Art: interior design | myMCMlife.com

A New Addition!

08/03/2010

No, I’m not pregnant. Did I fool you for a second? This post is about an addition we’re adding to our home … sometime in the yet-to-be-determined future. As in, we’re just dreaming for now.

Our mid-century (1955) ranch is 1420 square feet. Plenty of room for two people. Plenty of room for two people who frequently work from home, even. It’s a 3-bedroom, 2 full-bath home* which allows us to have a comfortable master suite, a music studio for Jason and an office/craft room for me. (*Originally it was 3-bedrooms, 1 full-bath and a den.) The only problem is that we want to have kids. And we don’t want to move. Ever. We love our house and our garden and our neighborhood that much. Our lot is .36 acres and our house is average size for the neighborhood so there is justification for an addition. Commence daydreams of building on.

Commence? What am I saying. We’ve lived here 3.5 years and we’ve been talking about where and how and what we could build for 3.5 years. Just recently though, Jason was talking to one of our friends who is an excellent carpenter/handyman about some possibilities and suggestions. JB said, “If I was y’all I’d build off the front. You have a big front yard.” Jason heard less grass to mow. Current home layout:

We had never considered that. All of our previous ideas were to build off the back, near the driveway. A few days ago I had time to draw some sketches of how we could make it work. I love drawing out floor plans. Am I weird? I used to do this all the time when I was a kid … drawing out my dream house or the house of the made up family I was writing a story about.

The first sketch is the simplest solution – cut off 1/3 of my 11’x10′ office to create a hallway and add two modest size bedrooms with closets. My office could even be further cut down to say … 6’x6′ to create a playroom area or a reading nook or something. Total addition: approx. 300 sq. ft.

The second sketch takes the same idea but shoves it further from the existing house to create a den or study area and possibly an enclosed outdoor courtyard area off of the master bedroom. An enclosed outdoor living space is a little fantasy of ours. Total addition: approx: 500 sq. ft.

I showed Jason my sketches and he loves the second one. Sweet! Let’s do it! Oh wait, we don’t have kids. We don’t have $50,000 lying around. That’s OK. For now, I’ll just map these out in Illustrator.

What do you think? Do you have experience with adding on to your home? Would our house lose it’s ranchiness if we had an addition that made it L-shaped (or gun shaped)? We don’t have room on our property to expand on either side. This box I added on the tax assessment schematic shows it would be about 26’x20′ for the larger of the 2 addition plans:

I wonder how much these plans will change in the next … oh … 7 years or so.

5 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: addition, floor plan, floorplan | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Mismatched

07/07/2010

Lately I’ve been attracted to mismatched things—dishes, articles of clothing, accessories, furniture. Is it trendy to not match anything anymore or is it just me? I’m assuming it’s a trend I’ve unknowingly been replicating.

Sage green sheets under a brown and blue quilt with tan throw pillows

Olive green and teal blue towels living in harmony

Red soap dispenser on a blue and green tiled countertop

Green glass, blue melamine, yellow and orange ceramic dishes at Watanbe

Dark aqua wall with yellow and green accessories and peach chair

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Green, yellow and blue, black and white pillows on light blue, gray and white bedding

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I’m not sure there are any colors repeated in this space:

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And who says your shirt needs to match your skirt and your shoes need to match your purse?

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(Click • for source)

1 Comment | Art, Art: fashion, Art: interior design | Tagged: colors, mismatched | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Babies Rock

07/06/2010

Since I now have an excuse to have babies on my brain, I’ve been keeping an eye out for all things baby-cool.

Check out this multifunctional bassinet/rocker called Koo that I saw on Design Milk. Baby sleeps in the bassinet until feeding time. Mom can rock baby back to sleep after nursing. Smart, huh?

6 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: babies, bassinet, koo, rocker | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Imitation Outfitters

07/05/2010

If you have lots of money, don’t care about American-made quality, want new things or don’t have time for vintage and thrift shopping but you like mid-century modern design … Urban Outfitters is just what you need! They’ve got some great looking mid-century inspired designs. Let’s see …

There is the Night and Day Convertible Sofa …

And the Mid-Century Rocker Chair. I want this! I would gladly accept an authentic vintage mid-century version but if all else fails, this will do.

