Say Hello to "The Ghost of Goodnight Lane"

We realize it's unbecoming to brag, but we've never been good about doing what we're supposed to. We're psyched about playing a part in an independent feature film called The Ghost of Goodnight Lane. It stars Billy Zane, at right, (so gorgeously creepy in Dead Calm and, admittedly, less exciting in Titanic) and Lacey Chabert, who's been in tons of things but whose biggest movie was probably Mean Girls. Producer/director/writer Alin Bijan is directing and co-wrote the film, which is being shot in Dallas. The movie is -- get this -- based on real paranormal events that have taken place for years at Bijan's production company, Media World Studios in Dallas. Apparently, paranormal investigators have confirmed the hauntings. This is serious, people. But back to us. Actually, the furniture, linens and housewares that we sell at RetroMania appear in the movie -- we don't. (Though our little Fort Worth shop was promised a mention in the film credits.) We've had a blast with our cinematic foray and made some new friends, like the movie's production designer, Adam Dietrich. There was one casualty during filming: the side table that was part of the Tropitan set we wrote about in our last post. The good news is that our two chairs and ottoman are fine and dandy and the price of the now-three-piece set is $295. We gladly suffer for art.

The Saga of Our Mid-Century Sleepy Hollow Chair

This spring, we found ourselves a tad flush, which meant, of course, that the money must be spent ASAP. We decided to restore some mid-century pieces, one of which was this chair (the cat stayed home). Apparently, this is what's known as a "Sleepy Hollow" chair. Here's one definition: "An armchair of the mid-19th century, sometimes on rockers, having a single piece forming a high upholstered back and a concave upholstered seat." While it's clearly more from the mid-20th century, it's definitely got that cool "single piece" aspect going for it.

I'm showing it off because its fantastic looks are a stark contrast to the way it looked when we first saw it: The poor chair had sat out in the middle of a courtyard at an antiques shop, in the midsummer sun and through several rainy days and nights. Because it isn't an Eastlake or a Duncan Phyfe, the shop owners held it in such low regard that they wouldn't even bring it indoors.

Our furniture doctor of choice is always Hank Tosh of Tosh Mahal (see my earlier post to learn more about Hank and what he does). Taking stuff to Hank may seem like a weird way to get your kicks, but nothing is more fun than bringing a thing of beauty back to its glory. And Hank seems to feel the same way, because he is truly a master at it. And he's intrepid.

He had to be, as it turned out. He does a much better job at explaining exactly what had to be done to restore this chair on his blog. Check out the before pics and read Hank's blow-by-blow account of the surgery, if you're like us and you love to geek out on this kind of stuff.

Vinyl Tile and Mid-Century Floors in Fort Worth

Lots of people struggle with what kind of flooring to put down in a mid-century-modern house. When we bought our house and renovated it in 2006, we decided to go with vinyl composition tile -- some people call it commercial vinyl tile, others call it vinyl commercial tile, VCT, CVT. It's basically the same stuff we all remember from school. One of the coolest things about it: There are scores of colors and limitless color combinations. (We had asked the installers to use a random pattern, but, as with so many things that happened during the renovation, he wasn't really listening ...)
I had to share these pics with you to show you how great it can look when it's stripped, waxed and buffed. We use a company called Jackson Quality Janitorial here in Fort Worth. We didn't get any kind of price break for sharing this info., we just like the work they did. And Lewis Jackson is hands down one of the nicest guys we've ever had cross our MCM threshold.

Elliott Erwitt, Fort Worth, Texas - 1962

Like many MCM aficianados, Sunday night is for Mad Men, Monday is for Mad Men analysis. One of my favorite Monday reads is the breakdown over at Slate.com. This week in special bonus coverage, a photo collection of period images, including this one from the great Elliott Erwitt taken right here in Cowtown. Hey, fur kills, baby, but you look great. Fab living room, too.

4000 Hartwood Dr., Fort Worth, 76109, $247,500

A friend sent me a link to this house with the simple words "I want" in the subject line. This midcentury beauty just looks so cool and shady, sprawled out there in Tanglewood's forest. It was built in 1959 and is 1,664 square feet, with three bedrooms and two full baths.
It has beamed ceilings, hardwood floors and that pillowy saltillo tile. If you look closely at the living room pic, on the left you can see a built-in planter, one of those totally charming mid-cen touches that are so often ripped out. I want, too!

