apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


Sixteen Fifty Nine Mid-Century Modern

1659 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC 20007
202.333.1480
www.sixteenfiftynine.com

may-18-rg-1.jpg
may-18-rg-logo.jpgThe lime green house on conservative Wisconsin Avenue screams out "mid-century modern." Even without the name, you would know that the store sells items from that era. Furniture, home accessories, lighting and even artwork is carefully arranged in color-coordinated and beautifully balanced rooms. More store photos and information below the jump...

 
 

may-19-rg-5.jpg
may-19-rg-2.jpg
may-18-rg-4.jpg

The store owner is friendly, helpful, and often around. For Georgetown, prices are moderate, meaning somewhat higher than other locations in the District. Strolling through this store makes us wish the Sixteen Fifty Nine floor designer could magically appear and rearrange our homes. But even just a quick visit gives us lots of inspiring ideas, and a dangerous new list of dream home items.

Have you shopped at Sixteen Fifty Nine?
may-19-rg-3.jpg

Tags

mid century modern

Share

Comments (8)

Too bad the address isn't "Nineteen Fifty".

posted by MaeEast on May 19th 2009 at 3:30pm
view MaeEast's profile

The green exterior and collection of items really seems to verge more towards Hollywood Regency than MCM...

posted by bepsf on May 19th 2009 at 3:41pm
view bepsf's profile

Nice store, nice stuff. But I wonder what about the exterior says mid-century? Chartreuse was not a 50's color, there's gingerbread, the windows look kind of 40s to me. I don't know where the font belongs....

Interested -

posted by JoanneM on May 19th 2009 at 3:57pm
view JoanneM's profile

I agree with bepsf and JoanneM. The outside doesn't do much to "brand" the store as MCM. Maybe on that block there are restrictions on facades and fonts and that kind of thing.

When you say the prices are "moderate" (but then you say that's on "the higher end"?), I wonder why. I don't see anything here that looks that spectacular--nice enough, but not spectacular.

posted by sally305 on May 19th 2009 at 5:16pm
view sally305's profile

I concur with all of the comments above. In fact, I was so glad to read each one as I had similar thoughts on all of these comments. I consider myself an Eames afficionado and love Mid-Century

However, the store still looks very cool

posted by Peter knockstead on May 19th 2009 at 5:29pm
view Peter knockstead's profile

agree w/ the above on the exteriro/mcm comments...but the store does look cute and i didn't know it was there, so thanks for the tip!

sally, shops in g'town are generally pretty pricey. i believe that's why rachael said this place is moderate for g'town but is still a bit pricey/high-end compared to other stores. (makes sense to me!)

posted by gretchenalexis on May 19th 2009 at 5:53pm
view gretchenalexis's profile

inside is MCM but outside is older, way older and traditional. could have been built in the late 1800's by the look of it. fun interior, though

posted by dandy on May 19th 2009 at 8:18pm
view dandy's profile

I really like how they have updated the very traditional exterior, but I'm with the others who said that it's very definitely not MCM.

That said, I wasn't aware that Sixteen Fifty Nine was there at all so thanks for featuring it! I'll stop by the next time I'm in the neighborhood.

posted by furnituregirl on May 21st 2009 at 8:10am
view furnituregirl's profile