A La Modern

Last Friday I was doing a little research on the Kyes tray I bought at Deseret Industries, and I stumbled upon A La Modern, a fabulous little online shop started by two collectors, Bryan and Linda, with a love for "one-of-a-kind, special treasures that you can't find in normal stores." I think this would a great place to find unique and lovely gifts. I know I'll be checking their inventory the next time I'm looking for a birthday or housewarming present.

They are currently having a sale on their goods from Scandinavia. I don't know what my recent obsession with salt & pepper shakers is all about, but I think these ones are really fun:

Figgjo Lotte Shakers - $28

Here are a few other things from their site that I'm particularly fond of:

Stelton Ice Bucket - $35

David Douglas Cups - $25

Upsala Ekeby Pitcher - $40

friday finds

Today I had the pleasure of thrifting with a good friend. We are both regulars at Goodwill so we decided to try a few thrift stores that we don't shop as often. Our first stop (after coffee) was St. Vincent dePaul in north seattle. The prices seemed on the high end for thrift, but the store is organized well, and the book section is reasonably priced. We both found several books for our kids ranging from 49—69¢ cents. I did see two nice pieces of furniture, but neither were priced and I don't really have places for them, so I never inquired further. There was a sign posted for a 50% off sale on Monday which would make the prices much more comparable to the other thrift stores in the area.

The little pink book is filled with really sweet illustrations. I'm going to find a place in Tula's room for it. Here's the illustration from the dust jacket:



We only had time for one more stop so we decided on Deseret Industries. We were short on time there, so I wasn't able to do a thorough search. I did find a beautiful teal vintage Moire Glaze KYES tray for $1.50. I'm not sure if I'll use it for a vanity tray or a serving tray. Now I kind of wish I had two! I've seen several for sale on ebay and Etsy, so I probably could.



Here's another great find by Margaret Ann. It's a KitchenAid K45SS that she picked up at Goodwill for $19.99. Considering they retail on Amazon for $183, I think she got a fantastic deal!


Here's what she has to say about it:
"I tested it at the store, and then brought it home and cleaned it. I used it to make some chocolate chip cookies. I am in love with it. I am also expecting it to develop a crazy loud motor noise and/or start smoking momentarily, but [we] thought it was worth the risk."

removing stickers & labels

I got two of these chairs for free a couple of years ago, and I've never bothered to take the half-peeled labels off the backs. It's really not that hard, and they look so much better with a nice clean back. You've probably seen Goo Gone at the store or at least heard of it before, but here's a trick for removing labels with things you should already have in your cupboard.


Things you'll need:
dish soap
rag
oil (vegetable, olive, baby, really any kind will do)
paper towels
scraper - this is helpful, but optional, and can't be used on all surfaces because it can scratch

1. Soak the label in hot soapy water to remove as much of the paper as possible. I just washed the back of the chair with a hot soapy rag to scrub off the paper, but with labels on plastic containers or things like that, I stick them in the sink with water.

2. Now that the paper is gone, you should be left with just the sticky part of the label. Pour on a little oil and start rubbing in little circles with a paper towel.

3. Keep rubbing and adding oil. Sometimes the glue will come up quickly, and other times it'll take a lot of elbow grease. If it's not a surface that you are worried about getting scratched, use a scraper to speed things along. I usually don't use one as the oil and paper towel method always works.

4. After all the glue is gone, wash again with hot soapy water to remove the oil.

weekend projects

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend which means two things for our family. First, it's sale weekend at Goodwill. Monday most of the store will be 40% off, and some will be 99¢. If you plan to go, you should get there early as it gets picked over pretty quickly. Second, it's a four day weekend for us. Patrick works Sunday through Thursday, but he gets this Sunday and Monday off—yay!! We were hoping to get outside and tackle a few projects in our yard—actually it's more of a forest—but it looks like it's going to be rainy all weekend. Instead, I think I'm going to get some painting done.

Most of our walls are white, and with our dark wood floors and wood ceiling, I plan on leaving them that way. The only walls in the house that aren't white are the ones that get the most sun. Our house is built on a steep hill, and we have lots of douglas fir trees surrounding us which block out most of our sunlight. We live in Seattle, so sun hard to come by anyway, and our trees make it even worse. The best light we get comes in through the windows in our entry and stairwell. The stairs actually get really bright, so the kids and I sometimes sit on them to eat a snack or read a book—sad, I know.

I intend to lighten up the walls that are currently painted dark blue, but I haven't really settled on a color yet. Here are some of the ones I've been thinking about.


I want something that will reflect some of the light into the living room, so it has to be something a little bright. I also plan on carrying the color onto the front side of the kitchen bar (currently painted black). What do you think?