Wayne Grubb and "The Brown Trail House"

Does the name Wayne Grubb ring a bell? I mentioned him in a previous post, the one about the fantastic pink enamel kitchen appliances. As cool as the appliances are, the real story turned out to be Wayne -- a local genius who in 1957 designed and built the home the appliances came from, this googie-licious house on Brown Trail in Hurst. The bad news: It is NOT on the market. The good news: The fourth generation of this WWII veteran's family lives there, and I'm told they've adhered to MCM style.

Wayne, who was also a philosopher and inventor, worked as a general contractor on large custom homes in North Texas until his death, in 1997. His daughter, a graphic artist named Revis Grubb Plemmons, has been extremely generous with text and photos so that I can share information about her father and the fantastic house she grew up in. "Inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, especially Fallingwater, my dad used various woods and crabstone to give the house an organic ambience," she says. I'd never heard of crabstone before, but it apparently has gorgeous coloration and texture.

The house also wreaked havoc with visitors' internal compasses: There are no square rooms in the 2,600-square-foot house except for the two bathrooms. "Dad told me that he would decide the square footage for a room, start with conventional right-angled shapes, then skew the shape," Revis says, recalling that it wasn't uncommon for people to forget which way the street was after stepping 15 or 20 feet into the house. The house is as dazzling and disorienting, says one of Wayne's bios, as a philosophy discussion with the man himself.

Wayne, a native of Bangs, Texas, had tinkered with objects ever since he was able to walk. His earnings from "Solar Windows," which he invented and patented, enabled him to build the house. The design featured screens and movable panes, which could be opened to various degrees to control airflow. They can still be seen in homes and businesses throughout Dallas-Fort Worth. Revis says she remembers her dad bringing home the prototype to the family's tiny duplex apartment in Fort Worth when she was about 4. (Later, Wayne invented a machine that automated the task of prepping doors for hanging. It's been estimated that at one time, 85% of all doors produced worldwide were cut on his machinery.)

People started talking about "the Brown Trail House." It wasn't unusual for strangers to pull into the driveway and get out of their car to look around, Revis says. Once, her mother opened the front door and sort of jokingly offered the visitors a tour, which they immediately took her up on! Photos that Revis sent me include these images of the interior, taken in 1959. Oh yum. Wanna take a tour, too? Let's go, kids! (This is a baby Sputnik light fixture in the living room.)

At left is the living room. When you look at touches like this divider, you can really see what a labor of love the home was.


Just off the living room is the dining room. Looks like grass-cloth wallpaper, which looks so smart and is so hot again. (On a TV redesign show a couple of years ago, I watched as designer Kenneth Brown suggested grass-cloth wallpaper to a well-heeled couple, who recoiled in horror -- bet they'd like a do-over on that one ...)



The kitchen is so stream-lined. Really well-done. Wayne designed special cabinets for maximum efficiency. The upper cabinets operate on a weights and pulley system. The lower area conceals drawers and cabinets. Many of the drawers and cabinets have spring-open catches.

















And, of course, there are those fantastic pink enamel appliances.









At the back of the house is the den, which sported a long, low, lovely custom sofa. The Scandinavian look of the sofa along with the natural elements of the plants and all the stone ... good lord, what's not to love??
Behind the curtains are doors leading to the patio. The tray ceiling is really something special.
(Cool bottles -- and great chair!)










Isn't this the kind of image we conjure when we think about a tall stacked stone fireplace in a really fabulous, well-designed midcentury ranch house?
Lucky children!

The Graf Residence in Dallas

I picked up a fascinating book at an estate sale in Fort Worth recently -- The Super-Americans by John Bainbridge. Bainbridge was a writer for The New Yorker who moved to Texas for nine months in the early 1960s and produced a sociological portrait of Texas at mid-century that outraged many Texans at the time but still makes for interesting reading.

