In September we found a mid-century modern Paulding lamp at a Nashville thrift store. While we were in Erie, PA a few weeks ago, we found a companion lamp for the other side of the living room. The styles are different but they’re both blue-green, retro and fit nicely in our atomic ranch.
Here’s a side by side comparison of the lamp buddies. They have matching shades from Target.
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Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: mcm lamp, mid-century home, thrift store find | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
A few months ago I replaced the hard drive in my macbook pro. Apple considers this part not user replaceable. I think I would consider installing a shower fan not homeowner installable, unless of course, your husband is awesome.
Installing a shower fan in the bathroom seemed easy enough to me. You just pop the sucker up in the ceiling, right? (Doesn’t it look so cute and simple?) It turned out to be a most-of-the-day project cutting a hole in the ceiling (making a huge mess)…
Jason squeezing into a tiny space in the attic between the ceiling joists and roof joists to mount the fan motor enclosure to a joist, attach the ducting from the motor to a vent in the roof and running electrical wire from the motor and down through the wall…
Cutting a hole in the wall to make room for the new outlet/switch box (another big mess), making sense of the old wiring (which is not grounded, by the way) and figuring out how to wire the light switch for the fan off of the GFCI outlet next to it.
Then there was a lot of cleaning, a little drywall repair and some paint touch-up.
I must say, I learned a whole lot about running electricity and ducting. And best of all – it works! We now have a fan in our bathroom to suck up all the shower steam. No more open window in the winter! And, now it should be much smoother process when we install the same fan in the new master bathroom. (This one is in our “hall bathroom” which will someday be the kids bathroom.)
Catch up on the adventures of our master bathroom renovation here:
Bathroom Renovation Stage 1
Bathroom Renovation Stage 2
Bathroom Renovation Stage 3
Bathroom Renovation Stage 4
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: home repair, installing shower fan | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Ok, so I’m reluctant to even call this a stage because it’s kind of in-between two stages. We did demo 2 weekends ago and last weekend we started reconstruction. It’s so fun to start framing the walls! I already feel like I have a laundry “room” and we can finally get a sense of the size of the shower.
We got this far—framing the walls that divide off the laundry room and walk-in shower—using only the repurposed wood from the toilet closet Jason tore down. Talk about reduce, reuse and recycle!
We need at least 4 more 2×4’s, maybe more depending on what kind of built in shelves we decide on in the shower. That’s not bad, though! I’m sorry these pictures don’t give you a scope of the whole space; they were all taken from the doorway.
I’m excited to get back to work on the bathroom this weekend. First priority: clear out all the debris we can’t reuse (door from toilet closet, wood door jam, broken slabs of drywall…) We still need to move the HVAC air vent on the floor before we can finish framing the shower. Then on to more fun stuff: pouring the concrete shower pan. Not sure if we’ll get that far this weekend.
In case you missed it:
1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: bathroom renovation | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Hot date with my Jason on Friday night! Hardware store, dinner at an Indian restaurant and a movie (Away We Go) cuddled up on the couch at home. This is what happens when you’ve been married a while I guess. I love it though.
Home projects Saturday! We installed a shower fan in the hall bathroom (mounted in the ceiling, installed ducting to vent through the room, ran the electrical wiring … big deal!), fixed the vent duct above the stove which had been blowing food steam into the attic, AND framed the new walls in our master bathroom! (More on the last project later this week when I get some better pictures.) Here are 2 sneak peaks:
Sunday after church and a lunch at Blue Coast Burrito, I hit the road with my work buddy Lindsay toward Evansville, IN for a Leeland, Brandon Heath and Francesca Battistelli concert (“Follow You” Tour). It was really good but a looooong drive and we didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning. This rose has nothing to do with that but isn’t it lovely? It been hanging on for almost 2 weeks now!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Art: music | Tagged: bathroom renovation, concert, date night, weekend update | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Demo has begun! This week Jason started tearing down the wall and door frame around the toilet closet and the wall behind the former sink. It’s a dusty mess—which makes doing laundry interesting—but it’s so nice to see major progress!
What’s next: clean up the debris, move the air vent in the floor (over about a foot) and then build the new walls!
