Vintage my love – Focal Point

The Vintage Brutalist interior by M House

25/08/2022

It’s been a while since my last post, I know. It was a combination of multiple factors, like a tricky medical condition, lack of inspiration, laziness, you name it. But today, I decided to post an interior discovered recently that amazed me a lot, something special not necessarily in the Scandinavian style we are used to on my blog.

The Vintage Brutalist interior is designed by Moore House Design, a studio based in New York City and Rhode Island. This creative team travels through the USA designing beautiful residential homes or boutique hotels. Too bad that we are so far away, it would be nice to have them closer and get inspired from a near perspective.

The owner of this house, located in Rhode Island, desired an interior dominated by Brutalism, also known as Brutalist architecture/movement, a style that bumped up in the 1950s among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. The mission of the design team was to combine brutalism with vintage using custom built-in solutions to give uniqueness to the place. It worth to go through the before&after pictures to see how many elements they managed to keep during the redesign process. I always appreciate designers who try to keep things or re-use elements, after all, this means sustainability.

Let’s take a deep dive, and I’ll comment under the pictures what I love in this house.

I find this curved shelf/cabinet a genius idea to hide the television. It is so elegant to hide the Tv when not using it.

The dining area is a combination of vintage and classic pieces, following the curvy lines of the cabinet from above and the lines of the walls. The dining table is a custom furniture designed by Moore House and paired it with refurbished leather dining chairs.

The red line of the house is this dark brown color present in every room of this interior. The below arm chair is a Hunter Easy chair designed by the Norwegian designer Torbjørn Afdal for Bruksbo. Throwing a sheepskin on it turns the chair into a hygge Scandinavian comfy spot.

The sitting area is next to the entryway which caused quite a lot of challenges to harmonize the whole place. The paneled fireplace painted in black was kept from the original design.

The vibe of this house is so masculine, the dark red line gives a calm feeling to the interior. Everything seems so characteristic, like when you are not afraid of using some bold design elements, massive furniture, and dark colors. This is definitely an out-of-ordinary interior on my blog 🙂

Photo credits: Erin Little Photography for M House

Let’s get some fresh air! A villa with blue kitchen is for sale

23/05/2022

Lately, I was mostly posting about apartments, not sure why as this was not intentionally. This week I felt I would need more “air”, an interior with a garden where I could go out to drink my afternoon tea. I found this gorgeous villa for sale in Sweden (of course, where elsewhere?), and I instantly felt in love with the blue kitchen and the color spots here and there.

This house was built in 1924, it has 108+60 sqm, and the land area is 681 sqm. It is super cozy with its vintage pieces combined with modern elements. The Kulladal kitchen with its solid wood cabinetry is the winner of all in this house, the kitchen island assures an airy but still very spacious work space. The abundance of natural light flows in on the big windows and the glass door that takes you to a big terrace with dining area. The dining room’s focal point is the yellow cabinet that adds an eye-catching color spot to the room.

The bluish wallpaper is from Sandberg that adds a special feeling to the hall. The black & white floor tiles are so French and chic, and I think these are such a good combination with the wallpaper. I love the home office next to the window, of course this could work only if some kids are not running around the house.

The Devil is in the details…lovely vintage candlestick on the staircase.

The bedroom is relatively small, and calm and its dark wallpaper turns the room into the perfect nest to have a good night’s sleep. Ok, regarding the bathroom, let’s just say that I’m a fan of vintage bath tubes and old fashion white tiles. I still don’t get why these tiles are not trendy in my country…

What a nice interior with cozy and homey vibes. I hope you got inspired by some interior design ideas. This house is for sale, in case you are around Stockholm do not hesitate to contact the Historika Hem guys for further details.

Photo credits: @Historiska Hem – shared with kind permission
Styling: @mainstreetsthlm
Photo: @danaozollapa

When a home is full of vintage finds

20/02/2022

When a home is full of vintage finds, the whole vibe of the interior gets a magical vibe of ages. I admire those people who have the talent to harmonize an interior’s design with vintage pieces. I think it’s pretty challenging to find the right furniture on flea markets and still keep the red line in the apartment.

This 64 sqm apartment in Stockholm has this special vibe, with the earthy brownish tones, with the fluffy carpet in the living room, with the glass elements, like the chandelier and flower vase on the coffee table, and of course the vintage furniture, everything seems so appropriate together. The owners put every piece so well together. I love the dining area with all the second-hand Thonet chairs and greenery. The kitchen’s focal point is the small balcony with a view of the main street. What a lovely way to have breakfast in the fresh air!

The bathroom totally amazed me with its French vintage design, I particularly like the red and white floor tiles combined with the chic bathtub. The hallway’s design is boosted with the famous William Morris wallpaper which gives a super stylish feeling to the space. Got inspired already? See you next week with another inspirational article.

Photo credits: shared with the cordial permission of Historiska Hem
Found via My Scandinavian Home with thanks 🙂

A Swedish interior for a fresh start

03/01/2022

Let’s start with something fresh, like a bright Swedish apartment. I don’t do new year’s resolutions, I’m too old for that shit, but I try to find something that motivates me and inspires me. Blogging relaxes me, even if this is a few hours of work every week. It’s good for my soul, so continuing this it’s the best new year’s resolution I can have.

This 3 rooms apartment is a perfect trigger to continue loving Nordic interiors and to get inspired on how to combine old with new (look at those ceilings). The large windows let the natural light flow through the whole apartment, and removing the wall between the kitchen and living room made everything even lighter. This way it was possible to create the dining area between the kitchen and living room, assuring a great socializing spot. I love the vintage floor lamp and the gallery wall around the tv, the subtle bohemian touches like the rattans armchair and ceramic decorations add an extra style to the whole room.

