toastermuseum ii - toaster museum & private home in one house

Briefing

Some months ago we bought a big house with 180 m2 ground floor and a big attic above this in Schwäbisch Gmünd (a beautiful ancient city in Germany near Stuttgart). The house have been a Kindergarten before. Now we want to change it to private living space and a small private toaster museum. I collect antique toasters since 25 years and so have got a collection of more than 1800 different electrical toasters (from 1906 to 1950) and more than 5000 to this subject related pieces.

On the first floor there are planned two areas: 1 museum and 2 private (see: floorplan_ground_level_v005). These areas will be connected with one door only. The door of room Museum 2 will be bricked. There is a room called "Museum Eingangsbereich". In this room will be the museum entry (marked in blue letters).
What we like generally: The house is located near the forest. We like nature and natural materials like wood and rustically stuff. We like individual furniture from the industrialization period 1900 – 1930, today often called industry design. This often are furniture which were used in factories or e.g. in hospitals. But we also like a clear/clean style (white/black). If you want to have a look at the style we like: Just google the store AllSaints (Quality Garments) or check our reference pictures here.

What we expect: We would like to get ideas especially for the museum area and the bedroom, which we planned to have in the attic. Ideas for the rest are welcome too. We like to get ideas for colors, materials, the arrangement of furniture and how we can use the rooms. There is a cellar, but this is out of scope.

What are the parameters already fixed:
Flooring in private area: Anthracite or Black in slate (stone) style or black wooden style is the idea. Second idea is to have the same flooring everywhere). Perhaps rustical wooden style would be better as flooring? Or changing the styles in different rooms. Your ideas are appreciated.
Flooring in Museum 1: Refurbished and darker colored parquet
Flooring in Museum 2: White and black checked with squares
Flooring in Museum Eingangsbereich and museum WC (Entry for Museum): no idea yet.
Wall in “Wohnzimmer” living room: The two biggest main walls shall be cleaned to see the pure concrete. Rest: Up to your ideas.
Walls in “Museum 1”: There are two walls without windows. Our idea is to clean this walls completely to see the red bricks which are under the finery.
Info: On the right part on floorplan (“Küche”,”Wohnzimmer”,”Bad”, kitchen, bathroom, living room) shows rooms which are built with concrete (walls, ceiling, floor), except the wall between kitchen and bathroom. This part by the way is built in 1976. The rest of the house is older than 1938.
Idea: Heating elements will be kept and painted in dark anthracite.
Colors of windows inside/outside has to be defined (white or anthracite perhaps)?
Doors inside will be kept, just painted and with new door handles.
Lightning: No modern spotlights, we will use just vintage lamps (in the museum too).
Electrics: We will try to use old style switches and sockets. Especially in Museum and Living room. And visible power cables too (on surface of wall) on some places (especially in living room and in museum).

Furniture we already own: We own already some stuff. There is a PDF file (toaster museum – available furniture…) where you can see what we own. You can use this stuff, but you must not! White furniture (mostly doctor furniture) can be painted. Wooden furniture will not be painted. Please check this file!

What about the separate rooms:

“Küche” – kitchen: We think about having a black, white or perhaps red kitchen. But we are open minded regarding other colors if there is a great idea. We probably will have got some professional stainless steel appliances (fridge, SMEG stove with 5 flames – 90 cm wide - Smeg SCD91CMX5. Perhaps we want to enlarge the kitchen. (See our second cocontest project Toastermuseum I). There is no need to plan kitchen furniture in detail. Just colors and rough ideas are wanted.

”Wohnzimmer” – living room: We would like to have some vintage industrial furniture there. There will be a big TV on the left side of the room (left side on floorplan) and should be a lowboard. There should be a couch, couch table, a wardrobe (we own it already) and a vintage computer table. Dining table is not needed in this room. Perhaps a fireplace would be cool. The chimney near the kitchen cannot be used for this, because is used for the house heating with oil. Anyway.... fireplace should perhaps be located near stairs in the living room. We plan to get perhaps a fireplace which heats water too. So it would be good if the fireplace is near the oilheating which is in the cellar under the kitchen.

”Bad” – bathroom: See second project here in cocontest (Toastermuseum I). There needs to be a WC, a shower (best would be 90cm x 1 m) and a single sink. Perhaps one or two vintage furniture as well if there will be space.

“Schlafzimmer” – sleeping / bed room: Sleeping room is planned to be located in a special area in the attic (see plans of attic). To get a higher room the wooden crossbars will be moved a little higher. I am 182 cm tall. So there anyway will not be a lot of space. It is not allowed to build a dormer. So you have to use the available space. There are two concrete elements on the attic floor (see photos). These cannot be removed because they stabilize the floor. Perhaps bed (wish 1.60 x 2 m, at least 1.40 x 2 m) can be located over the smaller concrete element. So, that you can move on the left and right side of the bed. One wooden slat near the smaller concrete element, will be removed (see red marking in plan). There shall be a WC and a small sink as well. But this area is just only for sleeping and can be kept simpler. Most important is to find enough place for moving around the bed and the rest of the room. If there is enough space, there can be a small reading place as well and some places to put clothes, shoes…
Rest of the private rooms: There are two WCs and another room (this room leads to the stairs to the attic. Idea is to perhaps keep one WC for guests and put a washing machine and a dryer somewhere. The bigger room can be used as room for clothes perhaps or for putting some of the doctor’s furniture there… or? But up to you.

Room “Museum 1”: This is a museum room where the toasters from 1900 to 1950 will be shown (see www.toasters.de for some examples). It is planned to sort the toasters according to production year and put them in cabinets or onto shelves. We have also posters, books, and different stuff regarding this subject. Also a lot of other electrical appliances. Plan is to have custom made display cabinets from metal and glass (measures for example could be: 2m high x 40cm x 1m). There should be enough space for walking and enough space to put the toasters there. Idea is to have a bigger table for sitting, reading and perhaps eating there. Or perhaps two smaller tables which if needed can be placed together. Some toasters are very special and can be placed separate. We have a big industrial coffee machine from the 60ies which is still working (see photos). So there could be a small counter somewhere to put this machine and to use it for making coffee for visitors. The room is 3.40 m high. But it is planned to remove the ceiling so that the room is even as high as the roof and that you can see the wooden roof construction which is quite interesting. There is an old chimney in the room. We plan to put an old kitchen stove there. There could be a small area where you can watch short films (perhaps when you sit at the table). There could be a small area for kids… any idea, especially if the idea is a little (or much?) crazy, is very welcome! In any case this should not be a boring standard museum. If the visitor comes into the room… he should shout out: “Wow, what the hell is this!?”

Room “Museum 2”: Plan is to have a vintage kitchen from 1960 there. The siematic kitchen is light blue and already available (see pictures in PDF). The floor should be black / white checked with squares there. Idea is to have a light blue table in the room (or other color), perhaps in the middle of the room. In the kitchen there will be placed toasters from the 50ies and 60ies.

Room “Museum Eingangsbereich”: The Window will be replaced. There will be a door in this room placed as museums entry. There should be a wardrobe in this room and perhaps a counter if there is space enough. Idea is to sell some small stuff there too if there is space enough. So there could be a shelf somewhere (behind the counter?). So the door perhaps should be placed not in the middle of the wall, but moved to one side?

Room “Museum WC”: Shall be kept as WC for the museum.

By the way… we like 3D house plans with view from above.

Do not hesitate to ask any question you like no matter what it is! Do not hesitate to ask a lot of questions! If you need more pictures from the house or anything else, tell me! Normally I will answer within 24 hours or even faster. We will be happy to get new great, crazy, funny, unbelievable…. Ideas.

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