House Tour 8/27/13

Don't mind me.  I'm just updating the house tour with new pictures.

Mid-Century Midwest House Tour (8/27/2013)

Living Room

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!

Mid-Century DIY: Retro Planter

Are you sick of boring, generic plant pots from big box stores?  Tired of trolling Craigslist for mid-century planters and coming up empty-handed?  How about paying over $150 for a reproduction bullet planter?

Finding retro-modern planters can be an arduous and expensive task...

... but no longer!

Today I'm going to show you how to whip one up in a matter of an afternoon and at a cost of about $16.

Materials:

Bel Air Bamboo Planter (Lowes - Item #293923)

Ruler

Pencil

Drill

Drill Bits (1/16" and 15/64")

3x Waddell 3" Furniture Legs (Ace Hardware - Item #60536349613)

Fine Sand Paper

Danish Oil

Rag

Wood Glue

Step 1: Prep

I've chosen this particular Lowe's planter due to it's modern shape/color and bamboo construction, which should make it fairly easy to drill and work with.  Start by removing any stickers and remaining adhesive.  

Then you will need to draw drill guides onto the underside of the planter using your ruler and pencil.  I planned to attach 3 legs, and so divided the circumference of the bottom (circumference = 3.14 * diameter - Didn't know you'd be getting a math lesson here, did you?) into thirds.  Make these marks at least 1" (the radius of the leg) from the edge of the planter.

Step 2: Drilling

Now you're ready to drill baby, drill!  Using a power drill make small guide holes (I used a 1/16" bit) at the points you've marked.  Given the coiled-bamboo construction of this planter, starting off with a larger bit might result in damage, so don't get hasty and skip this step.  

Once you've made the initial guides, go back and drill out the holes with a bit slightly smaller than the bolt on the legs (I used a 15/64" bit) and clean up the piles of sawdust you've gotten everywhere.

Step 3: Preparing the Legs

Now it's time to get those legs prepped.  Start off by giving them a good sanding, but make sure not to scratch the brass ferrules.  I ended up only using a fine grade, as I'm not too picky about this sort of thing.  If you are looking for a smoother finish, start of with fine and then move on to successively smaller grit sizes until you get them to your satisfaction.

Then clean 'em up, grab a rag, and rub on a coat of Danish Oil (or your finish of choice).  Give the oil 15 minutes to soak in between coats (2 should do it) and let them dry for at least a couple hours.  

Those are some sexy legs, eh?  These things bring all kinds of possibilities to mind.

Step 4: Attaching the Legs
You're almost there!  I'd prefer to use glue in conjunction with a nut and washer to hold this thing together, but the bolt isn't long enough to fit the extra hardware so glue alone will have to do.  Dab a small amount of wood glue around the bolt on each leg, making sure to get it into the threads for extra stability.  Remember, I said a SMALL amount of glue.  We don't want a big sticky mess here.

Next, just screw the legs in and wipe up the excess (because you used too much, didn't you?  I did.).

Another little dab on the inside of the pot where the bolt penetrated should keep everything water-tight.

Step 5: Enjoy
Wait 8 hours for the adhesive to dry and BOOM, you've got yourself a swank retro-modern planter!

If you feel like changing it up, these planters come in a variety of sizes and colors, as do the legs.  I'd recommend 4 legs if you plan on using it for something tall or top-weighted, but 3 should be stable enough for most applications.

So, what'd you think?  It's not a bullet planter or architectural pottery, but pretty cool, no?  I'm considering putting together an arrangement of three in different colors and with different leg lengths to go next to the fireplace.  

Oops, I almost forgot step six...

Step 6: Gimme Some Blog Love

Head on over here, sign in (you can sign in through Facebook or other services if you don't want to make an account), and hit the "vote" button next to Mid-Century Midwest ;)

To buy or not to buy...

Quick question:

Should I purchase this fine set of lamps?

They're $30 and not EXACTLY what I'm looking for, but I've yet to find any MCM lamps (or lamp shades for that matter) in my extensive search of the St. Louis area.  The lack of retro lighting is definitely becoming frustrating.

I guess they're pretty cool, but... hmmmm... I'm just not sure.

The Hunt

At this point, I think that my search for a living room rug could take up its own blog.  Yet, I haven't found the perfect specimen.  Any of these tickle your fancy?  Overstock is running a 15% off sale on area rugs that ends at midnight, so hopefully I can figure something out.  Considering how indecisive I've been about this whole rug ordeal, I wouldn't count on it.

