Fun and VJs

Visiting Canberra

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 09:34:00 +0000

We made a quick trip to Canberra, Australia's capital city, over the Christmas and New Year period. If you like your fix of mid-century modern then Canberra should certainly be on your list of destinations to visit.

Our short holiday mainly centred around the major tourist attractions for the children. This included a visit to Parliament House, The Royal Mint, Black Mountain, the Australian War Memorial and Questacon. We did manage to squeeze in a mid-century house sticky-beak in the suburb of Forrest with the assistance of a self-guided tour thanks to the Canberra House website.

Looking up through the glass ceiling at Parliament House

Looking towards Parliament House from the Australian War Memorial

Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. The view from here was amazing

Pillars of gold in Civic Square

ACT Legislative Assembly Building in Civic Square

It was a nice gentle family destination and we really enjoyed all the sites. Canberra has an interesting genesis as it is a planned city. It was designed by American Walter Burley Griffin after he won an international competition in 1912 to plan Australia's capital. It is surprisingly easy to get about with a rental car...we only got lost twice which is actually great since I am a dreadful navigator!

Canberra House is a fantastic resource and if we had more time we definitely would have done a more comprehensive tour of Canberra's residential architecture. There is a plethora of fabulous homes to drool over.

Sadly, one of the homes we could visit inside was closed. The Robin Boyd designed Manning Clark House, which is now a museum/community centre of sorts, is where the late historian Manning Clark penned his famous A History of Australia. We contented ourselves with an exterior stick-beak only.

Manning Clark House 1952 in Forrest

Here are a few notable mid-century modern homes we saw on our brief tour of Forrest.

Sir Roy Grounds designed Forrest Townhouses 1959

Malcolm Moir designed home 1935

Robin Boyd designed home 1952/53

Hopefully our next stay in Canberra will be a little longer and we will be able to spend more time exploring this gem of a city.

Flokati rug is in the mid-mod house

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:59:00 +0000

I've been suffering writer's block and Jason hung up his tool belt semi-permanently over the holidays. We'd never make it in those reality TV renovating shows...given our slackness...Ha!

Anyhow, just before Christmas we acquired a new (which means used) rug for the living room. It's one of those Greek shag pile rugs called Flokati. It was time for us to mix things up a bit and become more international. And it was off to Greece we went, figuratively speaking.

Flokati rug in the living room.
It contrasts nicely with the dark timber floors.

Flokatis are handmade from pure wool in Greece and are noted for having a thick and lush pile. It's beautifully soft underfoot and the kids are more inclined to lie down on the floor when they're watching TV.

To clean it all we have to do is shake it out on the patio and give it a light vacuum. Apparently you can wash it with wool wash in a large bath tub or give it a hose. I've also read that it needs a brush every so often to keep its lush appearance.

The shag pile look is very reminiscent of the 1960s, so it is perfectly at home in our mid-century modern pad.

McIntosh sideboard

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 08:20:00 +0000

Over the past few months we have acquired a few new (actually old) furniture pieces to reside in our mid-century home. You know how it is when you move house...you have to tweak your furniture to suit the space...Ha! That's the excuse I'm running with!

McIntosh sideboard

We added a beautiful teak McIntosh sideboard to our collection of mid-century furniture. It is Scottish-made and clearly well-travelled as it eventually found its way to Australia, firstly via country Pittsworth and finally to Brisbane with us. We're using it to store our photographs, DVDs and CDs and our TV currently resides on top of it. Our poor old telly was previously on a very low coffee table...

McIntosh sideboard in our living room

I've been trying to find out a bit about the manufacturer which was AH McIntosh & Co Ltd. The business began making furniture in Kirkcaldy, Scotland in 1869 and it was renowned for making quality furniture.

It went through a time of change during the post-WW2 period catering to the demand for modern yet stylish utility pieces. AH McIntosh began reproducing and reinterpreting Scandinavian designs in teak and their furniture was hugely popular with the aspirational middle class in Britain.

McIntosh Furniture label

Today, AH McIntosh is still in operation as ESAMcIntosh, providing furniture and equipment for the education sector. From what I have read, vintage AH McIntosh furniture is becoming increasingly collectible because it is extremely well made and has the mid-century look that is so hot right now.

McIntosh sideboard

I'm back! And window frames...

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:24:00 +0000

I'm back after having a month off from Fun and VJs - my long service leave, so to speak...

Really, there hasn't been a great deal going on around here during my little break. The weather has been either crazy hot or crazy stormy. Needless to say the renovating mojo is not strong in such trying conditions.

However one job which is finally finito is the painting of all the exterior timber window and door frames. They were previously cream and now they are white. Surprise, surprise! We are of the white window and door frame school of thought.

Here are a couple of after shots:

mid-century brick with white window frames.
This is the back of our home.

Mid-century brick with white window frames.
This section of the house is where our living room is situated

And here are a couple of before shots...in cream :

It was a relatively small job but it packs a lot of impact. It is fresher and more importantly it is how the house was originally.