As I thumbed through the book in search of good Fort Worth stories, I found an interesting passage about Mrs. Josephine Herbert Graf, the heiress to a Fort Worth oil fortune that built the house pictured above in the Preston Hollow section of Dallas. The house, which was designed by Edward D. Stone, who also designed Fort Worth's current city hall building and the U.S. Embassy in New Dehli, has been meticulously renovated by current owners John and Jennifer Eagle and Dallas architect Russell Buchanan and earned an award in 2008 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Mrs. Graf's back story is interesting reading. She married the son of a New York millionaire, John W. Herbert III, who came to Texas to get into the oil industry in the 1920s and succeeded quite nicely. The couple eventually settled in Fort Worth after a stint traveling in Europe, but with the outbreak of World War II, John Herbert enlisted in the Army Air Force at the age of 42. With her husband away, Josephine set about learning how to run the business in his absence. Unfortunately, she found out on Christmas Eve 1942 that her husband was lost on a combat mission over New Guinea. With that, Mrs. Herbert became principal owner of the Herbert Oil Company.

After the war, Josephine married again, a European by the name of Bruno Graf, and eventually moved from Fort Worth to Switzerland for several years before moving back to Texas and settling in Dallas and beginning construction on this house as a way to avoid paying capital gains tax on the sale of her $450,000 Fort Worth residence.

Stone's design was modern yet ornate and five to six dozen artisans working on the job steadily because everything is custom-made, including 54-inch squares of white marble veined with gold, seventy walnut doors and custom furnishings from T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings among other touches. The coolest feature: a white marble island above a swimming pool where the dining area is located. Said Mrs. Graf in Bainbridge's book: "When you go into the pool, you push a button and the water level goes down six inches -- that's so it doesn't splash." Yeah, just like at my house.

Over the top? Yes. Accessible modern design? Not hardly. Cool as all get-out. You bet. I'm just glad that as we seem MCM landmarks going the way of the wrecking ball in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, some people have the commitment and the money to preserve some of the landmarks. I hope more people follow their lead.

Wayne Grubb and the Midcentury Pink Kitchen Near Fort Worth

For months now, I've been meaning to write about a Craigslist experience I had in June, one that cost me nothing but was extremely cool. It started with this ad:

"We recently remodeled our parents home in Hurst. We have a very unique Westinghouse Refrigerator/Freezer, circa 1957 that we would like to GIVE AWAY, rather than see it hauled to the dump. It is a side by side, built in the wall unit. I have been told that there were only 15 of these ever made and that one is in the Smithsonian. I have only seen one like it and it was in Frank Sinatra's home in Beverly Hills. ... It has the original mid 1950's pink enamel paint and is in really good condition. We have the matching pink built in oven, which still works, also."

OK, what MCM freak WOULDN'T sit up and take notice? With nowhere to store it and a vintage turquoise double-oven already hooked up and working in my kitchen -- and it's not what I would sell at RetroMania -- of course I answered the ad to claim it! (I was under the influence of some powerful appliance porn, people!) Just look at these pictures and tell me you wouldn't have done the same. You'd have to be made of stone.


A woman named Revis Grubb Plemmons answered my e-mail and told me that the appliances are from the house of her late father, Wayne Grubb, a designer/builder/philosopher/inventor who worked as a general contractor on large custom homes in North Texas until his death, in 1997. He designed and built the home, which is on Brown Trail in Hurst, in 1957. Apparently, it was so unusual that it became known as "the Brown Trail House." Now, the fourth generation of the family lives there.


I'll delve into some detail about what made the house so awesome and what made Wayne even awesomer, in a separate post, with pics and news clippings, courtesy of Revis. The good news: The family did major remodeling to the house but adhered to MCM style, I'm told. To which I offer a huge PHEW! and a heartfelt "BLESS YOU, FAMILY."

Back to the appliances: I thought better of accepting Revis' generous offer after she told me that someone from Dallas who had answered the ad after I did was crestfallen to learn that he had been scooped, because he was actually redoing his kitchen retro-style, with pink enamel appliances. What kind of monster would stand in the way of a mission so pure? Incidentally, that's the fridge interior (above).

More to come on this talented local visionary, the late Wayne Grubb, as well as some of his projects.

Hank Tosh, MCM Furniture Savior

Because we're coco-poofs crazy about MCM furniture, we've had Hank Tosh on our radar for some time. Hank owns and operates Toshmahal on Hampton Road in Dallas, where he restores and refinishes furniture and also does custom framing. This man truly appreciates midcentury and deco furniture and is an artist at what he does. Hank says he's been restoring and refinishing furniture for about as long as he has owned furniture, about 18 years. He's serious about his craft, but he's also one of the nicest guys on the planet (just don't tell him you own a sander!). Hank was kind enough to answer our gajillion questions, some sillier than others (Does he watch Mad Men? Um, no.)

