BHAM RETRO

The first step is admitting you have a problem. I am sad to say I’m not just a bystander, but also a participant in the Buzzfeed era. I read and share these pointless listicles, go down the rabbit hole of clicking all related articles and then enormously regret the time I wasted doing it.

Being a content marketer, I am even guilty of creating these type of articles. I am a writer who graduated in journalism right at a time when both print and online media were equally relevant and I without a doubt see a value in both. List articles and the like can be well-written and informative, but the majority of them are fluff pieces that essentially say nothing. I believe this is due to the transition over the past couple of years where professional writers were being trained to value quantity over quality.

There is hope though. Every day we use Google to ask questions and due to Hummingbird, Google’s latest algorithm, you will be getting more educated answers.  Posting often is no longer the only golden rule to gain visibility. High-quality writing is now the lead driver in achieving a higher search ranking rather than the sheer volume of content. This is a good thing for readers and writers alike.

As you can tell from the general focus of this blog, I am a fan of preserving things of the past and giving them a new life. I’m excited because I think we will see the comeback of quality, print-era journalism in the future of content marketing and online media.

Anyhow, just for fun, here is the top 5 list I promised:

1. We're Getting Stupider - We can no longer consume information if it is not broken up into smaller pieces and 100% lacking of any substance.

2. No Other Options - Corporate bloggers, well-known media outlets and all online content producers have come to accept that this is the only way to compete with the noise and get clicks so that is what they deliver.

3. Falling Victim to Marketing Ploys - Who can resist tips & secrets to success? I know I can’t. It’s the same tactic Cosmo and the like have used for years to get magazines off the rack, now it is just being applied online.

4. Too Much Faith in the Internet - We believe whatever problem we have - organizing closets, making a relationship better, etc. - can be summed up in a checklist and answered in roughly 300 word posts.

5. Information Overload - Notice how I am really saying the same thing in all of these? Most of us realize this, are temporarily disappointed and then forget 50 Facebook posts later when the next one comes up.

Rant over.

It's been way too long since I've snagged a good Craigslist find. We really have no room for new furniture at this point and the chair in our bedroom was the last non mid century piece we had in the place. With my latest piece, I can finally say that the puzzle is complete.

<---------OLD CHAIR ... (SEE NEW BELOW)

I'm in love with our vintage (new to us) French Provincial style cane chair. The chair fits better in the corner opposite to where the old one was placed, and with the additional space we were able to put a magazine rack and a lamp next to it to make a nice cozy corner. With this purchase, we got to get rid of the shabby chic and added a pop of color to the room. The upholstery is in such good condition, a vibrant marigold that goes well with everything throughout the house ... including Garth and Borris =) 

NEW CHAIR TIMES 2

First off, I just came to the realization I have not blogged since we became homeowners. I do not know if this is because a) being a homeowner/landlord is extremely time consuming b) writing about telephone service has taken over my life in 2012 c) we had minimal room left for acquiring more furniture or d) all of the above.

During a recent visit to Grandma's house, I mentioned to her how much we loved her table, and she said "what? that old thing? you can have it." She had been using it since the 1950s/1960s, when she and my grandfather purchased it brand new from a furniture store in Mobile, and was more than ready for a change. She is a total neat freak so it was in mint condition, and in addition to being our dream table lookwise, it was being passed down to me from a family member so it came with sentimental value I couldn't have found anywhere else.

Earlier this summer we sold our kitchen island in hopes that the empty space would inspire us to get a full-sized kitchen table and upgrade from the barstools and bar table we ate at every night. So we had a space waiting for it. We went shopping and bought her a new table that better fit with her current decor and brought her table back to its new home, where it fit like a glove.

Tis beautiful isn't it?

And I think it is time for a break from home decor changes for a few months. We always say we are almost done with the house, but this time we really are. Though, we are unsure what we want to do with the kitchen, I would say our bathroom, bedroom, den and office are complete.

    Above:

Our updated bedroom with a white shag rug found at Garden Ridge and Nelson-like hairpin leg bench at the end of the bed.