Meeting the architects

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:30:00 +0000

One of the most pleasant outcomes of participating in Brisbane Open House was how it led to a wonderful meeting with the architects who designed our home. Apparently, the newspaper publicity about the A.F Dawson Residence earlier this month was enough to pique the interest of 82-year-old architect Peter Heathwood to pay me a visit.

And what an enormous privilege it was to meet Peter Heathwood, who also brought along the charming Michael Cardillo, a second year cadet during the time the house was built. Michael's handwriting was even on the original plans. He eventually became a partner in Heathwood's architectural firm which exists today as Heathwood, Cardillo,Wilson, although both Peter and Michael are now retired.

You know it will be a nice visit when your guests bring cake, which they did. They were simply delightful and we had a good old chat!

It was quite a special moment to have the people who conceived the design of the house come back after 51 years. They were very comfortable with the home and could talk with great ease about the design features and materials used in the home...like it was built yesterday. They were impressed at how well the home had fared for its 50 plus years.

I had a number of questions about whether or not certain things were original to the house. It was namely the use of lattice for the verandah/patio screen and balustrade, as it seemed at odds with the modernist style of the home.

I can confirm the lattice is indeed original. It was used as a buffer on the western side of the house to provide protection from the sun. The lattice pattern was also repeated for the balustrade. It is also consistent with many of Peter's other homes which used forms of screening. Michael visited the house just after it was built and remembers it quite well.

Michael said the house is very much how all of Peter's homes were built. The AF Dawson Residence is one of Peter's 'tent designs' which is quite evident when you enter the home with the central pole in the middle of the house.

Comfort and climate were the overriding imperatives in his homes. His philosophy was a home should provide shelter and his homes were designed for the best possible comfort in our sub-tropical climate. And it is a very comfortable home in which to live!

Interestingly, Peter designed all the interior and exterior Perspex light fittings himself because he said you just couldn't get decent light fittings at the time. He was chuffed they were still in the house. The yellow light shades outside were to repel mosquitoes and minimise the bugs which are attracted to white light.

The best line of the day was when Peter entered the refurbished 1980s kitchen and exclaimed, "Well, this is certainly not our work!" You'd understand why if you saw our country style kitchen which is completely out of kilter with the rest of the home.

The kitchen benches would have been much higher and would have had white Laminex bench tops which curved up the splash back and then there was a shelf for condiments before the overhead cupboards would start. The cabinetry was originally maple plywood with black d-mould handles similar to the cabinets in our bedrooms.

Peter said to give him a call when we renovate the kitchen, as he would be able to help us out. That job has obviously jumped up in the priority list...especially given Peter's age... Stay tuned!

Repairing the plywood ceiling

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 03:30:00 +0000

The joys of aged maple plywood ceilings end when the reality of repairing them slaps you in the face!

The hole left behind when we removed the wood heater

As many of you would know, we recently removed a wood heater from the main living area. You can read about it here if you are new to the blog.

The hole after the roof was repaired

A lot of creative thought went into repairing the hole left in the ceiling after removing the heater flue. The ceilings are made from rotary cut Queensland maple plywood panels. They are the most sumptuous ceilings to behold and was part of the reason we fell in love with this home when we first saw it.

a distance shot of the hole left after we removed the wood heater

We tossed around various ideas with the help of Danny, a builder who has great experience working on mid-century homes. Initially we thought we could replace the whole ceiling panel; it had sustained water damage from where rainwater must have seeped through over the years.

Sadly, finding rotary cut maple plywood is next to impossible. We tried to source it second-hand and we also looked at the newer plywood products with a view of colour-matching it to 50 year old maple.

Another idea was to steal a panel from one of the bedrooms, and substitute it. You know, do the old 'switcheroonie' trick with a less attractive repair being relegated behind bedroom doors.

In the end our final solution would be the least intrusive and most efficient. We recycled the doors of an old maple plywood cabinet (the original kitchen overhead cupboards to be precise) that had been left behind in the garage by the previous owners (bless them!). Re-purposing the doors and converting them to a ceiling panel seemed the most viable option.

It was a slightly unorthodox solution but it meant we could colour match the ceiling without it being horribly obvious. It also had the added benefit of being free material!

Danny came over and did the job for us...with surgical-like precision...

Cutting out the damage with the help of a template and small cutting tool.
Yep, Danny is a surfing hippy who like all our recent builders is extremely well-read! Tick!

Danny made a simple template, based on the plywood doors which he had jointed together, as guide. With that template he was able to cut out the damaged ply and make a new space in which to fit the re-purposed plywood doors.

A neat ceiling gap in which to place the re-purposed plywood doors

Making the plywood piece fit proved slightly tricky. There was a lot of hand sanding the edges and corners to get a precise fit. Poor old Danny spent a lot of time getting it perfect which is just a beautiful thing to see in action - he took so much care.

A good fit. The plywood piece is in.

Danny planned to nail the piece in place but was afraid the nail heads would detract from the final finish. He changed his mind and decided a quick drying super-grip adhesive would be the best option. He used the Sika SuperGrip 30 minutes and held it in place with a telescopic prop. We left the prop up overnight just to make sure the plywood was not going anywhere!

The final product.

