House Tour (redux)

We've gone through a number of adjustments at the homestead, so I thought it'd be a good time to update the house tour.  The place is really starting to come together and look like an actual grown-up residence.   Considering that I bought my first home and began collecting less than a year and a half ago, I'd say we're making good progress.  Don't worry though.  There's still plenty of work to be done and Mid-Mod finds to share! 

So, without further adieu, here's the grand tour.

Mid-Century Midwest House Tour (1/30/13)

Living Room

Office Chairs, Revisited

Look what I found!

Source: Furnish Me Vintage

Do these chairs look familiar?  They should.

It looks as if I've finally identified the make of the pair of chairs from the office.  They didn't have any marks or tags and an I'd almost given up after a long, fruitless search of the internet.  I couldn't find anything at all until this week, when not one, not two, but three sets came up on Craigslist.

They were manufactured by the Jasper Chair Company, which was founded in 1921 and still operates out of Jasper, Indiana.  I perused their catalogue to see if they still had anything of interest, but they now just sell typically bland office furniture. 

When I first took them home, I didn't think to look for the cushions, as the, for lack of a better term, "butt groove" led me to believe that there wasn't any.   I'll have to check where they've run off to.

Does anyone else think that they look similar to the work of Hans Wegner?  They're really beautiful, well-made chairs.

Source: Life Interiors

Estate sale madness

Over the years, I've been dragged along to a fair few estate sales, but always came away thinking that they were over-priced and full of junk.  Turns out, it takes a fair amount of dedication, persistence, and sleep deprivation to get the good stuff.

The kind gentleman who sold me the Danish sofa introduced me to estatesales.net and my mind was blown.  All of these years, I'd been relying on Craigslist or Ebay and this site was chock full of mid-century goodness.

I'd spotted the goods.  I'd printed out directions.  I'd arrived early.  I'd brought provisions.  Everything, however, did not go as planned.  It seemed like every week, the piece that I'd waited for was snatched up by a mysterious goateed man.  Coincidentally, or so I thought, the same pieces were appearing on my favorite blog, Mr. Modtomic.  Once this happened a few times, I put two and two together and realized that this WAS Mr. Modtomic!  Talk about salt in the wound.  I'd lose out on all of these great pieces and then have to read about what a great score they were the very next day.

Then came what I thought was my day.  I'd scoped out a Broyhill Brasilia bedroom set on estatesales.net and woken up at the crack of dawn (actually, way before it), but once again I was soundly beaten and left to stare longingly at the now tagless pieces.  If any of you have ever seen Brasilia, you'd know how heartbreaking such an encounter can be.

After that disheartening experience, I thought that I was done with estate sales.  However, on the way home from dropping the girlfriend off at the airport early one morning, I made a last minute decision to stop by a sale where I'd spotted a couple Lane Acclaim coffee tables (another of my favorites).

And there in line, right in front of me, stood Mr. Modtomic.  He'd done it again!  I decided to wait it out anyway, as I was 6th in line and might still be able to grab a few things, but it looked like slim pickings if what could be seen through the windows was anything to go by.

When the doors opened, I watched as the others made a mad dash for the dining room and bedroom.  They were after the Kipp Stewart dining set and the tension pole lamp.  This was my chance!  I quickly made my way to the basement, as I'd seen concrete in the photos, and snatched the tags.

It was a small victory, but victory nonetheless.

Afterwards, I even got a chance to speak with Mr. Modtomic, who seemed like a genuinely nice guy.  He congratulated me on my find and we talked for a while about mid-century design and exchanged emails.  Since then I've tried to forward tips on any pieces that I know he's been looking for or that might interest him in his way.  Maybe there is room in this town for the both of us after all.

Click the link above to check out his blog.

The best is yet to come

There really is so much left to do, but the house has come a long way since I moved in at the end of June. It's great to finally have a place to sit down, eat dinner, and store my stuff.

The second story remains in use as a storage closet, but I hope to turn it into a master bedroom at some point (if that bear of a staircase will allow it). A lot of furniture/decor also needs to be bought or replaced (I'm looking at you, curtains).

However, the first order of business is to take care of the garden before Fall sets in. I called in a professional to remove several gnarly stumps from the back yard and it's looking a bit rough. I'd really like to put in a few evergreen trees and shrubs to provide some semblance of privacy. As of now, all that separates us from our neighbors is a tiny chain-link fence - not that there is anything wrong with them. I'd just prefer to have a bit of space to myself.

What do you all think? Is there anything that you would have done differently? I'll admit, there's been a few design decisions that I've regretted, but I have a plan and I hope to remedy them in the future.

We all have to start somewhere

Well, it turns out that the only thing more tiring and overwhelming than purchasing a new house is actually moving in (an ongoing project even now, 2 months later).

With the help of a few family members (Thanks guys!) I managed to pack and unload most of my worldly possessions and give my humble abode a cursory cleaning before the girlfriend arrived and gave it her seal of approval. However, it turned out that what filled a small 2 bedroom apartment left a 3 bedroom house feeling somewhat vacant. The lack of window dressings also made for an interesting trip from the shower to the bedroom every morning.

Time for some shopping, right?

But wait ... as with all of my endeavors, I may have gone a bit overboard in the planning stage. Over the next several days, I developed a design plan, complete with sketches, 3D models, and color charts. You see, I've always dreamed of designing my own home, and this was my big opportunity to start from scratch.

The girlfriend was, at first, not convinced. She is more of an English Country girl and I'd gone full Mid-Century Modern. However, I eventually won her over with my charm (or perhaps just my eagerness and persistence). Now all that was left was to ... well ... actually buy everything.

As you can see, the house is Craftsman era (as pointed out by Mr. Modtomic), but I think that the two styles blend well together.