Sina – @ottershaus on Instagram – lives with her family in a house that they have decorated in the Bauhaus style. Here she tells us about what she and her husband focus on in the design of their living space, and why they chose Thonet furniture.
Tell us a little about yourselves!
We are Sina and Maximilian and we live in the lovely city of Oldenburg in northern Germany. We met 14 years ago while we were both studying in Halle, on the Saale river in the eastern part of Germany. After our studies, I convinced Max that my homeland in the north offered a lot of advantages, and we moved here together. For us, Oldenburg is the perfect middle ground between city life and the countryside: there’s a lively city centre and we are also not far from the sea, wide open fields and old farmsteads. After a lengthy search, we finally found our dream home here in 2020. We immediately fell for the house’s unique, loft-style layout with its large rooms, full-height windows and reduced cube-like shape. With the arrival of our baby daughter in November, we now live as a family of three in the “Ottershaus”. We are very excited to show you around!
What were your priorities when it came to the interior design for your house?
We truly value timeless design and comfort when it comes to interior decoration. We want the furniture pieces we choose to be with us for a long time. Over the last few years, we have added a lot of classic pieces, mainly in the Bauhaus style. Since the rooms are so open, it is important to us that there is a strong design concept to tie it all together. The same colours and shapes feature throughout our home: subtle beige tones on the walls, light-coloured wool carpets and black wooden furniture. Natural materials, such as rattan and linen, as well as indirect lighting create a calm, cosy atmosphere. We have thrown in a few splashes of colour here and there, often in the form of pop-art pieces that remind us of our travels or special occasions. We love the contrast between these pieces and our otherwise rather reserved style. By using modular furniture systems that we can reconfigure and accessorise whenever we want, we can flexibly shape our space to our needs.
Where did you first encounter Thonet furniture and why did you choose these pieces?
Our interest in decorating our space with beautiful, long-lasting pieces came about when we bought the house. We were looking for high-quality, comfortable dining chairs in a timeless design and Thonet had exactly what we were looking for: the combination of the S 32 and S 64 chairs in stained black beech with Viennese canework – Marcel Breuer’s classic. To complete the look, we added the S 1071 dining table, which has two extender panels to provide plenty of space for entertaining. We love cooking and we often spend cosy evenings with friends and family gathered around this table. The retro design and comfort of the Thonet tubular steel pieces made them such a perfect fit for our home that we then added two S 32 VH barstools in the kitchen, two S 411 leather armchairs in the reading nook on the main floor and a B 108 console table as well as a LUM 125 floor lamp for the living room.
Which Thonet pieces are still on your wishlist?
The first project we plan to tackle this year is the garden, so that our daughter can take her first steps there in the summer. Then, we are definitely going to redecorate our office. I’m currently eyeing the S 285 desk and the S 64 desk chair – both Bauhaus style, of course. Max has fallen for the 214 K coffee house chair (with a knot). It would be an eye-catcher in any room and it’s a real piece of furniture history!
