Marimekko. Why?

Sometimes, you may have to ask yourself, 'is this too much?'

This is too much. From a distance, it's clumps of hair, possibly bunches of spiders. Up close, it's mis-shapen wagon wheels: like if a 5 year old with a crayon was asked to draw it. I'm all for organic lines, but this sends me into conniption fits.
Image lovingly stolen from Design Sponge

Danish modern style, without Danish modern prices

For the Record, the Melrose Trading post is a lot of fun, even when you've been up since 4AM, the morning after a colossal migraine.

Anyways, urban outfitters has its own hipster cache and that can be a minefield, but they do have a few solid pieces of furniture. I'm most impressed with this daybed. Great color, great lines and it has that iconic look: when you think 'mid-century daybed' you think of this piece. The price is nice too, which is rare for Urban Outfitters. I tend to think that much of their accessories have that sort of 'fifty cents at a garage sale' look to them, without that all-important fifty cent price.

What a difference paint makes.

I've been busy, and the blog has not been very active because of that, but here's one of the things that I was working on in the interim: a repaint of the front porch. This was one of those tasks which wasn't immediately necessary, but because I offered to do much of the work, I was allowed to do it.

My mom sometimes uses the porch to do work, and it's not exactly the most inviting place to do that. Mostly, it had become a place for furniture that didn't really belong in other rooms. Something had to be done to make this into a space that someone would actually want to spend time in.

After ripping up the carpet, we discovered another layer of carpet. Though this layer was in decent shape, the carpet pad below had disintegrated. The plan was to paint the floors anyways, so this discovery wasn't a huge setback.


The first part of the project was to paint over the beadboard ceilings. The white immediately made the space feel more airy.


The trim was re-painted, and the walls were painted this light green color. At this stage, I remember wishing that the paint was a little bit darker, because I'd felt like the room looked a bit washed-out.


Lastly, the floor was repainted in a light grey. Again, the paint was a bit light, but we're going to get a rug to give the room a little more texture and dimension.

There are a couple other to-dos: Curtains for the east-facing wall, a new light fixture for the ceiling and adding another chair (more on that project later) For right now, the space is much better, more inviting and something I'm glad I worked on. One job that you can't really see in any of the photos, but was necessary, was replacing the broken sash cords in the south-facing windows. But now, the porch is not only fully-functional, but also looks better!

things I love: movie edition

Hello readers,
One thing that's lightly off topic, but still worth a gander: I love mid-century modern design, and I love comedies. So when I finally got around to seeing the French spy farce OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, it was worth the wait. The film parodies the James Bond Eurospy movies of the 60s. Think of it as the movie Get Smart was supposed to be.
The title cards alone (done by Laurent Brett, who is clearly a master) are spot-on midcentury wonders, suitable for framing.

What I've been up to recently

Hello readers
I apologize for the lack up updates recently. One project I've been working on, while not at work, is the front porch my mom uses as an office sometimes. The major work is done, but there are a few issues (lighting and so on) that are on the list of 'things to do eventually'. Don't worry, I'll have pictures up soon.

an incredible chair from an unlikely source

When you think of sources for mid-century modern styled furniture, you think of a few sellers, maybe you think of a few antiques or thrift stores, but I doubt you think of the word 'typography'.
House Industries is changing that with their Neutra Boomerang chair. Available in maple or walnut, you can be assured that you're the only one on your block to own a copy of this chair. They're taking deposits for the second edition, so be sure to get on that ASAP! I'm also a huge fan of the Ampersand pillows and the Andrew Girard objects also for sale on the website.

Kudos to Boingboing for the image.

two lamps I like

Retro To Go highlighted this wonderful lamp from Pokono. I'm a fan of the way it melds textures and materials into something unique. I'm not a fan of the 200 dollar price tag, but you can't win them all.

Lamp number two comes to us courtesy of Cribcandy and it is a stunner. Dynamic lines combine to make a piece that looks like it could take off from the desk at any moment.