11/22/2010
Over the Summer, Jason and I picked up several small pieces of art at an estate sale with pressed flowers, mushrooms and owls. (Closer up pictures here.) At another yard sale we found these plastic owls. I got tired of seeing them stacked up in storage so I made a hasty decision to hang them in the hallway as a collection. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. What do you think? Too busy? I’m not sure what else to do with a bunch of tiny frames.
The baby owl is living in the hallway with the art but I decided to put the mama and daddy owl in our bedroom, above the cross stitch sampler the Jason’s mom made as a wedding gift for us. Someday I’ll put the baby with the mama and daddy… you know, when it makes sense.
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Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Family | Tagged: Art, dried flowers, mushrooms, owls, wall art | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
11/17/2010
My friend Laren and I went to an estate sale on Saturday and I picked up a few little things. It was just before close so everything was 50% off (and probably really picked over!). I couldn’t resist this sweet little pink bird planter. The paint is chipped off the beak and it was very dirty. I’m thinking of painting it white or turquoise and planting a little succulent in it.
This little glass candy dish with pink flowers and gold stems was also too sweet for me to resist. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. I put Whoppers in it for the picture but I hate malt. I think those pink spearmints would look nice in it. My dad used to call those his Happy Pills.
And another loaf pan. I think this might be my 4th. Someday I will make more homemade bread. And maybe give it away in the loaf pan! This one with blue flowers is made by Glasbake.
1 Comment | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: bird, casserole, estate sale, flower, glasbake, thrift store hunting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
11/16/2010
Jason and I had been brainstorming what kind of architectural design element we could add to our house to create a backdrop for our spineless prickly pear cactus (which is the same color as our house.) At one point we were considering using decorative concrete block.
As we’ve also been discussing the design of a fence for our backyard, Jason decided to create the accent for the front of our house using the same style we’re thinking of for the fence. He used 1×2 untreated planks and 2×4’s for support, then stained the whole structure before mounting it onto the house. (I helped a little with that step.)
It took a little bit of getting used to but I’m really loving it now! We’ve decided to call it an architectural trellis (or an architrellis!).
1 Comment | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: architecture, backdrop, landscaping, trellis | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
11/15/2010
My company moved to a new office space several weeks ago. (Yes, that’s the 4th location in 4 years if you’re counting.) In the designers’ area there is a space large enough to create a lounge. Our manager suggested that the other designers and I come up with furniture ideas and present them to our boss. Here’s what we came up with, all in the $850 range:
#1: $841 Mid-century sofa from Urban Outfitters, TULLSTA chairs in white from IKEA, African Suns rug from Urban Outfitters
#2: $841 Mid-century sofa from Urban Outfitters, TULLSTA chairs in white from IKEA, Chenille rug from Urban Outfitters
#3: $827 KARLSTAD sofa from IKEA, TULLSTA chairs in white from IKEA, JORUN rug from IKEA
My two fellow designers and I decided that we liked #1 the best. Except that one design homie didn’t like the rug and he suggested red chairs instead of white so they won’t show dirt as easily:
#4: $841 Mid-century sofa from Urban Outfitters, TULLSTA chairs in red from IKEA (no rug)
I just saw while I was posting this that the Chenille rugs from Urban Outfitters are on sale for $19 … hmm. Maybe I can convince my bosses that we need one of those. Or maybe I can convince Jason that we need one in our house!
3 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: IKEA, interior design, office furniture, Urban Outfitters | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
10/26/2010
A home office in a closet can be a great solution when you don’t have a room to spare. We have limited closet space but we do have a 46″ by 24″ coat closet in our hallway across from the door to our bedroom. Before discussing my revelation with Jason I immediately started sketching out where everything would fit and where I could put everything that was currently in the hall closet: coats, hats, gloves, scarfs, extra blankets and pillows, vacuum, tools, cans of paint, lightbulbs and other odds and ends. Once I had a plan, I took my idea to corporate for approval. (Joking, but it does help to have a well thought out plan before presenting my crazy ideas to Jason.)
He was fine with my plan! Over the course of a few Saturdays when Jason was out on tour I managed to move everything out of the hall coat closet. Coats are in the closet of the spare room (for now anyway), extra blankets and pillows are in tubs in the attic, and the rest of that stuff is in our new but not-yet-finished laundry room. So on to that empty hall closet …
With Jason again gone on tour I decided to tackle this job on my own to 1) keep myself busy, 2) keep up the weekend warrior pace I’m used to when he’s home, 3) impress him with my renovation skills, and 4) get it done. When we had Jason’s giant birch desktop cut at the hardware store last month I had the guy trim one of the offcuts to 46″ so it would be the right length for my desktop. I used scraps of wood from Jason’s old desk to make little wood ledges on the side walls of the closet to hold up an additional shelf (the top one was already there) and the desk top.
For now my printer is on a crate to the left of my computer with paper underneath. I’m going to come up with another solution since my desk surface is limited.
6 Comments | Art, Art: Closet Office, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: closet office, coat closet, home office | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
10/07/2010
I decided to swap locations for our metal Jeré-like tree sculpture with my favorite retro starburst clock. I like the tree in the dining room (though I want to lower it a bit) but I’m not sure a clock in the hallway is very practical. I think I’ll move the clock back into the living room/dining room/kitchen somewhere and find something else for the end of the hall. What do you think?
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Posted by mahlbrandt
10/06/2010
Jason and I picked up these ceramic birds at a thrift store a little while ago. Birds are kind of trendy and I like the trend but also my parents used to collect white bird figurines. That could be partly why I thought these would look best in white.
Though, I have to admit, my first suggestion to Jason was that we paint them orange or red. Ultimately we decided white would go with anything and emphasize the shape. I like them.
1 Comment | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: before & after, birds, love birds, spray paint, thrift store find | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
09/13/2010
Everyone who collects mid-century antiques knows about craigslist. Heck, anyone who buys and sells secondhand anything knows about craigslist! But have you heard about Craiglook? Our friend Sean tipped us off to it a few months ago. It’s an RSS Browser for craigslist that can save searches, broaden your results up to 250 miles from your zip code and best of all: search results have photos and you can quickly look at details without having to leave the search results page. Brilliant!
Thank you, whoever created craiglook, for making the great local classifieds database more user-friendly! (And thanks Sean!)
1 Comment | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: craiglook, craigslist, craigslook | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
08/12/2010
A repost from East Nashville Atomic
Originally posted March 4, 2009
When I saw this at an estate sale, it immediately caught my eye. I was looking for items to resell which is a new venture for me. I know that I have to get a great price on something legitimately valuable. Although this set is beautiful and unique, it doesn’t have a designer/maker listed on the bottom which concerned me. It also was priced a little high. I thought about it a while but decided to pass.
Two days later we went back to the estate sale (It was a 3 day sale) to see what was left. I was surprised to find that it was still there. Not only was everything reduced to 50%, one of the sale workers who we had spent some time talking to at our earlier visit kept giving us even better deals. We ended up getting this set for only $3. After Jason carefully washed our purchases and I photographed each piece, I decided that even if I sold this set for $20 I’d still be sad to part with it. Jason encouraged me to just keep it. After all, it was only $3 and I LOVE it!
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Posted by mahlbrandt
myMCMlife.com 