Jana – @hejhej.living on Instagram – lives with her family in a beautiful traditional apartment in North Rhine-Westphalia. Here she shares her take on interior design and explains why she chose Thonet furniture for her home.
Tell us a little about yourself.
Sure: I’m Jana, I’m 32 years old and I live with my husband and our two children in a lovely 100-square-metre period apartment close to Dortmund. In my opinion, our street is the most beautiful one in the whole city, and we feel very much at home here. I am originally from Berlin, so my love of old buildings and design classics was practically predestined. I can still remember the creaking floorboards and the elegant double doors in my childhood apartment. The high-quality furniture and designer pieces that I grew up with continue to inspire me to this day.
What are your priorities when it comes to the interior design for your apartment?
For me, it is particularly important that everything fits well together. It took me some time to find my style, but now I know precisely the look I am going for and how to make it a reality. I would definitely call myself a minimalist – I love vivid colours in other people’s homes, but in my own I prefer more subtle tones and a space that radiates calm. Design classics have always been a part of my life, but my passion for design and high-quality furniture really took off when my mother gave me my first designer lamp for my birthday one year.
Where did you first encounter Thonet furniture and why did you choose these pieces?
I definitely have my parents to thank for that. We had the S 34 cantilever chair in our dining room and that certainly shaped my style growing up. Through my job as an architectural draughtsperson, I also learned about the history of the Bauhaus early on, so I have known about Thonet for quite some time now. And, really, if you are passionate about design, you are bound to come across Thonet sooner or later. My first piece was an old 209 bentwood armchair that I bought second-hand on the internet and painstakingly restored. From that moment on, I fell in love with the quality and the fine craftsmanship of these chairs. Since then, I have brought one Thonet piece after the other into my home. And because I can’t commit to just one, I am now enjoying the luxury of having many different Thonet chairs.
Which Thonet pieces are still on your wish list?
Actually, I am completely satisfied with the classics we already have in our apartment and I really appreciate having these high-quality pieces in our living space. But, if I’m honest, I would also like to have a lovely desk chair from Thonet for the office in our apartment. It would be great to have a comfortable, stylish chair in there to use while working.
