - wooden floor in and showing beautiful old windows

Due to it's northern exposure this room is quite dark, so we decided to use it as a dressing room. You usually will not find built in closets in German houses. We were lucky enough to have one spare room, so we would not end up with a huge cupboard in the bedroom. The white cupboards are PAX from Ikea, so is the rug. The sofa is an ebay find that originates from the same period the house was built in. The reindeer is from Pottery Barn Kids and I can not part with him after xmas. So he can hang out there for a while.

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Thank you so much to Yvalie for that great before & after presentation as well as for the short introduction to Dresden and the style of your house !
 
It is amazing what a difference some paint makes!
 
Talking so much about paint, Yvalie also has a good solution for keeping leftover paint:
 
Her metallic cans (Hornbach) neatly labeled with paint and location data were featured over at Lauren's Pure Style organization project (photo left).
 
More before and after pics by Yvalie can be seen today at Pure Style where she takes part in the 'coat closet - reader project'. 
   
 




photo source & guest blog : Yvalie
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-->> For BEFORE and AFTER posts of our Italian remodelling project go here. <<--

What about the palazzo ?

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"What about your palazzo?"
"Is your house in Italy done?"
"When can we come to visit you?"

These are the questions that friends, family and neighbours and everybody who knows about our crazy Italian acqusition ask us whenever we meet them.

In case you want to know but have not dared to ask yet:
The renovation of the exterior is done and finished. The palazzo looks ready from the outside.

However, the inside is far from ready - and at the moment we are not working on it. The piping for water and heat is done. Electricity is all installed. The flooring is not done yet (only outside, for the balcony and terrace) But this should be the next step. Preserving some old tiles and choosing the right wood for wooden floors. Making one floor liveable for next summer is the goal.

Why we are not working on it right now?
Two reasons that go hand in hand: 
time & money

There must be someone of the family on site, at least for some initial and major supervision. My little family has moved from China to Germany, so although we are closer to Italy right now, we are not living close enough to just travel to Calabria for a few days and back. There are no direct flys during winter time, and during spring they are too expensive still. My father-in-law who officially is retired is involved in some important consulting projects, at the moment in La Spezia (Liguria, Italy). This is a bit closer to the South of Italy, but still he has little time to go back and forward. He might be ready to spent time in Pizzo from this April on.

And the second bottle neck is money. A subject one do not like to talk about. But in an economic crisis like this one, everyone has to calculate harder, some more, some less. And I do not want to lament here - don't get me wrong - as this would be on a high level ... but selling the palazzo is not an option! We just take it easy. One step at a time - with the help of the family.

Therefore I cannot report any progress and post pretty pictures from Italy for the moment. I only can offer to review the before and after posts.

view from my "office", Germany

I am writing this post from Germany, from a flat, that has less than half the space of our Italian home. Of course it would make more sense to have a house with a garden here in Germany - but we are global nomads, have been living 8 years in Asia, my husband is Italian and has never lived more than five years on a spot. The last time we settled in Germany was for two years. It was not planned, but happened. Now we are here again, since 1 1/2 years, and do not know for how long. While we were living in China, we have been looking for a home base in Italy, where we could go for holidays when living abroad and gather with family and friends - like the large French families do in their maison de campagne. And that's the plan we have with the palazzo in Pizzo.

Meanwhile I cannot do anything about the palazzo - I have another subject for my German home: there is an urgent need to de-clutter everywhere ! I always smiled when decluttering was mentioned in connection with feng shui, modern feng shui. But there is something about it. I feel totally blocked with all the mess around ! I even do not know where to start and where to drop all the things I need to throw out / give away. My problem are a bit my 'collector' genes, I cannot separate from things, I hesitate to throw away things - and I have mover's boxes in the basement I do not even know what is in it. I could throw them away without looking inside. But I am lost, when I do look inside....

I have to start decluttering. NOW. One of the targets is our bookshelf. Do I really need all these paperback bestsellers that no one reads twice? And dictionaries when you can google?

Happy day from my winter wonderland in Germany!


winterwonderland view in Stuttgart, Germany

bookshelf awaiting decluttering, Germany

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PS: Can anyone tell me where to find the spelling check with blogger ? This would be great, I feel like writing blind...
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Update (to PS): I am actually using the updated editor and there is no ABC spelling function. However, when changing back to the old editor with the spelling function, it still does not work for me. Strange because the language is set to English and I have not change anything on the computer (before no problem).
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