Thread of modernist appreciation

[shovetheholly]

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm wondering if there any are fellow Mumsnetters who like mid-century modern/modernist furniture?

I am not any kind of expert, but I find myself increasingly drawn to this style. My most coveted item at the moment is the Finn Juhl no 45. There is no way I'll ever be able to afford an original - but does anyone have the repros? Are they any good?

Fantastic !
The g plan sounds just fab too !

Hello, I was wondering if anyone can help. Is this table mid century? Thank you

I'd say not ( legs) but that from instinct rather than knowledge so hopefully someone who knows will come along .

hmm I'm no expert either but I would say earlier than mid century..maybe more 1920's/30's.

Thank you. I thought 1930s initially but when I tried to sell it the feedback I got was that it was newer than that. I'm very confused!

I am no expert, but it does look early C20 in style. Could it be a later piece in an earlier style?

I think it's a reproduction of an older style?

I have found my people!! We've just bought a 1950s build and love scandi/ Danish design and am desperately trying to gather resources to plan out the decor. It's a doer upper and needs major building work so I've a good load of months to get my head around the look we want. Exciting

Alias wow wd love a place lojw that ! Nothing like that here . Enjoy !!!!!!!

alias - how amazing! I'd love to hear about your progress, please do update us with how it's all going

shove - before I forget !
Grand Designs was on last night doing a few programmes covering the RIBA House of the Year.
Two at the beginning are, I think, worth your looking to get ideas..
The second Ansty Plum (sp?) particularly -in regards to grey flooring/large windows/open plan, but not an enormous space. Looked lovely
The other -(pah think was it called Outside ), was more due to the green roofing and some lovely concrete in the outside area, where one of the owners had impressed leaves into wet concrete for a beautiful texture/look. (I was thinking of your immediate outside space there)

Oooh, thanks book I will check that out! I am STILL really stuck about marrying the linear inside to the curvy outside, so I need some inspiration very badly! I just cannot figure out how to do it, despite spending hours with graph paper!

Just because it's Friday (and this is one of my favourite buildings) here is a picture for everyone of Coventry Cathedral. I went to see Mogwai there a few weeks back. I don't even like Mogwai (musical miserablism is more DH's thing), I just wanted to see the building after dark!

Found a link !
Ansty Plum

I curled up in front of the fire watching Grand Designs yesterday! Book - you are so brilliant! I LOVED that Ansty Plum house. It was far and away my favourite (though I did like Outhouse one in the field with the artists too). The floor is exactly what I want, so you just solved me a huge problem in my life!!

I did not in any way like the Californian House in Cornwall; in fact it made me really quite cross. It epitomises everything I really dislike about some modernist architecture - loud, brash, intrusive, arrogant in the sense that it was positioned for views but didn't give a damn about how it looked from elsewhere. Creek Veen, just underneath it, put it to shame - it's so much more subtle and quiet and careful in the way it is integrated into the landscape and the vernacular architectural traditions of the place.

I did think you would like it- I watched, and immediately thought of you. It felt like a home :)
The Outhouse was just too big - but clever, and I loved all the courtyards.
The Cornwall house to me was like a lot of new modern architect driven houses - they are like loud , rather aggressive drunks demanding attention shouting 'look at me' while spoiling it for everyone else. The view was truly spectacular though!

Aaah, my people! What a fabulous thread and all of you who have posted pictures of your beautiful furniture - wow!!

I am dying to get a Finn Juhl chair too, but alas, the cost....

I am on the lookout for a coffee/side table, I do prefer the slightly darker wood. Also a small corner cabinet, but so far all the G Plan ones I have seen are quite light wood (in the pics anyway)....

wicked - Oh there is no way I could afford an original! They are a serious investment and I'd be terrified to sit on it! I'm going repro (or I might get something similar if I can find one I like).

Did anyone else see the second installment of House of the Year yesterday? I rather liked the final eco house. The Covert House was absolutely ingenious - I don't think I've ever seen a place that had so much light on a lower ground floor. So very, very! But I do wonder whether impact of a build can really be measured solely in visual terms, as the design seemed to suggest - the issues around infill building ("garden grabbing") are surely infrastructural and about how the house relates to the neighbourhood as well?

My Christmas present for my mother just arrived - it's an IHQ Quistgaard candlestick in the "cordial" design. I really hope she likes it! She doesn't "do" Christmas or presents, so I might be in a bit of trouble for buying something, but I just saw it, thought it was lovely, and wanted her to have it.

