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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Posted by mahlbrandt
Real Life
03/27/2014In an effort to keep up with writing more frequently, here’s a really random post. I’m practicing with my wide-angle lens on my DSLR and photoshop settings as I’m starting to get into real estate photography. Practicing with my own house was the obvious choice. The living room was pretty tidy but I made no effort to clean up the other rooms. I’ll spare you from Ali’s bathroom and our bedroom. Here’s a little real life peek into my house:
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Homestead (Not Child-Related) Happenings
01/09/2014We’re building a privacy fence in our backyard. It’ll be a modern wood fence very similar to our last house. I did an extensive tutorial on that fence three years ago, as well as the process of enclosing our courtyard at this house, so I will not be documenting our process this time. We managed to get all 23 posts set in the ground just before the great Flash Freeze of 2014. Now Jason’s touring schedule is rolling again so we’ll have to wait for some warmer days to line up with the days we’re both off work so we can start on the pickets.
We’re getting chickens! Two years ago Nashville passed a new law allowing backyard hens to be raised for eggs. Jason was interested right away but it took me a while to get on board. Now that we have the fence started and Jason got this new book for Christmas, I’m all in. I’m so excited. We’ll be getting our chicks in the next month or two to start raising them inside until we have the coop done and it’s warm enough for them to move into their new house. We’re allowed to have up to 6. We’re planning to start out with 3 or 4. We eat a ton of eggs around here (18-24/week) so I’m excited to start getting them fresh from our own backyard.
The foster kids’ room (which I’m tempted to call the little girl’s room…or is it the little girls’ room…) is getting a mini makeover. We’re repainting the walls. We got some new art and moved art in from a different room and I’ve moved some furniture around. Bee is gone for 25 days and with the possibility of baby Trust coming, well, I guess I’m nesting. We decided to paint Sherwin Williams Ellie Gray just like the first foster kids’ bedroom at our last house, which ended up being Ali’s nursery. We were very happy with that color and we’re not so happy with the neon green I chose for this house.
Our master bedroom has been slowly getting designed. We realized one day that it’s sad how neglected it’s been design-wise. Last June we celebrated 10 years of marriage and decided that it’s time for a properly designed room. I’ll share more about it when it’s finished. We started out with a dresser and curtains. We added some art. New bedding. A new bed frame and lamps. Still to go: paint and wall/headboard treatment. Rugs. More art.
Ali’s room got a mini-makeover too. She mastered climbing out of a pack-n-play while we were staying at my brother’s house for a few days and quickly transferred her skills to her crib at home. She’s now in a big girl bed again (side off her crib for now…eventually that KURA bed in the foster kids’ room will be hers). I’ll post more about that transition later. It’s going so much better this time around. She got a new lamp, owl poster and hot pink dog-butt hooks for hanging her dress-up clothes from IKEA.
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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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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…
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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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New Home Tour: Dining Room
02/25/2013Our dining room is sunny, shiny and functional. It’s pretty minimalist for now, which helps with keeping it clean when you have a 19 month old. It overlooks our courtyard and natural light pours in all day long.
I’m very happy with our impulsive decision to get the big version of the IKEA MASKROS light for this room.
Besides the planet-size chandelier, the biggest statement of the dining room is the exposed concrete block wall that runs along the face of most of our house, including the courtyard.
This room gets some pretty amazing sunlight. Lunch time is particularly nice.
It may not look like it since it’s all sparkly clean for these photos, but we’re one of those weird families that all sits down together to eat here every evening. We hold hands and thank God for the food and then we all sit together until everyone is finished. Strange, huh? I love having six chairs even though we only use 2 plus a high chair most days – it feels like we’re always ready for more.
In a dream world, I’d add a rug under this table but with the amount of food that ends up under the high chair, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. A tarp maybe, but not a rug! This sweet puppy helps a lot with food clean up but she’s a picky eater. Lucy won’t eat any vegetables except raw onions, very little fruit and no seafood.
This big blank wall is just begging for art. I know what I want to put here but it’s not going to be cheap to get a giant canvas or poster made. So we wait. Good thing we like white walls. We’d also like put a credenza or hutch against that wall.
FYI, our architect is Ryan Thewes.
Related Posts:
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New Home Tour: Living Room
02/21/2013My other favorite room in our house is the the living room. It’s the perfect spot for my morning quiet time, for playing together as a family, for an afternoon cup of tea while the toddler naps, for chatting with visitors, for a late night crackling fire in the fireplace.
Eventually we’re going to get a big soft rug and a sofa that better fits the space. I love these birds and how the sunlight moves across the blue wall like geometric clouds.
I absolutely love the clerestory windows and the light shelf below them. We have strings of LED lights up there for a soft glow in the evening.
That’s a pocket door that leads into hides my work room (office, laundry, crafts). I always wanted a pocket door.
We’re still deciding on some large scale art for that big white wall on the right.
In the summer the foliage in the backyard is so thick we can hardly see our neighbor’s house. In the winter, Ms. Dawn gets to watch us having dance parties in our living room while she stands at her kitchen sink. We don’t mind.
We only keep a few toys in the living room since we have a den/playroom and Ali has a bedroom for her belongings. It’s nice to have a few smaller toys for her out here, though.
I put this flow chart where I’d walk past it every morning on the way to work.
I found this in Jason’s grandma’s basement a couple years ago.
We wanted to keep the living room separated from the kitchen and dining room but still feel like one big open great room. This floating wall was the perfect solution for us.
Yes, we scarred our beautiful fireplace with the dreaded big black box. Let’s face it…we use it more than the fireplace even though we’re really not much of TV watchers. Ali sometimes watches 1 or 2 shows a day on Netflix, like Dora the Explorer, Yo Gabba Gabba or Seseme Street. It’s a nice down time for all of us and some days is the only way I can get dinner made or laundry folded.
Thanks for stopping by!
FYI, our architect is Ryan Thewes.
Related Post: New Home Tour: Kitchen
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Sylvester Sofa Sale!
02/14/2013Say that 3x fast! Jason and I have decided it’s time to say so long to the sectional sofa we spent a big part of the summer reupholstering, so we’ve reduced the price to move it quickly. While we love it to pieces it’s just not right for us and our home for two reasons: 1. The shape doesn’t suit our living room very well. It makes an almost equal size “L” (about 8’x9′ I think) and our living room is more rectangular. We realized a longer straight sofa would suit our space much better. 2. It’s too precious for our young family. We’re pretty careful with our belongings but not only do we have a toddler whose friends often come over to play, we’re getting ready to open our home up to more kiddos of various ages and furniture-respecting backgrounds. We’d hate to see something abusive happen to Ol’ Sly so we’re hoping he’s a perfect fit for someone else’s abode.
Hope on over to ReAbide for more details on the Sylvester Sectional Sofa.
Contact me at Martina (at) ReAbide [dot] com if you’d like more information.
(In case anyone is wondering, I would love to keep this sectional for home staging. It’s very versatile for that purpose. I’m still considering that option; however selling it would make it more affordable for us to buy a different sofa for our living room…and that might be more important right now.)
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Posted by mahlbrandt
myMCMlife.com 