Must have Mid Century Modern: The wanted list

Having missed out on attending the Mid Century Modern show in Dulwich this year (it will be engraved in our wall next to the calendar as reminder for next year!) I have resorted to lusting over the electronic versions.

Below is my most wanted list including brilliant replicas, some original (way out of our budget) gems and some "Marmite" pieces that have left us both in disagreement.

Teak Modern Wall Shelf Unit Bookshelf by Poul Cadovius

The sleek teak lines and the towering height give this shelving unit class, precision and can frame a living space perfectly. 

Possibly an acquired taste, if the space is big enough then this beautiful unit allows you to display your wares without drawing the eye too much to the structure itself. The wood can tie in nicely with other furniture and the think shelving helps to maintain the Mid-century Modern style. 

There are a number of replicas now available online but if you know someone with woodwork skills then a bespoke version would be even better!

Contemporary Dining Room by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators Jenn Hannotte / Hannotte Interiors

Uten.Silo Wall Organizer

This much talked about wall organizer may seem a simple but functional design but the price of it really means it's a splurge rather than a "must-have". At approx £258 this re-promoted design by Dorothee Becker is now available in a number of colours and can add a much coveted design piece to any home office.

If you can find similar or a replica then please let me know as try as I might I cannot find one similar!

The Egg and Wing-back chair 

Wing-back chairs have made a huge comeback both with designers and more diluted by the high street. There's a huge choice of colours and styles offered that keep in with the classic design or the modern take and make a striking accent chair.

A mention must be made to "The Egg" chair designed in 1958 by Arne Jacobsen for the SAS Radisson Hotel in Copenhagen. The design has been replicated, has evolved and is recognisable in it's modern form although Jacobsen's original design only produced a handful or pieces so as to maintain its exclusivity.

Midcentury Living Room by New York Interior Designers & Decorators Amy Lau Design

Modern Home Office by Santa Monica Photographers Izumi Tanaka Photography

Midcentury Bedroom by Orange County Closet & Home Storage Designers Tara Bussema - Neat Organization and Design

Starburst/Sunbrust Wall Clock

The post-war design of these clocks can still be seen in contemporary pieces today. The original designs had 48 spokes and were a mix of wood and brass however the newer pieces can be bought with crystals, made of glass and even include photo frames and chalk boards. A love or hate piece this will divide opinion however in keeping with the Mid-century Modern era it's at home.

Midcentury Living Room by Other Metro Media & Bloggers Jan Skacelik

Mid-century Modern Desk/Workspace

There is a huge selection of new pieces that use the minimalist wooden and metal designs to create desk and workspaces although there are less authentic vintage pieces available it seems. Many websites are offering bespoke pieces with nods to "Mad Men" and make a nice to change to the standard boxy desks that many of us must use at work. The quality wood used in some of the higher end pieces do mean that more care should be taken but if you can get your hands on a vintage or refurbished piece at a lower price then that should ease the worry. 

For us, the hunt continues..

Modern Home Office by New York Interior Designers & Decorators Amy Lau Design

What would be on your "Must have" list for Mid-Century Modern pieces? Did you go to the show - please share your discoveries!

Interior: the "grown up" Games Room (yes that is a thing!)

Now that most of the  boxes have been unpacked and the important rooms are starting to take shape  we've started to throw about ideas for the unnamed den/games room/ play room/ man cave upstairs in the roof. (Can a den be in the roof?)

Between us we've got nearly every games console since the commodore but they've all been gathering dust at our parent's houses under a spaghetti junction of cables.

Below are some ideas that we both like for a games room that incorporate function, organisation and the kind of design that continues throughout the house. It's hard to make, what's essentially a kids room, look stylish but below shows that with a bit of money and planning it can be done.

Click on the images for relevant links. It gets a bit silly towards the end but this is all research anyway...

*look out for the console glass coffee table!!

Various stickers available online and through Etsy

Wall stickers from: UberDecals

Poster from: PopChartLab

Pong sticker from: Zesty Graphics

Dream gaming room via Dannycoo.com (the craziest site!!)

Star Wars poster from: Conception Studios

$10,500 when sold with all the money going to charity!

Contemporary Media Room

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

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

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).

First pieces and a snowy night in

A Christmas gift and our official "new home scent"

It's been snowing this weekend and the first few flurries have made our new and very neglected garden turn into a winter wonderland with no effort from us. That's exactly the sort of gardening I'm qualified to do; zero effort but maximum effect!

We've cancelled all plans, put on some comfy knits, gobbled up sausages and mash and are now settling down to watch some TV. It's a rare luxury but feels like bliss knowing how bitterly cold it is outside.

Whilst we don't have many things in our new abode we are starting to collect a few delights which has brightened up the white canvas.

The gig ticket where I first met Jim (2002)

An antique candelabra and one of my best charity shop finds! 

A linen scented candle and my Grandfather's lamp

The prettiest teapot I ever saw and our house-warming gift from my best friend

I hope the weather is treating you kindly and that you're having a blissful weekend,

JJ x

Moving Day and first post!

Welcome to our blog. It seems only polite that we introduce ourselves and explain why we've decided to start a blog *gasp* as a couple!!

You'd be forgiven for being a little dubious about a couples blog but stick with us; we're new to this too so let's agree to a first date and see how we get on.

Creature comforts

It's JJ writing this first little post but Jim is here in all his "christmas jumper finery" lounging on the one chair that we now own (have borrowed) and our internet has JUST been connected hence tonight we're eagerly writing our difficult first post.

Our amazing friends buy the most brilliant cards

We moved into our new/first house together 2 weeks ago and are still getting to grips with all that it entails. We don't have much money (we spent it on fees/credit reports), we have essentially no furniture (what we do have is borrowed), we are surrounded by boxes and don't have a TV BUT what we do have we love and it makes our "Haus Sweet Haus".

The theme for this room is "Cardboard creativity"

The only comparison I can make is I imagine we have the similar feeling of when you pass your driving test but have never driven on the motorway or when you have a baby and take it home despite never changing a nappy before... We're now living in a house and haven't got a clue what we're doing!


As our parents, friends, colleagues and strangers have told us... That's how everyone starts out! (Apparently!)




It was a pleasure to meet you and would love to see you again ;)

JJ (and Jim)