A Problem Shared: #1 How to dress a fireplace

Interior problems and "if money was no object" solutions

Disclaimer: *To most normal people (those who don't consider Elle Decoration an educational reference tool) the problems below may not seem real problems that require fixing. For the rest of us who live for design, colour, decorating (and shopping) read on and please comment as I would love your ideas!



Exhibit A Our beautiful but sadly naked gas burning fireplace. It's in desperate need for some love and attention and a way to disguise the ugly wires. The tiling is a moss green with deep mauve flowers and the metal work a dark bronze finish. It's my favourite thing in the whole house and feels awfully grand (too grand for us!). We've only used it once for dinner with our friends and it blasts out heat which nearly warms up the icy wooden floor.

Possible solutions/ dreamy inspirations//:

The last photo is my personal favourite as it screams 50's Denmark but I love how these photos show a mix of simplicity and beautiful clutter!

Contemporary Living Room by Amsterdam Home Staging HUISSTYLING

Eclectic Living Room by Other Metro Media And Blogs Dreamy Whites

Modern Living Room by New York Interior Designer Reynaldo Gonzalez Design

Contemporary Living Room by San Francisco Interior Designer Tucker & Marks

Modern Living Room by San Francisco Interior Designer EAG Studio

DIY: Our first mood board takes shape

Theme: Modern, minimally eclectic, Scandinavian

Colour Scheme: White walls, skirting and architrave, ice blue, grey, teal and very minimal use of yellow. Fittings and fixtures mostly stainless steel and furniture kept to their natural wood finish.

Inspiration: Below are a few photos we printed and stuck to the wall to begin our mood board but they have remained at the very centre of most of the choices we've made since.

Ferm Living catalogue 2012 - photo from Dustjacket

Silje Aune Eriksen photographed by trine thorsen via bodie & fou
Dustjacket

Contemporary Home Office by Other Metro Architect a+b kasha designs

Blog inspriations:

http://www.myscandinavianhome.blogspot.se/

http://www.lovevintagefurniture.com/

http://www.dustjacketattic.blogspot.co.uk/


Shopping: There were a few pieces we knew we wanted to get our hands on straight away including a light fixture from Ikea, an original Ercol chair (with cushion ideally), a faux sheepskin throw and a coffee table to go with our teal, dark wooden footed sofa.

Ottavia Lamp; Ikea £32 and is actually huge so perfect as a feature in a large room. We've purchased some vintage brown cable to add to the look and it's low hanging over our dining table (pics to follow when the boxes are finally gone!)

From: chairsmith.blogspot.com - Original Ercol chairs are on Ebay and Gumtree for approx £80 + but you really need to check the condition and request the matching cushion as they seem to be like gold-dust! 

Coffee table from the Stockholm collection; Ikea - we found a 1950's Danish coffee table at the Bluewater Vintage Fair for £30 which was an absolute steal!

We also purchased some white brick textured wallpaper from Ebay which was approx £13 per roll and is brilliant quality so hopefully will bring some interest to our attic rooms once we've decided on which is to be my home office and which will be the "Man room". 

What's in a name? The "name your blog" dilemma

What IS in a name? Take mine for example (Justine in case you didn't know). As a child I absolutely hated it. I hated that people called me "Justin" - this was pre-Timberlake so there was no excuse. I hate that when said with my surname it created a whole nother word which people delighted in pointing out to me! ("No, I haven't hear that one before because I never have to say my own name do I!?).

This post is simply to try to explain the rationale behind "Haus sweet Haus". It's so hard to be original, inventive and witty when all the obvious ideas have been taken (what do you mean we can't have "Home Sweet Home"?) so the next best thing was to look at what we need E.g something memorable and add what the blog is about.

Between the two of us there are so many nationalities, languages, favourite countries and design ideas that mashing them together seemed the best thing to do. Using a little German is not an attempt to be "show-offy" (and very much hope it doesn't come across that way) it's because we have influences coming at us from all directions and this blog is a chance to put them on paper and share ideas or at least contain the VERY silly ones.

Below I've created a very amateur equation that summarises how we got to our name and just where the hell these ideas are stemming from (our family trees a far more complicated; this was a doddle in comparison!).

This

My Dad was born in India; Kolkata to be exact. My family are Anglo-Indian.

+

Jim's family live in Sydney, Australia. He'd like to live there too one day.

+

Mon coeur est en France notamment en Paris et parle Français - I nearly moved there once and still would! 

+

James ist in Deutschland zu Hause und spricht ein wenig Deutsch. Meine Mama ist fließend und wir haben deutsche und österreichische Freunde.

X

The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge have consumed our lives and were the catalyst for our love for Scandinavian (and knitwear) design. Tag. 

+

Places we've been: France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, America, Mexico, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Australia, India, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain, Korea...

