ATEL Furniture

March 9, 2016General1960's, ATEL, Australian, Wall UnitJohnny

What do I love more than great quality mid century furniture? Catalogues for said furniture! It’s always great to come across an original piece of advertising, which happened when I came into possession of an ATEL wall unit a few weeks ago. The unit is currently dismantled and stacked atop of my car in the shed, however tonight I thought I’d share a few images of the ‘Personal Plan Series’ unit chart and model calculator as the ATEL wall units have been a topic of discussion in a few social media groups over the past few weeks so thought it would be fitting!

Mid Century Wall Units — ATEL unit chart and model calculator!

Australian Mid Century Wall Units — 120 different options!

As you can see from the above picture, this brochure listed 120 varying cabinet/shelving units that you could mix and match to produce the wall unit of your desire! Another really great feature is that all the prices are listed below, giving an accurate cost of each unit.

The unit that came with this brochure was 10 ft wide, and 2 units tall, and cost $361 in the early 1960’s. According to the bureau of statistics, the average male wage at the same time was between $30 – $40 a week. Do the math, these were not cheap units!

I thought I’d finish off by posting an image of one ATEL unit currently for sale on Gumtree for appreciation. Beautiful! Now just to find a wall big enough!

1960's Wall Unit — Huge amounts of storage!

Auction Watch # 22 – Mid Century Corner Lounge

February 29, 2016Auction WatcheBay, Lounge, Mid Century, VinylJohnny

I don’t know what it is about them, but I’ve definitely for a thing for big lounges. Perhaps its the ‘look at me, I can seat 5+ people at once’ attitude that they give off, or the idea of the room it would be in and how it would be furnished that I’m attracted too, but regardless, I find them really, really cool.

So it’s no surprise that I was impressed by this awesome corner lounge and two matching lounge chairs on eBay this week.

3 piece mid century corner lounge — Nice curves!

In the right space, I think that it would look amazing! And all for the reasonable (starting price) of only $400!

To find search eBay for – ORIGINAL VINTAGE RETRO CIRCA 1960 VINYL CURVED 3 PIECE LOUNGE SUITE MID-CENTURY.

Be sure to have some strong men at your disposal and large double doors into your living/lounge room to save any heart (and back) ache! Until next time.

Stool Re manufacture

February 21, 2016Restoration ProjectsFondue Table, Mid Century, Restoration, Stools, T.H BrownJohnny

If you’ve browsed our online store, you may of noticed in the ‘Coming Soon’ section I’ve had a T.H Brown fondue coffee table and stool set sitting there for perhaps a little too long. The table and glass are in great condition, and were not the hold up! It was/is the 3 stools.

You see, unfortunately the original woollen upholstery is well worn and needs to be recovered. Not overly hard no. However when I started to pull one apart all those months/ years ago…..eeek I was not overly impressed with the condition, or materials used for the frame of each stool. This was a tad surprising given the reputation for furniture items manufactured by T.H Brown however I guess if it’s not to be seen, and does the job for 20 or 30 years what’s the problem? Save costs where they can…………

Anyways, back to the stools. As you can see from the images below 10mm particle board was used, along with some rough cut pine which was all held together with a few nails. Time and moisture have played their part which left the frames in pretty poor and unstable condition. There’s no way you’d ever apply new upholstery over the top! So before moving ahead I wanted to re manufacture the frames for the 3 stools to a higher quality than what was there before, to ensure they’ll last for as long as is required!

T.H Brown Fondue Table — Nice Sundays Work!

I used the base from one of the stools as a template to ensure I ended up with the same shape. This shape was traced onto 12mm plywood (much preferred than particle board although double the cost $$), 42mm x 18mm pine along with some 50mm long screws, nails, and wood glue will provide a plenty solid and long lasting frame for the new upholstery to be applied too!

Now just to select the material!

Updates will follow!

Kafka Lounge

February 10, 2016General, Restoration ProjectsAustralian, Jervis Bay, Kafka, Lounge, Mid Century, WeddingJohnny

I thought the best way to start off 2016 on the blog (a little late…….yes I know) would be to wrap up the Kafka lounge blog posts that I started last year in the lead up to our wedding – you can find them here.

In my last post I left with you with the finishing touches in preparation to use the lounge as a ‘love seat’ on the amazingly white sands of Jervis Bay.

So how did it all turn out you may ask? Excellent! See below!

Kafka Lounge

Now it wouldn’t be fair If I didn’t show off my beautiful bride on the day…………..

Mid Century, Wedding, Kafka, Australian — Concept delivered perfectly!

It was amazing to see the concept that I had pictured for all those months leading up to the wedding be captured on film by our wonderfully talented photographer – Pete, from Peter Izzard Photography. I cannot recommend him enough! You can find out more about his services here – http://www.peterizzardphotography.com.au/

Until next time!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

December 23, 2015GeneralJohnny

I’d like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

Reflecting on 2015 we have slowly been progressing towards a significant goal, and if all falls into place towards the end of next year we should see a major change in how we run our business!

We will be taking a break from the online side of things for a few weeks, however will still be contactable via email & mobile (just may be a little slow in replying).

Take care, stay safe, and look forward to seeing you all in the new year.

Best regards, John.

