East Nashville Atomic

Home is Where the Heart is

2010-02-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

I'm running a giveaway for this print by the very talented designer and illustrator Jenn Ski over at my mid-century modern life.

Today is the last day! Just click here and leave a comment to enter.

new blog

2009-07-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not shutting down this blog but I am doing most of my blogging at my mid-century modern life now. Please feel free to pop on over and check it out!

A Mid-Century Modern Marvel

2009-07-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

…in Cincinnati! Even though it's not in East Nashville, I couldn't resist sharing some photos of this beautiful house in Cincinnati. It belongs to our friends Renata and Sean who just recently moved from Nashville. Pardon the messiness of some of the photos. We were busy assembling furniture!

Unassuming from the front, on a sloped lot with beautiful, tall old trees.

original bathroom with cool slanted wood vanity

pale pink tile, boomerang formica counter tops, a laundry chute built into the vanity - so MC!

original wood doors throughout the house in great condition!
(I can't wait to see this room once it's decorated for Baby Benjamin!)

Great built-in cabinets everywhere!

Upstairs hallway open to the living room. (The house is 4 levels!)

Master bath is also original with green tile and a slanted wood vanity

View from the front door: slate tile floors, living room with 2-story brick fireplace and built-in shelves. The stairs go down to the kitchen, dining room and entertainment room or up to 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom and bathroom is to the left.

The dining room and entertainment room downstairs. More great built-ins!

Kitchen countertops with very unique Italian granite

So many cabinets to fill! Beautiful kitchen! (Not original obviously!)

Custom glass pendants to match the counters

More storage!! That bottom cabinet is going to become a secret hideout for Ben, I just know it!

Private patio and screened in porch. So relaxing!

Design Sponge

2009-07-02T11:38:00.001-07:00

My favorite design blog of all time, Design*Sponge, featured our bench before and after project today! Check it out!

Before & After: Patio Seating

2009-05-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Before: (3 office chairs found in a dumpster):

After:

(Also, notice the cute birdhouse Jason built and painted. It's inhabited by a cute little wren.)

New Front Door Color

2009-03-09T14:58:00.001-07:00

Ignoring the results of the poll I posted on my blog Make a Good First Impression, Jason and I decided to paint the front door mustard yellow. We're still getting used to it but pretty sure we're happy with it. It gives the pop of color we were hoping for.

Side note: You may have noticed we pulled out the overgrown bushes that had been flanking the house. We haven't decided for sure what to plant as replacements but we're leaning toward a forsythia bush on the left side and a couple of tall, skinny evergreens on the right. Between the 2 windows on the right side we're still planning a screen block architectural feature.

Cobalt Creamer & Sugar Bowl Set

2009-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

When I saw this at an estate sale, it immediately caught my eye. I was looking for items to resell which is a new venture for me. I know that I have to get a great price on something legitimately valuable. Although this set is beautiful and unique, it doesn't have a designer/maker listed on the bottom which concerned me. It also was priced a little high. I thought about it a while but decided to pass.

Two days later we went back to the estate sale (It was a 3 day sale) to see what was left. I was surprised to find that it was still there. Not only was everything reduced to 50%, one of the sale workers who we had spent some time talking to at our earlier visit kept giving us even better deals. We ended up getting this set for only $3. After Jason carefully washed our purchases and I photographed each piece, I decided that even if I sold this set for $20 I'd still be sad to part with it. Jason encouraged me to just keep it. After all, it was only $3 and I LOVE it!

Our biggest, heaviest MCM find yet!

2009-03-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

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 from the vinyl repair kit—one of my specialties. By the way, this beautiful specimen cost only $25!

We went back to this same estate sale when it was almost over (reduced prices) and snatched up all the unique collectibles that were left. Most of those are now for sale on my brand new Etsy.com shop light hand design & vintage, with two exceptions that we couldn't bear to part with. I'll be blogging about each soon.

light hand design & vintage shop!

2009-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

I set up a shop on Etsy.com to sell vintage mid-century modern collectibles AND some of my graphic design, craft and art creations! Check it out: light hand design & vintage.

