It always amuses me when people do something so clever, it’s not one of those ‘ oh, i could have done that’ moments but more of a ‘good for them; they really had some fun” this couple really put some thought into what they built, watch the time lapse video and the pictures of the unit in place. great job Chris and Delores!
Posted by Zachary Mattews
chairfag.com
Edited on iPad 3G
A lot of mid century modern homes have the corner fireplace. One of my favorite features of my house. Problem is how do you go about updating the corner fireplace. When I moved in, it was covered in some hideous brass cover. It took me a while to come up with a solution that I was into, and on the cheap. Here’s the before picture, you may have seen this pic before on our restoration guide.
Here’s what I came up with finally. I built a mantle out of MDF that wrapped around the fireplace. I also dropped it down about six inches to make the fireplace a little more low and slender in appearance. Decided to go with a vented gas insert, and keep the whole thing open. Here’s a few pics of how it turned out.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions for good ways to go about updating a corner fireplace.
If you’re in search of a home that can withstand even the most powerful natural disasters, the solution might reside in the nearest tree. A team of researchers from five universities are currently working on ways to make wood earthquake-proof. If they succeed, the world may soon see cheap, sustainable wooden homes that can hold up even when earthquakes shake them to their cores.
Source: inhabitant.com
A nice chap called Thomas visited us yesterday and told us that Penetrol in Europe is called Owatrol.
Plastolux seems to be a really cool site we found this weekend. Loads of cool ideas on modern living – Even some DIY ones too 
Thanks for the mention guys!
http://plastolux.com
this eames spotting video touches on the history and some details of the Vitra issued Eames Lounge chair and Ottoman (usa model 670 -671) currently in production in germany and sold through out europe by VITRA, the authorized manufacturer for licensed Eames products in Europe.
Whilst surfing around I found this cool site! I thought I’d share with you all!
www.contemporist.com/category/furniture/
our longtime friends Katy Eagleston and Monika Bhow both of Tulsa, Oklahoma. have enhanced the style and comfort of their homes with classic original furnishings over the last months.
Miss Katy received a early christmas gift of 2 matching Eames DSX side chairs in an pristine elephant grey, both chairs have been treated with our ‘penetrol’ technique and have wonderful luster and gloss. they are a perfect fit to her evolving eclectic home!
Miss Monika ordered a Eero Saarinen Womb Chair with Ottoman, finished in red hopsack wool this past week, her local dealer is working with Knoll and production time should be 3 months until she can relax in Eero’s arms, what a treat that day will be.
please send the webmaster photos of your lovely additions to your elegant homes.
Cast your eyes over these arty chairs that Chairfag reader Robert Turrall found on the interwebs today! Thanks Robert!
The site is a little bit slow to load, so please be patient!
Cy
i recently was sent a craigslist link for a garage sale in my neighborhood by a friend (thanks joey!), the ad mentioned some Eames fiberglass and a Nelson Bench for sale, the sale had ended a few days before but it had the address, so i went by the house and asked if they still had the bench or any other items for sale…luckily the Nelson Bench had not sold and i was able to work a deal that morning to buy it.
The natural finish maple bench has a wonderful aged patina and shows years of careful use, but its most unusual feature is the base. Most Nelson bench bases you see have the keystone shaped hardwood shape, painted matte black. By the early 1950’s Herman Miller had received many complaints from designers that the base was too weighty of a look and it was difficult to design around… Nelson & Associates came up with a bent metal rod base with supporting arms and a metal footed rubber glide to comply with what designers wanted, i haven’t been able to find much info on this bench yet related to how long the production run was, but ill research this or call the HM historians to verify its age. i’m told it was out for only 12-18 months. ill add some photos in the next few days, as soon as i get to the back to the studio
zach/ tulsa
Not directly chairs, but somewhere kickass to keep them…
http://www.thecoolist.com/cordell-house-shipping-container-architecture/
I wish this was easy to do here in the UK!
…to Morgan for her sterling work!
