Monday, April 18, 2011

My Mom, the Style Icon

My Mom, the Style Icon

One of my favorite new blog discoveries is My Mom, the Style Icon run by Piper Weiss who recently published a book inspired by her blog. The blog and the book feature incredible vintage photos of stylish moms sent in by her readers and friends. I love looking at old photos and recently I've been sorting through my own family photos and coming across some great shots of my own stylish mom as well as my dad (who was also super stylish!) taken during the '60s and early '70s. Coming across My Mom, the Style Icon inspired me to share some of my favorite photos.

What surprised me when looking at these photos is how much my own mother has influenced my sense of style without me ever realizing it. My mom passed away in 1997 but by that time I was regularly wearing mini skirts, Mary Jane shoes and hairbands (or headbands) similar to what my mom is wearing in these photos. I don't wear mini skirts anymore but I do like to wear skirts a lot and I still wear Mary Janes as well as colorful Keds, various plaids and I love large sunglasses and hairbands.

My own mother, with help from my grandmother, made a lot of her own clothing. Some of the things she's wearing above were undoubtedly made by my grandmother with my mom's help. She used to tell me stories about how she would look at catalogs and spot things she couldn't afford but my grandmother could reproduce them effortlessly. According to my mother, her side of the family came from a long line of seamstresses who even worked for the Queen of England at one time. Unfortunately my mother never taught me to sew and I failed all my Home Economic classes so I don't think I inherited the family sewing gene.

I highly recommend making a stop at My Mom, the Style Icon or picking up Piper Weiss' new book. They feature lots of colorful eye-candy as well as thoughtful tributes to mom's from the past and their various personal styles.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Reupholstered Dux Sofa

Thought I'd finally share some photos of our refurbished & reupholstered vintage sofa. The sofa was originally made by Dux in the early '60s. Dux was a San Francisco based company started by Swedish designer Folke Ohlsson in the late 1950s and Dux furniture is usually referred to as Danish Modern or Scandinavian Modern.

The sofa (which I originally posted about here) was badly damaged and had a horrible odor due to mold and (possibly?) cat urine. We had it reupholstered with vintage Danish fabric similar in color & style to an original fabric that Dux used so it would remain true to the period. We love the color and we think it looks amazing now. It was reupholstered by the Danish furniture experts at Klassics and they did a terrific job. Very happy with the results and I'm glad that we could save this beautiful sofa.

New old sofa!

Vintage Sofa Upholstery

Reupholstered Dux Sofa
Room is currently influx and still being renovated. We plan to paint the wall another shade of blue that's more aqua. You can see samples in the photo below that we currently have on the wall while we try to pick paint colors. As you can see below, we're going bold and bright. After a lifetime of being surrounded by white walls I want lots of color in my life.
Dux Sofa & Paint Samples

Friday, April 1, 2011

Sears 1960 Catalog

Sears 1960 Fall Catalog

I recently uploaded a large batch of pictures from the Sears 1960 Fall/Winter Catalog to Flickr. The pictures are amazing and really inspirational if you're looking for decorating ideas, color combinations, lighting tips or just trying to research vintage furniture. I hope you'll enjoy browsing through them as much as I did. Enjoy the slideshow!



If you'd like to browse through the catalog pages at a more leisurely pace you can find my Sears 1960 Fall Catalog Set on Flickr.
 

Mid-Century Living Original Content Copyright © 2009-2012 Blog design by Kimberly Lindbergs Based on a template by Ipietoon