Fondue Pot and Skewer Set

2009-02-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

This fondue pot and fork set is another one of my favorite mid-century collectibles. Jason and I love fondue. We had 3 fondue pots already (for the parties when we had meat, cheese and chocolate fondues!) but when I saw this at an East Nashville estate sale last year, I fell in love. I love the color. Why don't they made colored enamel fondue pots these days? What's with all the white ceramic ones? (We have 2 of the white ceramic variety and 1 retro stainless Michael Grave's design.) The wooden handle on the lid is cracked and the base was nowhere to be found at the estate sale but I wasn't leaving without this fondue pot. I had seen a similar one last spring at Wonders on Woodland with skewers and it was about $30. This one was $2 and we got them to throw in 1 of their 3 skewer sets for free. We selected the set with the original box for extra fun.

Creative Freedom with Paints

2009-02-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

Jason and I painted this masterpiece on the eve of Valentine's Day. We've been dreaming up solutions for our blank living room wall for the past 2 years. A few weeks ago, on the way home from a road trip to Philadelphia, inspiration struck and we agreed on a rough design which I sketched out on the back of a receipt. We salvaged a piece of plywood from another home project and Friday night we got out the paints. We had just finished doing our taxes and this was the perfect, freeing mental escape! We had so much fun being creative together.

Sorry I don't have a picture with natural light. I'll try to get a better one someday.

Orla Kiely at Target

2009-02-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

I really like Target. I love that they offer designer products at affordable prices like Michael Graves, Dwell Studio, Mossimo and Isaac Mizrahi. I was just alerted by Jenn Ski's blog about a new line of home products Target is offering by Orla Kiely.

I love all these retro melamine designs! But this, this one I really want to own:

Help me Rhonda! If someone would really like to make my day, please send me a $100 Target gift card so I can get this dish and my rain boots. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Martina

Before & After Bathroom... kind of

2009-02-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Our hall bathroom (originally the only bathroom) was already redone when we bought our house. The floor tiles and wall tiles (also in the shower) were all sprayed white. The walls were white. The cabinets and vanity were white. The original sink and countertop were replaced with a concrete countertop and a frosted glass bowl sink.* The toilet was replaced with a new white one.

We decided to lay slate tile on the floor shortly after moving in. Upon lifting up the toilet we found an unpainted section of the original pink and blue floor tiles. Based on that and the uniquely angled vanity, we have reason to believe that our bathroom originally looked like this:

Taken from the MLS photo of another ranch on our street.
I flipped the photo. This house is almost a mirror image of ours.

It's it much nicer now? I know pink and blue are authentic mid-century colors but... is anyone really willing to live with them today?

Photo credit: Beth Rose Photography

*My thoughts on the glass bowl sink: It is beautiful but impractical. Two years ago I would have chosen it myself without a second thought. After living with it for 2 years I would never choose it again. It gets dirty easily—drip marks show on the outside and toothpaste always ends up splattered in the inside and shows from the outside. More serious, though, it chips easily. We got a mystery chip on the front edge after about a year of living in the house. An accident with a metal can of cleaner made another chip on one of the corners. Considering a glass bowl sink? Please be advised.

Flickr

2009-02-10T09:38:00.001-08:00

East Nashville Atomic is now on Flickr! Check it out here.

Decorative Concrete Block

2009-02-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

If you know of another name, please let me know! Our beautiful house was not blessed to have a carport or other architectural element made with decorative concrete block like many houses in our neighborhood. Jason and I are determined to change that. We've been planning out 2 architectural features for the front of our house. One as a backdrop behind our address sign and the other for balance and interest on the right side of the house. Here's the plan as of Sunday:

It might change! Also, we're thinking of painting a couple of them in the accent color that we paint the front door—yet to be disclosed. (We do have a swatch painted on the door though!)

On Saturday (the same day we scored our awesome new MCM footstool) we decided to check Hailey Salvage for retro concrete block. We found these! They have a bunch of it so we're planning to go back and get it soon.

Side note: on Saturday we also had those two over-grown, not special bushes pulled out from the left and right front corners of our house. I haven't taken a new picture yet. (The picture above is from almost a year ago.)

Rest Your Feet

2009-02-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

Here's our mid-century find of the week! It's cream colored vinyl footstool with wooden legs. The legs match the style of our American by Martinsville end tables and coffee table. The stool doesn't have a designer or maker but I love the style and it fits with our IKEA Poang chair quite well. (Some day this chair will be replaced with a MCM design...like this or this or
or this perhaps.) Jason did an awesome job repairing the small hole in the top. It only cost us $15. Well worth it, I think.

