Doom Fridge 2.0

Remember doom fridge? 

Pretty disgusting right?!  And you didn’t even get the “pleasure” of smelling the bad boy before we cleaned it out. My favorite lady Anna braved the task of cleaning it herself. While I removed the super awkward cabinet that’s only intensive purpose was for me to knock my head on it. In fact the thing caused me nothing but grief while removing it! I dropped it right onto my hand as I pulled the last screw out, next time maybe having someone holding it might be the smarter plan of attack! 

So with the cabinent down, and the fridge clean, the area was still, well ugly. I picked up two things to solve out problem.

And ended up with something more like this! 

I’m not sure if the wall will stay white, but it’s nice to slowly work all the fleshtoned paint out of the cod. Plus as a pretty obsessive list maker, chalkboards only add fuel to the flame! 🙂

The chalkboard paint was pretty easy to apply. I used a three or four inch foam roller, and did three coats, with a fourth to touch up. So far it’s been done about a month and holding up fairly well. I think I’ll end up spray painting the whole handle area silver, but all in due time! 

For those of you who don’t know my wonderful mother, she’s quite the sewer! She offered to make me curtains as a house warming present! I’ve picked out the fabric, it’s a navy blue waverly lattice print. 

I don’t think it qualifies as mod, but I had a lot of trouble finding any fabric that did, and had the right colors going on! I just kept getting drawn into this though, a little Moroccan, I mean MODroccan inspired maybe? If I learned anything design wise it’s just to trust my gut. It’ll be nice to just get some color in the front rooms! 

Speaking of the front rooms can you say disaster area? We got everything out the apartment and returned our keys yesterday and I forgot how much stuff we had! Time to purge, seeing as it’s all already out! I’m not really looking foward to the process, but the results always feel great!

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Progress!

Things are starting to shape into a real house! We’ve gotten so much done this week. We’ve only done a soft move so far, just furniture, nothing else really besides the basics. We’ve still got the rest of the month to move, so as always were taking it slow. Here’s some photos from around our place as it is right now.  

The living room

before

Here’s what it looks like right now

Totally digging the new commodes and slipcover on the sofa. I know the legs don’t match. One of the custom legs I had made popped out and broke the frame, so I fixed it and decided to play it safe. I might paint them soon.

Since we shelled out some bucks for a fancy slipcover we’ve instated a no puppies on the sofa rule, which I’m not sure if Bowie gets or not. He looks all sad and dumb when we tell him down, and direct him to his own personal bed. Believe it or not that was the least fugly one I could find at petsmart. I also just noticed that packing tape on the ground, sorry. 

Another before shot

And here’s the same wall now

The one of many first thing I’ve painted black thus far. It’s the movie wall! As soon as I can slap a second coat on and have it dry, we’re wall mounting out TV. I don’t know what were going to do as far as our consoles are concerned. The apple TV, playstation 3, record player, and stereo need some where to go, but that TOBO tv unit isn’t really flowing with everything I’ve got in mind for the house. It’ll work for now, seeing as I’ve already blown to much money on new furniture, but I’ll be on the lookout for something awesome to buy or DIY. 

We’ve also got rid of the holly trees from hell! Check out the before! 

Here’s the progress picture! 

It makes the house look so much larger! I’ve also started repainting all the tounge color off of the porch with a green called “Bay Leaf” a martha stewart color. I’m thinking about getting rid of the screen door, but it’s pretty practical. I wonder if I can spray paint it? Also we removed the carpet and plywood from the porch, we found planks! Planks that I plan to sand and refinish.

Yes, that is trash on my porch, but at least you can’t see it from the street. Things will get better after we get settled in, moving is such a hassle/bore. 

Here’s half the tree still not broken up. I’m not very motivated to do it seeing as it’s been non stop raining all week. That and the City of Cincinnati basically decided on the day we cut those trees down that they weren’t going to pick up yard waste anymore. I wonder if there’s a bonfire in the midst? 

Craigslist Score

There I was cruising my regular craigslist search keywords yesterday when I found something interesting, and cheap.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the end all be all of mid century furniture knowledge. Well I like to think I know more than the average bear in regards to the heavy hitters [see eames, nguchi, knoll, and nelson] I couldn’t tell you the name of anyone who designed more common pieces. When it comes to pieces that aren’t quite

iconic

, I’m at a loss.