The kitchen is a 100% Scandinavian kitchen. The cabinets, the handles, the light grey color, the built-in electronics, the glass lightings, and the oak floor are the bulletproof elements of this style.

This small room with a balcony turned out to be a combination of home office and leisure. The day bed with the powder pink bedding and the wall art hanging above it are a nice colorful touch in this room. I love the vintage desk and the wall art with cranes. The rug adds an extra texture to the room.

Simplicity always wins. I admire the Scandinavians for finding the simple white tiles so delightful. It’s the simplest way of having a clean design in your bathroom. Good old days when this tile was the trendiest one 🙂

And there is no Swedish apartment without a balcony; connection to outside/nature is mandatory for Swedish people. They learned to love and take in everything that Mother Nature tries to give us.
This lovely 73 sqm apartment is in Linnéstaden, Göthenburg, it has 2 bedrooms and an open living room combined with the kitchen, 2 balconies, and storage space in the attic of the building. It was renovated in 2018 when the beautiful oak parquet was restored too. It has a fresh, clean Scandinavian design, so do not hesitate to get inspired by this interior.

Happy New Year dear reader!

Photo credits: shared with the kind permission of Entrance

A Norwegian fairytale-like home

05/12/2021

What I love the most about my blog, it’s that with time passing, it becomes a platform where you can “travel” to lovely places and interiors. If you read my blog, so far we’ve been to Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Romania, USA, France, Australia and now we land in Norway, isn’t this nice? I’m more than grateful to all those people who let me into their homes.

Elisabeth’s home is the perfect match to continue the Advent. When I discovered her IG feed, it fascinated me right away, being a fairytale-like house without any exaggeration. You know that I love sneak peaking in people’s homes, rather than sharing newly built houses for sale where nobody lived before.

Many things from this home remind me of my childhood and my grandparents. What is super fantastic is that Elisabeth is a firm believer in sustainability, everything (furniture, ceramics, textiles, decorations, etc.) in this house is pre-owned/second hand, bought as used, and redesigned by repainting, remodeling, or sewing. This principle requires huge talent to turn randomly purchased items into a good fit for your home’s style. If something is new, it has been given as a gift, such as the tea/coffee pot from @jettestuen.no that you can see in a couple of pictures. I don’t think that the term “hygge” covers 100% the lovely feeling that this home has, so enjoy the tour, my friend 🙂

The kitchen and the living room are full of beautiful laces and textiles, as Elisabeth thinks that textiles are softening a room. Candles, the cracking stove, and hot tea are the ultimate extras to this warm interior.

The gallery wall on the staircase is very creative due to the combination of things (heh, who would have thought that a pair of shoes can be so artistic) besides the paintings or photos. The wall arts with insects are by @emmasjodindesign.

I’m not fully ready yet to get into the Christmas mood on the blog, but feel free to check Elisabeth’s IG feed to see how nicely she dressed up her home into the winter holidays’ atmosphere. I’ve mostly chosen pictures from her home that show the house in a non-holiday mood, but this interior is already full of winter magic for sure. Ah, and by the way, I love every season in her home, summer, autumn, Easter, you name it.

Photo credits: @skogmesterboligen – shared with friendly permission

The Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains

20/11/2021

It’s been a while since my last blog post about a Local Treasure from Romania. When I’m looking for inspiration, I pay great attention to avoid kitsch, I rather go back to basics instead of presenting something that hardly fits into my “interior principles”. When I found this “Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains” (literally this is its name, how lovely, isn’t it?), I knew that this should be my next local treasure, especially that it’s located in a region from where I’ve never posted any interior, more precisely in Dâmbovița county, in Râu Alb de Sus, a small border village between Transylvania and Muntenia.

The owners, Cristina, and his French husband are living in Bucharest with their children keeping this as their own vacation retreat place. The country cottage consists of 3 small houses on a 15,000 sqm land, all 3 being separated with individual bathrooms, having a common, fully equipped kitchen and a hygge living room. In total there are 4 bedrooms, and the cottage can be rented on Airbnb.

The most beautiful part of this place is that once purchased, the owners made a huge effort to recondition the old wooden elements, windows, doors, beams, and porch. They bought pieces from demolished houses and recycled old doors here and there, some of these doors are used as wall decorations instead of paintings.

Originally the living room was the barn where grain was stored in old times. The couches in the living room are from Ikea, the rugs and textiles are all specific to this region. Wooden decorations on the wall are objects from the original house kept by the owners.

The tiles from the stove are hand-painted by a craftsman from Sibiu, who seems to be the last Mohican in creating these types of handcrafted tiles. I also know Teracota Mediaș, a company specialized in handmade terracotta tiles that are beyond being beautiful.

The beds from the bedrooms are the Leirvik models from Ikea available also in Romania. The walls are whitewashed and painted with ecological paints, keeping the authenticity of their surface.

The kitchen is furnished from Ikea, having a very original dining area, you know, those types that our grandparents had back then. So, if you are looking for some nostalgia, this is the place you need to be.

The main bathroom is fully functional, turned into a bathroom from the original kitchen, that is why the stove is there. By the way, this can be very handy during cold winters, listening to the fire cracking while you take a shower might be priceless.

The guests have a free pass to the garden full of seasonable vegetables and fruits, the breakfast is included in the price, and it consists of local goodies like cheese, bacon, bread, fresh milk, etc. Isn’t this a lovely “back to basics” place? The owners have my deepest respect for their great effort in keeping the place’s authenticity. Thank you, Cristina for letting us into your lovely country cottage 🙂

Photo credits: @Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains – shared with kind permission