Et voila! You don't instantly notice the repair, particularly if you weren't aware a wood heater occupied this space. Nonetheless you can still make out there was a repair which I guess forms part of the new history of the home.

We couldn't be happier with the final result...and now we have more flexibility with this space and the ceilings still look great despite the repair.

A.F Dawson Residence at Brisbane Open House

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:20:00 +0000

Well what a busy couple of weeks we've had in the lead up to Brisbane Open House which was held last weekend.

It's all done and dusted and we were so pleased to be involved in the event as part of the residential homes component. For those who don't know, our home was the A.F Dawson Residence in the program.

Jason and I had a terrific time opening our home and sharing it with the general public - meeting lovely new people and even the neighbours. We were also happy to meet quite a few Fun and VJs readers and instagram followers. Thanks so much for visiting and hearing the story of what we know about the home so far and our plans for it.

For those of you who missed out, you can visit Walk Among the Homes blog to view a special virtual home tour. As the house is very much a work-in-progress, there have been a few changes since then...it's ever evolving as we remove, repair and restore!

AF Dawson residence – Photo by Elizabeth Santillan www.walkamongthehomes.com.au

We were also chuffed to be in the Courier Mail's QWeekend 4 October issue with an article written by the wonderful Margie Fraser. It is a hoot of a story about how we came to view the house because of the furniture and ended up buying the house instead!

And if you still want to satisfy your curiosity about the house, keep reading here. I promise to keep it updated more religiously as we go along!

The blue room - painting the mid-century master bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:10:00 +0000

Painting, painting and painting. It's all we ever really do around here...actually, I lie. We've had a few jobs completed, so I will get you all up to speed with our goings-on over the next few blog posts. But firstly, today is all about our blue master bedroom.

A few weeks ago we painted our bedroom a lovely shade of 1960s light blue. Again, we are trying to match the original colours of the house. Jason has been the chief colour matcher and he seems to be nailing the choice each time he goes to buy the paint. Go Jason!

Our bedroom was a mix of the original light blue colour and white - it seemed to be incomplete, like someone gave up when they were doing the job (and for a change it wasn't me!). We were planning on painting the room white however as with our laundry and kitchen we decided to embrace colour.

Blue suits the space and exudes a nice calming ambiance. We're loving it.

The following is a pictorial of our new lagoona teal coloured bedroom.

This is an after photograph of the painting. This shot is of our built-in dressing table.

Jason also re-painted the door which opens out to our backyard.

A corner of our bedroom with the blue coloured walls

In progress shot of Jason painting the walls

Painting white walls blue

We still have a few things to do in this bedroom, such as changing the window coverings, and painting above the window frames (it just needs to be freshened up with white paint)...all in good time though.

Painting the mid-century laundry

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:54:00 +0000

The one-wall-a-weekend painting program has been quickly stepped up to one-room-a-weekend now we are unlocking our doors to be part of Brisbane Open House 2014! Nothing like a deadline to get things moving.

Last weekend we attacked the laundry with a tin of 'fresh frappe' green paint. We intend to keep some of the original colours used in certain rooms of this mid-mod home.

Our initial thought, before we moved in, was to paint the entire interior white but having lived here for about six months our line of thinking has changed. Yes, who are we?

I know, the light mid-century colours can be polarising...but we think they're fun and add to the personality of the home. The colour is also entirely appropriate for the era of the house.

The laundry feels much fresher and cleaner with the newly painted walls. The change is not markedly different, however we believe the overall first impression is better.

After: repainted the laundry walls with light green paint. Jason also had more success painting the stable or dutch door. He's only painted it the once!

In progress shot of the walls as they were being painted

Before: this is laundry when it was owned by the previous owners

Removing the unwanted wood heater

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 11:14:00 +0000

Vale wood heater. It was nice knowing you, even though we never used you during winter. You were like the elephant in the room...taking up too much valuable space. We never took any photographs of you when you became ours because we never thought you worthy...sadly, unloved

For the few cold nights we have in sub-tropical Brisbane we were prepared to sacrifice cosy warmth for more useable room.

A shot of the wood heater when the house was with the previous owners

A couple of weeks ago we hired a plumber to remove the heater and repair the inevitable hole in the roof. It only took about an hour or so for it to be done. Afterwards, a few days of rain assured us the plumber did a good job because we were leak-free!

Wood heater-free living space. You can see the maple board on the right.

Our next dilemma is to repair the hole in the Queensland maple ceiling. Finding aged maple rotary cut plywood to match the rest of the ceiling is a problem.

The solution we came up with, with our builder, was to re-purpose some old maple wood doors from the old kitchen cupboards which had been stored under the house. Fortunately the previous owners had kept the old overhead cupboards in the garage and they are a close enough match to work

Our builder has fabricated two old doors into one board which he will use to repair the ceiling. You will still be able to tell there was a repair to the ceiling, but that's fine. It all forms part of the history of the house as it evolves.

Removing the wood heater will provide us with more flexibility in our living and dining areas. That is always a good thing.

Brisbane Open House 2014

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:33:00 +0000

Attention all archi-tourists: it's that time again when we have to plan our itineraries for Brisbane Open House to be held on the weekend of the 11/12 October 2014.

