Palm Springs Modern Home Rentals: Your Next Vacation?

Our Palm Springs vacation rental home. Apparently a former residence of none other than Liberace himself!

Mustard colored front door and grated front window.

Welcome home!

Once past the entry way you have the kitchen to the right and living room to the right.

The living room with a bit of toddler proofing (bench blocking fireplace).

Our comfy living room perfect for cocktails and family games.

The outdoor dining room shares windows with the main dining, kitchen, and living area.

Everything was included except for your family, good times, and a special Mr. Monkey making margarita's.

January is almost over but since New Years is my favorite holiday I try to stretch out the fun and relaxation as long as possible. One way I can do that is by revisiting pictures from our last vacation. For this past holiday we rented a home with our chosen family. I love staying in a beautiful hotel but there's nothing like the comfort and flexibility of renting a vacation home. You can create your own dream modern getaway by renting from vacation rental websites like this. It's a nice alternative to a hotel especially when traveling with a group and with kids. I love being able to settle into a home for an extended period of time. I also love that when we travel with friends and family we all get the chance to lay about in our pjs and have lazy mornings and naps by the pool. And those who choose to stay up late snuggled up by the outdoor fire pit with a glass of wine telling stories of our lives can do that too. Over the next few blog posts I'll be revisiting some of our modern design and mid-century modern site-seeing excursions. We visited notable MCM Palm Springs sites and a few Palm Spring hotels that have been marked notable by the design world. We also made it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see their, "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way" exhibit. While we couldn't take pictures of it all we managed to get some pix of the highlights. 

Happy new years! Cheers to living modern and living well.

Heywood Wakefield Lounge & Ottoman: The newest/oldest monkey

Friends, I'm just sneaking a few posts in under the August wire. It's been a busy summer life. Trying to fit in as much fun and work as possible. I think I'm doing well but I'm a bit tired. Oh well, that's what winter is for. So here's a recent Craiglist find from Salem, Oregon. I like to call it the newest oldest addition to the MCM monkey house. She's a beauty. Here's a few pictures of me bringing her over the threshold of our front door. The Crestview door and ottoman were winking at each other I swear. Seriously though she's comfortable and now where I sit daily typing away on this here lap top. Let's see what else can I tell you about her . . . I think she's late 50's early 60's, black vinyl, the head rest is often missing when you come across these or there is no ottoman. Here's a link to one I found as a price comparison - I paid less via Craiglist. At first the chair was priced at $875 and well I know I just couldn't pay that. So I sent a complimentary email to the post author saying how much I adored teh chair and would provide it with a good home if he was not able to find a proper home for his asking price. I offered him a price that was still a bit outside my price range but that I knew I was willing to pay ($500). the proud papa said thank you for your offer. I'll keep your number on hold and get back to you if no better offer materializes. Well lucky for me he lives in Salem and I'm in Eugene and well this type of furniture is not always flying off the shelf. After a month or so he sent me an email, yee haw! On my way to run errands in Portland I stopped with Miss Single Monkey USA and well there was no turning back. We've already received so many compliments on her and she's so comfy I couldn't be happier with my Craiglist treasure. See it's not all porn and massages on there! Seriously though this chair offered me the sophistication of an Eames Lounge chair but allows me to be unique amongst the MCM crowd - not everyone has to have an Eames Lounge chair. It's nice to mix it up. Another perk of this chair is that I'm buying the original and not a reproduction. Ahh here's to finding functional furniture that adds to our aesthetic surroundings. It allows me to enjoy even more my time somewhere in between fun and work.

Mid-Century Front Door: Crestview

In progress with 2 coats of stain.

Naked door.

Ugly before hollow metal door (read: double ick).

June was a wickedly busy month. I'm thrilled to be onto July when I'll have some more time for blogging. I've got a lot of updates coming your way. First up you might remember way back in Feb. 2009 I bought a front door, one of the last from Crestview Doors in Austin, Texas. Crestview started out as a husband and wife team who were interested in purchasing a front door for their mid-century modern home and could not find any high-quality retailers. They ventured out, took pictures in neighborhoods built in the 1950's and 1960's and came out with a dozen or so styles that ranged from exact replicas and others that offered a more modern twist. In winter 2009 they decided to restructure their business model. They wanted to get out of the business of shipping whole front doors and in the business of selling something a bit more compact. You can check out their website now to purchase a window kit to mid-century modernize your already existing front door. This is much less expensive then purchasing and entire front door mail order. It took me while to settle on s stain and to find someone to hang the door but finally it all came together about 2 weeks ago with the help of Jonathan Plummer from Bunchberry Woodworking and Mr. Monkey of course. The front door is up and the hardware is a whole other story. It will get it's own post once the final product can be shared. In the meantime here are some pics of the before and the during (not quite the after). I still have to put one more layer of stain and the top coat and then we'll call it beautiful. Cheers!

More Modern Palm Springs: Galleria

My bank account does not allow for big splurges on design but a girl can dream, can't I? I did quite a bit of dreaming and drooling over New Years vacation in Palm Springs. Our best find on our outing was the Palm Springs Galleria. The tienditas are on the main drag North Palm Canyon Road. A nice feature of the Galleria is the layout. It's like an antique mart but for MCM hounds. With about 10 different little shops, each housing a different dealer, all sharing a similar aesthetic. T'was a gorgeous sunny 74 degree January day and the dealers had a small sandwich and cookie buffet out - a nice touch for a holiday weekend. The Galleria is a great shopping environment - a few items seemed overpriced because your in MCM Mecca but for the most part the prices seemed spot on for what you're getting. There were so many fun objects I could have spent hours. So instead of mush and gush about each item I'm just going to let you feast your eyes on a few pictures - each one a miniature menagerie of all the great goodies the Galleria had to offer. My fave pieces are below, including the gigantic wrench. After seeing a large cork screw and can opener in a friend's house I just can't get enough of oversized everyday items.

I really really thought about buying this "e" - for Eugene - for the first letter of my name - for it's funky shape. But it's $675 price tag was outside of my league. We just got back from spending money on a southern hemispheric vacation after all. It was not a time for splurging on super cool decor items. I still dream of it though . . .

Love love love this metal lamp! I love everything about it except for its price tag!

Mid-Century Modern Palm Springs

On our way home from the southern hemisphere we stopped over in Palm Springs to ride the new year wave with our chosen family. We're a queer bunch we decided - scientific yet artsy (depending on who you ask), rigid sometimes in our demand for creativity (ironic, I know), free expression, plus a bit nudity just to keep it real. Each new years we demand supreme conversation, sublime cocktails, supine seating preferably by a source of warmth - usually in the form of water or fire, let's see what else . . . scrumptious mouth feels, raucous games, singing, and as much laughing as needed - the kind that will make you puke if possible - there was lots of that - laughing and puking - but not at the same time (a slight stomach flu crashed the retreat). Every year our new years is an absolute recharging of the soul (but usually without the stomach flu - blech). This year we decided on Palm Springs to satiate all of our needs - including my need for all things mid-century modern. We rented this sweet honeypot of a place and we camped out for 4 nights along side the pool and spa. Damn that felt good. Well the house was a cool little mid-century modern house - so while we forgot to venture out for the architectural tour of P.S. our neighborhood had some nice examples including our own digs. Our Palm Springs Vacation Rental was the perfect example of mid-century modern architecture updated without losing it's wonderful MCMness. We made full use of the MCM ideals of living outside and making use of the outdoor space as an extension of the interior. One day we did make it into town for some design inspiration that will be another post before the end of the month. For now, please accept these pictures of our vacation home as a bit of inspiration. Note the monochrome mosaic tile in the bathroom, a subtle feature but one of my favorites. It rained all day today here in Eugene and it's helpful to remember warmer MCM moments. Cheers!

