Mid-Century is Hot in Austin

Three mid-century neighborhoods in Austin got name dropped by RedFin in their 2013 Hottest Neighborhoods list. Of course, if you've been reading this blog, you already know that those are hot spots for finding your own slice of mid-century. However, after making the list they might be too hot to buy.

Here's what RedFin had to say:
Rosedale

People love Rosedale because of the charming '30s and '40s era homes, close proximity to many medical services, the Capitol, UT, and downtown, in addition to many of central Austin's attractions, including Ramsey Park and the Shoalcreek Greenbelt. They also love the nearby unique restaurants and shops like Central Market. 

Crestview

The residents of Brentwood/Crestview support the gardening efforts of Urban Patchwork, a nonprofit organization that plants crops in yards and shares the fruits of volunteers' labors with homeowners. It's close to eating and shopping, yet far enough from the center of downtown to be affordable for many.

Easy World Map Mural for a Travel Nursery

We love the painted world map wall mural in our travel-themed nursery. But it was admittedly a pretty large effort to get it all painted. Between outlining with small brushes, letting it dry and filling in with bigger brushes and painting it all twice to make it look even, the world map mural took over three days total.

Burlap & Denim has a much simpler method to get nearly the same result.

Painters pens, if I had only known.

Mid-Century Modern Color Trends

The first time I heard the name Doty Horn was in this episode of Off Book.

Doty was the Director of Color and Design at Benjamin Moore for seven years but has since moved on to open her own color forecasting and color marketing company, ColorVoyant. Two years ago she had some interesting things to say about the resurgence of mid-century desgin and space age that hit right on the head of mid-century modern.

For 2013, ColorVoyant is predicting something they call "Modern Primitive" which is a bridging of old and new, of traditional craft and modern technology. It's a trend I really hope is true because I've been dealing with that for a while — trying to fit modern speakers into a well-crafted mid-century cabinet, finding traditional media center that my modern TV will fit on, etc.

List of Great Architects

Here's a fun little film with, The ABCs of Architects. It's nice to see some mid-century staples like Niemeyer and Wright make the list.

In case the letters go by too quickly, here's the full list:

Alvar AAlto :: Säynätsalo Town Hall :: Finland
Luis Barragán :: Satellite Towers :: Mexico City
Santiago Calatrava :: Lyon - Satolas Airport Railway Station :: France
Luís Domènech i Montaner :: Antoni Tàpies Foundation :: Barcelona
Eduardo Souto de Moura :: Paula Rego's House of Stories :: Portugal
Norman Foster :: London City Hall :: England
Frank Gehry :: Guggenheim Bilbao :: Spain
Herzog & de Meuron :: Beijing National Stadium :: China
Arata Isozaki :: Palau Sant Jordi :: Barcelona
Philip Johnson :: The Glass House :: United States
Louis Kahn :: National Parliament of Bangladesh :: Dhaka City
Le Corbusier :: Villa Savoye :: France
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe :: Barcelona Pavilion :: Spain
Oscar Niemeyer :: National Congress of Brazil :: Brasília
Joseph Maria Olbrich :: Secession Building :: Austria
César Pelli :: Petronas Twin Tower :: Malaysia
Giacomo Quarenghi :: the Smolny Institute :: Russia
Renzo Piano + Richard Rogers :: Pompidou Centre :: France
Álvaro Siza :: Ibere Camargo Foundation :: Brazil
Kenzo Tange :: Tokyo Olympic Stadium :: Japan
Jørn Utzon :: Sydney Opera House :: Australia
William Van Alen :: Chrysler Building :: United States
Frank Lloyd Wright :: Guggenheim :: United States
Iannis Xenakis :: Philips Pavilion :: Expo '58 in Brussels
Minoru Yamasaki :: World Trade Center :: United States
Zaha Hadid :: The Pierres Vives Building :: France

Mid-Century American of Martinsville Hotel Furniture

About once a week or so, someone will email me a question about mid-century furniture. And more often than not it's about pricing mid-century furniture. But it's not every day someone emails and says, "I am dealing with the estate that owns the Park Avenue Motel in Herrin, IL. This is a 20+ room complex built in the late 50s and the all the rooms were furnished with American of Martinsville pieces. Is there a market for American of Martinsville hotel furniture?" But that's exactly what Joe emailed.

I told him that there's definitely a market for mid-century American of Matrinsville furniture, but I wasn't sure what qualified something specifically as American of Matrinsville hotel furniture. So I asked for photos in hopes to help, and because I was really curious what the pieces looked like.

Boy, did Joe provide.

If anyone out there is looking for anything like this, Joe is your man. He has 20+ rooms of it. You can email him at jviterisi950@comcast.net for details, etc.

And if anyone from Texas is thinking of making a trip up to Illinois with a big truck (I'm looking at you Mid2Mod and Uptown Modern), let me know because I'm calling dibs on one of the benches and that coffee table. And maybe a headboard. And maybe a desk or two. And maybe those lights. And maybe that mirror.