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.

20th Century Cincinnati Show 2010

Whether you're looking to add that signature modern piece to your furniture collection or just like drooling over a plethora of modernism, Cincinnati's annual Mid Century Modern furniture is a must for anyone within a 300 mile radius. From jewelery to pottery to fashion to furniture and modern houses, 30's Deco to Pop, even if you're not shopping, the show serves as a great exhibit of many regional MCM dealers and their collections. $7 gets you in the door for both days and this years special exhibit is Higgins glass. New this year is also a guide to vintage modern design to what to expect at the show.

We have been going to this show since it was held at Union Terminal 'back in the day' as we say. There is no shortage of vintage, quality furniture at the show. Typically we have to establish an allowance before walking in the door. The following is some of our previous scores from the show:

2 Eames Aluminum Group chairs, our first 20th Century Cincinnati purchase.

White Eames Fiberglass Armshell, originally on a swivel base, but improvised with Modernica rocker.

4 Bertoia Side Chairs in brown with green seat pads.

1 Butterscotch Eames Fiberglass Side Shell, don't mind the construction in the background

2 Salmon colored low bullet planters, desperately waiting to go back outside this spring.

4 Russel Woodard Sculptura high back wire mesh chairs.

Got Snow?

Although we didn't get hit by the storm as bad as the East Coast, we ended up with about 3" of slushy ice & snow as of late this morning. I had always wanted to get some shots of a the house after a fresh snowfall prior to us getting out and tromping around and messing with the perfectly smooth white blanket. The snow adds a nice touch to the mid century exterior furnishings around the house.

Modern Gingerbread House

Thanks to a gift from my Aunt Debbie & Uncle Jeff from Tennessee, we embarked on our first ever gingerbread house this past holiday. Most people probably build their gingerbread houses a bit before Christmas so they can consume it visually and as a sugar laden tasty treat through the holidays. We view it as a family craft project, of course with a little bit of customization we made it a Mid Century Modern Prefab Gingerbread house.

The kit comes in the box shown in the second photo. A quick organization of all necessary building components is shown in the third photo. A plastic tray houses the gingerbread pieces of the square planned house. The icing is premixed and ready to go along with the assorted candy decorations and is accompanied by a gingerbread christmas tree and candy wreath.

The house comes setup for a super pitched roof, which just wasn't going to work for us. For the butterfly roof profile, I made a quick modification to the front and back gingerbread pieces of the house. The resultant leftover gingerbread pieces allowed us to improvise an additional entry feature and chimney. Having built nice clean architectural models, I have to say the icing as glue proves a little sloppy, but the smaller the hole in the icing bag, the more control you end up developing as you go along.

Although I'm a minimalist at heart, this house is all about decoration, and we used every bit of the decorative candies in one way or another. We made sure to provide the quintessential center mounted doorknob, clerestory windows, and sculpture garden. The whole project was decorated on the fly, trying to proportion and use all the pieces was a good challenge and also a lot of fun. Perhaps next year we will try to do a custom one from scratch.

Mid Century Modern Curb Appeal Poll

Happy New Year, hello next decade. In three more years our house will be 60 years old, vintage for sure. Last we looked, we were well on our curb appeal road with new house color, concrete, screenwall, and walkways all completed. Still left to do is completing the mortar on the screen wall, as it will sit freestanding until spring. Additionally, the roofline needs addressed, ahem, redone & the main walkway up to the house will be removed and redone. Currently you can see the temporary patch job between the old curvilinear concrete walkway and the new inset porch step.

To start the new year off with a bit of evolution, welcome the first ever Cincinnati Modernation poll. This is my first poll 'gadget' in use so let's hope all works well. The poll is located in the upper right of the page. I decided to play with some Photoshop caricature concepts that illustrate our color schemes we hope to start working on as soon as the weather allows. With the temps in the teens today, I don't this will be anytime soon, plenty of time for debate. Trying to keep warm with single pane glass is a challenge in itself.

The first photo is the current situation, second is a dark gray bonanza that limits the palette, perhaps the concrete step should remain unpainted as it matches the concrete soffit nicely. Third up is a bit of throwback to the house's original maroon color, and was part of what we originally planned to do.

Finally a more 'Palm Springs' approach with a white roofline and white concrete walkway. The overcast sky doesn't help the white pop as it would on a clear day and blue sky background. I could see the Salterini orange slice chairs being a nice powder coated white to match as well, clean & clean!

Modern Ornament

It's been awhile. Not much interesting happening in the way of modern renovation ongoings around Westminster these days. In preparing for the winter cold, we have been busy insulating the studio space currently under construction. Cabin fever starting to set in, we recently had to break out the Christmas tree and lights to decorate our modern pad to get into the holiday spirit.

I had almost forgotten this small ornament that I made before Xmas 2008. My previous place of employment had a small contest for our office Xmas party in crafting an ornament. The rules for the contest were to use excess interior finish materials and samples with wallpaper, fabrics, carpet, and various other fun stuff. Being the single track minded Mid Century Modernist that I am, the following is what I came up with.