Interior decoration.
I finally got around to doing something I'd been threatening to do for a long time - I had the walls re-painted in my apartment's living room and kitchen. The lead singer from my band, who's both a very experienced professional painter and a close friend, handled the painting. That worked out perfectly, because he did a great job, and I didn't have any worries about him being alone in my apartment while I was at work.
I have lots of blonde 1950s furniture, including a wonderful kidney-shaped bar with a top that swivels, so you can lift up and latch the layer with the bottle holders (I never use this, but I love knowing it's there), as well as a matching buffet and vanity, the former having been rented by an ad agency to use in a TV ad celebrating McDonald's 40th anniversary. This happened the very day I bought it: minutes after the delivery truck had dropped it off, the store owner called to say I could make some money renting it, to which I was naturally amenable. I even got to see it once on TV, when I saw the ad in which it was used.
I thought blue would set off this furniture nicely, so I chose Wedgewood for the living room and robin's egg for the kitchen area. I like how the two different shades of blue help distinguish the living room from the kitchen area. My plan was to frame my four music posters in blonde wood frames and re-hang them on the wall opposite my couch. But I like the way the walls look now so much that I'd rather leave them unadorned - or at least much more sparsely adorned. So I'm going to let them stay bare for awhile before I put anything on them.
Another reason I'm leaving the walls bare for now is that over the weekend I found a beautiful Danish Modern floor lamp from the 1950s, and I find that leaving the walls alone helps to showcase this lamp. (I've searched a bunch of web sites featuring Danish Modern furniture, but I haven't found anything that looks anything like this piece. All I can say is it's really gorgeous.)
I did buy this clock for the wall in the kicthen area. It's a re-issue of a design from the 1950s by George Nelson, who designed every wall clock you've ever seen in any diner you've ever visited.
http://www.allmodern.com/Vitra-215-011-03-VTA1002.html
I was familiar with Nelson's work because I have another of his re-issued clocks hanging on the wall of my office:
http://www.allmodern.com/Vitra-215-250-VTA1010.html
Speaking of my office, I went with an air travel theme for the wall art there. That's because when I look out my 18th floor window, I always feel as though I were up in an airplane. Not to mention the fact that the top of our City Hall, opened in 1927, was designed to serve as a docking station for dirigibles. When that transportation industry more or less disappeared after the Hindenberg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Lindberg beacon - named after Charles, of course - was removed from the top of City Hall, and eventually was lost. During the five years the building was closed recently for refurbishing and seismic upgrades, a janitor stumbled across a big crate in the basement; when he pried it open, there sat the beacon. It's now been returned to its rightful place atop City Hall - but sadly, it has yet to welcome any new dirigibles. (One remotely possible consequence of continuing long-term rises in oil prices is a return of this old form of travel, which would be much safer now, thanks to the use of helium, rather than hydrogen. If and when that happens, count me in.)
Anyway, I had this poster in my old cubicle:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/FirstinAmericaAviationMeet.html?ArtworkID=52426&thumbs=1&productid=26030
I figured there must be similar posters from the early years of air travel from other countries, so I hunted down these, as well. On the wall to the left of my desk, from left to right, we have:
* Spain: http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/GranConcursoNacionaldeAviacionyHidroaviacion.html?ArtworkID=52154&thumbs=1&productid=25759
* Germany:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/ZeppelinFahrtenUberSeeuindLand.html?ArtworkID=52414&thumbs=1&productid=26018
* France:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/GrandPrixdAviationdeLAeroClubdeFrance.html?ArtworkID=52138&thumbs=1&productid=25743
* The Los Angeles poster from above.
And in a little nook on the wall directly to the left of where visitors sit across from my desk, I put this little poster:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/TWAtotheGrandCanyon.html?ArtworkID=170133&thumbs=1&productid=197644
I see a lot of double-takes from people who glance to their left and see this tromp l'oeil view that conveys the illusion of being inside an old propeller-driven plane.
On the wall directly opposite my desk, I put two, non-flight-related posters - just because I thought they looked good:
* Canada:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/CunardCanada.html?ArtworkID=155082&thumbs=1&productid=181628
* Australia:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/Australia.html?ArtworkID=163950&thumbs=1&productid=190977
And that's all for this edition of "Small Space, Big Style," here on HGTV.