Are any of you tackling home projects this weekend? I'd love to hear what everyone is up to.

vintage children's books

Yesterday, grain edit tweeted about a vintage modern kids book for sale in their etsy shop. It is a fun looking book that reminds me so much of a vintage book that I snagged from my parent's house. Mine is a first edition book called Everything Has a Shape and Everything Has a Size, by Bernice Kohn and illustrated by Aliki from 1964.

My mom is an elementary school teacher and she gets to dig through the library discard pile every once and a while. She found this book and had it in the toy box she keeps for the grandkids at her house. The illustrations were so lovely, I just didn't want to see it get its pages ripped out, or chewed to a mushy pulp—which has been known to happen to our books from time to time. We rescued it from the bottom of the bin, where it was buried under old stuffed animals and barbies with chopped off hair (thanks to my sister) from my childhood.



One particular spread seemed so fitting in our home. The little girl and boy on this page remind me so much of Alden and Tula, and I wanted to find a way to display these illustrations without removing them and destroying the book. The picture of the little boy was, however, just a little too sad. I made a few adjustments in photoshop—flipped the frown to a smile and made the balloon a little bigger—before printing it out. Patrick has a great method of making simple transfers using acetone and color copies, so we decided to enlarge and transfer them onto wood panels. If anyone is interested in the process, I can put together a step-by-step instructional post.


Now the pictures hang together in our playroom and the book sits up on a shelf. The kids love to read it, so we take it down quite often, but it always gets returned to its special little spot... out of reach.


Alden insisted on being in this picture, so I suppose this is his first Modern Thrifter cameo.

gift for two

This weekend was Patrick's 30th birthday. We celebrated a little earlier in the month with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge, but we still managed to make this weekend special. His brother was in town from Austin, making it even more fun. I searched and searched for the right gift this year. I usually know what I want to get for him months in advance, but I had a really hard time this birthday. I finally remembered that he had been talking about getting a new radio back around Christmas. Okay, I admit, he was talking about getting it for me, but I knew he wanted one too. I guess it's nice when there's a gift we can both enjoy.

The first one that came to mind was the Vers radio, but since I had spent most of my budget on our trip, it was out of the question. I settled on this Sangean radio, and we are both really pleased with it. It puts out great sound for it's size and it looks nice too. Plus, we can hook up our iPods to it. Urban Outfitters is currently selling it, but I found it quite a bit cheaper on Amazon.



Oh, and this is obviously not the rant. Still working on that.

friday finds - vintage kitchen & craigslist

I had another post planned for today, but it has turned into a bit of a rant, so I think I'll let it sit on the shelf for the weekend.

I'm not out at the thrift store today. Instead, I'm spending most of the day in the kitchen getting ready for Patrick's birthday tomorrow. I love cooking and baking, so I don't mind at all. Having a kitchen stocked with fresh ingredients and tools that I enjoy help too. If you need a little color in your kitchen, here are a few things from etsy that you might like:

clockwise from top left: 1950's metal kitchen wall clock $56; turquoise tea kettle $38; vintage superior electric fan; condiment servers $18

If you are in the Seattle area, here are a few furniture pieces currently on craigslist that might be worth checking out:

clockwise from top left: walnut full size bedframe $250; modern bar stools - set of 3 $90; mid-century slat bench $50; vintage yellow floor lamp $25

flos vs. kulla floor lamp

When I can't afford a piece of furniture that I love—which is most of the time—I try to find something that is similar in design and function that isn't necessarily an exact "knock-off." The Kulla floor lamp from Ikea, for example, bears a striking resemblance to the $1300 Flos Spun Floor Lamp, without trying to fool anyone that is the real thing. The top photos are of the Flos—carefully balanced, and beautifully crafted.

Here is Ikea's Kulla lamp, costing a whopping $89.99 (or $20 if you buy it from Goodwill like we did). Though it lacks a bit of the grace exuded by the Flos, it's still a great lamp that can blend seamlessly with either modern or midcentury decor.


The only problem we've had with our lamp is finding a 3-way bulb that doesn't stick out the top of the shade. I've rigged it the best I could by adding a spacer under the ring of the shade in order to raise it's height by an inch, but we still get just the very top of the bulb peeking over. Ikea must have realized this problem, because I've noticed the ones in their store are now slightly modified.

saturday events: house tour & flea market

This Saturday Docomomo WEWA, a non-profit organization "dedicated to the Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement in Western Washington," is hosting a house tour of architect John Rohrer's 1949 home. The cost is $5 at the door, and no reservations are required. Stop in anytime between 1 and 3pm. I am really hoping to make it to the tour (and really, really hoping they let me take pictures).