There’s this Mid-Century Sofa.

Manchester Media Stand for your record player and records, of course. (Or books and a lamp.) Lovely peg/cone legs.

A 36″ Round Woven Mixed Rug that would have looked right at home at grandma’s house.

I love this printed 50’s Birdcage Duvet Cover but I’m not sure I’d want it on my bed.

And a 70’s Clock. If you’ve ever been to my house, you know I love clocks! Every room has one. Some rooms have two. I need more rooms!

3 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: furniture, Mid-century modern design, Urban Outfitters | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Eat More Fiber

06/29/2010

A few people have asked me about the Eat More Fiber poster that we have hanging in our newly (mostly finished) master bathroom above the commode. It’s now available in my etsy.com shop.

I got the “Eat More Fiber” idea from this photo series called Reminders by photographer Erin Hanson (I hope she doesn’t mind.) The poster design is original. I love artichokes! Turns out they’re loaded with fiber.

I also made this other poster based on a quote I love—an excerpt of a poem—from John Greenleaf Whittier.

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

It hangs on my cubicle wall. You can get one here if you’re interested.

7 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design | Tagged: bathroom art, eat more fiber, poster, potty humor | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Third Life

06/28/2010

On Saturday, Jason and I finally tackled the job of upholstering the mid-century chair we got at the TN52 Yard Sale. We’ve never upholstered before so it was pretty intimidating. Turns out this chair has been reupholstered once before (hence, the 3rd life.) Here’s the chair how we bought it (for $5):

Amazingly, we only got frustrated with each other one time. That’s pretty good considering it took us about 8 hours. It wasn’t technically hard just time consuming. It was very much like a puzzle. Jason told someone yesterday that we do projects together— that’s how we avoid marriage counseling.

I’m so thankful I got just enough fabric (4 yards) from IKEA a few weeks ago. I think there might even be enough to do a few throw pillows for the couch.

I took these pictures before we were 100% done. We’re going to add 2 buttons to the back before we can tack the last piece of fabric onto the back. We’re really pleased with how it came out and I think it was worth all the sleep we sacrificed this weekend!

5 Comments | Art, Art: crafts, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: chair, furniture, mid-century, upholstry | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

06/04/2010

One of the shops in Cincinnati we checked out while hunting for mid-century modern treasures.

Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: Phone Photo Friday | Tagged: antique store, cell phone photography, mid-century design, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Lamp, Pitcher & Utensil Tray {MCM thrift store finds}

06/01/2010

We picked up a couple of little treasures on a recent trip around the Nashville thrift stores.

A retro green silverware tray – not too exciting but I love the color and it has more slots than our old one. And it was 75¢!

Jason’s never going to let me forget that he spotted this lamp FROM THE STREET! Meaning: we were driving past one thrift store on the way to drop off our garage sale junk at the Goodwill and he saw this lamp out of the corner of his eye through the window of the thrift store. That man has eagle vision!

We still need a shade. It had an ugly one paired with it that we left at the store. No thanks. Price: $6.99.

Jason also spotted this neat round plastic carafe. The brand is Alfi and it’s made in Germany.

Sadly, in it’s beautiful roundness it rolled off the counter top and the top broke. It’s no longer a functional piece but it still looks pretty on our display shelf.

2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: germany, mid-century design, thrift store finds | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

A Typical Evening

05/27/2010

I imagine other people have typical evenings like this: come home from work, eat dinner together, watch some TV, go to bed.

I’m not sure if Jason and I have EVER had an evening like that. We’re always running around doing this or that … working late, running to the hardware store or grocery store, doing freelance graphic design or music recording projects. Sometimes we eat dinner together but it’s often at 8 or 9. And maybe one night a week we catch up on our favorite shows through Hulu (24, The Office, Modern Family). Our wind-down-relax time rarely starts before 11pm.

The other night I was thinking about what a “typical” night looks like for us and I decided to snap a picture of what we were both doing right before our late dinner break.

Jason was installing a new bowl sink in the guest bathroom. The teal glass one was pretty but impractical – it has about 7 chips in after 3 years. (Only one of which was made by Jason or me.)