In case you missed it:
Bathroom Renovation Stage 1
Bathroom Renovation Stage 2
1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: bathroom renovation, home, master bathroom | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Seven years ago, when Jason and I were engaged, we attempted to re-cover one of my parents’ old chairs with a tight-fitting slip cover and new chair legs. Sadly, the cover didn’t fit well and the legs made the chair unstable. I’m happy to report that our first real chair upholstery experiment came out much better!
When got this mid-century chair at a thrift store for $6.99, it had this horrible off-white ’80’s zig-zag fabric. The custom upholstery tag under the chair revealed that it was not the original covering.
Because the chair was so inexpensive, we were prepared to pay some good money for new upholstery to return it to a retro, vintage look. With a bolt of $35/yard fabric in our hands, my eye caught the clearance shelves at the fabric store. We were able to walk out with 1 1/4 yards of light blue woven upholstery (exactly what we were looking for), for only $9!
(Sorry about the poor photo quality. Someday I’ll learn how to use a DSLR properly.) We had originally planned to recover the off white vinyl footstool in the same fabric. There might be just enough but it will be really close. I’m leaning towards leaving the footstool as is. It currently has an imperfection on the top from a hole that was repaired, which bothers my perfectionist husband.
What do you think? Recover the footstool? Leave it?
1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: furniture repair, mid-century chair, upholstery | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
We got four of these bowls at an antique store recently. Thirty minutes prior we found 3 matching saucers at a thrift store on the same street. In May we found a matching pitcher at a yard sale. Last fall we found 2 pitchers, a dinner plate, a saucer and 5 tea cups in green in the same pattern at an estate sale. So it seems we have a bit of an unusual collection developing here.
The pitcher on the right now belongs to my good friend and fellow MCM home owner. (Rê, I forgot to give you the lid!)
(Sorry, the above pic is really flashed out.) What drives me crazy is that I can’t figure out who makes these! There is no maker’s mark on the bottom and I’ve tried searching for mid-century dinnerware dishes scalloped half-circle pattern glazed gold green ceramic … and every combination of those words with no avail. Has anyone ever seen these?? Please help!
3 Comments | Art, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: ceramics, dinnerware, dishes, glazed, mid-century design, mid-century modern | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
I’ve been looking for an authentic mid-century modern starburst clock for the dining room since we moved into our house 2 and a half years ago. Oh, I can find ’em … on eBay for $70-200. But I’m looking for the ≤$20 version— the kind you find at yard sales or thrift stores or in your grandma’s basement. Speaking of yard sales, we got this modern, plastic, imitation retro clock for $3 (talked down from $5 … we’re such cheapskates).
Jase surprised me the other day (I LOVE surprises!) by spray painting the clock face and spokes, installing new hands (the originals looked really cheap) and putting the whole thing back together. I really love how it looks now.
But, of course, this is just temporary until we find an authentic “atomic” clock. (Like that alliteration?) And in typical Jason-and-Martina-fashion, we’ll most likely find a steal on the antique real deal and sell the modern imitation for 3-4x more money on craigslist or eBay. Cuz that’s how we roll.
We decided to go with the white chairs in the dining room rather than the blue ones.
2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: mid-century modern, my atomic ranch, retro clock, starburst | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Location: NW Nashville/Bordeaux
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Drive-By Shooting, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: architecture, atomic ranch, MCM architecture, mid-century home, photography | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Everytime hubby and I are looking for mid-century modern treasures we’re hoping an older couple in our neighborhood — you know, the ones who have been living there for 40 or 50 years and keep everything in pristine condition — will be having a yard sale. Last weekend we struck gold at a 1960’s split level. Jason is pretty excited about this leaf eater that we got for $5:
Who would want a leaf blower when you could have a leaf sucker?
I’m pleased with this Corningware blue flower coffee percolator I got for $2. I’m going to see if it will work with loose leaf tea.
And I also got a cookie press with lots of accessories and an egg slicer for $1. I’m looking forward to making my own spritz cookies this Christmas!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: cookie press, corningware, leaf eater, mid-century modern, yard sale | 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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