The Modern House staging
One of the really satisfying bits of working with midcentury dealers and modern designers is that we are often first in line to borrow, beg or buy at a discount from these already underpaid, overworked and yet still eternally effervescent people.
Recognising our fortunate first in line status, that clever lot at The Modern House estate agency kickstarted our styling career by giving us an East Dulwich location to ‘play house’ in a couple of years ago and we have never looked back. What was a dream, satisfied solely by watching Million Dollar Listing, turned quickly into a reality.
Two storage facilities and a mountain of bubble wrap later we are now onto our fifteenth staging for The Modern House, making the newest of spaces look loved and lived in to inspire a super-quick sale.
For our latest styling five brilliant contemporary designers and the best British artificial plant company threw in some of their most fabulous designs to our midcentury modern aesthetic making a small but perfectly formed three bedroom architect-designed new build commissioned by Hackney Council for a road in Stokey feel a lot more like home. We hope you agree the mix of midcentury furniture and plants with classic midnight blue MADE® L shape Oskar sofa, deep tones and graphic lines works really well against the minty green backdrop. And if you want to see more than our ‘working images’ click on the link at the bottom of this feature and head for house on The Modern House site.
Having yearned for Margate designer Jo Elbourne’s startling reliefs (above), stools and screens (below) for some time now we made sure she was the first designer we contacted. Elbourne makes the Scandinavian tradition of rope and paper-cord very much her own by hand-dyeing and wrapping rope in an abstract fashion, lifting it from its humble status and making it sing as Hans Wegner did with the paper-cord on his chairs. Jo Elbourne’s craft seems to work seamlessly when weaving midcentury and contemporary together in a heritage themed staging. Her screen served to soften up an angular corner and stool worked brilliantly with little ones soft knees in mind under the floating bathroom sink.
To commission or buy directly from Jo Elbourne find her website here
Husband and wife team Simon and Monica Cass of par avion co. seen (above) with bench and tray in the bedroom work to as small as possible carbon footprint when producing stunning pieces that could sit comfortably in a room filled with Danish greats like Wegner already mentioned above and Hvidt & Molgaard. The couple’s backgrounds in furniture making and architecture bring a broad range of skill and experience to their design work. While they create a lot of the pieces themselves, local craftsmen are employed in the UK and America, sourced for the quality of their production and environmental credentials. Making good quality products for a reasonable price which, rather than being influenced by transient fads are created as timeless treasures for years to come, is the duo’s modus operandi.
To commission or buy directly from Simon and Monica of par avion Co. head here
We felt that adding a touch of texture to the mix was important up the stark staircase and Tracy Kendall’s arresting wall hanging made of undulating machine stitched waves of paper certainly fits the bill at this location. The perfect blend of craftsmanship and design, the waves up the stairs and the block wallpaper put on a canvas sideways and placed above the bed were stitched by machine in Tracy Kendall’s Margate workshop and home.
This modern award winning wallpaper supremo has a versatile portfolio of wallpapers that spans forty years. Often used in commercial or residential interiors, large or small, modern or period around the world, Kendall is a favourite with interior decorators.
To commission or buy directly from Tracy find her website here
Newbie Emma Johnson has already been snapped up to design a collection for one of our favourite Brutalist buildings. Created exclusively for the re-opening of the Hayward Gallery in January 2018, EJC x Hayward was inspired by the monumental and geometric architectural forms; with a vase reflecting the towering pillars, cups taking inspiration from the triangular overhangs, and a jug based on the heavy, asymmetric Brutalist shapes found within the complex. Each piece is made from a light grey coloured porcelain, some with additional dark grey marbled accents to reflect the aesthetic of weathered concrete.
We also love Johnson’s sea, beach landscape and sky infused colours inspired by her home town of Brighton which you can see decorating the kitchen at Barbauld Road.
Find Emma Johnson Ceramics here
Furniture maker, designer and woodworker Jozsef Krausz worked for a host of famous names restoring aged and beautifully unique pieces as well as creating handmade bespoke pieces. With Workshop No. 8 he aims to bring back the value of truly hand made furniture and encourage people to invest in pieces made with skill and precision that carries the hallmarks of crafting skills handed down from generation to generation while incorporating new ideas, new techniques and fresh attitudes.
Something unachievable with todays flat-packed designs. We absolutely love his walnut coffee table with its criss cross pattern of beech seen here in front of a stunning peacock blue MADE® L-shaped sofa in the sitting room.
Commission Jo at Workshop No 8 by heading to his website here
Just Artificial (Monstrera seen above) is our one stop shop for the best artificial plants. We love mixing real and artificial in our styled spaces and customers of our stagings have often given the fake ones as much water as the real ones which just goes to show how real they look.
Fiddle Plant and Monstrera above
Areca Palm above
Artificial ferns and boxwood mixed in with real Snake plant and Aglaonema
Head to Just Artificial here
Last but by no means least the minute our eyes touched down on the view out of this window we just knew we would have to ask Mark Thurgood to get out his saw and whittling penknife and create some of his teeny tiny houses for us. We love the way Mark uses leftover bits of wood to great effect.
Commission Mark Thurgood here
For staging advice or to commission a property styling contact
lucy@modernshows.com
petra@modernshows.com
See the Barbauld Road staging here
https://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/barbauld-road/
Modern Shows Staging is a branch of Modernshows.com. Petra Curtis and Lucy Ryder Richardson also put on Midcentury Modern®, Midcentury East and Midcentury Modern at the Hepworth Gallery