Cool Stuff: Atomic Bullet Planters

I love these retro-cool fiberglass bullet planters. A small one stocked with yummy succulents would make a great centerpiece for the table, and a trio in graduated sizes would bring a dead corner to life.

Available in a rainbow of colors and from 16 to 30 inches tall, they're $150 to $160 each from Hip Haven.

Real Estate Envy: Coast to Coast Modern

I picked up a copy of Atomic Ranch magazine recently, and thumbing through it I was struck by how many ads there were from boutique real estate brokerages specializing in midcentury modern homes.

Because I am a shameless lookie-loo when it comes to homes for sale (seriously, the realtors around here all know me by name at this point, since I've been showing up at their Sunday open houses for years now), I couldn't resist checking out some of the MCM real estate on offer around the country. I always wonder what it might be like to live somewhere else, and it's fascinating to me to see just how much -- or how little -- my money might buy in other places.

Let's take a quick tour, shall we?

San Diego: 3BR, 2BA, 1,859 square feet for $815,000, courtesy of San Diego Modern Homes

Palm Springs, California: 3BR, 2BA, 1,225 square feet for
$629,000, courtesy of Midcentury Properties

Corona Del Mar, California: 8BR, 10BA for $75,000,000 (you read that right: 75 million dollars), courtesy of SoCal Modern

Long Beach, California: 3BR, 1.5BA, 2,054 square feet for $849,000, courtesy of SoCal Modern

Los Angeles: 4BR, 3BA for $1,730,000, courtesy of Valley Modern

Ross, California: 7BR, 5BA, 5,000 square feet for $10,450,000, courtesy of Marin Modern

Portland, Oregon: 3BR, 2BA for $525,000, courtesy of Portland Modern

Phoenix: 3BR, 2BA, 1,890 square feet for $315,000, courtesy of Niche Find Yours

Denver: 3BR, 2BA, 3,129 square feet for $875,000, courtesy of Mile Hi Modern

Austin, Texas: 3BR, 2BA, 1,636 square feet for $250,000, courtesy of The Marye Company

Houston: 4BR, 3BA for $150,000, courtesy of Glenbrook Valley

Lake Forest, Illinois: 4BR, 4BA for $1,869,000, courtesy of JetSet Modern

Hamilton, Ohio: 4BR, 3BA for $260,000, courtesy of Cincinnati Modern

Sarasota, Florida: 2BR, 2.5BA, 2,302 square feet for $1,475,000, courtesy of Modern Sarasota

Is it just me, or is Texas suddenly looking really appealing?

Cool Stuff: Vintage Lighting Love

When it comes to lighting, I love me some vintage. (In fact, almost every hardwired fixture in our home dates from the 1930s, each of them painstaking collected by me on eBay over several years.)

Unlike a lot of vintage lighting collectors, though, I don’t turn up my nose at reproductions as long as they’re well-made and clearly created out of a genuine love for the originals. And when it comes to repro period lighting, you can’t beat Rejuvenation.

The Portland, Oregon company was founded in 1977 as a one-man architectural salvage shop. Today, it’s the largest repro lighting manufacturer in the country -- but it’s obvious that the folks at Rejuvenation are still motivated more by a passion for vintage lighting than anything else.

I love it when a new Rejuvenation catalog clinks into the mailbox, its pages filled with gorgeous photos and peppered with friendly profiles of Rejuvenation’s craftspeople and stories of how homeowners have used the company’s products to help bring neglected old homes back to life. Plus, the catalogs come out infrequently enough (just once a year) that a new one feels like an event, rather than yet another pulverized tree that’ll quickly be chucked into the recycling bin. (If you’re interested, you can request a catalog here.)

The Rejuvenation website is a treat as well. It seems to be set up as much to educate visitors about vintage homes and period style as it is to move product. If you live in a pre-1960 dwelling and aren’t sure exactly what style it is, then visit the “Old House Style Guide” for pointers on identifying the hallmark features of Arts and Crafts bungalows, Greek Revival farmhouses, and midcentury modern abodes, among others. And the Lighting Wizard will help you zero in on the perfect fixture for the era of your home and the room and function it’s intended for.

In keeping with its old-house aesthetic, Rejuvenation also sells everything from clawfoot bathtubs to heat registers to vintage-style (and really hard-to-find) filament bulbs, which add the perfect finishing touch to the company’s period fixtures.

And, staying true to its salvage roots, Rejuvenation still sells a collection of gorgeous and fully restored vintage lighting and hardware. (Browsing through the current offerings, I was thrilled to spot the exact speakeasy set, left, that we have on the front door of our 1930s home.)

But back to lighting. Rejuvenation has more lights than I could possibly cover in one post, so I’ll concentrate on Modern America, the newest addition to Rejuvenation’s period collections. (Though I’m also a sucker for the Old English fixtures.)

Focusing on 1925 to 1960, Modern America spans Art Deco to Atomic Age lighting, including examples of Streamline Moderne, Machine Age, and International Style fixtures. The lights from the first half of this period are lushly decorative in a way that evokes the glamour of old Hollywood -- while those from the later half have a streamlined simplicity and aerodynamic angularity that defined early modernism.

Some of my favorites:

Selma With Shade, $83

Adrian With Shade, $85

Mathison With Shade, $93

Echo With Shade, $103

Dora, $171

Hewitt With Shades, $440

Manning, $179

Skyport, $356

Enterprise, $165

Otis With Shade, $144

Aloha, $205

Cove, $127

To see all of Rejuvenation’s offerings, click here.

Cool Stuff: Lunar Lounge Furniture

Lunar Lounge Design is a small company in Winnipeg, Canada that specializes in retro-modern inspired furniture.


Founded in 2001 by Midcentury Modern enthusiasts Jonathan Sebastian and Colin Miller, Lunar Lounge's affordable offerings have a colorful, Atomic-Age vibe that's perfect for those who prefer a bit of fun and humor in their MCM interiors. (It's telling that Lunar Lounge's logo features an illustration of Fifties cheesecake queen Bettie Page striking a pose on one of the duo's lounge chairs.)


My favorite pieces include the diamond-pattern Argyle Storage System, top, $295 (all prices are in USD); the Bokz Chair, above, $269 to $549, which comes in a choice of orange twill, colorful vinyl, leather, or rawhide upholstery; the Eliptikal and Booma-Rang Cocktail Tables, above, $109 to $169, available in white, red, aqua, orange, brown, and black; and the Ball- and Bubble Chair-esque Orbit Lounge Chair, below, $749 to $789, which is crafted from clear Vivak or colored plastic.

Check out Lunar Lounge's complete line here.

eBay Find of the Day: Fabulous Fifties Footstool

Did I mention that I'm just a little ob-
sessed with turquoise right now?

This funky footstool is seriously tempting me. I love the atomic-age pattern on top, and the slim-and-sexy black legs. It'd be perfect in my daughter's mostly white (with hints of aqua) room, though I might steal it for my own ...

So grab this now, or I just might. (But hurry -- the auction ends Wednesday afternoon.)

Current bid: $3.25.

Cool Stuff: Big Bang Lights

The gracefully exploding forms of these Sputnik-like Big and Little Bang lights will bring back warm and fuzzy memories of the Atomic Age. Made from spiky polypropylene, each comes with a lamp kit, 6.5 feet of white cord, and a ceiling medallion.

They're available for $76 and $92 here.