Update

Hello all.  You probably noticed that updates to this place dwindled and then stopped rather suddenly a while back.  Sorry for leaving you hanging, but my father suffered a rather severe stroke and my workplace has been dealing with, essentially, one continuous series of disasters for the last couple years.  It has been a trying time, but I hope that we will pull through. 

Thank you for the kind comments and support.  I hope that you all can forgive my lack of responsiveness to comments and posts.  I wish that I had more time to direct toward my hobbies and this blog, but I've got quite a full plate.

Though I don't have nearly as much free time as I once did, I'm still making progress on the home.  I'll try to get an updated house tour posted once I paint in the Spring, but here's a quick shot of what I've done in the office.

At Least I Don't Have a Garage

At this point, things are looking a little more Grey Gardens than Farnsworth House.  So it is time to do so some clearing out.

Yeah...

3.4 fluid ounces or less

Just because I've nearly given up on the thrift shops, it doesn't mean that there's nothing out there to find. 

Take this American Airlines travel bag, gifted to me by a friend and fellow thrift enthusiast, as an example.

Loft Living

Master bedroom update:  it's movin' along

The master bedroom, or as we like to call it, the studio loft, is now looking much more habitable.  Just a few short months ago, this was nothing but a storage space crammed floor-to-ceiling with jumbles of MCM junk. 

It still requires some finishing touches like drywall repair, paint, some electrical wiring, and general decorating, but I like the way is coming together.  That's quite a result for a room that's just full of all the leftover furniture that didn't make the cut for downstairs.  A dining table in the bedroom?  It's the next hot trend!

Movin' on up

In order to make up for my extended absence, I've got a special treat for you all.

I don't believe that you and my second story have ever met.  After the disastrous pre-blog roof leak of 2011, the subsequent lack of access for cleaning, and the furniture hoarding (Oh, all the furniture hoarding...), it was looking quite the mess up there.

The room pretty much became a dusty, musty dumping ground for everything that I'd pulled out of alleys/dumpsters or found at estate sales and didn't have a place for.  1940's homes don't have the storage required for modern living, much less the life of a furniture hoarding freak, so there simply wasn't anywhere else to put it except the basement and that was already packed with my non-furniture junk.

This is the way our situation remained until my girlfriend visited last week and finally convinced me to get moving on a project that I'd thought would take years: making the master bedroom a master bedroom.

This required completely reorganizing the basement with new shelving and tidy, labeled containers.  Then came the task of dragging all the pieces that I wished to sell down two narrow, twisted stairways and into the basement, where it would be categorized and out of sight of the living areas.

Phew.

A bit of tidying/arranging and one seriously aggravating set of Home Depot blinds later, everything is looking pretty snazzy.  We've got a real, honest-to-goodness master bedroom now!

This is what pickers' dreams look like

So, yesterday was a pretty good day.

I don't mean to crow, but this was a pretty sweet deal.

Well, look what we have here.  It's another special delivery!

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

Blogiversary

Who's a big boy?  Mid-Century Midwest!

Yep, we're (belatedly) celebrating our one year blogiversary.

A lot has changed in the months since I entered the real, post-graduation world and purchased my first home.  There's been ups, downs, laughter, sorrow, excitement, worry.  We've run the whole emotional gamut.  

While there's still much to do, I think that it's time to sit back and enjoy everything that our hard work has accomplished.  So here's a few comparison shots.  The first set (top, if you couldn't tell) was taken a couple months after our move-in, so you can see a bit of Mid-Mod starting to creep in.  The next was shot a few weeks ago.  Just look how much has changed!

I also want to thank everyone for their readership and friendship.  We've met quite a few interesting, creative, and helpful people over this last year and it's been an amazing experience.

Thanks for everything!

High-stylin' at Walmart

This almost feels sacrilegious.

Too many Soft Pads at my pad

More office chairs?

More office chairs!

They may not be retro (made in 1992), but these Herman Miller Soft Pad Management Chairs (EA435), designed in 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames, are still pretty darn cool, no?  

The set of six popped up on the Jefferson City Craigslist a few weeks back and I just couldn't pass them up.  Unfortunately, my plan to break up the monotonous drive with amazing rural picking adventures was interrupted by kidney stones.  I've still not forgiven them.

No matter.  The chairs were quite the steal, and the build-quality is simply amazing when compared to the typical office chair (as would be expected at their retail price).  No plastic or cheap stamped steel here!  Just look at those beefy casters!

I'm not in love with the oh-so-90's upholstery, but might end up keeping one or two for myself.  After all the discomfort that my current cheapo, duct-taped throne has put me through, I think my backside could use some pampering.  The rest are going on Ebay.  In fact, one already found its new home (my first Ebay sale!).

The really interesting part about the chairs is their backstory.  Remember Northern Telecom (Nortel), one of the first big corporations to go bust during the 2000's recession?  Well, they recently went belly-up and auctioned off their assets, including their Herman Miller office furniture.  

These chairs, in particular, came from the Nortel Headquarters in Canada, which was, according to online sources, some kind of wonder of modern office design done in partnership with Herman Miller.  I wonder how they made it all the way to a dusty old town like Jefferson city.

The Best Laid Plans

Now that the house is starting to fill out a bit, it's time to start putting together a cohesive decorating plan.  Otherwise, I'll just keep bringing in mis-matched stuff that I don't need and end up on Hoarders.  Thrifting is addicting that way.

So, I had a little fun on Olioboard and put together a few mood boards.  Up first is the living room.

With the exception of the blinds, lamp, vintage paint-by-number, and a cowhide rug, I've already purchased everything here, so this room should come together fairly easily.

Just like Pinterest, Olioboard has the inexplicable power to suck hours out of your day.  Though the "remove background" feature could use a little work, it's very simple and allows even the technologically challenged to make decent-looking mood boards.

Dining Chairs

Now that I've got this awesome  Herman Miller breakfast table, it looks like I'll need to pick up a couple chairs to go along with it.

 

Naturally, I'd prefer something vintage, but with the price of mid-century dining chairs climbing into the stratosphere, replicas may be the most feasable option.

So I've had a look on Amazon and selected a few sets that might work:

 

Baxton Studios Replica Eames DAW Shell Chair  - $299.99 (for 2)

 Baxton Studios Replica Eames DSW Shell Chair - $149.99 (for 2)

 

Baxton Studios Replica Bertoia Wire Chair - $99

Baxton Studios Replica Bertoia Diamond Chiar - $115.00

Any thoughts?  Anyone out there ever own a replica?  I'd love to hear your experiences and opinions.

Edit: Does anyone know if you can paint the chromed wire chairs?  I might be tempted to do them in black.

Weekend Haul: Part 2

I still can't believe what a haul I brought in last Saturday.  Most of it has made its way up into the attic/master bedroom/mod cave until I get a chance to break out the antique finish restorer, but this little beauty is staying right here.

I must say, the Mid-Century Modern breakfast table was an elusive quarry, but with the help of Kristina  and Michael at Rocket Century, I finally bagged one.  And what a prize it is: a 36" Eames Aluminum Group by Herman Miller in white laminate.

It looks  a million times better than the craftsman-style set that was a holdover from my grad school days.  Wouldn't you say?

If I had my druthers, I'd have gotten the dark wood-grained laminate version or, in an ideal fantasy world, a Saarinen tulip table with a marble top.  It'd go a bit better with the dark-stained cabinets and counter tops.  Beggars can't be choosers though, can they? 

Still, this table brings some much-needed MCM style to the kitchen, where it was seriously lacking.  I can't wait to gussy it up with a set of chairs and some suitably modern decor.