Thrift Store Score - Homecrest Siesta Chaise

The other night I got a text from my mother that went something like: "Stopped by our Goodwill today, they had a wire chaise like your outdoor chair set." She was referring to our collection of Homecrest wire chairs in our back yard. After an anxious phone call later, she agreed to stop by the next day, and by that evening we had our long hunted Homecrest Siesta chaise and our next furniture restoration project. I knew just the spot in our solarium for it to reside.

I don't know how hard these are to find, but I've been looking for over 5 years for one to fill in our collection. Beyond looking killer, this chair is SUPER comfortable, I'm talking 'did I just fall asleep for a couple hours?' comfy. Like our other Homecrest chairs, this one swivels has an adjustable spring loaded mechanism, ours is seized with paint. Sandblasting, priming and powdercoating will be required before we endeavour in some custom made covers. Fabric is already on my mind, how sweet would this look in some Girard Millerstripe?

Time to RSVP Your Miller Residence Tour

photo courtesy of IMA

Sometimes, it has been said, the best things in life come in threes. In 1953, the combination of Eero Saarinen, Dan Kiley, and Alexander Girard created one of the finest examples of residential modernism, the Miller House. Debuting for public touring starting May 10, the house will be available to the public after several years of meticulous care by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. There is no doubt the house, interiors, and its surrounding gardens represent the epitome of Mid Century Modernism at its best.

photo courtesy of IMA

I was fortunate enough to tour the house last spring along with other bloggers on the now legendary Columbus blogger tour. From the geometric landscape to the sunken conversation pit to the atomic awesome thoroughness of the house, there's no doubt a tour will rock you to your modern soul. If you're local, it's less than 2 hours away, there are no excuses. CF3 is currently setting up their group tour set for mid July. For more info, be sure to visit the Columbus Indiana website for more info and to book a scheduled tour now.

photo courtesy of IMA

Columbus Indiana Wallpaper Teasers

Two weekends ago, bloggers from around the country descended on the nation's 6th ranked design city that is Columbus Indiana for a weekend of Modern Architecture touring, yep capital M, capital A touring. Before proceeding, many thanks must be given to Lynn Lucas & Cindy Frey of the Columbus Area Visitor Center for hosting all of us to such an elaborate weekend. Also many thanks to fellow MCM blogger Baz of Atomic Indy for all his organizational efforts.

Maybe you were following along the Columbus instant update Twitter rampage, maybe you have caught up a bit since having reviewed other blog posts to the weekend's design treats. Below are some teaser shots from the touring intended for 'wallpaper' use to wet your appetite a bit for some future Columbus posts. I've uploaded these as large as Blogger will take them, right click, set as background, at will.

Group photo of all the fab bloggers posing on vintage Bertoia furniture. Check out the photo on my facebook page for a list of who's who in the photo. Now onto the wallpapers . . .

Pipe Organ - First Christian Church, Eliel Saarinen, 1942

Light Fixture - First Christian Church, Eliel Saarinen, 1942

Light Domes - First Financial Bank (formerly Irwin Union Bank and Trust), Eero Saarinen, 1954

Staircase - First Financial Bank (formerly Irwin Union Bank and Trust), Eero Saarinen, 1954

Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial, Thompson & Rose Architects, 1996

East Wall - First Baptist Church, Harry Weese, 1942

Oculus detail - North Christian Church, Eero Saarinen, 1964

Detail - North Christian Church, Eero Saarinen, 1964

Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Conference CF3 Kick Off Event

Spring is here, and so begins the CF3 event season. This Saturday, April 17th, CF3 members and fellow Cincinnati Wrightists will tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Boswell Residence in Indian Hill. The Boswell house is one of three in Cincinnati and one of Wright's largest completed houses. I have not seen the house in person, so we are looking very forward to the occassion, although we're still looking for a babysitter. An audio slideshow of the house can be found here, narrated by CF3 board member Chuck Lohre. Some other eye candy on the right starts with some exterior shots of the entry.

Cincinnati Modernation turns 1

Wow, one year, 36 posts, and several projects later, Cincinnati Modernation hits its one year mark as of the beginning of April. Thanks to all my readers for showing kind support as we navigate our way through the trials and errors of home renovation. The original post that began Cincinnati Modernation can be found here for your reading amusement. Let's look back at a throwback round of photos from when we first moved in, almost 5 years ago.

The always framed photo of Wendy and I, sans kids, posing in front of our first house. Note the fake green shutters on the windows and the full effect green on beige in the background.

This shot of our dining area directly reflects our small apartment contents struggling to fill the space. Sorry, these totally awesome, errrr 'Gened Up' ceiling fans are no longer available. Glass block railing, carpet in the entry, and no color in the white space yet.

Red and white furniture color scheme long gone, what the heck is that bronze fabric hanging on our window? We did have slat blinds when we moved in, and promptly removed them, Gene be gone.

This place looks lonely, no art or photos. Wendy looks pretty stressed, watching TV on the floor. The ceiling lights must be giving her a headache, they sure do give me one just looking at this picture, the improved installation looks much better.

Alas a few months in, art collection in effect, and a trip to Ikea later, we were well on our way to modern living. The door to and wall to the studio being gone really opens the living area up even more.

