I really love Zero 7! The spaces I saw this week reminded me of them. It feels like I’m in a soothing space-age church. Perfect song for a chilled Friday in.
The living room has been kept really bright, with light wooden floors and bright white elsewhere. My favourite part of this (hence the featured image) is actually the kitchen, it opens up onto a wonderful little balcony and the fittings look very traditional. The bathroom almost feels Arabesque, too.
This house is no longer for sale, but you can find a lot more like it at Entrance Makleri, which is the source for these images.
This is a round up of some of the things I saw this week.
Home Tours
This week a picture from one of our tours was featured on a Reddit community with nearly 400,000 subscribers! You can see the full photo set here. I’ve also updated some of the post thanks to suggestions from commenters, including where to buy the gorgeous print in the other photo below.
Meanwhile, I am in such a mood for smallish apartments and tiny homes this week. Maybe it’s because the homes are so small in my city? Bella Mumma posted a dreamy apartment a while back, which I like because it doesn’t look as ‘modular’ or compact as many of the small apartments I tend to see. There’s also a very pretty studio flat here which is very IKEA heavy, and a slightly larger apartment with glass doors to die for.
Song for the weekend
Sébastien Tellier is one of my favourite French artists. The song below is one of the tamer parts of an album called ‘Sexuality’, which is eerily reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg’s seductive songs from the 70s. Have a nice weekend!
There were some wonderful creatures in America, some of which I’d never seen before. I even saw a bright yellow slug whilst hiking in Presidio. In this post I’ve kept it simple though: seals, a gull, and a hummingbird.
There’s something about a chalk-drawn kitchen, and looong bench that adds to the charm about a place. Not quite lived in, though. All the furniture here is from Minimum.de. If you’re liking the minimalist feel, check out this apartment also.
My favourite thing about this house is how it frames the outside. The leaves are coming back in the dreary North-West European country that I live in, and it’s beautiful – what better time to share. I took some pictures in the forest over winter, and looking back it seems so barren! Bring on sunshine and flowers.
One of my favourite songs, it gives off such a rich atmosphere. I heard it first in Sydney Poitier’s film of the same name, where an African-American detective is asked to solve a murder in a racist small American town. It might still be on Netflix? Oldie, but worth a watch. There was a follow-up TV series that I’ve been meaning to get into.
I’ve been in an earthy mood lately, it must be Spring coming. I was taking a walk around the park yesterday and could see signs of green in the trees. It almost looked like a rebirth.
The wood in this house is a treat, and that ceiling height is to die for. If I had to sum up this house in three words based on its aesthetic, it would be ‘clean lines, solid edges’; you can see for yourself below.
A few mornings ago I woke up especially early to capture the sunrise, dew, and fog. Here are some of the photos from that walk. I’m in love with my new camera, which I bought at a Best Buy in San Francisco for $450. At the time I was a bit naffed off from the expense, but it has served me well. I hope I get to see a lot more interesting scenes through the lens of it.
It’s often seen as more of a cliche than an element of style, but the paraphrased maxim, that form follows function (or at least that it should) is an essential primer for all forms of design. It’s the idea that an object’s use should determine the way it is built and placed. There’s a contrast in the image above (credit: SEIER+SEIER) that perfectly highlights the difference between functionalism and other styles. The famous maxim comes from Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, shown in this excerpt:
“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change, form does not change. The granite rocks, the ever-brooding hills, remain for ages; the lightning lives, comes into shape, and dies, in a twinkling. It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognisable in its expression, that form ever follows function.This is the law.”
Sullivan explains that the size of a building, the spacing of its features, and so on, should as a law only be driven by the building’s function – ‘the life is recognisable in its expression’. An example of this is the two pictures below. The building is very simple, and there is no ornamentation. It’s implied that if you follow the law of functionalist, the end result will be aesthetic. And it is a specific type of aesthetic – very pared back, understated, clean, yet elegant. Some people find this boring, but there is still opportunity for variety in colours, and the surroundings of a building – the excitement is more subtle.
Credit: Stadshem (Gyllenkrooksgatand 13)
Yet what does ‘form follows function’ mean for interiors? This is the foundation on which a lot of Scandinavian design is based. Below is part of a library designed by Alvar Aalto, a Dane, in European Russia. The room would be relatively plain if it weren’t for the wood used. The plants could be described as ornamental, and maybe in this regard the room isn’t purely functionalist, but to me it’s about softening the gap between the outside and in. That has purpose.
I have one complaint with this place, and it’s nothing to do with the interior. It’s that the apartment is on the ground floor (you might be able to see a car through the living room window). Otherwise, it’s nicely set up and has a very classic look.
House Rehomed 