=

Haus Sweet Haus

x

A Vintage Fayre and an Italian lunch

Leigh on Sea.
Photo courtesy of C2Conline

On Saturday Jim and I took a leisurely trip to Leigh-on-Sea (that's South East Essex) with my Mum in search of Vintage treats at the Vintage and Handmade Fayre. I'd not been before and was really hoping to see some local artists and maybe find some jewellery. I wasn't dissapointed! It was an eclectic mix of vintage clothes and accessories as well as some great jewellery, designers, artists and best of all 3 lovely ladies selling enormous cupcakes.

The boyfriend was a good sport and ambled patiently behind my Mum and I as we hovered over the jewellery and vintage hats and ummed and ahhed over the most beautiful art deco tea set. He was one of only about 4 men there but I think the promise of cake at the finish line was keeping the majority of them going. Day trip with the future Mother in law (sans a ring) = 50 boyfriend points!

I picked out this lovely little piece from a local jewellery maker who's business card I lost on the way home, nightmare!

She makes silver plated jewellery (perfect for those with nickel allergies!), key rings and lockets which are really feminine and delicate and caught my eye mainly because of the flower in my favourite colour

We're still on the hunt for more prints and paintings for the house and at the fair (Fayre) discovered a local photographer, Clarissa Debenham of Film Free Photography who produces block photo art with pictures of Southend-on-Sea and Leigh-on-Sea that capture our favourite locals spots (in the sunshine which is a rare sight!)

The print in it's packaging - I thought it might be like wrapping paper or sleeping bags in that once I took it out it will never go back in again!

It won't mean much to those who don't know the area but for each square Jim and I have an amazing memory of good, bad, fun, drunk and teenage times which I really love and can't wait to frame and hang somewhere in the house.

It has given me inspiration to do one ourselves of our first year in the house. I wish I'd taken more photos when we moved in but naturally we were too busy living it to document it!

The boyfriend enjoying his double espresso from a polka dot tea cup! You can take the boy out of the city...
Note: the hot chocolate menu. When there are that many options it can only be a good thing! 

Our little seaside trip was topped off with a visit to a scrummy little Italian deli called "Milly's Deli" in Old Leigh. It's tiny inside and stacked to the ceiling with Italian goodies and freshly baked cakes. We grabbed seats in the conservatory and with the sunshine streaming in our our backs we had an injection of Vitamin D after all this miserable weather. I have to make reference to the lovely lady who served us because she was a s sunny as the conservatory. Hurrah for better weather; it's doing us all the world of good!

Roll on the next weekend!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin - a new addition for HSH and a welcomed one I hope!

Spring in our step: an update plus a new housemate

I like how the change in season from Winter to Spring has such a cleansing effect on me. I don't know whether it's down to the blossoming of the trees or if it's simply that with a little sun on our backs we feel ready to come out of hibernation and do things!

We finally have a sofa after 3 months of wishing and waiting! We are as happy about it as our poor guests are! Note the original 1950's Danish coffee table; a steal at £30!

We've been in the house for 3 whole months and we've seen rain, snow and finally sunshine. An update is well overdue as well as the introduction of our new house mate.



May I introduce you to Maebe; our 7 month old kitten who has been living with us for about a Month now. This photo is deceptive really as her cat tree is her domain where she finally chills out a little and sits still.

In actual fact this petite ball of fluff loves nothing more than climbing the walls, curtains, guests and most recently door handles in order to make herself noticed.

We literally adore her and in the absence of children recount boring tales of her most recent adventures much to the dismay of our friends.





The house is slowly starting to fill with furniture, books and a few interesting finds but there's a long way to go. It's taken a while to find a style we both agree on but "Scandinavian" meets "city living" seems to fit and it's a compromise that seems to be working.

As a book hoarder and lover of colour blocking I can't resist organising our novels by their hue. We've just started to merge our reading collection and gather the boxes of books from my Mum's house so it's a work in progress but I love how it brightens the white canvas in our living room although any new additions mean shifting everything to a new shelf; nightmare! *Please ignore the wonky handles, only noticed them in the photo and they have been added to the mister's long list of job!

I've collected prints from Paris all my life as an avid visitor and complete obsessive fancophile so these is just a selection of approximately 25. I do love them but I'm still not sure of where they best fit in the house. They may work better in the bedrooms upstairs due to their racy nature but I don't know if that's too obvious. 

My first art purchase for the house and one of the influences for our living room; Fantasies iii by Anna Magnowska. I bought this from Urban Outfitters but I think it's still available from East End Prints (the best website for contemporary and affordable prints). The subject matter could be described as a little explicit for the living room but thankfully no one has noticed or if they have they are far too polite to say.

There are so many more things to do but I feel like we've made a nice little start. We're finding our feet as well as our style and I've spent a lot of time pouring over apps like Houzz and blogs by brilliant writers with a better eye for design and creativity including Artemis from Junkaholique and Zoe from Conversation Pieces. Click to read their blogs because they provide you (as they do me) a brilliant source of reference and inspiration.

For now it is back to our perfect lazy Sunday afternoon of tea, hot cross buns (we stocked up!) and to finish "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain (me) and the Bahrain GP and a mug of coffee (Jim and the kitten).