For those of you not in the know, Brisbane Open House is an annual event which grants the general public access to some of Brisbane's architectural gems. You can read about my experience at last year's Brisbane Open House event here.

Last week we attended the official launch and received our information guide books. The breadth of historical and contemporary properties which will be on show is rich and diverse. There are nearly 90 properties featured in the guide - with 35 new buildings opening their doors this year.

Brisbane Open House guide book

One of those new buildings is also our home...Eek!

We were asked to participate and are among some of the suburban residential offerings in this year's open house program. Our home is listed as the AF Dawson residence in the program and you can book a tour of our place via the ballot system on the Brisbane Open House website. Go on, we'd love to meet you!

AF Dawson residence

We are very excited to be part of this year's event as hopefully it will raise awareness of the importance of preserving mid-century homes. Too often, homes like ours are unsympathetically renovated or even demolished to build homes which are generally poorly designed and constructed...And we can't have that, can we?

Our home was designed by an award-winning Brisbane architect called Peter Heathwood - it was drawn as a specification house for builder AF Dawson in 1962. The house was owned by the one family until we purchased it earlier this year. It's a great home and we really love it.

Railton House. Image from here

In the open house program there are other mid-century residential homes and buildings which are 'must-sees' for the mid-mod enthusiast. My pick is Railton House and Office located in Spring Hill, Torbreck Home Units in Highgate Hill, Jacobi House in Indooroopilly. You can check out the Hot Modernism suggested itinerary on the Brisbane Open House website to see what else is on offer.

Because we are part of the event it means my 'archi-touring' will be curtailed to just one day. I've got my heart set on seeing the old Boggo Road Goal built in 1903 and also the 2014 Christian Street residence designed by architect James Russell.

If you're in Brisbane which buildings do you plan to visit?

Throne for the WC

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 01:38:00 +0000

It was a big day yesterday. A new toilet was installed in our mid mod house - a new throne for the royal ablutions.

Hmm...the joys of an older home...our throne is slightly elevated sitting on a concrete plinth of sorts...

As much as we like to keep the changes to this house 'mid-century authentic', we had to draw the line to the 50 year old toilet with original Bakelite seat. It had seen better days and was ready to be retired. (You'll be pleased to know that we are keeping the simple but highly effective toilet roll holder. Ha!)

A new modern loo was the only way to go - water efficient and hopefully much easier to keep clean.

Old toilet, I'm sure you served well over the years...RIP

We chose a dependable Australian-made Caroma toilet suite with a porcelain cistern. Anything made of plastic would have deteriorated due to the amount of sunlight streaming through the large frosted window in the WC.

I was toying with the idea of getting a new black Bakelite seat... however our experience from the Sow's Ear told us that black Bakelite is difficult to keep in pristine condition. Ours became cloudy over time. :(

After having this initial plumbing work conducted on the house we're now aware that all the old pipes are galvanised steel and are rusting badly. It will be something we will have to attend to before they eventually deteriorate to a rusty mess and seize up for good. We'll be putting that on the list as we plan out our projects.

A smart flush Caroma toilet suite

But firstly we will have to attend to the walls and floors in our sad looking WC. A coat of fresh paint on the walls, repairing the timber architraves and a choice of new flooring is on the to-do list.

The mid-century modern hallway

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:27:00 +0000

We had a productive week last week with the hallway receiving some much-needed attention. The fun you can have with a dark hallway, tin of paint and a few rolls of painter's tape! A mid-century modern hallway of dreams...

Hallway: taken from Bedroom 3 looking towards the shower room

We continued the vivid white colour theme from the main living areas to down the hallway. The walls were a little tired and slightly scuffed, so the new coat of paint has freshened it up nicely. Again, it is only the subtlest of changes which still gives our home a substantial lift.

It is a dark hallway because of the maple timber ceiling and dark floors, however the large picture window in the toilet and the skylight in the shower room located on either side of the hallway provides an abundance of natural light. When we close one of those doors, the hallway is quickly veiled in darkness.

Hallway: photo taken from the shower room looking down towards the toilet. That poor toilet is going to be replaced soon as some things are beyond restoring!

As you can see, there is a lot of wood trim in the hallway - it felt like we spent more time taping up and removing tape than actually painting. We undercoated the walls first and then followed up with two coats of vivid white paint. The inside of each door frame was painted too...which meant a week of doors ajar in a prudish household!

A huge sigh of relief was exhaled when this job was completed. It was a relatively problem free project and Jason's painting confidence is back after the setbacks with the blue front door.

We have a lot of other small projects underway, so I will be back soon to tell you all about it.

Blue door hell:part 3

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 03:27:00 +0000

If you told me that time had stood still over the past five weekends, I would probably believe you...given we are still painting the front door...It's like we are stuck in some cruel time warp, where we are in some kind of blue door painting holding pattern!

stripped back again

'What?' you ask. Didn't we finish that door a fortnight ago? Hmm...it appears the word finished doesn't really mean finished. Even a blog post saying the door was finished was not enough! Clearly it's not really over when the fat lady sings. Jason's quest for perfection with this blue door knows no bounds. Good enough is not good enough.

