Dallas Craigslist Furniture Update

1950's large size lounger chair, $50 (above): Good firm condition could use a good cleaning though, or maybe even recovered if desired. Has no tears or rips or even worn areas.

Modern 1950's/1960's Living Room Chair w/Ottoman: No price given. Picture below.

Broyhill bedroom set, $375: Circa 1956-1963. Beautiful Starburst design with clean lines works with modern, retro or asian themes.

6236 Kenwick, Fort Worth, $750,000

Another budget-buster remodel done right. This time in Cowtown.

717 Kessler Lake Dr., Oak Cliff, $1.8 million

OK, I've said some bad things about remodels. But what about when remodels go right? Sometimes it happens. And you don't have to spend 2 mil to do it.

Album Cover: Afternoon in Amsterdam

I go to a lot of estate sales in my voracious quest for cool MCM artifacts. I found this album at a North Dallas sale a few years ago. I thought it was kind of kooky. Why would someone have an album of Dutch caliope music? Who would want that? Well, me for one.

Anyway, a curious thing happened. After I bought it, I started noticing this album at many of the estate sales I went to over the next six months. I must have seen it 10 times. Evidently, Dutch caliope music was pretty popular in Dallas in the 50s and 60s.

Another similar episode happened two weeks ago in Fort Worth. I went to back-to-back estate sales in Ridgmar, and at both sales is this Winston Churchill Ezra Brooks bottle commemorating the Iron Curtain speech. I've never seen the thing before in my life, then I see it twice inside of a half hour.

That's estate saling. Sometimes you follow things, sometimes things follow you.

2402 Skyview Drive, Richardson, $497,500

MLS listing gives you more images. Very expensive, but stunning on the inside.

Dallas Craigslist Furniture Update

Plycraft recliner with ottoman (pictured): It's in the style of an Eames lounger. Looks to be in good shape, $500 or best offer.

Antique Funky 50's Modern Ottoman: The Base has a Great Mod Black Wire Design with a 50's Turquoise Blue Color Cushion that sit into it, $60.

1960s Danish Modern Dining Set: Hutch, Table w/3 Leaves, 4 Side Chairs, 2 Arm Chairs, manufactured by Drexel, $1,000 or best offer.

Plano Says Ranch Houses "Not Historic"

Residents of Haggard Addition consider their tiny Plano neighborhood with its ranch-style houses a neighborhood worth preserving. But the Plano City Council doesn't think so.

Haggard Addition is a neighborhood of 114 ranch-style houses nestled just north of downtown. It is bounded by a brick wall on one side and the DART rail line on the other. There are few through streets. The subdivision is considered Plano's oldest, most intact example of a post-World War II neighborhood.

"It's hard to think of houses or an area that's younger than I am as historic," Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Sally Magnuson told the D(a)MN. "We were hard-pressed to find anything unique or historical about the area."

Magnuson's attitude is a perfect example of what MCM lovers are up against: many people don't consider the architecture of this time period worth saving. It's the same with the furniture and artifacts of this period: most don't consider them antiques at all. People won't understand what is lost until its gone.

Trunk Show at House of Dang!

Eclectic Trunk Show at House of Dang! tomorrow.

Please Save This House!

Would someone who loves MCM in Richardson please save this house at 438 Rustic Circle? It's only $109,000 and could be a really nice little pad with a little love.

Unlike California, you can find cool little bachelor pads like this for a song in Texas if you are patient and know where to look. Unlike California, there isn't as much appreciation for Mid-Century architecture around here as there should be. We are bulldozing our MCM heritage around here at an alarming rate. Or worse. Bad remodels sometimes happen to good houses. I don't know how many cool old MCM houses I've seen butchered by house flippers searching for a buck. Like this one in San Antonio. I know that granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, and the sleek "California Contemporary" look (pardon my lapse into realtor-speak) is someone's idea of a great place to live. It's just not mine.

Penguin By Design

Check out this Flickr set! This guy was inspired by the book - Penguin By Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005. and started searching local book stores and online for some of the old Penguin and Penican books. These are really fun examples of Mid-Century graphic design.

Must-Find-This-Book ... Now!

Swankola's Thrift Store Find of the Moment: Anatomy for Interior Designers by Julius Panero. The third edition was originally published 1962 (this is a 1977 reprint), but the first edition dates back to 1948. A surprisingly whimsical reference book for designers giving all kinds of useful measurements based on the human body, from the best heights for chairs, tables and kitchen cupboards to the amount of space required to kiss a lady's hand. Nino Repetto's drawings are terribly clever and witty. Stylized blob people illustrate the space requirements for all kinds of residential and commercial applications and graphically demonstrate the pitfalls of bad design -- they get crushed by file cabinet drawers, fall down stairs, and smash through plate glass windows.

End of the Affair?

Slate considers how America fell in love -- and out of love -- with the Ranch House. "Today the suburban ranch house is considered the epitome of conservative taste, but at the time it represented a radical departure from tradition."

Appliance Porn for Monday

My wife and I love old appliances -- ovens, ranges, fridges -- anything from a Mid-Century kitchen. We affectionately call this “Appliance Porn” because it makes you feel all tingly looking at it. (Oh, yeah). Here are today’s entries from Dallas Craigslist. Completely safe for work BTW:

Frigidaire Custom Flair Imperial range (pictured), $400 in Fort Worth: In the world of appliance porn, this is Bettie Page.

1950s Wedgewood Gas Stove, $500: In Grapevine. Working, appears to be in good shape.

Vintage GE 27” Avocado Green Double Oven, $100: The perfect appliance for your Brady Bunch kitchen.

Dallas Craigslist MCM: April 21

A couple of cool things for sale around the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Craiglist over the past week

Bertoia Chairs: 2 Vintage Bertoia wire side chairs. Excellent condition, blue cushion pad. $295 for the pair.

Herman Miller chairs and table: Chairs with formica top table, $400.

Cool end tables: Matching pair of Mid-Century Modern end tables, $95 firm.

Console: Mid-Century Modern Desk / Console. Made of Pine with Decorative Metal Screens, $175.

Slated wood coffee table: A vintage Eames era mid-century modern black wood slated adjustable coffee table that is 4' long in its standard position and extends to 5', $95.

Vintage lawn furniture: Set of 3 lawn furiture. Sofa and 2 chairs. Hard to find old lawn furniture. They do need cushions. $85.

Ode to Julie London

Julie London told Life Magazine in 1957 that she had "only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of oversmoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."

And intimate it was. Like so much of 1950s popular culture, there was a thin veneer of respectability on top and oceans of roiling sexuality underneath.

When she sings a line like “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” it ain’t no public safety warning. It’s enough to make Smokey the Bear blush.

It’s hard to believe she was married to Jack Webb and Bobby Troup -- two guys who seemed pretty square on the outside. In fact, I remember her on Emergency back in the 1970s. She didn’t seem that smoky to me then, but, of course, I was more interested in the fire trucks.

Upon further review, Webb and Troup were actually a couple of jazz hounds. In fact, Troup produced many of Julie London’s albums and even wrote such classics as “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and “The Girl Can’t Help It.” And I became more interested in Julie London than fire trucks.

For more on Julie, check out Java’s Bachelor Pad and Brian’s Drive-In Theater. Below are some Julie London album covers from my collection (My favorite is the middle).

Bobby Darin's House For Sale

Bobby Darin's Hollywood home is for sale. Very cool!

Oak Cliff MCM -$400,000

Completely updated Mid Century Modern home situated on a double hilltop lot. Great house, great neighborhood, but the price seems a little high.