New Mid-Century Modern Shower Curtain

I spent the weekend adding the new finishing touches on our master bath.

Here's the original realtor photo from when we bought the place, with nobody using it so it looks perfect.

Here's what it looked like for the past few years, after I added a new mirror and mirror-side lights, and figured out a way to hide most of the day-to-day, someone-lives-here-now mess on the shelves.

And here it is with the new mid-century modern shower curtain, new shower hooks that mimic the look of the metal bar on the mirror-side lights and, while you can't see it in the photo, new frosted white trash can that mimics the glass on the sconces.

Sure, they're extremely small details, but after a few years of seeing the same curtain and shower hooks with one missing ring, they really freshen up the room and put those final, final touches on it. (Except for the one or two other ideas that I might follow through on.)

Random Mid-Century Pictures from Austin

I love living in Austin and when I'm out and about exploring the city I try to snap pictures of the mid-century things I see. Most of those pics go into a post here on Mad for Mid-Century. But some of them have just been hanging out on my phone forever, either because I couldn't think a long enough post to write about them or because I was planning to go back and take more photos, but never got around to it.

So here are a few mid-century inspired, random pictures from Austin that have been sitting on my phone for too long.

A comic book rack that has to be from the '50s at Nau's Enfield Drug.

Mid-century lights at the 65-year-old Barton Springs bathhouse.

Mid-century sign at Peter Pan Mini Golf.

Mid-Century Modern Lights at Starbucks

My online search to buy my pair Moe Light honeycomb lights took me to strange places, including a patent held by Starbucks. Their patent references page 25 of the 1960 Moe Light catalog. I haven't seen the 1960 catalog yet, but the drawing that goes with the patent makes me want to see the inside of both the catalog and a Starbucks soon.

My Moe Light Honeycomb Recessed Lights

I've been waiting for a pair of decently priced Moe Light honeycomb pendant lights to come up for sale for over two years. It feels like forever. Sometimes decorating with vintage materials is a waiting game and sometimes you need to know when to compromise.

So we a near perfect pair of decently priced Moe Light honeycomb recessed lights came up for sale I snatched them up as quick as I could. They should be shipping to Austin soon.

They're just as pretty as the other Moe honeycomb lights and they'll work really well in the space we had planned for the pendant lights. And if I ever run across a pair of honeycomb pendants, I might still have a spot for them.

Mid-Century Modern Shower Curtain

Our master bathroom could use a little sprucing up. Just the small things, the details. One of those details is the shower curtain. Our current curtain is very think and doesn't allow any sunlight into the shower; all the windows are all on the outside of the shower. So every morning I have to turn on the mirror-side lights before I hope in the shower.

So I went looking for a whiteer, brighter mid-century modern shower curtain.

This octopus shower curtain is my absolute favorite but was too expensive, although I did consider it even at a high price point.

I also liked this London shower curtain, but again, too expensive for me.

With London on the mind I considered this London Underground shower curtain but it was too bright for my bathroom.

So I decided to start looking a simple mid-century modern shower curtains. This sheer shower curtain was at the top of the simple list, but a little too simple for my bathroom. I need a little bit of a pattern.

So I shifted to curtain like this one

And this one

But they had too much of a pattern for me. So I ended up with this mid-century modern shower curtain.

It's white, which should let in a lot more light, with gray pattern, which will look nice with the stone tile inside the shower.

Mid-Century Art: The Park by Gustav Klimt

Not too long ago my wife took a trip to New York and stopped by the MoMA. When she got back she told me about a piece she saw that she knew I would love, "The Park" by Gustav Klimt. I'm not usually a fan of German Expressionism (although I do love German Expressionist films), but I absolutely love this painting. I have to go see it in person at some point.

While it was painted well before anything you could call mid-century, I think a print of "The Park" would look great in a mid-century home. Especially if you have the popular mid-century interior wall color of gray. Those greens would just jump right off the wall.

Map Art for a Travel Nursery

There are no shortage of map wall murals for travel nurseries these days, but this DIY map mural is colorful, easy to make and inexpensive, which makes it perfect for any baby's room. Get all the steps to make your own from Infarrantly Creative.

