Our biggest, heaviest MCM find yet!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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