dwell on design - landscape idea #2 modern wall planters and outdoor furniture

The Dwell on Design show, June 22 - June 24, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center was truly an inspiration for those who love clean-simple lines in their surroundings, and are many times, inspired by modern design of the fifties and sixties. My loyal modern seeking companion and I crossed the Orange Curtain on Sunday, specifically looking for modern landscape ideas. Our second great idea we spotted at the show were these modern planter boxes (our first was the modern trellises).

Potted: For Outdoor Living

dwell on design - landscape idea #1 modern trellis

I popped up to Los Angeles on Sunday for the Dwell On Design show with my friend who has the excellent taste (her beautiful remodeled mid-century here). We were in search of modern and clever ideas for the garden. We were captivated by these architectural trellises designed by Los Angeles landscape designer and artist Jennifer Gilbert Asher of Terra Trellis.

Terra Trellis

unsightly cables - how dare you?

After Albert's miraculous installation of the bedroom TV that allows us to see the living room cable DVR in the remodeled bedroom (See Part 1 and Part 2), we were left with a nasty cable problem.

Boxee and Cables

Boo. Come to think of it, cable messes are pretty common place in our house. We have the usual 2-5 cell phones, 3-4 laptops, 2-3 ipads, a tower, a few servers, and who knows how many wireless connections. That is pretty normal, right?

viewing your cable dvr on a second tv (part 2)

PART 2: Continues Albert's adventures trying to view the cable DVR on a second TV.

As detailed in Part 1, we purchased a Samsung Smart TV and found out it wasn't all that smart. Yeah, sure it's wireless, and, okay, you can stream Netflix on it, but that really is about it. And, entering usernames, passwords and movie names on the Samsung's pitiful TV controller made me want to tear my hair out (come on, no Albert jokes--so hurtful).

We installed Slingbox which claims to make "it easy to watch and control your home TV from virtually anywhere, anytime on your laptop, tablet, smartphone or connected device," but it still didn't work with the TV. Then, Albert downloaded the Slingplayer to his iPad, which worked just fine. We were able to watch the TIVO DVR box in the bedroom which was the goal, but on an iPad, not on the new 55" TV. I suggested we should consider returning the TV.

Samsung Smart TV mocking us every night. We hadn't
even pealed the sticky clear cover off the screen, label still
in the corner and the box still in the garage.

viewing your cable dvr on a second tv (part 1)

PART 1: The following series of two posts are a public service announcement.

A secret benefit to the remodel was we were going to install a big, beautiful flat-screen TV smack dab in the middle of the master bedroom wall. I have never had a TV in the bedroom and never really wanted a second TV. But, having an older son, who stays up later, was cutting into my available "True Blood" viewing time. So, since we would have all the walls in the master bedroom open and chopped up for the new bathroom, we decided it would be super easy to install cable TV in the back of the house.

Albert researched a bit, and decided that, no, we didn't need another cable and DVR in the back of the house, with the new Smart TVs we could view the cable TV from the front of the house TIVO on the TV in the back of the house. Did that make sense? That was the bottom line goal, watch TV in the bedroom using the TIVO box in the living room.

Tivo

landscaping disaster post mid-century modern remodel

I knew this moment would come. The remodel is done and all the money is spent. But the back of the house looks like it was flattened by a herd of wild elephants. Not to mention the city required us to dig down next to the foundation, creating a high yard side near the fence and a low yard side near the house, perfect for the next El Nino.

Remember the weep screed?

modern watercolor for the bedroom

With the bathroom (and honestly bedroom) remodel being done, I have been turning my attention to art. The art in the bedroom has been Japanese for a very long time. I won a one-month trip to Japan from Rotary Clubs as a "young business person" in the the early 90's which caused me to fall in love with Japan and all things Japanese. While there, I purchased and was given a few prints that I had nicely framed, but somehow they didn't totally fit the more mid-century vibe.

Gold print is shows the changing of the seasons,
and bottom two are Hiroshige prints.

a fun furniture find: john stuart armoire

The remodel is done and, finally, the fun begins. I have been searching high and low for an appropriate armoire to replace this glorious shabby chic monolith in the master bedroom. We actually had this made 15 years ago to house our TV in the living room.

Shabby Chic Armoire - not mid-modern appropriate
and recently sold on Craig's List for $40, I'll take it.

I kept putting the words "mid-century modern armoire" into eBay and Craig's List. I had a couple of restrictions. Albert said he didn't care for "light wood." What does that even mean? I had to listen to him because a condition of the bathroom remodel was Albert could move his clothes into the master (meaning he got a closet), and he got some sort of dresser in the master bedroom (all his stuff was previously in the guest room).

top five mistakes in mid-century modern bathroom remodel

You have read about my five favorite bathroom remodel features, now for the five top mistakes. If I had to do our remodel of two bathrooms and build of a third bathroom in our mid-century modern home all over again, what would I change? And, what may I correct eventually.

5. did not match white paint to tile in first two bathrooms.

Rookie mistake. I was so careful about everything except selecting the white paint. I should have matched the white paint to the white tile. But it didn't occur to me that white doesn't necessarily mean white. Had I gone onto the Benjamin Moore site and typed white, all would have been revealed to me.

Benjamin Moore endless shades of white.

top five favorite features mid-century bathroom remodel

I have restrained my natural impulses (nit picking the issues) and will provide my top five favorite features of our mid-century bathroom remodel. Next post will be top five least favorite items from the bathroom remodel.

#5 the tile.

Miles and miles of beautiful clean linear tile. I love the plank tiles and I love the white tiles. I love all the tile and very little drywall. The tile was a bit of an expense for sure. But we picked three different kinds of fairly standard Dahl tile, and didn't do all the tricky things that our plans initially called for with the tile. The results are simple and very modern. The white square tile and the mosaic floor tiles are both nods to mid-century.

Master feature tile wall