Moe Light Honeycomb Light Ad

While looking for something totally unrelated, I happened upon this vintage ad for Moe Light honeycomb lights.

The ad reads:

Moe Light Division
Thomas Industries Inc.
New colors, new textures blend in this exciting use of unique jet-age materials. the unusual honeycomb structure creates entires new visual effects; hues enhance your decor. In emerald-blue, tangerine-gold or honey natural as pull-down, pendant or ceiling fixtures.

I've seem images of the "honey natural" lights, but I've never seen them called that till now. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen them called anything till now.

Hanging Our Robert Lyons Mid-Century Art

My new Robert Lyons mid-century art found a home this weekend. It's the perfect bookend to a cluster of art that we already had hanging in our living room, above the TV. Shortly before the Lyons print arrived I had started thinking, "We can put another piece on that wall and still have it look good." (Part of my life is finding places I can cram more art without my wife thinking I'm a crazy art pack rat.)

In this location, everyone who walks into our home is sure to see the Lyons painting. It's the main wall you look at when you walk in the door. And luckily enough, the color palette goes with all the other art on the wall, and the rug and couch. Not that the art in my living room has to match the couch.

Mid-Century Modern Nursery Paint Colors

I wrote about Dunn-Edwards for their mid-century modern color palette trends. But they also have mid-century modern colors for nurseries. They're a little darker, earthier and more subtle than their other mid-century modern paint colors and they'd be great for a boy's or girl's room.

I think nursery they have set up in the photo is pretty spectacular — new modern crib, vintage rocker the looks comfortable enough to fall asleep in, mid-century clock so you can keep some semblance of time and some clean, modern shelving to keep things off the floor. It's mid-century and modern in harmony, which is exactly how Dunn-Edwards describes this paint line:

Influenced by the resurgence of mid-century design, this look uses natural woods and textures with pop of bold color. Materials include organic cottons, bamboo flooring and bedding and eco-friendly finishes. Furnishings are clean lined and incorporate a sculptural, minimalist feel.

Mid-Century Home of the Future

Paleofuture is getting added to the blog reader. First they started an amazing series about the Jetsons. Now they've dug up video of Walter Conkite walking us through a mid-century view of the home of the future.

Sunken living rooms may have gone out of style but many of the predictions are pretty spot on. The look of the technology might be wrong, sadly globe speakers have also fallen out of favor, but thought behind the technology is there, just usually smaller in our modern reality.

Sadly, the kitchen is the one place where a lot of the speculated technology didn't come to fruition. If cooking was only so easy.

Ceiling Light for Travel-Themed Nursery

I recently ran across this nautical ceiling light on Etsy (already sold).

But you take that ugly little captain's wheel off and you've got a great globe ceiling light for a travel-themed nursery.

There are a few different versions out there.

But since they're all vintage you might have to wait a bit to find one for sale still.

Mid-Century Art: Robert Lyons

I have to give it to Joe, he keeps finding treasures at the Park Avenue Motel. This time it's in the form of the art on the walls. He has a collection of Robert Lyons mid-century art prints that used to hang in the rooms. (The drummer/limbo-dancer prints in the middle are by another artist, Amoroso.)

Joe was nice enough to mail me a Robert Lyons painting of my choice and I picked the vases. Photos don't do it justice, the colors jump of the canvas.

I did everything I could to find out more about Robert Lyons the artist, but other than other images of his work (which you can see with a Google image search of his name), there's not a lot of info out there.

He worked in the '50s and '60s and his prints seemed to have been mainly framed by the Franklin Picture Company. On the back of my print is "Franklin Picture 1334" and while the number is shared by other versions of this print, it's not exclusive to this print, though it might be exclusive to Lyons prints.

There are however a lot of artists named Robert Lyons, but when you see this one's work, you'll be able to spot it instantly. It helps that all the prints are signed by Robert Lyons and that signature looks like this.

I haven't found a good place to hang my new print so right now it's just sitting on the mantle.

It will find a good home on the wall soon.