Why such an interest in midcentury pieces?
I have been into midcentury-era things as long as I can remember and had collected and fixed up many things of my own (plus I had a little background in finishing and woodworking from working in other mediums) before I started doing it for a living. I do work on earlier pieces as well, just normally, since I do work for a lot of dealers around town, this ends up being the majority of what I work on.

We'd love to restore every MCM piece in RetroMania. How did you learn how to do it?
I started many years ago when I first moved to Dallas, doing gruntwork like sanding, and stripping -- a little staining -- at Lakewood Furniture under the tutelage of Billy Keith Leatherwood (RIP). he taught me quite a bit. The rest I have learned by reading everything I can get my hands on, lots of trial and error, experimentation, and my trusty friend and mentor, Rik Wood, who is a 3rd generation craftsman and worked in Dallas for many years with his father.

How come so many people buy great midcentury pieces and then "ebonize" them? What's up with that?
There are a lot of designers out there who seem to know more than their refinishers and like to do bad things to good furniture. It is unfortunate but true. Sometimes it is just because they want to match everything so badly, but other times it is because the piece may have been damaged and just looks better that way. I think ebonizing is still a good look, sometimes. Fortunately, I think a lot of designers are coming around to the idea that it is not necessarily a bad thing to have many different natural woods in the same house or the same room, so hopefully it will make for less of this. I really don't like to ruin good furniture. I am in the 'restoration' business and it hurts me a little to 'paint' something or to make something a white laquer that should be a light mahogany or a light walnut.

Can you give us a little insight into some of those old finishes that we see on midcentury furniture and nowhere else -- stuff like the dark-gray/light-black stain that shows the wood grain, and also the yellowish brown that resembles spicy mustard)?
Most of this is done with oak or ash because they have a very open and deep grain to them. They will rub a glaze or a mixture of color
into the grain and then use a stain or a toner over that and then clear it. (this is a very simplified description, but it is all based on
the fact that the deep grain holds the color of whatever you rub into it when you wipe it). The lighter finish you are referring to has many
names, but many people did it: One is called the 'limed oak' finish. The darker is just a variation of this. There are also finishes that
were done with mahogany (called a white mahogany, or a bleached mahogany) that are also quite a process. It also takes a lot of work
to restore these pieces. Somehow, in the late '60s I think, faux finishing got really big and people started hiding beautiful wood grains.
I say, if you want plastic or fiberglass, then buy it and don't ruin the look of a beautiful wood grain. I think today, more people are wanting to see the wood grain and the natural color of the wood.

Is Heywood Wakefield the "gateway drug" of midcentury furniture? (As in: You start there and the next thing you know, you're into the heavy stuff.)
Well, there is a lot of Wakefield out there. The great thing about the early Wakefield is that some of it is actually just on the verge of
deco and entering into the modern realm, which I love. Another thing is that (and there are also many misconceptions about this) it is
made of solid maple (not birch. Only the newer stuff is made of birch), so you can literally bring some of this stuff back from the grave.
It definitely leads to other stuff ... Conant Ball, Paul McCobb -- also all solid maple. I have done many Wakefield pieces and am actually one of
the only people around who knows these finishes. It took me a little while to perfect the recipes, but I have them, for both the Wheat and
the Champagne (there are, even from the factory, about 3 different variations on each finish).

As a refinisher, what pieces are your favorite projects?
All of the Danish walnut stuff. A beautiful Walter Kagan chair was definitely one of my favorites. And, of course, all of the Heywood Wakefield stuff, because I really love both deco and modern.

You've got such an interesting niche here in DFW: How did you become the go-to restorer/refinisher for area midcentury dealers like Sputnik Modern?
Most of these clients hear about me word-of-mouth. It is the best way to get business and the only way to survive as a small-business person. It boggles the mind, how some businesses can get away with some of the travesties I've witnessed. It just makes my head spin.

If you could recommend one product for keeping wood furniture looking nice, what would it be?
I always top everything off with a good coat of carnuba wax. I don't get the beeswax because it is usually cut with some chemical. I use one that has a good, thick feel to it. (Trewax) The one I use has enough carnuba in it that it acts as a great cleaning agent as well as adding a little extra protection to the finish against some of the moisture it might encounter.

