Wednesday, August 22, 2012

purging pottery barn from a mid-century modern

This was the year I finally purged my house of Pottery Barn.  When we first acquired our mid-century modern some fifteen years ago, I was confused. I was confused about what the architectural style of the house. I tried to force fit the house into Frank Lloyd Wright craftsman bungalow (huh?). And I became very enamored with Pottery Barn and the seashore cottage style. It was all the rage in the early oughts. Here is an article about incredible Pottery Barn product placement in a 2000 episode of  Friends and how the plot line of the show was that Rachel was trying to hide a Pottery Barn purchase from Phoebe who hated mass produced items.

I acquired this beautiful John Suart armoire on eBay a few months back:



John Stuart Armoire
John Stuart Armoire


It replaced this bizarre cottage armoire that used to house the TV and then eventually held odds and ends of shoes, purses, and luggage in the bedroom:

Pottery Barn "like" armoire in California cottage style
Pottery Barn "like" armoire in California cottage style

I ousted this classic Pottery Barn chandelier below:

Pottery Barn Chandelier
Real Pottery Barn chandelier. I am embarrassed to reveal the
Frank Lloyd Wright windows... eventually I'll straighten these out.

And replaced it with this mid-century modern 50's Italian Holmegaard glass light fixture:

Holmegaard  Glass Chandelier
Holmegaard  Glass Chandelier

Distance picture of the dining room and Holmegaard Glass Chandelier
Distance picture of the dining room and Holmegaard Glass Chandelier

And finally, last week it was time to boot out the white cottage cabinet, painted black, with the louver doors torn out thing that we throw junk into near the kitchen that holds the phone and the device charging station:

cottage cabinet
I painted this myself. You can see where the old white paint is showing through.
I forgot to take before pictures with all the garbage in the cubbies.

When I painted the white cabinet black, I pulled the classic cottage louver doors off apparently so our guests could see all the trash we threw inside over the years. 


Scratchy top. Pictures in taken garage. Over eager to
remove and forgot to take appropriate "before" pictures.

This has not been sold on Craig's List yet because my son thinks he could fit it in his room with another aquarium. Over my dead body, but I am not prepared to squash his dreams. Yet. 

The cottage black cabinet thing has been replaced with this mid-century Danish modern credenza, recently purchased (wait for it) on eBay - the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem:

Danish mid-century modern Rosewood sideboard.
Danish mid-century modern rosewood veneer sideboard. Appears to be oak underneath.
Fits the space much better. The cottage cabinet actually was too wide for the wall.

Danish mid-century modern Rosewood sideboard.
With leather handles. Albert thought the leather handles were weird and impractical. Kill joy.
He thinks it is dumb that that the doors don't close right. Picky.

Stuff hidden away. You can't see it. Well, yes you can.

Danish mid-century modern Rosewood sideboard.
Top all nice and clean.
Hello mid-century modern. Goodbye Pottery Barn.

4 comments:

  1. I love the new dining room light, but of course I would. It's the same poisonous green that I keep being drawn to in clothing stores.

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    1. Yes Mom, and, as we all know, in sofas. Although sadly I didn't have a picture to include in this post. http://www.midcenturymodernremodel.com/2012/07/mid-century-modern-style-comes.html

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  2. Hi Rebecca! I love your blog, my husband and I just realized within the past year after we bought our MCM type house just how much we love MCM style and what it was! We live in Long Beach, sadly not in a Cliff May, We're in the process of purging our home of our furniture that doesn't fit with the MCM style now too, it's nice to be able to relate to awesome finds on eBay or Craigslist! :) We just found a small coffee table on Craigslist last week for a steal at $20 that we're refinishing and also a hutch for $200 at an estate sale. So excited to glean ideas for decorating from your blog and pinterest going forward

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    Replies
    1. What a nice comment! Thanks for stopping by!

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