Walking into Michael Kierstead’s furniture store in Portsmouth feels like stepping into the 1950s. You can almost smell the cigarette smoke that wafted above the couch in your grandmother’s cluttered living room, where a reproduced painting of the White Mountains hung above you. But Seavey’s Marketplace is hardly old-fashioned. The furniture is mid-century modern (MCM), and it’s what people are buying now to furnish their new homes.
“It’s very much in demand right now. Mid-century modern is a scale that’s very efficient and sleek and practical,” says Kierstead, who splits his time between selling furniture out of his West End shop and staging homes.
For decades, his father was an antique dealer in the seacoast area, buying and selling collectibles such as watches and coins. So, when seeking a change from his corporate finance career, Kierstead looked to his family roots and started selling refinished and used furniture. However, the process was time-consuming and not always profitable until he found that with the growing appetite for MCM design, he could create the living style and look he loved by offering new MCM furniture that was less expensive and more practical, especially for furnishing small spaces.
“Living spaces are getting smaller and smaller, especially here in Portsmouth with all the apartments and condominiums,” he insists.
The perfect fit for Kierstead’s style came from an invitation to decorate one of Wentworth Senior Living’s apartments. Wentworth’s newest residents are baby boomers who were teenagers in the 1950s. According to Madison Abbott, Property Manager at Wentworth, boomers make up the latest generation of residents moving into retirement and assisted living communities.
"My perspective on what it means to age has changed drastically. Seventy is the new 50, and our active centennials challenge even that metric,” says Abbott, who assists residents in planning and visualizing living in their new space.
The Wentworth Mansion, built in 1763, was the home of Governor John Wentworth before the Revolutionary War. Privately owned, it’s been a home for seniors since 1911. The historic Georgian mansion boasts original wallpaper and decorations and still has bullet holes in the living room that, locals brag, came from Revolutionaries who chased the Governor away.
Modern additions to the mansion have created space for sixty-four apartments off Pleasant Street in the historic district of Portsmouth, some of which overlook South Mill Pond. The challenge in furnishing and decorating lies in combining eighteenth-century New England Georgian style with functioning 2024 comfort.
Kierstead wanted to create a sense of nostalgia when decorating this studio apartment with pieces made popular by famous mid-century designers Florence Knoll and Eero Saarinen.
When furnishing small living spaces, Kierstead says having furniture that serves several purposes is essential. For the Wentworth project, he chose a bookcase that could function as a place for photos and memorabilia, a 40-inch television, and store dishware.
The 28-inch round dinette table is paired with lightweight chairs that residents can move with ease. Since there’s no space for a desk, the dining table and small tulip table double as space for computer use, paperwork, hobbies, or crafting.
The vegan leather chairs look and feel like genuine leather but are easier to clean. It’s the only kind Kierstead sells in his shop.
He likes to furnish small spaces with pieces made from sustainable light woods such as acacia and bamboo. The color choice for the walls is Fleur de Sel, a cool-toned gray. Adding plants as decor helps to bring out the lighter tones of the Danish-style furniture.
“It’s important to bring the outside in. When you see the light wood and green plants, it feels less sterile and clinical. It’s more organic,” he says.
That natural, organic feeling also takes residents back to a time before technology brought the internet and smartphones—when life felt simpler. At Wentworth, that’s exactly the atmosphere Kierstead loves.
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I’ve changed my perspective of what being aged means. Seventy is the new 50.
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It’s important to bring the outside in. When you mix the light wood and green plants, it feels less sterile and clinical. It’s more organic.