Sunday, October 3, 2010

the midcentury muse

There are so many satisfying things happening at the house! I am gloating about our re-use of the original light fixtures. Here is the post about all the things we harvested from the house to use again.


We could have replaced our original fixtures with something like this, at $225 a pop.
aloha, from rejuvenation
But we kept the old ones, and they are happily re-installed this week. With 19 fixtures in the ceiling, that means we saved roughly $4000. just re-using the perfectly good fixtures we have.


You'll see them throughout, and a few others that we re-used.


Here are the orange doors. You get a teaser of the cork floor, which is being installed. It does not have finish on it, so imagine it a few shades darker. It will feel, I think, like a lawn indoors.

The architects added a cove light above the fireplace, which ties the FP to walls and ceiling beautifully.  You can see the flooring extending onto the benches. I have been looking at Knoll wool remnants on ebay to buy for making cushions.

old meets new
Here are the old lights meeting the new kitchen, where the wood ceiling folds over the beam above. While our architects (hi guys!) have suffered multiple design phases on some elements in the house, this was one of many immediate YES, we love it elements.

the before view, with mahogany paneling removed.
reinstalling bedside lamps
Here we are deciding where to hang the old bedside lamps. We are also re-installing three alien lamps on the north wall. My friend Mark Butler took an Ikea version of one of these and played crazy man alien with it and ever since I cannot look at one without thinking of him. I toyed with going all Martha Stewart on these and getting them painted an autobody shop. I decided in the end that the brass on the bedside lamps would be lonely without them, and if we weren't changing the others, these would stay the same too.

alien lamps in the bedroom
Alien as they are, the are the perfect length in relation to the beam and the open space above it. You can see our Tom Dixon mirror ball kissing the ceiling in the dining room beyond. Once it gets hung above a table, I think it will feel right at home.

That's it for now! Move in is now scheduled just before Halloween.

2 comments:

  1. So exciting - the place looks great! I especially love the shot of the kitchen - open, spacious, great lines. so happy for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the idea of walking barefoot on cork floors. Are you going to have everyone go shoeless in the house, with a cool shoe container downstairs?

    ReplyDelete