Mid-Century bookcase found at Urban Suburban and a multi-globe hanging light found at a yardsale.

An arc lamp for the den was certainly on the wish list, but it found us before we really ever set out to find it. We snagged this amazing three light chrome arc lamp while stopping in Crestwood Antiques on the way home from the grocery store just to browse (Side Note: browsing never works because those are always the times you find something you just have to take home.)

Each arm of the lamp and each globe is adjustable, which makes it even more balling. We set it up on the left side of the couch and it truly completes the look of the entire room. Pretty sure it is our favorite find yet!

Magazine racks were an essential accessory in the 1950s and 1960s home. After purchasing two vintage magazine racks for our house that I thought were rare finds, I continued to see countless good-looking retro magazine racks at yard sales and thrift stores and started to wonder why they were popping up everywhere.

As I searched for why magazine racks were so popular in that era, I realized that I saw them less and less in homes today. With newspaper and magazine subscriptions on a continual steady decline due to the Internet, the need for this home accessory is diminishing.

Paper copies of the New York Times and Better Homes and Gardens or not, there are so many unique magazine racks out there, I think retro aficionados like myself will keep snatching them up and finding a use for them. For example, one of our magazine racks is filled with magazines and the other is solely used for the overflow of books that we don't have room for on our bookshelf.

Below are the two that we have in the house. The wooden one compliments our French Provincial chair in the den to a tee, but I particularity love the circular wire metal magazine rack we have in our bedroom now.

A new couch for the den was definitely on the want list when we began redecorating, but I thought it would take a long time before finding the right one, and that likely it might be one of the last pieces we found as we completed the mid century look throughout the house.

But that was before a vintage 1960's white sectional popped up on Craiglist last week! When I called about the ad, I learned that the person who was selling was an acquaintance who lived in my old apartment building, and I just had this feeling that it would be as well suited for our space as it looked in the picture.

It is an ivory fabric sofa with a wooden frame and wooden legs that is about 9ft long and curves to fit perfectly in our oddly shaped room.

     My favorite parts are the Danish Modern brass capped legs and the sweet pattern!

Our previous set only had four bowls, four dinner plates and four small plates, which worked just fine in our old place when we had to handwash dishes. But now that we have access to a miraculous modern amenity called a dishwasher, we wanted a complete set so we weren't out of dishes before the dishwasher was even full enough to run.

We came across several amazing starburst pattern and atomic age plates in our treasure hunting, but quickly found that a full set of vintage dishes is hard to come by, especially at a decent price. The answer? BB's China and Glassware, a store in downtown Birmingham with two giant rooms full of factory seconds and discontinued restaurant grade China at discount prices.

Below is a set of eight bowls, eight dinner plates and four serving plates - all for just $35 total. The pattern is super retro and classic modern and my favorite golden yellow.

  Oh and can I please get some Russel Wright Melmac pieces to go with this? There is a reason his American Modern dishes are the most widely sold ceramic dinnerware of all time in the U.S. #beautiful

Retro Renovation is my favorite blog to follow right now. It has so much mid century goodness to look at that it is hard to handle! The tag line is "love the house you're in" and I could not agree with that statement more. The satisfaction of working to make a home a place that you LOVE and are proud to call home is truly a great feeling.

The site started when author Pam Kueber began her quest to remodel the kitchen of her 1951 ranch house to fit the era in which it was built. Below is an old ad that directly inspired the look for the redesign followed by a photo of her kitchen at completion.

Check out the article about her and her blog in the New York Times. I will probably be this nuts once when we buy our house... something tells me the mid-century furniture obsession is only the beginning; I see a complete Retro Renovation in the future.

As I was pulling up to a yardsale in Crestwood this weekend, a beautiful orange chair jumped into sight while I was still several houses away, and as I got closer I realized that it was an Eames Rocker alongside an Eames DCM chair. The guy selling it said it was an original. We got to talking and he said he collects Eames chairs and just switches them out from time to time to try out a new one. It was quite pricey and I couldn't justify spending hundreds of dollars on a fiberglass chair, now or ever.