Jason wanted to do one final touch up of the door, because there was still some dust particles which showed through the glossy finish. It didn't help that one of our friends pointed out the dust too - a casual throw-away line was the catalyst for one final coat of paint. (Thanks a lot Chris! Keep quiet next time. Ha!)

Unfortunately when Jason started painting the final touch up he chose to use a paint brush instead of his trusty roller. The paint went on too thickly and it then went quickly down hill from there...particularly when he tried to scrape it off. I'll spare you the details. Holy blue door hell, Batman!

We had to strip the door right back and start from scratch. Again. Deja vu. Ground hog day.

Happy campers we were not.

Blue door drying

I'd like to say that this weekend we 'finished' the door. But I won't. We'll just wait and see, okay?

And in happier news, we are painting the hallway this week and that seems to be going quite well. Thankfully.

Hallway painting

Five years of Fun and VJs

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 02:51:00 +0000

Who knew five years ago when we wrote our first blog post on Fun and VJs we would still be plugging away today, even after a house move? Ha! Clearly I need another hobby...and Jason needs a DIY break!

Cheers to five years of blogging! Martinis in our mid-mod house.

It's been terrific fun to have a platform like blogging to chronicle our DIY adventures. From renovating our old interwar Queenslander - the Sow's Ear - to now, restoring a mid-century modern home in suburban Brisbane...it's certainly an evolution of sorts.

Moving to a different style of home and restoring it sympathetically is presenting a whole new set of experiences for us. It's not as straightforward as you might expect given it is a younger house to the Sow's Ear. There is such a lack of appreciation and awareness of mid-century housing in Queensland. We hope by writing about our attempts to preserve and respect the original architecture of our home, we will provide some inspiration for others wanting to do the same...particularly when the norm is to just throw out the old and modernise completely.

Hopefully, some things we have written on this blog over the past five years will resonate with readers. Perhaps you're in the midst of renovating an old Queenslander or you are just about to embark on mid-century house renovation project? We've never put it out there that we are experts...far from it. We make mistakes all the time but we like sharing information which might be useful to others...even if it is learning what not to do!

As you can see, Jason still insists on painting at night...

Although we have never reached uber-blogger status (except in our own minds)...it still amazes us we have such a large audience from all around the world...who are not just spammers!

Thank you so much for reading Fun and VJs. We hope you'll stick with us while we restore our mid-mod home.

xx

Blue door blues part 2: using oil paint

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 01:24:00 +0000

The new glossy blue door which we painted with oil-based enamel paint

You wouldn't think painting a blue door would give us so much grief... In the quest for the perfectly painted door we realised the water-based enamel paint was not going to cut it, in this instance. Damn shame really because it has so many great advantages...

The painting fubar with the water-based enamel...it dries too quickly. The roller just stripped off a section...

After trying to salvage the door and failing dismally, we decided to strip it right back and start all over again with old school oil enamel. The last straw was when Jason painted the last coat of water-based enamel with a roller. He went over one section which had dried too quickly and ended up stripping off a thin layer of paint...ruining the final finish.

And then it was on. Jason lost his cool quite spectacularly - it was like we were back to days of yore at the Sow's Ear. I could have charged admission for the show and made a fortune!

Fortunately, a can of paint stripper and a new tin of oil paint was enough to quell the tide of anger. It was quite easy to get the first blue paint layer off. It was like peeling the skin off from a sun burnt Smurf, if you require a literary device to imagine the scene...

Peeling off the water-based enamel.

Stripping back the door revealed its colourful past - beginning from blue, to mustard, to salmon, to white and back to blue again.

The paint stripper was able to remove most of the other layers. A quick sand and a dust down was preparation for the first coat of oil-based enamel.

The oil-based enamel has a lovelier, glossier, smoother finish

The colour is much richer than the water-based stuff, it also has a smoother and glossier finish. It was exactly the look Jason desired. The major downside (which is also an upside if you have to fix anything) is the lengthy drying time - it's quite a few hours, so don't expect to be shutting your door in a hurry if you use oil based paints.

Jason used a roller specifically for gloss paint to paint the door - it has a finer stipple to minimise the orange skin effect when using a paint roller. He painted one coat and after it dried completely he sanded it down before applying the second coat (this was completed over the space of two weekends, by the way).

Success! It looks a thousand times better. All is well in our small renovating world.

The next door we need to paint is the stable door or dutch door in the laundry...that should be an interesting experience. I'll keep you posted on how we go...

The spare Danish dining chair

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 02:09:00 +0000

It didn't take long for me to find that DQF (Danish Quality Furniture) dining chair I was so desperately after... An Instagram acquaintance kindly put me on to someone who had a spare blackbean DQF dining chair for sale. Again, the power of social media is strong!

The very sad looking DQF chair after I bought it a few weeks ago

The chair was in a pretty average state and needed re-upholstering...It was a bit beyond us really so we outsourced it to Collette at Rewind Mid-century who looked after it for us.

The only problem we encountered was sourcing the black vinyl to match the existing 1960s black vinyl on the other chairs. Not all vinyl is equal. Sadly, shiny smooth vinyl is not made anymore. Most upholstery vinyl has a grain or texture through it.

