I’ve been seeing ads pop up for Target’s Mid Century Modern collection. Has anyone seen these in person? Very nice designs… West Elm look at IKEA prices. I’m curious about the quality.
Mid Century Modern Collection at Target
05/18/2016
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Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: furniture, interior design, mcm, mid-century modern, modern, target | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Bring on the Christmas Cheer!
12/04/2013I started listening to Christmas music back in early October thanks to Jason’s new album. (It’s seriously fantastic. You should buy it!) The Sunday before Thanksgiving we put up our new-to-us Christmas tree and the rest of our decorations. It was so much fun to have Alianna’s help this year. She’s old enough to leave the fragile decorations alone for the most part, too.
My Granny’s Shiny Brite ornaments from the 1950s get a special spot up on the kitchen counter.
The rest of my Shiny Brite and Trim Time collection of vintage ornaments go on the aluminum tree in the dining room.
I made a stocking for Bee (on the left) similar to Alianna’s stocking, out of an old wool sweater. I still don’t know if she’ll be here for Christmas but I can take off the initial and reuse the stocking in the future if she’s not.
The past few years we’ve only done the mid-century silver tree and vintage ornaments but Jason suggested a more traditional tree this year. I’m really loving this giant tree with it’s warm lights in the corner of our living room. The crackling fireplace makes it all just heavenly.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Drexel Declaration Hutch
08/12/2013I’ve been plowing through my to do list, including selling off a bunch of stuff to clear out the garage. We have this one big item left that needs a new home. Any local readers interested? It’s the top half of a china cabinet hutch, part of the Declaration series by Drexel. It’s big and heavy. We haven’t done anything to clean it up or refinish it. I have it marked down to $20 on craigslist and I still can’t get anyone to buy it. Dimensions: 52″ wide, 55″ tall, 13″ deep. It comes with shelves.
Pretty soon it’s going to be sitting by the curb for free…
3 Comments | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: china cabinet, furniture, hutch, mcm, mid-century, mid-century modern, wood | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
NPR interview: Midcentury Furniture + Grandkid Nostalgia = Modern Trend
06/26/2013I had my 15 minutes 15 seconds of fame last month in an NPR interview with All Things Considered’s Andrea Hsu. She found my blog while researching for a story on the popularity of mid-century modern furniture. I was totally humbled to get to speak with her about why Jason and I are so drawn to home furnishings from the 1950s-60s and why we connect with the values of our grandparents’ generation. Check it out here. It’s just a few minutes long if you listen or you can read the story.
Here’s an excerpt of my What is “MCM?” page (which I think it what caught Andrea’s attention):
In 2007 when Jason and I bought our beloved 1955 atomic ranch, we dove head over heels into mid-century modern design. We love the simplicity, functionality and minimalism; the colors; the low, flat furniture; the unique details; the Danish and Scandinavian influences.
The more we fixed up our house, rifled through thrift stores and bartered with old ladies at estate sales; the more we started thinking about the lives our grandparents and great-grandparents lived half a century ago. We realized that we hold many of the same values: hard work, faith and family first, saving money and buying with cash, fixing things when they break, not wasting anything, watching our consumption, growing our own vegetables, knowing our neighbors, resting on Sundays.
That’s my mid-century modern life the best that I can describe it.
1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: interview, mcm, mid-century modern, NPR | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Mid-Century Modern Vinyl Armchair
04/24/2013
We’re selling this bad boy on Craigslist. It’s not quite ReAbide material in it’s current state; we had planned to reupholster it but we need to make some room so we’re unloading it as is. It has a few rips that are not extremely noticeable, though it would be happier in a new upholstery outfit. Check out the ad on Nashville craigslist here and contact us if you’re interested. (The pictures there are a bit dark. Jason took them with his phone late at night.)
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse
04/10/2013Jason and I built this birdhouse a few years ago. It used to hang from a dogwood tree in the back garden at our last home. We didn’t realize at the time that it had a major design flaw: it couldn’t be opened to clean it out. Apparently birds like to move in, build an intricate nest, and then move out. Eventually the bottom boards started to get loose so I decided to give it a little TLC a couple weeks ago. I took the bottom two pieces of 1×4 off and reattached them with hinges and a brace that can be unscrewed when I’m ready to clean it out again. I also added a little perch under the front door. All of these were just bits and pieces we had in the tool box. I was planning to hang it up in a tree but I wasn’t happy with how much it moved when the wind blew. I ended up nestling it in this bush along our back chain link fence.
It was important to me that it was located where I could watch it from the living room. One morning while I was having a cup of tea, I spotted some little birds hopping around near the house and then one went it! I was so thrilled. There were two of these little birds and they ended filling it with twigs and making a nest.
I’m glad I made it openable because these cute little birds have already moved on. This ugly black bird decided to investigate but passed. Either he was too big or unhappy that the previous tenants moved out and left all their furniture inside. I guess I need to do a little more Spring cleaning.
1 Comment | Art, Art: crafts, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: birdhouse, birds, garden, mcm, mid-century, modern, yard | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
ReAbide New Photos
01/16/2013Remember that handsome Bassett dresser that we picked up a few weeks ago? Jason did an amazing job cleaning it up and restoring the top surface. It looks so gorgeous (and it’s also really functional storage for our master bedroom) so we decided not to put it up for sale on ReAbide for now. We’ll continue looking for more dressers because I know there is a demand… but for now, it’s ours.
I’m working my way through rephotographing many of our items that were quickly and/or poorly documented during the time we were living in transition. Here are some new photos I added to ReAbide.com yesterday:
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Mack the square chair and Sarah the lamp
06/12/2012I’ve decided to start naming vintage furnishings when we buy them. For fun, ya know, to give them a little more personality! We did a little thrift store shopping recently and found Mack, this boxy upholstered arm chair. I’m teaching myself to reupholster furniture (with books and YouTube vidoes) and I think this will be my first official furniture job. I want to tackle the 3 piece sectional (now named Sylvester) but it’s intimidating. If I can do this chair, I can repeat the same process three times on the sofa.
I think Mack would benefit from a set of brand new 6″ wooden cone legs after it has some new upholstery. It’s lightweight, quite comfortable and in great condition.
We also scored this lamp, Sarah, for $2 (half-off day at Goodwill—woohoo!), which happens to be very similar to this lamp we already own. With matching shades, they’ll look like sisters.
Sarah’s long lost sister…
Cara.
4 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: armchair, chair, lamp, mcm, mid-century modern, reupholstery | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Things I Love About This House – Front Door
01/10/2012
When we bought our house it had a shameful, navy blue, contemporary door with an oval stained glass window. It was brand new and perfectly good but not right at all on this house. Thankfully, Jason found a good old 1950s door at a local salvage yard. He was able to clean up and stain the inside and we repainted the outside. We added the new industrial door handle and deadbolt.
2 Comments | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: Old House Favorites | Tagged: front door, mcm, mid-century modern | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Things I Love About This House – Master Shower
12/20/2011
When Jason and I went to Costa Rica for my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding a couple years ago, we stayed at a beauty house in Manuel Antonio. Somehow Jason and I ended up with the bedroom with the biggest bathroom. It had a huge walk in shower with two shower heads. We were sold. We decided when we renovated our master bathroom, it absolutely had to have duel shower heads. We made this shower 4’x5′, probably less than half of the size of the one in Costa Rice, but still plenty big. We did all the tile work by hand and it took a ridiculously long time. A true labor of love for us and our house.
1 Comment | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: Old House Favorites | Tagged: bathroom, mcm, mid-century modern, shower | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