*So very, very CLEVER!

I watched it shove - . tbh I wasn't struck on any of them , though the eco house was by far the nicest. ( I could live with it I mean !). And I quite like the Japanese extension. The covert house was clever, beautiful but to me very 'sterile' . They tried hard with the greenery outside, but it left me cold- maybe all the white and concrete perhaps. That strange little box and all the moving bits made me boggle a bit. It was just too weird . One or two of the things I could cope with , but all of them?
On a side note DH was intrigued by the CNC furniture in the Japanese house - it was a very little like clean Nordic design in a funny sort of way...
That is a very pretty pot there too ... we like pots here :). Just don't give it as a Christmas present, but just a lovely gift? ( so no Christmas paper, but maybe a tag .

Shove, that candle is lovely!! Aaah mud century, it is so fantastic!

Gah. * mid century....
Too much wine....

well, There was more to like in the House of the Year for me this week. I actually thought the garden house owned by the designer couple was pretty good.
shove - I guess that is not what your roof is going to be like?
I loved the mews house too - though I couldn't cope with the glass floors, but I thought the continuity of just two or three surfaces was really clever.
Didn't like the one by the sea though, that just felt cramped and messy to me ...

Yes, wasn't that hanging garden idea brilliant?! It was a modern alpine trough, really. I liked how much joy it brought to the neighbours. That's what a good garden should be! I did wonder, however, how well those plants were going to stand up to the heat in the summer. It looked like a pretty central London location, and I imagine hot sun on hot silver metal in July just cooking things.

Ahhh, my green roof is currently taking shape in my mind! What I want is a bit different - think a green roof version of Piet Oudoulf. So prairie-style planting in drifts, but at a miniature scale, using very drought-tolerant (and some shade-tolerant) alpines with contrasting colours and textures. It's absolutely NOT the way that alpines are 'supposed' to be grown - all the experts have them as little individual jewels in pots, and I'm going to be using them in big old repeated lumps. But I'm hoping it will work! It means I am embarking on a project of propagating lots and lots and lots of green roof plants!

I've had all kinds of battles to get the architects to understand that I need a deeper substrate than is required by sedums alone to do this. They have been brilliant with the inorganic things, but the organic seems to be completely beyond their ken, which has surprised me.

I absolutely hated the art collector's house, it actually made my skin crawl. I thought they would shortlist the mews house - it's very beautiful, and very clever and very architecty. But you'd have to be uncompromisingly dedicated to it to live in it. Imagine cleaning glass floors with a toddler! Or those tiny fingers and paper doors?! I was very taken by the black shed - not so much inside but outside. Having the whole thing in the same colour timber gave it an amazing look.

wicked - I'm glad you like it too! I'm really chuffed with it! I am quite tempted to get the whole matching dinnerset, but it's just a tad over my usual Ikea dinnerware budget...

On a style thing with the hanging gardens, I thought the white stone very harsh. But I suspect it is very new planting, so eventually will be less stark. I don't think I could have done the clambering up there either for maintenance. You may well be right about the actual plants surviving.
Funny about architects - are they not gardeners perhaps, and therefore don't appreciate the effect good planting can have on the overall design.
Agree with the mews house - I'm not sure that it is totally okay to be so far away from a babys bedroom, or have all those open stairs with a toddler - still much more of a 'couples' house.
Yes, they were a bit < whispers> weird that pair. If they had so much art work, why try to shoehorn it into such a small space. Surely you downsize deliberately, for a reason and have to adjust.
Sorry, I am totally derailing this!
If you love that design, is it not worth the and buy it? Or is it really too far out of budget? ( We chose new a few years ago, and bought it in dribs and drabs- but that may not be possible with vintage stuff I suppose) . One or two things that bring you joy are worth far more than lots and lots of okay stuff. And as long as you look after it, it will still be an investment.

Yes, I find it so strange that something that is utterly bound up with the outside of a building is just outside of the architect's ken! I guess it's the divide between building and landscaping, but it does seem a bit of a shame and it explains why so many wonderful buildings feel a bit 'plonked' when viewed from the neighbourhood perspective.

I wondered if something terrible had happened to that pair of downsizers in terms of their finances. It looked almost like an art addiction rather than an art collection. They clearly couldn't bear to get rid of any of it, even though they had no space at all for most of it.

The dinnerset is lovely, but it's just too far out of my price range. I would be terrified of breaking anything I think! Also, right now I have to be even more ruthless than usual in terms of what I am spending. Maybe in a few years!