This spotting made me recall a discussion about licensed pieces vs. manufactured interpretations we had with the owner of Atmosphere several weeks back. I personally prefer the reproduction. If I had an original Eames chair I'd be on pins and needles every time my cats climbed up on it or anytime we had people over for a get together. I want my furniture to look good, but not so good that I am afraid to put it to use. 

While continuing our day of yard sale hopping and thrifting, we found what I consider to be pretty viable substitute, that honestly I think I like even better than the Eames chair. Plus, it was only $15 and there was matching teal one to go with it.

     I must say our front porch is looking pretty good; all we need is a front porch now!

If you've yet to check out Pinterest, I highly suggest doing so. Fare warning: this social photo sharing site, where users create theme-based image boards of all of their favorite things, is quite possibly more addictive and time consuming than Facebook.

       In August, Time magazine published Pinterest in its 50 Best Websites of 2011 column and New York Times and Apartment Therapy have recently sung its praise too; I have no doubt that more and more people will be jumping aboard over the next few months.

Right now, I'm using the site to create a lookbook of all the things that would be part of my dream mid-century home - my boards are #WANT, Sitting Pretty & Whimsical Fun.

Like Twitter, you can follow peoples boards and repin items just as you retweet, and similar to Facebook, you can comment on individual photos and the album as a whole. The great thing is that the site can be used to cater to whatever your interests may be. For me it's a place to keep track of my current redecorating ideas and find new ones, but for some it is all about browsing for and pinning unique recipes, humorous photos, unconventional designs and the latest fashion trends.

While passing through Tennessee on our road trip to Asheville last month, we made a pit stop at a small thrift shop where we saw a flier for a mid-century modern furniture store in Chattanooga. Since it was closed for Labor Day weekend, I immediately liked it on Facebook to see if it might be worth a day trip in the near future. I have spent the past several weeks gawking over the photos of beautiful arc lamps, sideboards and Eames-esque chairs that pop up on my News Feed, and came to the conclusion that it was indeed worth spending a Saturday to check out the store firsthand.   Online, the inventory at Rebirth Furniture appeared to be very similar to that of Atlanta’s City Issue, but at shockingly low prices, so naturally I imagined I’d be coming home with a car packed full of wonderful purchases. But it only took a few minutes of browsing to realize I had been deceived by well-composed, favorably-lit photos of items that were at best okay, but as a majority  in terrible condition. The owner hadn’t even bothered to dust off pieces she was selling, seemed oddly unknowledgeable on the subject of mid-century furniture and strangely uninterested in her collection - disappointing for sure. Lesson learned: Redecorating with rare finds from the past just cannot be done in a mad rush, and it will take some hits and misses and some time and patience to find the perfect pieces.

Estate sales are great for finding low-cost vintage household items that not only compliment, but enhance, your furniture and decor. 

This weekend we came across a 1950's breadbox in a pastel green color, a mid-century danish serving dish and an 1960's sunburst clock with an art-deco flair. As you can see below, accent pieces can really put the final touch on a room.

      Adding more Mid-Century Magic bit by bit ... here is the Before and After.

The decor of every apartment I have lived in has been a hodgepodge of retro items collected from thirft stores, yard sales and flea markets. When my boyfriend and I moved into a 1902 Victorian home this summer, for the first time I actually had a large space to work with design wise and became interested in achieving a more cohesive look throughout the house predominately inspired by mid-century modern pieces.

Here is a list of the chain reaction of things that factored into my eagerness to delve farther into researching and collecting postwar era decor: an orange modern couch from IKEA that was already a central piece in our living area, an Eero Saarinen Tulip chair that we found at a wonderful store in Asheville, NC called Flashback Vintage Modern, and most recently, a book titled Modern Retro: Living with Mid-Century Modern Style, a great overview of influential designers and standout pieces from the twentieth century that provided me an array of future decorating ideas to pursue.