Make a Good First Impression

2009-02-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Jason and I are considering painting our front door with a *pop* of color. If you're interested in where we got our inspiration, check out this flickr photo, this flickr photo, this flickr photo and this flickr photo.

Orange (less brown than this)

Yellow (more mustard than this)

Lime Green

Red (a little brighter but flat)

Please take a moment to give your opinion!

This ranch needs some dressing!

2009-01-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

This mid-century ranch in East Nashville is in the process of being renovated.

The owners are discussing a color palette to paint the outside. The shutters will be removed. The roof will be replaced at some point also. Please give your feedback. Which (roughly-photoshopped) color combination do you like best?

Combination #1

Combination #2

Combination #3

Combination #4

Combination #5

If any of you designers or photoshop gurus feel inclined, send me your own color combination!

We made it into the paper!

2008-10-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday our house was featured in the East Nashville paper, a supplement to the Tennessean. Check it out! (Photos by Beth Rose Photography)

Lovely Pictures by Beth Rose Photography

2008-10-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday our dear friend Beth Rose Goin came over and took photos of our house for a submission to Atomic Ranch magazine. It was a lot of fun and she got some great shots! They haven't been edited yet but here is a little sneak peek:

More Pictures of our Weekend Treasures

2008-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

The new tables, in their new home:

"Lord, give me an eye for treasures..."

2008-09-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

That's the simple prayer I said as we started our thrift store search this evening. About an hour later we walked out of Southern Thrift with this matching set of two end tables and a coffee table, each for only $4.99! We bought them because of their mid-century modern look and decent condition.(Our house begs us to replace our IKEA goods with real atomic jewels.) A gentle sanding and some lemon oil will go a long way. Once at home, Jason started cleaning them up while I googled the maker (stamped inside the drawers): American by Martinsville. Turns out each piece is worth anywhere from $100 to $500. Talk about an answer to prayer! Thank you Lord!! As tempting as it is to resell them, I think we just might keep them.

Tomorrow, once they're all cleaned up and sitting in their new positions in the living room, I'll take more pictures.

Atomic Ranch for Sale

2008-09-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

This house was for sale in East Nashville. The owners did an awesome job making the kitchen, living room and dining area mid-century with authentic furniture and lots of sweet collectables in the kitchen. Jason said, "It doesn't feel like we're in someone's house who hasn't changed anything since the '50s. If feels like we're in the '50s." These pictures are from the MLS listing. (I felt weird taking pictures of a stranger's house and especially their things, so I didn't.) The bathrooms are original. Check it out:

"The Neighborhood"

2008-09-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

This house is for sale on my street. It's across the street and down 2 houses. It's a pre-forclosure which sucks for the value of our house and our neighbor's houses.

I was flattered though, when I saw the photo on their MLS listed captioned "View of the neighborhood" which showed our house and the houses on either side of us. I guess our house makes the neighborhood look good?

(Even if it is covered by our big pine tree.)

Color studies from my house

2008-09-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Quietude blue, Softest green (they look almost the same in certain light), attitude gray

Softest green, Attitude gray, Quietude

Attitude Gray, Quietude, Softest Green

Grass Green, Attitude Gray

Chocolate Milk, Attitude Gray, Softest Green & White

Pea soup, Attitude Gray, Softest Green & White

Inside our house

2008-09-09T07:17:00.001-07:00

View from the front door

I LOVE our front door. It's the right style for our ranch according to Crestview but we got it cheap at Haley's Salvage.

Dining area

From the hall looking toward the living room.

Hall bath (originally the only bathroom). The cabinet is original. Check out the sweet angle! The concrete counter and glass bowl sinker were added by the renovators. Jason and I put in the slate tile floors.

Master bedroom (and the only room used as a bedroom for now) with door leading to master bath and laundry (no picture sorry.) We've yet to renovate that room.

I love all the sunlight that pours in in the morning and helps us wake up.

My graphic design home office (converts to a guest room). I call the wall color "pea soup" even though I hate peas and pea soup.

Kitchen was renovated with IKEA cabinets and granite tile counters. Both are very close to what we would have chosen on our own.

Blocks of color are everywhere. I love it!

Surplus of roma tomatoes from our garden piled up next to the tea and coffee bar.

Sunlight pours in through the kitchen too. Jason is propogating basil from the herb garden so we can keep it alive in the house through the winter. Also, the espresso station sits to the left of the sink.

