I was having a conversation last week about my favourite architect Alvar Aalto, and as I chirped away I mentioned the very beautiful details of Maison Louis Carré. I’m usually not one for taking others photographs and putting them on Kitka, but I’ve been compiling some inspirational photography to keep as a reference for our own home and I felt compelled to share with you these beautiful photographs.

Each set actually comes from very different places:

The first is by Doctor Casino – a Flickr user who has a wonderful eye for architectural photography.

The second was pulled from the Maison Louis Carré website.

And the third – a contemporary fashion shoot by photographer Ben Sandler.

The home itself was completed in 1959 for very famous art collector Louis Carré. Aalto was asked to make a family home in the French country side with an incorporated gallery. Aalto felt that both art and family life are not separated by one and another, in fact the tendency is the reverse. There is a very intimate connection between them.

The other stipulation the client asked of Aalto was that the home be made of materials that had lived.

This was a task that Aalto was pleased with. He sourced the stone work locally from Chartres, and treated the brick with a white plaster lime-wash. The exterior was completed with copper sheeting, pine, and a slate roof.

The exterior is perhaps one of Aalto’s most extensive with regards to landscaping – carving down the elevation from the back of the home like waves creating a visual downward movement.

The elements on the inside are just as beautiful as the exterior.

Let’s take a look…

An armchair 406 in natural leather.

Many of the lighting fixtures were produced specifically for this project.

A room surrounded by books was very important to the client.

The exterior with lime-washed bricks.

The elevations in the landscaping.

Above photos by Doctor Casino.

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Some details worth taking a close look at.

Above photos from: http://www.maisonlouiscarre.fr/

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This collection of photographs was something I’ve had bookmarked forever, and since it was featured in so many places I didn’t think it was necessary to share them. However, if we’re compiling photographs of Maison Louis Carré, it would be a sin to not include this set.

One of my favourite pendants, the turnip light. I’m hoping Artek will put this back into production at some point.

Photography by Ben Sandler

Just in the midst of finishing up this post our Lime-washer Ben, who is actually from Britain started lime-washing our own exposed brick wall. The elements of wood, copper, and white lime plaster are all inspired by Aalto’s natural palette and we’re excited to incorporate these elements in our new home.

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all finished.

This is officially the last weekend of the summer, and we’re currently sitting on our deck after a large pancake breakfast sipping on some coffee. I’ve been asked a bunch of times how the cottage renovation has been, and when we were going to be posting some more photos.

We’ve been holding off sharing it because we let Remodelista have the exclusive to the story. Since there will inevitably be some readers who don’t follow Remodelista, or simply missed the article we wanted to do our own post about it as a nice farewell to the summer.

Of course, I have the feeling we are in store for some beautiful weather in September, we can already feel the cool breeze coming off of Georgian Bay.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the whole inspiration for this cottage was the “Finnish summer home”. There is a large Finnish and Estonian community in Ontario, in fact we have the highest amount of Finns outside of Finland. We liked the idea of bringing back the cottage to it’s original state with natural pine floors, and simple practical furniture. We wanted the pieces we chose to furnish the cottage with to feel as if they had always been there.

Now taking a second to study this photo, you can begin to appreciate what adding a layer of plaster did for the white fireplace. When it was simply painted stone it just didn’t look right. We also added an iron hook and a Japanese palm broom and dustpan to break up all of the white.

The Swedish sconces look just like tree branches.

A pair of Aalto shelves with some Japanese iron sculptures, an old laminated wood architecture model, a milk bottle terrarium, a birch bark box to hold matches, and a brass Wirkkala-esque candle holder.

For the dining room, we settled on a table, bench, and chair set by Ilmari Tapiovaara.

We even picked up a stool for additional seating, or to be used next to the fireplace to stoke the fire.

I think it pairs really well next to the vintage Aalto bar cabinet.

Stacked rocks.

The stool in the foreground is an early 1930s/40s Aalto stool we found at Machine Age Modern in Leslieville. The sofa is a blue Hiroshima sofa by Naoto Fukasawa with beech wood legs.

The sofa choice was inspired by Aalto’s blue sofa we saw in his home in Helsinki.

Aalto also used these Zebra pillows on that blue sofa in his home, so we order a couple for ourselves directly from Artek.

All of the bedding is colourful striped sheets and pillowcases from Marimekko. In all of the bedrooms we have small Aalto luggage benches.