I was worried that this would get buried in the comments so here it is in it’s own post. It’s worth a look!
http://trickmybrick.blogspot.com/search/label/Eames%20Chair%20Restoration
Yesterday I found these two George Nelson side tables, both for a whopping 30 bucks!
sort of rough getting through the song, but the images are funny and creative, NASCHAIR! and the planet of the apes ending are my faves
zach
chatting with an old friend tonight and she asked what style my house was, describing it led us to a common bond in our love of MCM furniture and styles…
you just never know when its gonna pop up, glad to see others appreciate it as much as I do,
kim, its good having you as “one of those chairfags”
zachary
We have ZERO affiliation with this seller, but I just noticed them on the eBay banner…
Shock mounts for shell chairs seem to be available from Humemodern.com
Also available on their eBay page too at the moment – Shock mounts on ebay
Here we’re going to walk through an armshell shock mount move and restoral. First of all, in this instance I had run across some orange arm shells that were set up as ‘wide mount’. The first thing that needs to be done is remove the old mounts. I’ve heard a couple ways to go about this such as tightening the bolt all the way down to pull the mount off (which I do not suggest as it can crack the fiberglass on the other side very easily). The way I go about it is to take a sharp flat head screw drive and a rubber mallet and tap around the outside to remove all visable epoxy, then lightly tap under the mount and pry lightly up around the sides untill the mount losens and comes off easily.
After all the shock mounts have been removed, you’ll need to get rid of any existing epoxy left on the chair. I do this by using a coarse sandpaper on an orbital sander to get the majority off, then switch to a medium then to fine for the finish.
Once that work has been completed it’s time to mount the shocks to the standard narrow mount, so it will be able to take any or the various bases available. For this I use a spider base from a tandem set up. I’ve found it to be the best way to get an accurate lay out of the mounts. I first attach the mount directly to the spiderbase finger tight. Make sure that they center in the holes. Then with the chair upside down, place the spiderbase set up onto the chair so that the shock mounts line up on the ‘flat spots’ already on the chair for the narrow mount.
Once that is set and centered outline the outsides of the shock mounts with a marker.
You now have an accurate mark for where to place your mounts. You can use just about any two part epoxy to mount your shocks. I’ve found that JB Weld Quick set seems to work the best for me and looks most original after the fact.
Mix enough of the epoxy so that you can get at least 4 quarter sized globs.
This epoxy sets quick, you only have a couple minutes once you place it on the chair to get your mounts in place. So be hasty when placing your mounts. The reason I suggest a quick set epoxy over one that takes 8 hours to set is because your mounts will drift out of place with other such epoxies unless you keep them held into place.
Once you have them set in place keep them held there for a good 5 minutes to make sure your mounts dont float out of place. After the 5 or 10 minutes, remove the screws and the spider base from the mounts and let the epoxy cure over night. You want to remove the screws before it completely cure as to avoid the screws being epoxied to the mounts.
As far as moving the shocks goes, you’re done. Next we will be restoring the fiberglass back to original luster.
Here we start be smoothing the edges with a fine wet sand. For the wet sand get a squirt bottle, put a couple drops of dish soap on the botton and fill up with warm water. Wetting the area as you sand will prevent fiberglass dust from getting everywhere and save you and your lungs from an uncomfortable itch.
Go around the edges and smooth them out, then move to the rest of the chair doing a fine wet sand to the entire area, until the entire chair is smooth.
Once the entire chair has been done, rinse it off with water to get rid if any of the exsisting dust and let it air dry. (drying with a cloth will leave fibers that will show up in the coating process later).
The chair is now ready to coat. For this I use a product called ‘Penetrol’. This can be picked up at any home center, is used to restore fiberglass and has many other uses such as an oil paint conditioner.
If you are in Europe, Try searching for a product called “Owatrol“. It is apparently the European equivalent!
Try our link to find some Owatrol
Make sure and wear gloves while applying Penetrol, you don’t want to get this on your hands or anything else as it’s next to impossible to get off.
Use a lint free cloth for application. Soak the cloth in the Penetrol so that it is fully saturated. Apply the Penetrol liberally so that it will not leave streaks. Make sure that you don’t put so much on as to cause dripping or sags though. It may take a little practice.
Apply first to the bottom of the chair, let it it set for a couple hours then attach the base, flip the chair over on it’s base and apply to the rest of the chair.
Once it has been applied, place the chair in a safe dust free enviroment and let it cure for a couple days. Penetrol take quite a while to dry as it’s an oil based product. This as well makes it stronger and much more durible than a standard clear coat.
**NOTE** I do not recommend that penetrol is used on white shells, as it will yellow slightly over time. In that case I’d use a standard clearcoat.
Once your chair has cured, it’s ready for use and will look like new for years to come.