Also going on this Saturday is the Meridian Park PTSA flea market. I've never been to this event, so I don't quite know what to expect. It's just down the street from us though, so I'll probably take a quick look around. It is from 9am to 3pm at Meridian Park Elementary.

modern doors

We were fortunate enough with our recent home purchase to inherit this great front door. It is the original door on our 1976 northwest modern home. It's starting to show some wear, but I expect it to last several more years. If the day comes that we do need to replace it, however, I know exactly where we'll go. Just up the street from us is Frank Lumber, or better known as "The Door Store."

A few years ago, when we were living in our first house, we decided to upgrade our front door to something more modern. Not knowing any better, the first stop we made was at Home Depot. Although we never really dug too deeply into their custom order catalogs, we were pretty underwhelmed at our options. There were plenty of styles to choose from in the craftsman category, but not much that fit our tastes.

We did our research and were thrilled to come across The Door Store. The service was outstanding and the options seemed limitless. We were also surprised that the prices didn't seem that far off from what we had seen at the big retail giants. We were able to browse their selection of solid doors to pick out the wood grain we liked the best, choose where we wanted the window, and pick the kind (pattern) of glass—all without raising the price of the original door we saw in the showroom. We chose this simple, one window door.


Here are just a few of the modern & midcentury door styles they offer:

an antiques roadshow moment

Driving around this weekend I realized that garage sale season is in full swing. There were signs for sales nearly every other block, and of course, I had to check as many out as I had time for. I drove around most of the morning with nothing to show for it but a $1 pair of boots for Tula. I regretfully missed a great deal on some fabulous green chairs at a sale in Wallingford, and I figured the best part of the day was simply walking around in the sunshine.

Later in the afternoon I went back out to go to a certain store in search of a gift for Patrick's 30th birthday, and on my way I decided to stop at one last sale. I'm so glad I did. There were tables and tables piled knick-knacks, toiletries, disheveled doilies, and nearly every other cliche garage sale item you can imagine. Signs stated that everything was 1/2 off the marked price but most items weren't priced. The first thing I found was this cute little plastic deer. I guessed it would be around 25 cents, and I thought it would be a hit with Tula. She loves it, but I inadvertently set it on a nightstand next to my new clock and decided they were a perfect pair. I think she'll be okay with setting it there when she's not playing with it.


I also picked up a beautiful glass pitcher. I'm a sucker for anything white and wood, and I figured it couldn't be more than a dollar. Ready to pay, I asked how much for both items. $1.50. I offered $1.25 because that's the change I had, and got back in the car.

When I got home, I decided to do a little research on the pitcher. I've never really bought anything second-hand that was worthy of a trip to the Antiques Roadshow, but I always hold out a little hope. Thankfully, the pitcher still had a label with the maker's name, which made the google search much easier. I soon found out that it is a 1960 Jacob E. Bang piece produced for Kastrup Holmegaard Glass in Denmark. I can't find an exact price but a similar pitcher (minus the bamboo cane and the label) is going for $140. Not too bad for my little $1 investment!

I still haven't figured out a good place to keep it. I bought it because it's pretty, and I want to put it where I can see it, but with two kids and hardwood floors, my options are a pretty limited.

Friday Finds - May 14th

Today was another gorgeous spring day in Seattle so we spent most of the day in the sun, but I was able to step away this evening to check out Deseret Industries for a few minutes. I was met with disappointment again in the furniture section, but on the bright side, I picked up some great vintage canisters for my kitchen that I plan on spraying a bright yellow. I'll post some pictures of that project when I get to it. I also found this shadow box frame:
A few months ago Patrick took Alden to the Emerald City ComiCon and they picked up a pile of buttons that one booth was giving away. I've been wondering what to do with them, and I've finally decided to frame them for Alden's room. I'm excited to hang it up tomorrow.
I've been feeling pretty crafty the last couple of days, so here's to hoping I stay motivated enough to complete a few projects!

design geeks

For those of you who don't already know this, my husband Patrick and I are total design geeks. We met eleven years ago in art school; both of us were planning to be illustrators, and both of us came out of school as graphic designers instead. We are not just designers as a profession—actually, I'm not really working as a designer much at all these days—design is a part of nearly everything we do.

Our conversations vary from graphic design, to fine art, interior design, architecture, film, and product design. We love it all. If you were to visit our house, you would probably catch one of us staring at a wall in our house and studying it intently because we are constantly remodeling or rearranging in our heads. In fact this morning's conversation ranged between track lighting and the popularity of slab serif fonts.