“sex in a box”

December 17, 2015General1960's, Mid CenturyJohnny

According to wikipedia, that’s what Milton Bradley’s competitors referred to Twister as when it was first released in 1966. As enticing as that sounds, it’s not the reason I purchased this early Australian version of the game a few weekends ago.

Vintage board game Australian — Great Cover Art!

It was the cover art! How great is it? I suspected it may of dated from the 1960’s, and after a quick look inside my suspicions were confirmed – so purchased it I did.

1960'S Mid Century Board Game — Great Condition!

Once home, I pulled the board game apart, and was pleasantly surprised with it’s condition, which included the original instructions.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever played Twister before, so perhaps over the Christmas break and before I add it to the online store I might just to see what all the fuss is about!

Parker Bedside Repairs

December 6, 2015Restoration Projects, Upcoming Items1960's, Bedsides, Mid Century, Parker, TeakJohnny

Lucky enough to come across a great matching set of Parker Nordic bedsides.

Condition was pretty good, however the leg on one had a previous repair which wasn’t quite up to standard, there was also a nasty gouge to the top edge and a small chip to the veneer on one drawer front.

Nordic Bedsides Parker — Solid Timber Repair!

1960's Parker Furniture — Veneer repair!

With all repairs carried out, the original finish was given a light go over with some super fine steel wool, and then 2 coats of an oil/mineral turpentine mixture was applied.

Very happy with the end results! The bedsides will be available in the online shop with the matching bed head very soon.

Meyer Furniture

November 23, 2015General1950's, 1960's, Australian, Chair, Meyer Furniture, Mid CenturyJohnny

Meyer Furniture, not Myer. Got it? Good!

Mid Century Australian — Not a bad stance.

This chair is interesting to me. Why? Well because of its construction. From the front it appears to be your typical steel/iron rod chair. However once you see the underside you quickly realise that the frame isn’t welded together. It is in fact bolted together using various clamps and fasteners. These hold the timber armrests (covered in plastic) / the back support and the seat all together (see photo below).

Mid Century Dining Chair — Early ‘Flat Pack’?

It really is quite amazing, and I would imagine of been more time consuming in the final assembly stage. I am curious why a company would go away from the traditional method of say, welding the frame together to the method described above?

Now I’m only speculating, but one reason I can think of is space saving for transport, just like Ikea’s flat pack furniture. You may of been able to fit say 20 of Meyer’s fully assembled chairs in the back of a delivery van, you break them down and that number could probably triple or quadruple quite easily. Another would be the ease of manufacture of each separate part off the production line.

So just who are ‘Meyer Furniture’? Searching on-line wasn’t a great deal of help, however trove brought up limited results. One was a news article from the 25th of September 1958 which read –

The Sydney firm of Meyer Furniture successfully tendered for the supply and delivery of steel framed cafeteria furniture for the cafeteria to be located on the fourth floor of the new administrative Building at Parkes. The furniture comprises 90 tables, and 360 chairs, and deliveries are to be completed by November 17. The accepted tender price is £2,593.

Another was a great image of their furniture stand at the 1960 Furniture Exhibition from the NSW State Library website – which I’m pretty sure shows the exact chair up against the rear wall.

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemLarge.aspx?itemID=80339 — Meyer Furniture Stand 1960

Unfortunately that’s all the info I can find right now, however as with most things the search never stops, it just gets put on ‘hold’ until some new information/pictures/furniture comes to light!

Auction Watch # 21 – Summertone Buffet

November 18, 2015Auction Watch1950's, Australian, Buffet, Mid Century, SummertoneJohnny

Tonight I thought I’d log a few images as reference of a Summertone buffet/sideboard currently listed on eBay.

1950's Sideboard — eBay listing for a Summertone Buffet

Condition is OK, but work is needed, and with a starting price of $500 I think it’s pushing the envelope a little. However I think it’s worth noting as Summertone pieces have a great design and seem to be a little harder to come across! Nice shot of the makers label – which is different to other (earlier?) versions I have seen which appear to be more so of a badge.

To find – search for ‘Summertone Buffet’.

George Doukoff

November 4, 2015Auction Watch, General1950's, Australian, Chair, Design, Mid Century, VolkschairJohnny

I’ve had a hard time over the last few weeks finding anything of great interest to share with you for my ‘Auction Watch’ blog posts. Tonight whilst trawling all the usual haunts again I was less than impressed (hey – maybe it’s me!) however a chair listed for sale on eBay caught my eye.

The similarity between it and my ‘Warwick library chair’ which I posted about here almost 3 years ago reminded me that I needed to post an update about the said chair in question.

I was contacted by Dean from Australian Modern and he referred me to an article he had written about the designer – George Doukoff. It’s well worth a read, and you can find that article here – https://australianmodern.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/george-doukoff-the-man-behind-the-volkschair/

Re-reading back through Georges history myself, there is every chance that the chair currently listed on eBay (search for Atomic Wooden Silky Oak Mid Century Chair – Buy It Now $75) is an early version/prototype that was discussed in the article of the eventual ‘Volkschair’.

The A-frame legs and its curves looks very, very similar along with those little arm rests sitting atop. The materials used are right for the period in question (early 1950’s) and the location of the chair (Strathpine QLD) is just 20km’s north of Brisbane, where George had his store and workshop. Could these factors just be a coincidence? Possibly, and without any hard documentation or makers marks it’s just speculation! I’ll leave you to make up your own mind.