For all of you out there who think modern design is cold, impersonal, empty, lonely … here’s your confirmation.
Unhappy Hipsters. Very funny photo documentary blog. One of my recent favorites:
At the art opening, he’d been convinced the blank canvas symbolized endless possibilities. Back at home, it was just one more reminder of his own desperation.
(Photo: Raimund Koch; Dwell, April 2009)
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Art, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: funny, modern design, unhappy hipsters | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
We’re considering a few paint choices for the bathroom walls, each in the pale greenish bluish gray range. I saved this photo a while back because I thought Sherwin Williams Window Pane would be perfect with our teal blue and green shower tiles.
(sorry I can’t recall the source.)
But, it’s too light & bright:
Here’s Contented (below):
Rainwashed: (Fitting name.)
And our current top choice, Sea Salt:
Sea Salt actually looks—on the chip and in the above photoshop mock-up—like Window Pane in my inspiration photo, don’t you think?
(Sidenote: I think Sherwin Williams has the best colors. They also have a very cool, interactive Color Visualizer on their website. And they just opened a new store in our neighborhood. Yay!)
Which color do you think works best with our tile?
8 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: paint chips, paint colors, sherwin williams, wall color | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
The shower is DONE!!
Well, 95% done anyway. We’re eventually going to install a 2nd shower head—a rain shower mounted to the ceiling. But that’s a little further down the priority list. Most importantly, the shower is now functional.
Sunday we went shopping for shower curtains and it was SO much more fun than shopping for thin set and grout and tile sealer.
Since we don’t have the 2nd shower head yet, we have some plastic bags stuffed into the hole where the controls will go. Classy, huh?
Despite the plastic bags and the yet to be painted walls, that first long hot shower on Sunday night was so glorious!
Tomorrow you’re welcome to give your opinion on our paint color choices.
Catch up with our bathroom renovation progress:
5 Comments | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: bathroom renovation, master bathroom, tiled shower | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Setting this idea aside for Miss Future Offspring.
1 Comment | Art, Art: crafts, Art: interior design, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family | Tagged: cell phone photography, design inspiration, future children, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
I had intended to post a bathroom renovation update today but … we didn’t quite finish the shower yet. We’re SO CLOSE! Hang on until next week to see pictures of the finished shower, ok? It will be worth the wait, I promise.
Besides I need your help with something.
See those two horizontal cabinets above? (Please excuse my messy countertop.) Well, the hinge that holds the door open is broken on the bottom cabinet. IKEA doesn’t sell the hinges separately from the entire cabinet and the only other online retailer we can find sells them for $80 a pair. Sheeah … $80 for some hinges!
However, I am tired of holding the {heavy} door open with my head while I delicately put away antique tea cups. Two days ago I had an epiphany … I’ll just take the door off! After all, open cabinets look good in other kitchens, right?
So here are some after pictures with the door off:
I need help. It looks unfinished to me. What do you think? Does it need painted or something? Take the top door off too? Should I just put the door back on? Fork out $80 for some hinges?
11 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: kitchen, open cabinets | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Last weekend we tackled the most intimidating part of the bathroom renovation (in my mind, at least): pouring the concrete shower base. I’ll just show what we did through pictures. And of course I use “we” very loosely here.
Shower all cleared out and ready to go.
Mixing up the concrete mix and water in our pitiful, rusty old wheel barrel. (See the broken wood handle?) I was going to do this part but it turns out my arms are too weak. Each bag of mix was 60 lbs dry.
I prefer to watch this guy in action anyway. I’m excellent moral support.
First bucket full of concrete gets placed. That float is named the Task Force.
Second bucket down. Creating a slight slope toward the drain was very tedious. And important. Jason and his task force can handle it.
The consistency is like wet sand. Not as liquidy as I had imagined.
Four bags/bucketfuls down. 240 lbs. More of the very meticulous smoothing and creating a slight grade toward the drain.