Another Cliff May house in Dallas

The Andrea Lane area in Dallas (north of I-30, west of I-635) is lousy with Cliff May houses, it seems. The latest one to come to our attention is at 2651 Andrea Lane with a price of $146,000 for 1,291 square feet. There's been some updating, but from what we can tell, nothing that looks too egregious.

What a Maniac!

Well, we've done it now ... we've got a little shop, where I'm partners with two other mid-century fanatics, who scour heaven and earth to keep the shop packed to the gills with one-of-a-kind finds for regular joes and janes like us -- people who appreciate great design and craftsmanship in furniture and housewares but can't pay an arm and a leg. The name, appropriately enough, is RetroMania. If you're in the neighborhood, stop in and get your goggle on. We're in Butler's Alley, an up-and-coming strip of shops behind Butler's Antiques at 2221 8th Ave. (south of Mexican Inn and north of Braum's).
Here's an idea of what you'll see.


This 9-foot midcentury sofa has the original fabric! (The cushions are sporting new foam.) The base is ebonized wood with curved-under Asian-style legs. Dunbar lines. Too lovely. It's $599, and there are 10% discount coupons at West and Clear and at Theater Jones.

Design Within Reach

The rumor is that Design Within Reach is opening a store in Fort Worth, on West Seventh. Hey, DWR, what took ya so long?

Craigslist Furniture Update

It's high time we indulged our sweet tooth with a dose of retro eye candy!

1950s Bar with Three Stools, $350:


Suddenly, I have an overwhelming desire for a Haleukelani Cocktail ...

Midcentury side tables, $75 each:

They're just begging for a fantastic Raymor lamp, maybe some Stig Lindberg ceramics. Hope they have more luck than I've had!

Midcentury Steelcase Metal Desk, $125:

Cool American beauty. Makes one feel downright patriotic.

6421 Camp Bowie, Fort Worth 76116

I've always wondered about this building at 6421 Camp Bowie, and Cosmic Cool sheds some light on it. Turns out this building was designed by the Houston architectural firm of MacKie & Kamrath and constructed in 1956-57, this building was originally home office headquarters for Commercial Standard Insurance Company.

3900 Bellaire Drive S., Fort Worth 76109

This gorgeous beast goes on forever. We can just see ourselves rollerskating through all 5,451 fabulous square feet. The price per square foot on this bad boy is an amazing $101 -- somebody buy it before we squander our IRAs! What's that? They've already been squandered?

Long, low lines. Sigh. And check out the built-ins in the background. Think of all the collectibles they would hold: ceramics, dishware, barware, tiki glasses ... Let me just get my drool bib.

Hollywood Regency would be quite at home here.
Lucite, this is your time to shine.

Cool Finds

We're back to our estate- and garage-sale cruising now that the holidays are over. At a church rummage sale, we found this copper chocolate set for $2.


This 34-by-14-inch "motel art" -ish oil painting of a turbaned gentleman, (by the artist known as "Drake") cost $1.



Got this General Electric "Telechron" lucite-and-metal battery-operated (!) clock, below, at an estate sale the day after Christmas. It cost $12, a little more than we like to spend, but we decided it had enough zing to justify the cost.


We know. You hate us. It's OK.

Appliance Porn

Is their anything tastier than a Frigidaire Flair? We stumbled on this one while browsing Craigslist and are sorely tempted to buy it. It's $100 and in the TCU area of Fort Worth.

3800 Pelham Rd, Fort Worth 76116 - $274k

Awesome Ridglea Hills MCM for sale from original owner. St. Charles kitchen with a Frigidaire Flair included.

3825 Glenwood Dr., FW, 76109 - $365k

This is a beautiful old ranch in the heart of Fort Worth's hoity-toity Tanglewood neighborhood that would be a great home for some MCM enthusiast, but given its location, I'm betting someone is just about to turn this into their Tuscan dream home. Another ranch home about to bite the dust? Probably. Enjoy it while it lasts.

I Love a Good Stool

And six of 'em ... even better! I have been on the hunt for the perfect stools for my breakfast bar at El Rancho Deluxe, and today the quest was complete.

It's hard to find two or three awesome MCM bar stools. Today, I found SIX. Here's the check. Thank you very much. Plenty of MCM goodness remains at the Anne Bourland estate sale on 4009 Hildring in the 76109 part of FW.