Risom Chair Continued

A couple of very low-res pics of the Risom as it sits tonight. After many hours stripping, sanding, and applying/buffing lacquer (polyurethane just seemed too modern), it's ready for upholstery. I spent some time trying to get the sun-induced color changes to come out, then decided they were just character or patina, and they added something to the chair. After all, you can't expect a sixty year-old chair to look new, right?

I'm just snobbish enough to preserve the original knoll sticker.

I think we're going with black cotton for the webbing. I think the texture of the cotton matches the softness of the lacquer a little better than would the synthetic webbing. The black is just so I have a neutral color (I'm still not sure where the chair will end up when I'm done).

Phineas and Ferb

My two-year-old daughter is obsessed with the Disney show "Phineas and Ferb." It features stepbrothers who have amazing skills at invention and construction, and it's actually a pretty good cartoon.

The villain of the show is Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, an inventor who lives in a series of really great mid-century-style homes. Above is the Wright-esque Woodland House, where Dr. Doofenshmirtz takes women he meets online.

I've tried to post a couple screenshots and videos below, with varied success:

Doofenshmirtz house in the suburbs (4:20 mark)

Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated (his primary lair, which looks a lot like a pipe wrench to me).

Check it out.

Risom Chair Restoration

I'm in the process of stripping and re-finishing a Risom chair I found on ebay:

Turns out the strapping wasn't the original, so I have a few more tack holes to deal with than I had anticipated. Here it is after getting the nicotine-stained, torn webbing off:

Right now, I'm in the process of stripping off sixty year-old varnish. Amazingly dirty stuff. More pics to come.

Dodge City Downtown, Part Two

I love scrims. A couple vintage scrims pictured here from downtown DC. First couple are from Eckles department store, third pic is a scrim over a vacant storefront adjacent to the porcelain-appearing facade in the previous post.

I think we're seeing a comeback for scrim, possibly because of energy efficiency reasons. See the New York Times building completed in the last couple years.

Dodge City Downtown

Much of the Dodge City Days festivities were downtown. Some really interesting buildings, a few of which I got pics of (hard to get decent shots with the unusually heavy traffic and carnival stuff).

From top to bottom: Vacant storefront with a cool, porcelain-appearing facade, Sam's Shoe Store, two shots of a building that obviously used to be a bank but is now a casino, and the deco-ish Daily Globe front door (reminds me of the Daily Planet).

Dodge City

We were in Dodge City last weekend for family fun and Dodge City Days. Managed to make it by the Goff house in NW Dodge City. I didn't want to snoop or intrude, so I just snapped a couple of pics from the street. I love how just a small change in the angle of the shot really changes the appearance of the house.

Several interesting buildings in downtown DC. More to come later...

Airport Architecture

Embarassingly long time since my last post. If you've read the blog before, you know I really liked the old Wichita Municipal Airport. Well, Slate magazine has a great photo essay on airport design this week: Slate.com. Check it out.

Above pic courtesy of wichitaphotos.net.