I went to a few car upholstery places to see if I could find something to match but had no luck at all.

Luckily, my architect friend Robyn Booth was able to source a commercial vinyl (used in hospitals etc) for us that had the smooth texture to match the other chairs. It is not as shiny compared to the other chairs but it really is as perfect as we could get to the original. You wouldn't really notice the difference unless you were looking for fault.

The chair at the front is the newly reupholstered chair

The chair on the right is the new chair

I picked up the chair a few days ago from Rewind Mid-Century who repaired the chair base and had it reupholstered in the smooth black vinyl. We are really happy with it!

It's great to finally have the sixth chair for the dining room setting. Who's coming over for dinner?

Hot Modernism

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 07:04:00 +0000

Queensland's modernist architecture from 1945 to 1975 is put under the spotlight at a major exhibit now showing at the State Library of Queensland.

I was very excited to gain a sneak preview of the Hot Modernism exhibition at the official launch earlier this week thanks to dansk vintage who is principal sponsor of the exhibition. (They were away overseas on a buying trip and kindly gave me some of their tickets. Yay!)

Centenary Pool Spring Hill designed by James Birrell

It is heartening to see there is a growing appreciation of mid-century design and from a preservation point of view this exhibition will add to that important conversation. You can never fully grow if you don't learn from the past. It is undeniable the period of development between 1945 to 1975 was the start of a modern Queensland. And it is wonderful to see the architects, designers and builders who dreamt big (and a little bit left of field) after the immediate post-war period acknowledged.

So, from a mid-century modernism enthusiast's point of view, this is a must-see exhibition. There are photographs, plans, models and videos a-plenty in which to immerse yourself. I'll be going back to have a good old leisurely look when the children are back at school next week.

Inside the re-creation of Jacobi House with vintage Danish furnishings from dansk vintage

One of the many highlights was the full-scale replica of the iconic Jacobi House (1957) designed by Hayes and Scott. It is a fabulous re-creation and gives a taste of how 'less is more' when it comes to building design.

Madly modern Susan posing in the Torbreck room.
Ironically, Susan looks like a 1950s housewife but has never used a washig machine in her life according to her domesticated partner Chris.

There is also a room dedicated to the construction and history of Torbreck Home Units (which I wrote about in a previous blog post).

Speare House profile in the Hot Modernism exhibition

And of particular interest to me were the drawings and photographs of the demolished Speare House (1959) which was designed by the same architect who drew our modernist house. Although it precedes our home by four years, some of the features and ideas about climatic design can be seen in our humble abode.

Our friends, the publishers of Australian Modern (Chris and madly modern Susan), were also interviewed as part of the exhibition. A short three minute video was made about their mid-century home and how they came to buy it and then become friends with the architect, Barry Walduck.

Their modernist home will play host to the Man about the House Tim Ross Comedy show which is part of the Hot Modernism special events. The show cost is $58 and can be booked here.

Mid-Century Queensland with Chris Osborne and Susan Bennett from State Library of Queensland on Vimeo.

Hot Modernism is a free exhibit at the State Library and is open until 12 October.

Blue door blues

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:58:00 +0000

As part of the restoration of our modernist home, we intend to retain some of the original colours (or as close as possible) used in the home when it was first built in 1963.

We're using an old photograph and also taking DNA colour scrapings from the wall...Ha! The old colours seem to work quite well and it makes painting a little more interesting when using colour as opposed to our usual vivid white.

Snorkel Sea blue front door

We found out the original colour of the front door was a deep blue after we scraped it back. Funnily enough it is not a colour we would have ever contemplated using in this house...but we like it and, more importantly, we think it works well with the exterior.

The front door used to be green on the inside and white on the outside

We love the new door colour - Dulux Snorkel Sea - which was as close to the original blue we could find from our local hardware. Jason used a water-based gloss enamel (he's used water-based enamel in a vivid white to paint around the window architraves to great effect).

The door, however, has not worked out as well as he would like and Jason is quite despairing of the finish. The paint strokes are too visible for his perfectionist streak (I don't really mind too much but he doesn't like it at all)! He's been fiddling with the front door for two weeks now and it is still not quite right.

He plans one more attempt to fix it before abandoning the whole project and using an oil-based enamel. We'll have to go back to square one and strip the whole thing back if we do...yikes!

Anyway, there are three more exterior doors we need to paint blue so we need to get this front door right before we proceed further.

On the weekend Jason painted the front facade white which it was originally from what we could gather...

Torbreck Home Units

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 11:53:00 +0000

I ticked another thing off from my bucket list...visiting the landmark Torbreck building in Highgate Hill. Torbreck is one of the first highrise mixed-use (though the proposed restaurant and shop never eventuated) residential towers in Brisbane, which was built between 1957 - 1960 and designed by architects Job & Froud (read my post about a Froud house).

It is one of those Brisbane buildings which fascinates locals. Due to its very high location up on Dornoch Terrace, it is the most visible and distinctive looking building on Brisbane's southside. It always had the reputation of being the residence of the well-heeled...and to some extent, it still has that reputation today with the units occupied by mostly professionals.