From the living room looking down the hall.

Jason's studio

This room always looks cluttered. That's just the way it is I guess.

Backdoor leading out to a deck. Hooray for no instruments and amps being dragged through the living room!

From the backdoor (in the kitchen) looking right toward the herb and vegetable gardens.

From the backdoor looking left toward the patio table, pergola, shed and cactus garden.

Some new pictures of our home and garden

2008-06-03T19:58:00.001-07:00

What do you think of the retro globe light Jason found at Haley's Savage? I think it's blocking the view of our sweet front door.

Our First Mid-Century Collectible

2008-05-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

About six months ago Jason and I were browsing around at Southern Thrift. The left side wall is lined with junky vases, mugs, plates, picture frames etc. We picked up a platter with a starburst design. Amidst all the kitschy forgettables it didn't look like much. It had some wax or something crusted on the front and a chip out of the underside. It was only $2 but we debated back and forth for a while, not wanting to pay even $2 for something if it was just going to clutter our house. (We're pretty minimalist. And cheap.) Eventually we decided it was cool enough to bring home.

One Saturday morning maybe two months ago, we were watching Good Eats on the food network. I don't remember what food he had made but Alton Brown carefully placed it right onto a plate like our thrift-store find. We both looked at each other, thinking the same thing. I flipped over the plate and inspected the seal on the bottom.

"FRANCISCAN" "Made in California U.S.A" "Gladding, McBean & Co." I googled away. Much to our surprise and delight, our $2 thrift-store treasure was a famous design from Gladding, McBean & Co. The Starburst design was released in 1954, the same year our house was built. We're pretty sure our find is the "oval serving platter" worth about $50 today, in good condition. Of course, we're not interested in selling it. It's our first Mid-Century Collectible!

Falling in love with Atomic Ranches

2008-04-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Jason and I have been talking about starting a website featuring the mid-century ranches in East Nashville for quite sometime. As my first post, let me explain why we care so much.

In January 2007, Jason and I sold our first home, a Frank Lloyd Wright replica in Madison, TN, after 3 months on the market. While we loved the house, we really wanted to live in East Nashville from the get-go. (Madison was a 2-year desperate compromise.) I'll tell you all about East Nashville another time, if you're not already familiar. Selling meant we were on a frenzied search to find a new house within 30 days. We really wanted to be near 5-points, the heart of East Nashville, perhaps in Lockland Springs, but nothing was opening up in our price range. Late one night I was desperately searching through all of the listings on RealTracs in Area 6. I came across a ranch in Eastland Acres, on the far side of Shelby Park. I was sure that it was too far from 5-points for serious consideration but I looked at the pictures anyway. Refinished dark hardwood floors, brand new kitchen with granite-tile counter tops and fresh IKEA cabinets, a glass bowl sink in the bathroom...hmm. I e-mailed the listing to Jason, who was out of town. I think the sink was what sold us. At least we knew this flipper had some sense of style and not just the Home Depot special.

Two weeks and 5 days later we were moving in. The accelerated closing helped us beat out the other 2 offers that also came that day, the 3rd day it was listed. (Special thanks to the greatest mortgage specialist ever, now turned real estate agent, Jeremy Hundley.)

We didn't know much about mid-century modern or atomic ranches. Jason had flipped through an Atomic Ranch Magazine at Borders more than once but that was about all we knew about the present movement. There are several unique 1950's features of our house that peaked our curiosity. First the skinny-plank hardwood floors caught our attention. Next it was the huge 6-panel windows that spread across the front of the living room on an angled (maybe 15º?) wall. On the outside, a stone-faced triangular planter countered the angle to be square with the face of the house. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this. The third detail that tickled us was the downward-angled face of the bathroom vanity. Builders just don't take the time to design things like that these days…each drawer and cabinet door cut and precisely measured to match the angle. Suddenly we were obsessed with finding these atomic details, driving around the neighborhood looking for other houses with the 6-paneled front windows, with the angled front wall, with retro front doors...Uh oh. We needed a different front door. The brand-new 90's "contemporary" glass inlay door just wasn't going to cut it. We needed to ditch the bright blue shutters. We needed to paint the brick…not so much to make it more 1950's but to streamline it, to make is stand out from the sea of brick ranches all around and in a way, to reach out to Eichler.

Here are some before, middle and after shots. (Of course, it's outdated already...new pictures soon.)