The second guest bedroom with wood blinds from Bamboo Bazaar.

Both of the wall lights are paper and wood lights by Miguel Mila. We’ve started to carry his lighting in our shop, I just haven’t had the time to update our website yet!

The final bedroom actually fits 2 twin beds, both with lime green striped bedding.

An Aalto bench as coffee table, and the beehive pendant light.

Finally the best room in the house. Furnished with two beautiful Alvar Aalto daybeds upholstered in Aalto’s Sienna pattern.

I can’t believe the summer is almost over, but we’re really looking forward to the fall. We’re getting a bit anxious to travel, so hopefully we can line up a trip or two before the end of the year.

Well it’s Mid Summer here which means it never gets dark, and all the shops are closed (for THREE days no less). It does have some perks though as we were lucky enough to have a private tour through the home of Alvar Aalto. [A title edit was necessary as sadly we’ve been watching a lot of MTV lately].

We had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours and Juli took some great photos that remind me of 1950s editorial photographs of interiors. It was honestly the most inspiring place I’ve ever been to.

The living room was beautiful, so much natural light, a perfect layout. Can you see the planters sitting on top of the radiator in front of the window?

The Aalto house is an L shape, half of which is a studio workspace. The room in the top left was Aalto’s private office, which he rarely used. The door to the right was where the secretary and reception office was. The common area was dedicated to the senior architects, and the architect students worked on the second floor, although Aalto joked that all they were useful for was to serve coffee to the senior architects.

The dining room, with a nice thick birch table, and a set of dining chairs Alvar and his wife Aino Aalto purchased on their honeymoon in Italy. There are tons of pictures and more facts after the jump, check it out! Read the rest of this entry »

Alright, when reading the title I can hear you go so what? Of course IKEA is design on a budget. But we were struck yesterday by a few new products that really do bring the designs of classics, albeit slightly altered, into the homes of people who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford them. All it takes is a few comparative high and lows to really see the similarities of these familiar faces…

1. Jielde

Spotted at IKEA

In John’s post about getting the look of French Modern, he featured Jielde task lights so they were fresh in my mind. Imagine my surprise (or non-surprise, really, as IKEA tends to sell versions of design classics all the time) to see a similar looking light at IKEA – and you know what, they had a good quality look to them – I just wish they came in more colour choices (though black DOES look pretty sexy).

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HIGH

Jielde Signal Desk Lamp $450 at Ministry of the Interior

LOW

Forsa Desk Lamp $24.99 at IKEA (comes in black and nikel plated)

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In the most recent issue of “Elle decor” we stumbled across this article:

“Greatest-hits decorating has got to go,” says Elaine Miller, who writes the take-no-prisoners blog Decorno, referring to interiors packed with home-furnishing icons. “It’s time to quit gorging at the design buffet and create rooms with more soul.”

Let’s face it, if you walk into someone’s home and can’t decide whether you’ve stepped into someone’s living room or a retail space it’s probably lacking some soul, but I think there may be a bigger culprit than furnishing your home with “Design Classics”. In my opinion, personal touches are what really make a space your own, through surrounding yourself with the things you love and have a personal connection to. Being an aficionado of mid-century design, I am captivated by the lines and shapes of these iconic pieces. Design classics are classics because they are timeless, they are inspiring and change the way we look at conventional furniture. For example, the Paimio Chair designed by Alvar Aalto in 1931 pushed the limits of plywood manufacturing shaping the chair to help the sitter breathe easier. It’s hard to ignore pieces that have had such an impact simply because “Greatest-hits Decorating has got to go”. So fill your homes with what inspires you whether it’s Eames, or Le Corbusier, or a set of lawn chairs you found at a flea market that you’ve proudly set up in your living room. If you love a design it’s worth having around. if not, toss them, and we’ll be there waiting for you on craigslist to give up the goods.

Speaking of Design Classics, we took a look at some contemporary pieces that have all the makings of a future design classic, all of which are available locally and are anything but soulless. Here are some of our favorites:

The GT Rocker Designed by Toronto local: David Podsiadlo of the design collective “Gus Design Group” featuring a hot-rolled steel frame and your choice of upholstery, though we can’t think of a better colour than this electric yellow. Dimensions: W26″xH31″xD39″ Price: Starting from $1800 Available: at Style Garage

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