But, back to graphic design. Today Patrick drove down to Portland to hear the Designspeaks lecture by Frank Chimero, one of his favorite designers. Frank is a talented illustrator and designer and a gifted writer. Patrick has a few of his posters in his office and we purchased these prints that are in our kids' rooms (note the $2 thrifted frames). They are from his "States" series.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about the lecture tomorrow. Check out more of Frank's work here, and be sure to read his design philosophy here.

a clock in every room

I love clocks, and not just as accessories to decorate with, I love to know the time—all the time. Our house has a clock in nearly every room, and when I'm in a room without one, I get anxious and frustrated. I really don't know how some people live without a clock in sight. Yes, I'm neurotic and probably need therapy, but it's cheaper and easier just to buy clocks at the thrift store.

You might wonder why I don't simply buy a watch and thus solve all my time-related woes, and I agree that's a great idea in theory. I'm just too picky when it comes to watches, and I've never found one that I've thought looked nice on my wrist. They all seem too big, or dainty, or too sporty, or ornate. I'd gladly welcome suggestions!

So, this morning I took my little Tula on an unscheduled trip to Goodwill. She was in a particularly good mood and she was excited to go. Before heading into the store, we drove through Java Jane for an americano and a cookie. It's pretty dangerous for me that my two favorite things happen to be in the same parking lot—coffee and a thrift store.

Tula wanted to look at dresses and toys—her biggest loves—but she was patient enough to browse the furniture, kitchen, and electronics sections first. I've been on the lookout for a nice vintage clock for a while now, and I found one today that I fell in love with. I tested it out in the store and it worked perfectly. I haven't tried the alarm yet, but I'm sure it's completely obnoxious. We use the alarms on our phones though, so it really won't matter. Now, I only need four more clocks to complete my clock-in-every-room strategy.

Oh, and just to reiterate my point from yesterday, we spotted a Lack side table in the furniture section today that was in terrible shape—scratches all over and a piece of the laminate was ripped off—for $12.99.

ikea at the thrift store

If you live in a city with an Ikea, chances are that you'll run into a lot of used Ikea items at the thrift store. Nearly every time I'm in the furniture section at a thrift store I come across at least one Lack side table priced anywhere from $12–$20. For the record, Ikea lowered the previous price of the Lack table from $14.99 to $7.99 this year. That price is for a brand new table in your choice of color, without the scratches and rickety legs that accompany the ones at the thrift store.

It's helpful if you have an iPhone (or similar phone) and can look things up on the Ikea website when you are out thrift shopping, that way you know if you are getting a good deal or paying more for something used than you would if you bought it new. Also, Ikea labels all of their products with pretty unique looking bar codes, so look for them on the bottom. A few times I've thought I've come across a really expensive modern gem only to flip it over and discover it's just vintage Ikea.

One of the other things to be mindful of is the weird hardware, fuses, or light bulbs that Ikea products often need. Thrifted Ikea products may be missing parts or have broken components that can be complicated to fix. It's not impossible, and sometimes a trip to the as-is section of their warehouse can do the trick, but know what you are getting into.

All that said, I'm not at all opposed to purchasing Ikea pieces at the thrift store. I just want to know what I'm purchasing and make sure I'm not paying too much for it. Recently, we actually found a great deal on two Lack wall shelves at Goodwill—ones that we were planning to buy new. They retail for $29/each and we picked them up for $8/each. Here's a picture of how they look in our playroom:


Of course, Most of the items sitting on the shelves are thrifted, as well.

mid century estate sale

If we hadn't been busy celebrating an early Mother's Day on Saturday, we probably would have made the drive up to Camano Island to check out this estate sale that we saw on Craigslist. The list of items was overwhelming! Last night I saw that the ad was still up, so I emailed the contact to see if I could get some prices on leftover items. Here's what I found out:

Teak Clock - $150
Yellow Swedish Chair - $450

Orange Eames Lounge Chair (sold), Bird Wall Art - ?

Mariner Clock - $200

Plycraft Lounge Chair by George Mulhauser - $500
This chair is so beautiful, and so out of my price range. I hope someone buys it soon before I make a foolish impulse buy! After doing some online sleuthing, I think it's easily worth the price, and maybe more. Here's a picture of Gob from Arrested Development (I miss that show!) sitting in one.
That picture makes me want it even more! Here are some other photos of this gorgeous chair:
Photos from The Mid-Century Modernist

Okay, back to the other items. I don't have prices for any of these, but I'm sure the owner would email them to you if you are interested. I also think since the sale is over, he might be willing to take offers as the week progresses. There are several additional photos on the Craigslist ad, too.