A little bit about the origins of the house.....

Our house was built in 1968 and designed by Eirikur Walton of Brown and Buttrick Architects from Scunthorpe.  Eirikur was clearly influenced by the clean lines of modernist design and, whilst watching a programme on Sky Arts this weekend, my attention was drawn to two houses that share a lot in common with our home.  These two houses are now managed by the National Trust and as such can be visited. Personally, I love this style and these houses, built in the 1930s, were referenced in 1960s when modernism was revisited and our house was designed.

So for all of you who are interested in great design there are plenty of great books about this movement and just a quick trawl on Amazon comes up with examples like these if you want to find out more.

 

Some examples of 1960s modernism here - the first is owned by Leonardo di Caprio I think!  The website Houzz is a good place to look to contemporary interpretations of this style too.

  

The two 1930s houses are

2 Willow Road - designed by one of the most influential figures in the modernist movement Erno Goldfinger.

The use of large windows, wood panelling and framing and wood flooring is very much in evidence in our house.

We have inset fireplaces like this but set into a brick feature chimney breast rather than the sleek white one here

  
The pictures to the right and below are of our house before we moved in and in its unrenovated state.  I think you can see the modernist influences at work here.  Wood panelling, wood floors, open tread staircase etc.

The Homewood by Patrick Gywnne

Exterior and gardens at The Homewood

These huge windows with their sheer light curtain treatment will be a little like the windows in the garden room here. - i think I will try to do our curtains like this - maybe in a natural lightweight linen.

Patrick Gywnne used fitted furniture throughout and designed every detail of the house. - much like Eirikur Walton with this house.  We even have a secret coat cupboard in the dining hall, use of different woods and fitted cupboards in many of the rooms.

One of the bathrooms at The Homewood with a vanity unit that bears no small resemblance to one one in our bedroom - below.  Patrick Gywnne designed it to be hidden away behind sliding doors, a great idea.

Hopefully.. without sounding too pretentious - the garden room extension we have commissioned from Century Architects is taking some inspiration from another iconic early modernist building by the architect Mies van de Rohe - The Barcelona Pavilion (without the water - sadly!!) .   Pic below so as it takes shape we will see if you can see what we are aiming for!! You can also see why the current fascia board in our project has turned out too deep to achieve the elegant horizontal lines that we want to achieve.

Artist's impression of our house with garden room extension to the left.