For us, the Activity Room is kind of like a 1950’s game room or den.  We’re breaking some rules here.  Architecturally speaking, the room is a formal living room.  Before the remodel, it was the master bedroom.  But with three children and one on the way, it is the true heart of the house.  Well, okay, it is the heart of the house AFTER the kitchen.

This is the room where all of the real activity happens (especially in the hot Texas summer when it is too uncomfortable to go outside and we are bored with the pool).  We need this space partly because the children have small bedrooms.  We kept them true to the original home — a modest 9-ft by 11-ft each — and they share with a sibling, so there isn’t a lot of room for play or toys in their rooms.

I’ve struggled with decorating this room.  It needs to be wreckable.  I mean, four kids, they are going to trash it daily!  But it is also one of the first rooms you see when you come into the house, so it needs to be presentable to a certain extent.

The decor has gone through a natural evolution.  The 50’s diner table has been the centerpiece from the start.  It is an indestructible butcher block with a solid iron base.  My father found it for me at a garage sale almost 20 years ago.  It had been in the guy’s garage, was covered in oil, he bargained and got it for $25, and brought it home and refinished the top, spray painted the base a gloss black.

The chairs are from IKEA as are the wall shelves.  The cabinet behind the table is an old purchase from Target, back when they first started carrying furniture and when it was still fairly well made and not just pin nails and particle board.  I would love to replace it with a vintage sideboard, but I know the kids will destroy it, so the cabinet does the job for now.

The blinds are 2-in faux wood.  I’ve searched for the “perfect” vintage curtains for years.  A friend reminded me of ReproDepot.com where I might be able to find something that could easily be made into tab tops.  I will take more pictures later, but for now suffice to say that we have a closet to the right out of view that we will be hanging new doors in soon… and of course with this will launch a new line of interior doors and millwork over at Crestview Doors!

The amazing thing is that the vintage Moe lamp really ties the whole room together.  In fact, I felt like I never knew what I was doing with this room until I found that lamp.  It never ceases to amaze me how one item can make a room.

David picked up these groovy Sherwin Williams paint color palettes a while ago and I have been meaning to scan and post them.

Of course, scanning means the colors are off a bit.  They are greyer for sure, the yellows not so yellow-y, in real life.

The line is called the “Suburban Modern Preservation Palette” and here is what they have to say about it:

Your future is bright.  With clear, cheerful colors the 1950’s exhibited a new American outlook.  The exuberance showed up on the walls as striking shades like Chartreuse and organic shapes like boomerangs.  Whether you just feel nostalgia for those optimistic days, or you want to recreate the period in exciting detail, our Suburban palette provides the hues you desire.

They really hit the nail on the head with these things.  Couldn’t we all use some exuberance and optimism right about now?  I’m wishing I had gone for a pink/green/aqua theme for the ModWalls kitchen backsplash!  Ah, well, save it for the next remodel.

A while ago, I spotted this pic on Retro Renovation:

As luck would have it, I found a similar retractable Moe hanging light fixture down at my fave resale shop, Room Service:

Sadly, the retractable portion was busted.  The Light Fixture Shoppe on Burnet (now closed, wah!) put it on a swank brass chain for me, but I’m actively keeping an eye open for the retractable parts to eventually do it up right.

As I search out compatible curtains for the “Activity Room” as we call it, I will make the room more camera-ready, I promise!

Ideas, anyone?  I tried denatured alcohol and steel wool as a friend suggested, and then a mesh scrubber. Some of the old varnish came right off, but much didn’t, and I don’t want to scratch the veneer.  I hate to take it in to someone… or use intensely nasty chemicals while preggers….  I’m open

Remember when we were growing a house and a baby at the same time?
Before

After

It is hard to believe that Baby Erwin is a 2-1/2yo little whirlwind. It means that our house is more than 2 years old as well.
The Babe now has her very own bedroom, and we sauced it up a little over the summer in the best way we know how… with a retro-themed closet door!

The red 3-form on the back makes for a cool (ok, and somewhat freakishly spooky) night light.
Our younger boy wanted one for his room too, so we swanked his up with some sparkly blue 3-form.

He would sleep in full daylight if we let him but I hear that letting kids sleep in too much light is bad for their eyesight, so I’m pleased with how this one turned out. No nightmares since install, which is saying a lot for him.
The kids have their own Etsy shop now (erwinkids.etsy.com), and I’m thinking they need to hang some of that thar art in their rooms. The hard part is picking what they like best!

Why, yes as a matter of fact we ARE obsessed with Mad Men in that perfectly stereotypical way that most mid-century lovers across America have become in the last few months.

The set design is, of course, impeccable, and there is a great gallery from Season One that allows you to drool without really spoiling much.

Since we don’t have cable, we had to wait for the first season to appear on DVD, which we promptly queued up for Netflix to deliver as soon as it was available. Then we sped through the entire thing in just a few nights, stumbling through episode four, but otherwise enjoying ourselves immensely.
I’m struggling with whether to download the latest episodes and not wait for the second season to arrive on Blu-ray, but I may not be able to wait much longer since… so many of you are writing spoilers!
I guess I am going to have to ask myself the ultimate question. What would Betty Draper do?

