Mack the square chair and Sarah the lamp

06/12/2012

I’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: , , , , , | 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: , , | 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: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Things I Love About This House – Sloped Vanity

12/14/2011

Once we start building our new MCM house, I’ll have lots of home things to blog about. In the meantime, to keep me from only talking about Precious and baby related stuff, I’m challenging myself to post a photo of one thing I love about our current house every week. I’m going to miss this old house a lot so it’s also a fun way to document my favorite elements of it. Here’s the first one:

There were a couple features that made a big impression on us the first time we walked through this house. One of them was the downward angled vanity in the original bathroom. This room has been updated a lot but the sturdy, original vanity has never been replaced. Before we moved in the concrete countertop was installed. We added the paint, new drawer pulls and the white vessel sink. A quirky 1950s design that you just don’t see in new houses.

1 Comment | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: Old House Favorites | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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