Some days I am very grateful to be married to a perfectionist. Another half a bag to finish it off and get that slope just right. (4.5 bags of sand mix, 270 lbs, 4’x5′ base at 1-1.5″ thick in case you want details.)
All done. Just needs 24 hours to dry. Phew! The whole process only took 3 hours but was very labor-intensive. I’m so glad it’s done. Thank God it all went smoothly. Now on to finishing the rest of the tiling … another update coming soon. I HOPE!
Keeping up with our progress?
1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: bathroom renovation, concrete shower pan, master bathroom, tiled shower | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Tile is officially HALF done! Yay! We’ve been working hard on it and our goal is to finish the shower this month. (Sorry for the pieced together photos. Couldn’t get it all in 1 shot.)
We started putting drywall up to close off the laundry area with some leftover pieces from another project.
We designed built-in shelves into one side of the shower wall. In order to finish them with cement board so we can tile, we had to put drywall up on the laundry room side.
Jason bought the concrete for the shower pan today. Saturday is the day we mix and pour and level and pray. I’ll try to remember to keep my camera handy during the process.
Phew! We’ve come a long way! Need to catch up?
4 Comments | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: bathroom renovation, master bathroom, tile, tiled shower | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Vintage shopping is fun but IKEA has some nice, practical, well-designed things, too. A few things we picked up from our recent trip:
Kitchen storage shelves for the Penzeys Spices we got for Christmas. (BYGEL)
Machine-washable, rubber-backed door mat! (TOFTBO)
Bigger flower pot for our growing jade plant
Stainless steel waste basket (HULINGEN)
Pillow case for Lucy’s new bed (26″ square pillow GOSA TULPAN) (GÄSPA)
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: dog bed, door mat, flower pot, IKEA, spice rack | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Our master bathroom makeover has been slow moving, mostly because of the busyness of the holidays. But now we’re back at it full steam with a goal of finishing the shower this month. It’s going to be a challenge since we’re averaging about 4 sq. ft. an hour with these little .75″ unglazed porcelain tiles. One wall is almost done.
We’ve got a good system going now where I pop half the tiles off of each sheet in a random pattern at about the same pace as Jason can stick them up on the wall. If I crop out the unfinished parts and you use your imagination with the grout (we’re thinking gray) this picture gives a pretty good idea of the finished look:
Lost? Here’s the process up to now:
1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: bathroom renovation, master bathroom, tile, tiled shower | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
We had a wonderful New Years in Cincinnati with our dear friends and fellow MCM enthusiests. We ate some delicious food: lobster, pork ribs and sauerkraut, Cincinnati chili, Cheesecake Factory. Some new—from IKEA and H&M—and “new” mid-century purchases—from Red Polly, SA family store and Stu Nizny‘s house (oh the stories!)
I’m so excited to report that we finally found the perfect vintage MCM cabinet to use for our master bathroom vanity. Wow. After a year of searching it’s going to take a while to sink in! (Pun intended that time.) And it fit in our car!
While we were poking around at the thrift store I pointed out a table that looked mid-century. Out of nowhere an eccentric silver-haired guy in a hot pink down puffer with a saucer-sized belt buckle and white silver-tipped cowboy boots was giving us his business cards, inviting us back to his house to check out his vintage collection, offering us wholesale prices, and listing off his résumé of famous clientele. We shopped around a little more than then took him up on his offer.
Stu’s house was a museum of mid-century and vintage furniture, housewares, glass art, Jeres, vintage t-shirts, suitcases, light fixtures, art … and he was right: he did have several mid-century modern cabinets that fit the very specific dimensions we needed. Thanks for the great deals, Stu! We’ll definitely be back.
I’ll share more about our other finds soon.
1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: bathroom renovation, cabinet, Cincinnati, credenza, MCM thrift store, mid-century modern | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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Graphic designer, MCM interior design enthusiast, wife to amazing guitarist and hard working realtor, mama—by way of foster care, adoption and biology—and follower of Jesus Christ.
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