I found the television solution of my dreams, but not at any online store. Finkbuilt’s brilliant RetroVision 2000 AV Cabinet is the marriage of two eras, one era in which television was king, displayed prominently and proudly in the center of the busiest room in the house, and another era in which television rightfully takes the backstage to a more active lifestyle.

Tragically, this solution was custom-made for Steve’s own home by his own two crafty little hands and is therefore not something I can click and order. Wah. I suppose then that I am out of luck until Wal-Mart decides to jump on the MCM bandwagon and make them for 35 cents using slave labor from Bangladesh? Thanks, but no thanks. Until Steve opens up his own shop, a girl will just have to dream.

I’ve been asking everyone I know, including the 1950’s House Lovers and the folx at HouseBlogs.net, the same question: “What do you do with your television?”

This is the dilemma I’ve been trying to solve for five years!
We’re not big tv watchers. We love to rent movies, but even then we only watch one a week or so. The television is currently stored in a tv cabinet from Target which threatens to fall to pieces every time we open and close the doors (and isn’t really mid-century anyway).
I have looked everywhere for a tv cabinet that is even slightly mid-century. We have found some modernist cabinets that would fit a flat panel, but we have a 26-in regular old tv and don’t plan to spend money on an upgrade any time soon. We also have rabbit ears since we don’t subscribe to cable I’ve thought about getting a vintage sideboard and just setting the tv on top, but I don’t want it to be the focus of the room, KWIM? Any help? Help!
Thanks in advance.

I’ve gotten a few responses, but not quite what I’m looking for. The ideal situation would be a sideboard that was deep enough for our current tv set. I’ve thought about having a custom piece of furniture made (maybe we could trade a door for one?), but I’m not sure that I want to spend money on something like, you know, teevee.
Ping ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!

We were interviewed by the Austin-American Statesman today and, while cleaning up and getting ready, I realized how much of our home is still technically unfinished. It might not be obvious to everyone that visits, but there is still so much left to do!
When we originally planned the house, we knew we wanted the driveway to extend into the backyard. We planned to build a 50’s style carport (check out the I Dream of Carport post for more details) which would extend to cover the back entry to the home, and we figured this would become the main entry and exit point.
It took us six months after moving in to get the new driveway, and we still don’t have a carport. Instead, we have a boat and two unsheltered entrances, and we usually park in the front and enter and exit through the front door.
There are so many problems with this setup that I have trouble keeping them all straight. For one thing, we don’t really have any landscaping between the front driveway and the front door, so we find ourselves walking through mud during wet weather (and we’ve had a LOT of wet weather over the last few months). The front door doesn’t have a covering either since the deck is still somewhat unfinished, so we drag the mud and the wetness inside when we enter. There isn’t a lot of room inside the front door for loitering or unloading what with the stairs directly inside. And there is no organization other than the shoe bucket… and it is overflowing with shoes the kids have outgrown. Backpacks, purses, keys, mail, all end up haphazardly piled inside the front entrance and on the stairs. I don’t suppose guests feel very welcome when they arrive.
This brings me to the point of this entry which is a plea for help! With winter fast approaching, the need for a new solution is imminent. It seems to me like we need to accomplish four major goals:

1. Use the back of the driveway for parking cars (this means we need to move the boat and install a remote-controlled gate opener).
2. Stop tracking mud and wetness into the house (we will need a carport, too).
3. Create an organized space for the coats, shoes, bags, keys, phones, and mail (this means organizing the nook next to the back door).
4. Use the front entry for its intended purpose (and landscape in a friendly way so that no one has to walk through mud or pools of water or stand under a dripping deck while unlocking the front door).

These are enormous tasks. Have you been through any of this? Advice? I was having fun checking out Better Homes and Gardens article on “Do-It-All Entryways” and thinking about our stuff and what to do with it. I need the solutions to be (1) fast, (2) easy, and (3) inexpensive. Isn’t that how it always is?

Over the weekend, I crossed one of the larger tasks off of my crushingly long post-move-in-to-do list. I finally installed the mosaic tile in the kitchen. We ordered it in a big hurry about 5 months ago.
I’ve had tile work done before, but never tried it myself. I had always considered it a black art practiced by the most elite and mysterious handymen. The kind that prefer to work alone, talk very little, and won’t look you in the eye. Reading the instructions on the grout mix, I felt myself being pulled into their world. “Dampen with a Turkish towel.” Oooh, Turkish! “Cover the grout with #40 paper to slow the drying and repel debris from other trades.” Oooh, those other trades and their icky debris! Cretins!
I chose Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights to do the work after the kids went to bed. Saturday was gluing and cutting the tiles. The glue didn’t smell that bad. And by 2am, I couldn’t smell it at all. Not so for the rest of the family, each of whom woke up one by one with horror movie nightmares. I hope we didn’t lose too many IQ points that night.
Sunday was grouting, which takes about as long and gluing and cutting. Another night up until 2am. Christiane was getting pretty antsy about getting her kitchen back.
Monday was wiping that last bit of film off and putting all the outlet covers back on. At 24 hours, the grout film is easy to wipe off, but hard to find. I inadvertently grouted a few coffee cups, plates, and knives that were in the sink at the time. It took longer than I thought, but I was only up till 1am.

I did the work in such a flu-fever-late-night-blur that I hardly remember doing it. It looks great, but the mysterious art of tiling still alludes me.
(Modwalls Bungalow Blend)