flying carpet

One of my creative passions (other than designing bags) is decorating. Finding just the right furniture and accessories to fill the space and create a home. Since moving to our new apartment, this is exactly what I have been doing. With the approval of my Italian, of course. (Thankfully, he usually agrees with my taste.) In need of a carpet for the living room I thought why not find one in Istanbul? And with the help of our local friends during our recent visit, that is exactly what we did.

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Rather than brave the Grand Bazaar with the tourists, Emre took us to the street of rugs. And there began our hunt for the perfect piece to complete our Parisian mid-century modern salon.

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The friendly sales people, who were busy mending a carpet when we entered, were more than pleased to help us, having many options of traditional woven kilims as well as patchwork rugs.

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We were shown dozens of rugs, mostly the patchwork style which I had quickly fallen in love with for it’s ancient yet modern allure. And then the bargaining began… Which was the chosen rug?

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An elegant black and white patchwork, that fits perfectly with our decor, and is the best souvenir we could have brought home. I knew this was our rug as soon as I saw it, but what fun to experience running around the carpet stores! Now perhaps a trip to Morocco for a lamp?

mid-century maison

The last few weeks have been dedicated to decorating our new home, “Project Nest” as I call it. Growing up with an interior designer mother has certainly influenced this passion, which I consider one of the most fulfilling forms of self-expression. My journey in creating our new living space, which my Italian is leaving mostly up to me, began on France’s renowned site for virtually anything, leboncoin.fr. (Incidentally, also where I found our apartment.)

As someone with an affinity for Mid-Century Modern design, that is where my search commenced. Et voilà! It began with finding my perfect desk and ended with the discovery of my now favorite Scandinavian design shop, Maison Nordik, a new addition to the ever-evolving 18ème.

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As soon as the doors opened, I arrived to admire, and quickly purchase my desk. It was love at first sight, with the desk, as with the store. I met the owners Gregory (French), and Louise (Danish), and quickly discovered their passion for design and their love for beautiful objects, each hand selected.

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There is a new supply of 50’s and 60’s furniture, designer lamps and beautiful ceramics arriving to the store every few weeks, mostly from Denmark. They also now sell Square Modern pillows, an ideal showcase for these minimalist chic coussins. Soon after my desk acquisition (and the rosewood chair to accompany it) Gregory and Louise found us a gorgeous teak dining table, perfect for our soon to be planned dinner parties! Now they are on the hunt for a TV console as I struggle from creating our apartment into a Mid-Century Modern showroom. Would that really be so bad?

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For the fellow Mid-Century Modern aficionados, Maison Nordik is located at 159 rue Marcadet and open from Thursday – Sunday 12:30-7:30 (Monday – Wednesday by appointment). They share a space with a made-to-measure industrial design company and next door lies one of the best laboratory cafés in Paris, Café Lomi. Reasons enough to venture to upper Montmartre!