My living room

The contenders:

Hand-tufted Square Orange Wool Rug (5' x 8') - $136.84

(reviewers assure that the colors are more muted in person)

Indo Kazak Hand-knotted Red/Gold Rug (5' x 7') - $163.19

Indo Kazak Burgundy/ Ivory Wool-blend Rug (5'9 x 8) - $245.64

Indo Kilim Ivory/ Red Wool/ Cotton Rug (5'5 x 7'9)  - $163.19

Indo Kazak Red/ Ivory Wool/ Cotton Rug (4'8 x 6'5) - $197.19

Hand-woven Kaalein Red Stripe Wool Rug (5' x 7'6) - $117.29

Indian Hand-knotted Indo Kazak Rug (4'8 x 6'5) - $217.59

Wish List Part 1: The Kitchen

Man, January just flew by.  It seems like the year only just started and here we are in February.

You've seen my 2012 to-do list for the house, but I thought I'd also start on a list of items I'd like to pick up throughout the year as well.

Part 1: The Kitchen

1. Blown glass succulent terrarium

source: Shelterness (I believe this is The Brick House)

2. Saarinen Tulip/Noguchi Cyclone-style kitchen table

 

source: Treadway Gallery

source: Office Designs

3. Eames shell/Bertoia wire-style chair (x2)

source: St. Houzz

source: Blogspot - Room Lust

source: Knockaround

4. Scandinavian dinnerware (Ikea 365+ - $29.99 18pc set)

source: Ikea

5. Scandinavian flatware (Ikea Lärd - $24.99 20pc set)

source: Ikea

6. Scandinavian glasses (Ikea Svalka - $4.99 6pc set)

source: Ikea

7. Bamboo placemat (Ikea Toga - $1.99)

source: Ikea

8. A trash can that doesn't look terrible (much harder to find and more expensive than one would think)

source: Amazon

That rug really tied the room together.

Alright, dear readers, I'm going to be making a few decorating decisions and I, due to my terrible indecisiveness, need your assistance.

First off is rugs.

Here's my living room and dining room as they stand (I still hate those brown Walmart curtains).  It's kinda hard to tell, but the walls are beige/taupe in color, the couch is dark turquise, and the Plycraft is chartreuse.

Now, that living room rug, which is actually just a folded yoga mat, needs to go.  It's a decent enough looking rug placeholder, but the material just isn't made to stand up to heavy foot traffic and it's beginning to pill and wear.

So here's the details:

*Given the roof situation, we are gonna have to do this on the cheap (<$120).  Yeah, I know.  Rugs don't come cheap.  However, Overstock.com has a wonderful selection of modern-looking rugs at unbelievable prices.

*My ideal would be a Navajo/Native American-style woven rug, but that likely isn't going to happen

*I'd like something retro-modern, with bold, but not necessarily bright, colors that go with the overall color scheme (if there actually is a real coherent color scheme, I'm not sure) in the room/house.

*Both patterns and solids are welcomed.

*I'd prefer something very textural like a jute, fiber, or kilim rug

*The rug should be somewhere between 3-5 feet in width and 5-8 feet in length.  Ideal size would be 4x6.

*I'd also like them to go with the kilim pillows that I plan to order.  They come in a variety of colors, but here's a couple examples:

I've also picked out a few (well, not really a few) options:

1. Hand-woven Sindhi Brown Jute Rug (4' x 6') $61.99

2. Hand-woven Sindhi Green Jute Rug (4' x 6') $61.99

3. Hand-woven Sindhi Brown Jute Rug (4' x 6') $74.99

4. Hand-woven Jute Rug (4' x 6') $73.99

5. Hand-woven Natural Fiber Arts Natural/ Rust Fine Sisal Rug (3' x 5') $41.99

6. Hand-woven Jute/ Cotton Multicolor Rug (4' x 6') $74.99

7. Hand-woven Diamond Red Jute Rug (4' x 6') $64.99

8. Hand-woven Kilim Wool Rug (4' x 6') $86.99

9. Hand-woven Kilim Wool Rug (5' x 8') $109.89

10. Hand-woven Kilim Wool Rug (5' x 8') $119.99

11. Handmade Jute Flat-weave Rug (4' x 6') $48.68

Personally, I think that I prefer numbers 7-11 (as if that narrows it down...), but I can't really make up my mind.  There's too many good options.  What do you think?  If you happen to know of any others that'd fit, I'm open to suggestions as well.