The Bike Apartment

After we bought the house, we found a cabinet with lots of drawers. It used to belong to the bike workshop people for the tools. When we sanded it down, we saw that some of the drawers were made of oak, so we kept them natural and painted the rest a bold blue. I chose blue because I, Ioana, am from Tulcea, and I guess growing up in the Danube Delta had an impact on me.

I found this stove on a second-hand website. I’ve always wanted one like this, but I never thought I’d find one that was still working and so well-maintained.

The table and chairs in the living room belonged to my grandmother. In Moldova, it’s traditional to give away a table at a memorial service, so the deceased has something to eat on the afterlife. My aunt wanted to buy me a new one, but I wanted to keep the old one and the chairs, because I had big plans for them. I painted them the same shade of blue and then sanded them lightly to make them look antique. I refinished the tabletop with natural wood stain and reupholstered the chairs with burlap. The small table in front of the sofa has the same story.

I wanted to cover the wall by the stairs with old wood, and I pictured a stone wall kind of thing. But what we ended up with is way cooler. We used an old gate that’s about a hundred and fifty years old. Emil rescued it from the previous owners who were chopping it up for firewood, and now it’s the star of our wall. You can even still see the old mailbox slot.