mid-century | myMCMlife.com

Our biggest, heaviest MCM find yet!

08/11/2010

Originally posted on March 3, 2009

Two weeks ago Jason and I found this beast at an estate sale. We fell in love with the design and color. It’s big. It’s long. It’s a sleeper sofa. A mid-century sleeper sofa. Therefore, it is HEAVY! We’re guessing it’s at least 300 lbs. No joke. And in case you’ve never thought of it before—I hadn’t—the people who work at estate sales won’t help you load or move your purchases. Can you imagine Jason and I (who weigh less than 300 lbs. combined) dragging this sofa across a carpeted living room, shoving it through the front door and putting all the energy we had left into lifting it, carrying and heaving it onto a friend’s borrowed truck? I still can’t believe I was capable of that! The next 2 days my arms, legs and back were all sore. I’m so thankful that neither of us got hurt! The sofa is vinyl and needed a little repair but Jason did an awesome job! I helped to mix the colors—one of my specialties—from the vinyl repair kit. By the way, this beautiful specimen cost only $25!

2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find | Tagged: heavy, mid-century, sleeper sofa | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

You are the shade to my lamp

08/04/2010

Every lamp needs a shade. At the time when Jason spotted this beautiful lamp as we were driving past the thrift store earlier this summer it had the ugliest Victorian style lampshade. We told them they could keep the shade.

At an estate sale a few weeks ago we found the perfect lampshade on an ugly lamp. The lamp was so ugly that it didn’t even deserve a photograph before we heaved it into the trash cart. Here’s the lamp with it’s new shade.

In a few months this lamp and shade will have a new home in Jason’s renovated studio but for now it’s waiting in hibernation.

2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: lamp, mid-century, shade | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Pressed flowers, mushrooms and an owl

07/26/2010

At a recent estate sale Jason and I hit the jackpot of small* framed mid-century art. I found the one of the pressed botanical collages on blue linen and the owl carving on gold burlap in one room while Jason found the other flower collage and mushroom paintings in another room—two white on black paper and one color on wood block.

*the blue pressed flower collages are around 6″ square.

As we were walking toward the checkout together I told said to him, “I’m so glad we like the same things.”

Maybe a little kitschy and I have no idea where we’re going to put them but for $4 total we couldn’t resist.

(Bad photos … sorry. There are more details in these than you can see here.)

This owl carving is both of our favorite. Someday it will probably live next to the owls we got in May.

1 Comment | Art, Art: crafts, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: Art, estate sale, mid-century | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Third Life

06/28/2010

On Saturday, Jason and I finally tackled the job of upholstering the mid-century chair we got at the TN52 Yard Sale. We’ve never upholstered before so it was pretty intimidating. Turns out this chair has been reupholstered once before (hence, the 3rd life.) Here’s the chair how we bought it (for $5):

Amazingly, we only got frustrated with each other one time. That’s pretty good considering it took us about 8 hours. It wasn’t technically hard just time consuming. It was very much like a puzzle. Jason told someone yesterday that we do projects together— that’s how we avoid marriage counseling.

I’m so thankful I got just enough fabric (4 yards) from IKEA a few weeks ago. I think there might even be enough to do a few throw pillows for the couch.

I took these pictures before we were 100% done. We’re going to add 2 buttons to the back before we can tack the last piece of fabric onto the back. We’re really pleased with how it came out and I think it was worth all the sleep we sacrificed this weekend!

5 Comments | Art, Art: crafts, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: chair, furniture, mid-century, upholstry | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

TN52 Yard Sale Booty

05/25/2010

(ya know, like pirate booty)

On Saturday we got up at the butt crack of dawn and headed out to the TN 52 Yard Sale extravaganza with Leila and Jeremy and Jason’s mom. It’s 95 miles of yard sales; I think we probably hit 10-20 miles of it.

We found all kinds of different mid-century modern and vintage treasures and managed to spend the rest of the profit from our own yard sale the weekend before. I’ll let the pictures do the talking but I’ll just say I’m most excited about the chair I spotted from the street as we were driving past one of the last sales and the owls – just because I think they’re adorable. Oh, and the tea and coffee canisters, too. It’s so hard to choose a favorite!

It seems like everywhere we go we find Homer Laughlin Co. Gold Cortez (or Sheffield Granada Green) pieces. (above)

9 Comments | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Jason | Tagged: mid-century, tn 52, yard sale | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Floor lamp & glasses {MCM Thrift Store Finds}

01/07/2010

Technically the floor lamp is not a thrift store find since it’s from a legit vintage shop in Cincinnati called Red Polly. But it’s mid-century modern and we found it. A lovely addition to our living room, we think.

At a real thrift store in Cinci we found these OJ glasses that match a pitcher we got here in Nashville a few months ago. They might not be from the same set but they’re pretty darn close. The glasses are Anchor Hocking but the pitcher is unmarked. Cute, huh?

We also found these smokey yellow glasses that reminded us of our grandmothers. I like the shape. There are 4 total but 1 was in the dishwasher when I photographed these.