I know I had seen that pattern before, but can’t think of, or never knew the name. I end up consulting my main man Mr. Google. I used image search and believe I typed something along the lines of  “wavy wood mid century credenza”, technical I know. After about ten pages I found something similar and it was captioned, “Broyhill, Brasilia”.

I also know that Broyhill made some seriously stellar mid century wooden furniture, so I figured I had found something worth at least 30.00$. Not to mention I just overall really liked whatever they were, even if I had no idea of scale thanks to some pretty crummy listing photos. I didn’t expect for the background info on the design to be as interesting as it was though!

“The signature lines and waves of Brasilia furniture were inspired by the distinct architecture of the city of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil.

The city of Brasilia was planned and developed between 1956 and 1960. When viewed from above, the city’s shape resembles a plane or bird, which is mimicked on much of Broyhill’s original fabric and tiles. Most of the city’s architecture was the vision of a man named Oscar Niemeyer. Some of his most notable works are the Palacio de Alvorada and the Cathedral of Brasilia (Pictured).

 [2]

[3]                                                     

[4]

These both feature clean lines and simple, modern design. What stands out most about the architecture is the use of hyperboloid structures, as in the cathedral and it’s parabolic columns, which are said to represent two hands moving upwards towards heaven. This particular building is one of Brasilia’s most recognizable attractions, due to it’s unique design and grand scale. 

When viewing the architecture of Brasilia, it is clear to see the inspiration in the design of the Broyhill Brasilia line of furniture. This line was first featured at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 representing the city of Brasilia. These unique pieces were created throughout the 1960’s in various forms. “[1]

I’m in love with Brasilia now. Why aren’t buildings designed so wonderfully as this anymore?  You can really see the influence from those modern shapes everywhere in the city, even so in the seal.

Seriously some wonderful stuff. I also came across a copy of the original brochure for the entire line of furniture offered by Broyhill!

Now I’m able to identify my mystery craigslist item as two Broyhill Brasilia Commode. Internet sleuthing for the win!

Now for those of you not be well versed in furniture terms. I

did not

buy a toilet. The word commode is french for convenient. It refers to cabinets, in more modern terms it’s really a nightstand, which hold personal effects in the bedroom. Victorians had a “nighttime commode”  or the cabinet that held their chamber pot and cleansing basin. The Victorian version is why we nickname the potty as such. I’m glad all these bad boys will end up holding is remotes and records.

I decided to use them for the time being in the living room seeing as we are sofa table less. As luck would have it they fit on either side of the couch quite wonderfully, dare I say perfectly? The lighting situation in the whole house right now is still pretty dim [SEE WHAT I DID THERE? DIM, LIGHTING, GET IT?] My friend anna reccomended doing like a pendant light cluster in the corner, and it’s sounding pretty awesome at the moment. 

Loft

So here are the pics of the “progress” I promised. Brace yourselves because I’m not sure if you’re prepared for how underwhelmed you’re going to be. No really, sit down. 

The floors are darker than normal, because I washed them. I’m pretty sure that I’m the first person to wash them, like ever. They’re unfinished so they soak everything up super hard-core.  Maybe some oil will do them good? Also please note my seriously ghetto nightstands. We brought every DVD over because we don’t have the TV here yet, and my laptop can’t play blu-rays. And since I haven’t found the perfect pair yet, cue scary music, they might stick around awhile. Here’s some more views on the loft.   

Check out that beauty of a dog crate. I have no idea where else to put it. For the most part it’s up here because it’s what bowie is used to, and if he sleeps in the crate instead of the bed we like to be able to here him in case somethings up. He’s our baby, so please excuse us being crazy dog people. At least it’s out of the way? Also note the piece of banister wood missing on the right side of the stairway.

Jump for joy, here’s more blah! It’s a start though, and I’d say it’s far better than what was here before. 

See? Starting to feel a little less cave like! If we find time this weekend, I’m thinking the whole loft, ceiling tiles included will be getting a coat of Kilz. Once I have one flesh toned room down I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop!