This is the first in what will likely be a series of posts about individual pieces of furniture and decor in my home. I love searching for vintage mid century modern pieces, and there's a certain thrill to the hunt. You see something that strikes your fancy, you see a good price, and you hope… Continue reading Furniture Feature: Dux Inc. sofa, with walnut frame and wall-to-wall caning (Part 1)
This project is a variation on the very popular double desk IKEA Hack, which takes various desk components and tops it off with one of their butcher block countertops. However, unlike a lot of the variations on this desk I have seen, our version had one non-standard addition: a keyboard tray.
Mr. Moughmoore's parents had this little treat hiding in their basements since the 1980s, when it was given to them by a friend of a friend's mom. They recently downsized, and it was given to us. And it still works great! And by using the RCA port, it works even better!
Behold! Our pink bathroom. I will insist on calling it the pink bathroom so I can be in the Save the Pink Bathrooms club, but it is really a quite lovely Ming Green bathroom, and it looks even lovelier with a little blush on its cheeks. If your midcentury house doesn't hand you a pink… Continue reading Room Tour: Our perfectly preserved mid-century powder room
It is hard to find good examples of mantel decorating in mid century modern style (most tend to be pretty naked, or have those ironic dead animal heads) and I spend a disproportionate amount of time doing it, so I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on mantelscaping.
The Big Orange Ranch features two rooms, both alike in dignity both built around fireplaces as the central features. The front room and living room feature back-to-back fireplaces, sharing the chimney in the center of the house. The front room fireplace features stack-bond brick, using the same brick as the exterior. This is fun bit… Continue reading Building Character: raising the mid century stature of an uninspiring fireplace
Christmas time is here again! And the mid century is when most of our modern Christmas nostalgia comes from, so if you're playing house in the mid century you'd better buckle up and get down on it, or you're a poser. Or, if you don't celebrate American Christmas, there are still many ways to get… Continue reading Christmas at the Big Orange Ranch
I really like the Algue as a wall sculpture because I feel like it gets you a lot of “art” for the dollar - there’s not a lot of things you can fill a wall with at the $115 price point that look this good. I really think the Algue is one of those design classics that your kids will think are stupid but your grandkids will fight over when you die.
As an MCM furniture enthusiast, I've looked at enough examples to know what I like, and what design elements look and feel right to me. And at this point in my life, I've become handy enough with tools to know what I can do with them. What follows is a step-by-step chronicling of a sanctimonious MCM scold descending into heresy and hypocrisy, hacking and sawing and drilling away at a 50+ year old piece of furniture.
If you live in a midsize or larger mid-century house you may have also dealt with the weird problem of having two living rooms, which seemingly makes no sense, unless you get into that mid-century mindset instead of just the aesthetics.
Big Orange Ranch 