I've always wanted to see the units and when Chris from Australian Modern organised a tour of the building for his annual MAD Weekend, I jumped at the opportunity... as did many other mid-century architecture enthusiasts.

Torbreck Home Units

The Torbreck entry from Dornoch Terrace

The Torbreck home units comprise of the Tower Block and the Garden Block which are linked by an external walkway.The Garden Block was erected first, with the Tower Block following quickly afterwards. If you want to read a more detailed account of the Torbreck building you can visit their website HERE which has links to further information.

Interestingly (for me, at any rate) , the architect who designed our house also worked on the drawings for the Garden Block when he was a student architect at Job & Froud. As a consequence, I was very keen to seen these compact one-bedroom units in this block.

First floor of the Torbreck Garden Block

Mid-century brick relief between the Tower and Garden Block. You can also just see that a different coloured check tile was used on each level of the Garden Block

We saw four different units in the Garden Block which the owners very graciously opened up for us during our visit. Each unit would have been almost identical when they were built, but over the years they were renovated or updated to suit their individual owners.

Original kitchen in a Garden Block unit

Some of the units had original kitchens while others units were completely reconfigured. One unit had its bedroom moved to where the kitchen would have been originally, while its bedroom was enclosed behind glass partition walls. It was interesting to see how each resident used and interpreted their living space.

Original planter boxes on the balcony of a Garden Block unit which overlooks the communal swimming pool.

The highrise Tower Block units are the more spacious units of the two blocks. We visited three very different two-bedroom units in the Tower. The Tower block also takes in the most spectacular views with each unit having at least one balcony.

Looking up to the Tower Block from the linking bridge

Again, the Tower units were different in style, some with many of the original features, while others were updated to a more contemporary style, often undoing past renovation of previous owners.

Original entry/ kitchen in one of the two-bedroom Tower Block units

Lovely contemporary plywood kitchen.
Apparently, the original kitchen was replaced in the 1980s with a pink and curvy kitchen which had dated quite badly. The new owner has brought back some restraint to the space and has referenced the exterior Torbreck tiles in the splash back.

Climatic design elements can be seen at play in the building. For example, full height sun blades are used to control the sun on the eastern and western sides of the building. It allows owners to adjust the amount of light and breeze to enter the unit.

Blue metal sun blades to control the light

In the units, the internal plumbing is stored in the ceilings. Originally they would have been hidden behind a perspex ceiling which gives an almost ethereal light adding the illusion of space in the small bathroom/laundry.

In some units the perspex has been replaced with solid panels and in one particular unit the quirky owner decided to rip out the ceiling entirely and paint the pipes gold! GOLD!

Quirky exposed plumbing

The jewel in the crown for Torbreck is definitely its observation lounge on the top floor. It has the best uninterrupted view of Brisbane and was definitely a huge highlight of the entire visit. How lucky to have this in the building where you live! It was simply breathtaking and was a fabulous place to sit and contemplate the world.

The Torbreck observation lounge with 360 degree views of Brisbane.

Drawings of the observation lounge and proposed roof top garden which was never built.

Torbreck is on the Queensland Heritage register. The iconic Brisbane building will also be featured in the Hot Modernism exhibition at the Queensland State Library starting on 9 July.

Its image is the 'face' of the promotional campaign.

Image from here

Palazzo Terrazzo

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 01:21:00 +0000

We love terrazzo floors, which is fortunate given it is used extensively in our modernist Brisbane home!

Terrazzo is a composite material which basically consists of marble chips set in concrete. It is quite durable and our home is testament to that, as the terrazzo has survived reasonably well for its 51 years.

We are very lucky the terrazzo was never removed as is the case with most terrazzo floors in older houses. I guess there was a time when it became unfashionable...when people renovated their bathrooms or laundry it would have been easier and cheaper just to lay tile or vinyl.

It is a shame really because it is a beautiful building material. It is also a great floor to have in Queensland because it is quite cool underfoot which is always a good thing during our hot summers.

cracks in the terrazzo tiles on the patio

In our house, there is white terrazzo in the bathrooms and laundry. The floors inside are virtually in pristine condition.

Externally, the stairs and patio floor have been laid with terrazzo tiles...they have had a harsher life, exposed to the elements as they are, with some discolouration from where pot plants have sat and cracking in spots where there has been movement in the house.

Wear and tear on the terrazzo tiles on the front patio

Our plan is to restore the external floors when we figure out the best way to do it. They would look fantastic with some TLC.

Does anyone have any experience in caring for terrazzo floors. Anyone know a good terrazzo floor restorer?

Some discolouration from pot plants that used to sit on the terrazzo tiles

House finance experiences

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 23:32:00 +0000

brought to you by Loan Market

We’ve been in our mid-century home for about three months now. How time flies when you’re having fun! However, the process of buying a house and moving is not something you can call fun...

It’s a pretty stressful time and it’s not something we’d want to be doing again in a big hurry. From the get-go, we were worried about the house contract and whether our offer would be accepted, building and pest inspections and of course obtaining the much-needed finance to buy the house of our dreams.

exterior shot of our mid-century home at night...

