Name: Jon Hindley & Liezel Strauss
Location: Bloomsbury, London
Size: 980 square feet
Years lived in: 5 months
With August's Setting Up Home theme I thought it only appropriate to share my new nest! After 7 years of renting furnished apartments in the UK, Germany and South Africa, it was finally time to end the nomad life (for now!) and take the plunge into permanent residency. My husband and I have collected art, chairs and books over the years but buying beds, pots, pans and other functional items was new territory!
Now 5 months on, we have settled in and managed to create a home that reflect our souls. We realize it is a labor of love and we are resisting the urge to rush the process. We aim to only buy recycled or ethically sourced items but every now and again IKEA or an impulse buy creeps in! We are inspired by David Michael Bruno's 100 Thing Challenge, but it's harder than we imagined, let's see how the new nesting goes...
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My/Our style: Soulful
Inspiration: Our travels
Favorite Element: The walk-in closet, the kitchen and the original doors and fittings.
Biggest Challenge: To convince Jon to turn our 3rd bedroom into a walk-in wardrobe!
What Friends Say: They like the size and the calming vibe
Biggest Embarrassment: Jon can only sleep in complete darkness, for some reason we only managed to order black-out blinds last week. For almost 5 months we've had bin liners in the bedroom windows! Our neighbors are suspicious by now!
Proudest DIY: The bathroom, It was not a pretty sight when we moved in!
Biggest Indulgence: The rent & our beautiful kitchen table — it is made from recycled church benches! We waited ages for it, but it was well worth it!
Best advice: Get rid of things you don't need! My mom is a complete minimalist and it has taken me years to get my head around the concept, but now we have a new rule, for every new thing in, an old thing out!
Dream source: Anything from Haldane Martin and Heath Nash and accessories from The Conran Shop & Atelier Abigail Ahern
Resources:
Kitchen Hardware & Accessories: : Wedding gifts and John Lewis
Accessories: Bed linen from The Sleep Room.
Lighting: Disco balls from China Town.
Living room chairs: Inherited from my grandparents
Kitchen Table: : Made from recycled church benches. Eat Sleep Live.
Art: : Cement women sculpture in living room and white dog: Our dear friend Kenau Botha, Bronze sculpture in living room: Rossouw van der Walt , Polaroids in bedroom: Stephani Schneider, Albino reindeer: Frank Stockel, Wooden angels: Jackson Thembe, Lino's in Living room: Lucas Bambo, Wire "you make it easy": Heath Nash , Shy girl in the kitchen: Francois van Reenen, Painting in kitchen: Elwin Buchel, Tretchikoff from Spitalfields market in London and all other art from markets in Swaziland.
Window Treatments: IKEA (and bin liners!)
Sofa: Habitat
Beds and bed linen: The Sleep Room
Coffee table, blue office chairs, red locker unit and TV cabinet: IKEA
(Images: Liezel Strauss)
I really like this.
There is a lot of love in this house, and you can really tell. :)
view am_clarke's profile
I *adore* this. Such personal, romantic touches. Your home is like an inhabitable love letter.
view kellylc's profile
I love love love your home. For one, your artwork is so eclectic, I would just go from piece to piece and ask you about the story of how it came to be in your possession. Then your furniture is so modern, yet so comfortable looking. Great staging! Lived in yet, clean and decisive.
view A-Lee3's profile
you make it easy. loveeee.
view chicagirl's profile
Very nicely done. Bravo! I think your Ikea Stockholm table is a purrfect fit for the shape and feel of the room. The statue's shape and color are wonderful. :-)
view Laughing Tiger's profile
There's some excellent artworks scattered through this interior, and I like the unkitcheny kitchen; it's the antithesis of those lifeless fitted monstrosities that almost everybody else has to put up with.
Now 5 months on, we have settled in and managed to create a home that reflect our souls... We aim to only buy recycled or ethically sourced items... We are inspired by David Michael Bruno's 100 Thing Challenge, but it's harder than we imagined...
I'm dead impressed - you've only been in Bloomsbury for five months, but already you sound like a native!
view Blandwagon's profile
love European urban boho eclectic interiors when executed in calm but edgy style
view swagdujour's profile
I want to move back to London...
... and live in this house
view xieta's profile
Wow! Lovely kitchen, so inspiring for me...
view verdeanice's profile
Thanks so much for the lovely comments!
view liezel's profile
love love love love love
view PhillyLass's profile
That minimal microwave/toaster/barfridge/sink is all you have in the way of a kitchen? Wow.
view paintitbright's profile
I love the way your house looks. It looks so peaceful and a place where you can really rest your soul. Where did you get the two angels in the dining room they are beautiful.
Bella
view Bella15's profile
Simple, elegant, and not gimmicky. (i.e. none of the "usual suspects") Love your respect for blank walls. (Even if more goes up as you live there, I have a feeling you maintain the respect for visual space. Just seems that way from the sculpture and all.)
view kushkush's profile
I love how you've punctuated each room and space with modern artwork and, more important to me, with a sense of cultural diversity in that artwork without being too heavy-handed or "ethnic collector-y."
Not to start a firestorm thread but there are so many living fine artists producing great art that truly could use support from folks, and it doesn't have to be all pricey (student art fairs come to mind) investments or graphic designers gone gallery abstract.
The uncluttered wall space really helps to balance and showcase these pieces, but I think because each piece and area is so different and strong it doesn't feel gallery-esque.
The warm pieces like the dining-room table positioned next to the cooler pieces like the white plastic chairs also works with this juxtaposition.
It's just a really beautiful, light-filled, crisp space filled with a lot positive energy.
view Polyrevenge's profile
Thanks for sharing Liezel! You have a beautiful home, I feel clean and refreshed just looking at it. I especially love your beautiful floors, and are happy you left them spare so that we'd be able to appreciate them.
view LeahDC's profile
Thank you for introducing me to the sculpture of Rossouw Van Der Walt. I am scouring the internet for his work!
Also lovely home.
view J's profile
This is so very lovely. It takes a person who is comfortable in their skin to pull this off. Excellent.
You've made me feel better about my irrational love of string lights and 3D letters and for that I am grateful.
view bluemamie's profile
i love your home. its spareness and warmth, its calm and its artwork - feels like the right balance of space, light, interest, and modern. i love your kitchen too. bravo!!
view formosagirl's profile
I love your home too, but I'm dying to find out where your closet system comes from.
view kelleygreeny's profile
I think that closet system is from Ikea. I have the same one, but had a very hard time getting all the pieces as it was quite popular and often sold out.
I really love your bedroom and copied you by getting those same two pillows this weekend ;). They have greatly improved the space and provided the balance I was looking for. Thanks for the inspiration!
view mellie's profile
I absolutely adore this home. I think this is the first one I've been compelled to comment on.
The toaster on top of the microwave is sheer genius.
The artwork is gorgeous.
I love the wood-on-wood rugless look in the living room. I would have thrown a rug down there, but by golly, this really works.
view RLB's profile