I have lots of blonde 1950s furniture, including a wonderful kidney-shaped bar with a top that swivels, so you can lift up and latch the layer with the bottle holders (I never use this, but I love knowing it's there), as well as a matching buffet and vanity, the former having been rented by an ad agency to use in a TV ad celebrating McDonald's 40th anniversary. This happened the very day I bought it: minutes after the delivery truck had dropped it off, the store owner called to say I could make some money renting it, to which I was naturally amenable. I even got to see it once on TV, when I saw the ad in which it was used.
I thought blue would set off this furniture nicely, so I chose Wedgewood for the living room and robin's egg for the kitchen area. I like how the two different shades of blue help distinguish the living room from the kitchen area. My plan was to frame my four music posters in blonde wood frames and re-hang them on the wall opposite my couch. But I like the way the walls look now so much that I'd rather leave them unadorned - or at least much more sparsely adorned. So I'm going to let them stay bare for awhile before I put anything on them.
Another reason I'm leaving the walls bare for now is that over the weekend I found a beautiful Danish Modern floor lamp from the 1950s, and I find that leaving the walls alone helps to showcase this lamp. (I've searched a bunch of web sites featuring Danish Modern furniture, but I haven't found anything that looks anything like this piece. All I can say is it's really gorgeous.)
I did buy this clock for the wall in the kicthen area. It's a re-issue of a design from the 1950s by George Nelson, who designed every wall clock you've ever seen in any diner you've ever visited.
http://www.allmodern.com/Vitra-215-011-03-VTA1002.html
I was familiar with Nelson's work because I have another of his re-issued clocks hanging on the wall of my office:
http://www.allmodern.com/Vitra-215-250-VTA1010.html
Speaking of my office, I went with an air travel theme for the wall art there. That's because when I look out my 18th floor window, I always feel as though I were up in an airplane. Not to mention the fact that the top of our City Hall, opened in 1927, was designed to serve as a docking station for dirigibles. When that transportation industry more or less disappeared after the Hindenberg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Lindberg beacon - named after Charles, of course - was removed from the top of City Hall, and eventually was lost. During the five years the building was closed recently for refurbishing and seismic upgrades, a janitor stumbled across a big crate in the basement; when he pried it open, there sat the beacon. It's now been returned to its rightful place atop City Hall - but sadly, it has yet to welcome any new dirigibles. (One remotely possible consequence of continuing long-term rises in oil prices is a return of this old form of travel, which would be much safer now, thanks to the use of helium, rather than hydrogen. If and when that happens, count me in.)
Anyway, I had this poster in my old cubicle:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/FirstinAmericaAviationMeet.html?ArtworkID=52426&thumbs=1&productid=26030
I figured there must be similar posters from the early years of air travel from other countries, so I hunted down these, as well. On the wall to the left of my desk, from left to right, we have:
* Spain: http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/GranConcursoNacionaldeAviacionyHidroaviacion.html?ArtworkID=52154&thumbs=1&productid=25759
* Germany:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/ZeppelinFahrtenUberSeeuindLand.html?ArtworkID=52414&thumbs=1&productid=26018
* France:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/GrandPrixdAviationdeLAeroClubdeFrance.html?ArtworkID=52138&thumbs=1&productid=25743
* The Los Angeles poster from above.
And in a little nook on the wall directly to the left of where visitors sit across from my desk, I put this little poster:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/TWAtotheGrandCanyon.html?ArtworkID=170133&thumbs=1&productid=197644
I see a lot of double-takes from people who glance to their left and see this tromp l'oeil view that conveys the illusion of being inside an old propeller-driven plane.
On the wall directly opposite my desk, I put two, non-flight-related posters - just because I thought they looked good:
* Canada:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/CunardCanada.html?ArtworkID=155082&thumbs=1&productid=181628
* Australia:
http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/Australia.html?ArtworkID=163950&thumbs=1&productid=190977
And that's all for this edition of "Small Space, Big Style," here on HGTV.