Danish Wall Units

Lately, in the wake of the modern show, I've been dreaming of a Danish Wall unit for our new studio space and/or living room. Of course, the current roof leak in the 'yet to begin actual work studio space' means let's buy large pieces of art and gawk at large expensive pieces of furniture you can't afford, yet sometimes its nice to dream. More on the roof later. Scouring through some Ebay and Craigslist listings, there's a wide range of options to wet the appetite.

Honestly, I'd like to have a couple of smaller units for the bedrooms down the road, a large Danish piece would be perfect to replace our current Ikea entertainment center. The first and only corner unit is the only one I've seen has plenty of storage. The classic wall unit by George Nelson for Herman Miller would require a loan from the bank to purchase, it does look nice either way. One thing to consider is whether the unit will be freestanding, mount floor to ceiling, or mount floor to wall, all options are could be considered in our case. Most of these photos are either Ebay or Google images. The folks over at Gresham Butte Rummer just installed a Craigslist find in their modern, perhaps I could be so lucky as to find a nice Danish wall unit within a 300 mile radius, yes I would drive that far for one.

Margaret Wenstrup Score

Starting with Charley Harper's work, we have slowly begun to evolve our taste in modern art as we oh so slowly collect when opportunity knocks. Recently a couple of local online auctions have shown me another world of optical art, 'op-art', in the works of Noel Martin and Margaret Wenstrup. Along with Charley Harper & other Mid Century Modern graphic artists, all these artists were products of the Art Academy of Cincinnati and helped lead a new era of vivid art. Margaret Wenstrup was the first female artist to win a Wilder Scholarship, and studied with another MCM art pioneer, Ralston Crawford in New York.

It was not coincidence that this auction coincided with last weeks 20th Century Cincinnati Show. So I bid on over a dozen pieces hoping to score at least a small piece. Most of Wenstrup's work really strikes me with her bold use of color and large scale work. I ended up winning a large 1967 Original Acrylica on Canvas Diptych piece that also hung proudly at the CAC in a recent exhibit. I temporarily propped it up on our living room mantle to show a sense of how large and dominant the piece is. We are planning to anchor our new studio space with this piece, ultimately there are only two or three spots in the house it could really fit.

To my understanding, with Margaret's recent passing, her family is auctioning of a majority of her work and estate. We were lucky enough to score these two pieces. This is the large signature on the back of the large piece.

The second piece is a 1957 Original Cast Plaster mod sculpture piece in collaboration with Preston McClanahan. It's almost a flat tile about 3/4" thick and weighs about 6 pounds, not an easy piece to hang. In thinking of what to do with it, we might have to carve out a place in our plaster walls to inset it in as a 'built-in' feature. It could also work sitting on the mantle once the Charley Harper pieces are finally framed. Talk about priorities!

Detail shot of the cast plaster piece.

Weekend Modern Bonanza

With the influx of some fellow regional mid century modern fanatics descending on this weekends 20th Cincinnati Show, it dawned upon me about a week prior that we could put in a little elbow grease and plan a little more fun to go along with the show. Susan & Arlen Rissover of Cincinnatimodern.com graciously opened the doors of their prominent mid century modern abode Saturday night to local CF3 members; Atlanta Northcrest moddies, including the folks at Home Sweet Split Level (now on the Blog List!), and Indianapolis moddies, including Atomic Indy.

Susan & Arlen's collection of modernism is outstanding and thorough, adding a heavy punctuation mark to the already manicured house. To quote Baz's tweet, "transcending from digital connections to real life handshakes" was a delight for all in attendance. Huge thanks to the Rissovers for their generosity. Wendy made her way around the house to catch a few shots of the house. This is the living space next to the dining and kitchen areas, all part of one large space.

Looking back into the Kitchen.











Susan even made some fab Aalto Savoy cookies.











The PH5 anchors the dining space.











The main family room filled with modern bloggers.

Day 2 we opened our doors to fellow Indianapolis moddies and toured our small inventory of mid century moderns here in our neighborhood Paddock Hills before grabbing some grub at our local MCM Chinese restaurant. Then we ventured on a small driving tour of some Mid Century moderns along our route to 20th Century Cincinnati show. The first photo is of a Woodie Garber designed home in Amberley

We toured through Amberley Village and Wyoming, a couple of suburban hoods spotted with moderns. This second one is in Amberley Village, architect unknown to me.

Beautiful stone work and form on this modern in Amberley Village, architect unknown to me.

Abe Dombar in Amberley Village.








Usonian style Tonkins Residence by Frank Lloyd Wright in Amberley Village. Gotta love the integral glass block and red driveway.









Detail shot of the main entry.










Modern in Amberley Village, architect unknown to me.









Jim Alexander Residence, see here for more on this house in Wyoming.









Modern in Wyoming, architect unknown to me.









Nice California Mid Century Modern in Wyoming. I've been in this house and its amazing and simple, architect unknown to me.

Simple Eichler style modern in Wyoming, architect unknown to me.










Another Wyoming modern, most likely a Dombar.







Modern in Wyoming, architect unknown to me.








Modern in Wyoming, could be a Dombar, but not sure.

Modern in Wyoming, architect unknown to me.











Last but not least another little modern in Wyoming.