Little Pleasures: 1960's Flatware Ecko Eterna

Oh Happy Day! Mr. Monkey and I had been noticing that none of our spoons and forks and knives matched. We would have guests over and do our best to find the "nicest" spoons without rough edges and oddly bent handles. After years of living together in college and then through grad school with a variety of roommates it's safe to say we had a mismatched set. Now sometimes mismatched sets can be quite nice. In our case the effect was not a positive quirky one - it was just kinda dumpy.

After subscribing to Sunset for a short while I had glimpses of what I wanted. In a few food pictures flatware with wooden handles and silver tops were off to the side and never ever was there a photo caption to say where this flatware came from. These two pictures are from Sunset and offer examples of what I would see and covet. I went around to several stores in town everything from Target to Modern but I had yet to venture over the my favorite Oak Street Vintage. We were having a potluck on Saturday and I just thought I can't keep having people eat with our crappy silverware. I didn't have a bunch of time so I thought I'll just give it a try and head over to Oak St. I did my first loop of the store heading straight back to the kitchen room and found a sweet little serving set - 4 pieces that I picked up right away for $14 bucks I thought these were perfect. They were labeled as "Bamboo Lane" Wooden Handled Hostess Set. But sadly there was no silverware in sight. I did my second loop (there's so much to see - it's like a good book, you always see something new) and was about to check out when I told one of the owners what I was looking for. Cora said, "oh the drawer must have been closed" and she walked me back to the kitchen room again opened a little drawer and sure enough there it was. Imagine the white light shining from the drawer and the angels singing in harmony "AHHHHHH". What was even better was the price! $35.oo dollars for 10 place settings and 2 extra spoons. Perfection! After a bit of internet sleuthing I've learned that the flatware is indeed from the 1960's made by the Ecko company. The pieces are light in your hand and apparently made of teak.  The point is that I love eating with these pieces. They bring joy to my every meal. A so sometimes it's life's little things - good design bringing function and beauty together. Mr. Monkey doesn't like not putting them in the dishwasher but I love them so much that I've been stepping up to the plate, or the sink as it were and washing more dishes so Mr. Monkey doesn't feel burdened by my need for pretty things about. Small price to pay. 

Landed . . . a wall unit

Here's our new wall unit. This picture was taken at Hawthorne Vintage and Sheila there was nice enough and smart enough to take this picture and send it to us so that Mr. Monkey would know how to put it back together. In our search for a wall unit we also ventured over to Look Modern. Oh my modern! Everything is gorgeous there. You must go if you're in Portland or you can check out their web site and drool from the comfort of your home or your place of business (during your lunch break only of course). While we were picking up our furniture at Hawthorne Vintage I perused the latest issue of Atomic Ranch. I was tempted to purchase it but it was $6.95! Too damn pricey for me for a magazine. I was also turned off by my own preconceived notions about the city mentioned in their cover story - San Jose. I admit this is wrong of me and hypocritical. In fact there is proabably some girl in San Jose writing a blog just like this trying to convince the world that San Jose is much more modern than folks think. So I'm sorry San Jose and Atomic Ranch. I still don't want to pay 7 dollars for a magazine though. Signing off from sizzling Phoenix . . .

Welcome to the modern side of Eugene!

Hi, all! Welcome to my blog based out of Eugene, Oregon. My goal is to show that even in a small city we have a growing group of creative people focused of great modern design. At the same time I'll be showing how I am decorating my first home along with my husband - who is the real monkey - with our Eugene resources and a limited budget. Basically I'm obsessed with decorating our home and this is an outlet for me to post pictures - before and after - and show off some of the cool design that is going on here in Eugene. I read Dwell, Domino, Ready Made, and Sunset and most of the locales in these magazines are based in the big cities. It's time to show that Eugene is more than its reputation of college-town with hippie highlights left over from the 60's. Much of Eugene is looking to the future with an emphasis on a healthy environment out in nature as well as in the home. Yes - it may be a trendy focus but it's been a constant in Eugene as long as I've been here (since 2001). I'll be doing a bit of traveling this month and I'll be sure to post pictures from my travels.  Cheers!