All I can say is thank goodness for mortgage brokers. We have always used a mortgage broker to help us find a competitive loan to buy our houses.

Loan Market is just one of the many mortgage brokers out there in the marketplace. With a mortgage broker, the running around is done for you, if you know what I mean…and it’s a free service. Funnily, it is one of the few free things available to you when you buy a house. Ironic, really, as it will give you the biggest debt of your life. Ha!

Our very first home loan was with a non-bank lender which was suggested by our mortgage broker - mostly because it was the late 1990s and we were too much of a risk to traditional banks given our very meagre incomes. The mortgage broker handled all the paper work and outlined the best loan options available to suit our particular situation.

Never in a million years would we have even thought to go down that non-bank lender route The loan also fulfilled our criteria of having no monthly account keeping fee, allowing extra repayments, good interest rate (at the time!) and have it split into fixed and variable portions. It was a very good loan and suited us perfectly.

Most importantly, we were able to purchase our first house and get our big toe in the door of the property market.

When we bought our mid-century house in March this year, we used our mortgage broker again to refinance our loan. It really was one less stress on our time, knowing our finances were in good hands.

I think it is worth giving a mortgage broker a call if you are in the market to buy a property or even if you are thinking of refinancing. Most brokers will visit you at home and you can organise after-hours appointments which is great if you work full-time or have small children.

Anyway, I’m very glad to have that process of buying a house behind us. Nesting and renovating is way more fun.

One wall a weekend painting

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 04:03:00 +0000

The long weekend provided us the right impetus to clear out some of the overgrown garden and to continue painting the living/dining room. Three whole days in a row is such a decadent luxury in DIY land and we didn't want to waste it.

One wall a weekend painting. The living/dining area

Jason got stuck into the painting. The goal is to paint one wall a weekend, so our living room is cleaner and fresher. Small bite size pieces is the method of attack. The most time consuming part is the taping up of the walls for the cutting-in as there are so many timber architraves and strips in this mid-century house.

The finished product...it's like we never painted. Ha!

Jason painting the black timber ceiling beams. Notice how he hasn't taped up. Go steady hand Jason!

We also have lovely black timber ceiling beams which need to be repainted. Jason used a matte black chalk paint to freshen it up. It provides a crisp contrast to the Queensland maple timber ceiling. He only painted one of the beams and already it has given our living room a real lift.

The finished product...it's like we never painted. Ha!

Most of the changes we have been making to the house are very subtle. When people come to visit us, they don't actually notice if we've done anything new to the house. But that's okay. I kind of think that is the mark of a good restoration/renovation when people think it is as it should be. Hopefully the cumulative effect of all the changes will bring this house back to its former glory.

This one whole section of wall is now finito...as is that one strip of ceiling beam...

And the skip bin was a great investment for the long weekend. We cleared most of the vegetation which was covering our garden shed. It's just tidied that portion of the yard and we were able to give the rest of the garden a much needed prune. Hooray for long weekends!

Skip bin being delivered. It took us one morning to fill up!

Happenings and a house profile

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:39:00 +0000

Not a huge amount has been happening around here, and is the main reason for the very quiet blog...can you hear the crickets?

Plans are underway though to tackle a few jobs this coming Queen's Birthday long weekend. A skip bin is being delivered later today - a long overdue garden clean out is required and we have to prune back some of the many established bushes and trees, to bring them back to life.

A mature bottle tree and Birds of Paradise are among the treasures to be found in our garden.

We also plan to paint another living room wall in our one-wall-a-weekend method of attack

And in other news, if you don't already read Walk Among the Homes blog, you should! It profiles our new house. You can see the before shots of our mid-mod home HERE. The lovely Elizabeth dropped in one morning, a week or so before we moved in, and took some fab photos of the empty house. Enjoy!

Original joinery at Mid Century home in Brisbane’s south.
Photo by Elizabeth Santillan www.walkamongthehomes.com.au

Hope everyone has a happy and productive long weekend!

1960s bathroom fittings: an update

noreply@blogger.com (brismod) — Wed, 28 May 2014 03:34:00 +0000

Remember how we were searching high and low for that elusive towel rail bracket for our bathroom? You can read here if you missed it.

Well, we found it. Actually, we didn't find it...a blog reader did! Thanks so much Alex!

close up of our mid-century towel rail bracket

I received an email from Alex alerting me to an eBay listing selling Art Deco bathroom fittings. Never in a million years did I expect to find the exact same towel rail bracket under that heading. I was mistakenly searching for terms like 1960s, retro, modernist and mid-century!

The tip of the day is look under the term Art Deco when all things fail in your search for mid-century items!

I was able to approach the seller and ask if he would consider selling the towel rail separately...which he very kindly did. The towel rail was from Melbourne of all places. Great that it can have a permanent holiday in sunny Queensland.

The towel rails are extra. extra long - perfect for our family of five. I forgot to hang my towel up!

Jason installed the bracket straight away and we've been enjoying the luxury of matching towel rails. Hahaha!

The 1960s towel rails unadorned

Anyway, it's the small things which make all the difference.