Rock-A-Bye Baby

Years ago, I told Coco that if we had a baby, I would buy her an Eames Fiberglass Rocker. Well we've reached that point. I sold my last Eames Aluminum Group Chair to basically trade this fellar off of eBay. I couldn't drop the $1500-2000 on an original 50's complete rocker. So I bought a clean, mid-50's O.G. Herman Miller armshell chair, and a new, reproduction rocker base. The elephant gray goes nicely with the black wire and birch runners. Coco's happy with it.

Back when I promised that I'd get her one of these, I didn't realize that the Herman Miller Company hadn't produce the rocker for a few decades. They had stopped producing them in the late 50's. During this time, they were only given to Herman Miller employees as maternity presents. That explains the rarity of an original, complete rocker. They've just reissued the RAR rocker, but now they use a more environmentally-friendly, plastic-based shell. I understand the switch, but the fiberglass swirls in the vintage chairs just look so nice.

I could get into an entire essay on the husband and wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames (Duane got into it a bit on his blog). Their synergy, versatilty, and style is almost unmatched in my eyes.


Here is a little update on how the living room is coming around. The rocker will eventually go in the kiddo's room. We need a little paint, and a big canvas or hanging on that back wall. Crown molding would be nice too. We'll be getting much needed windows within two months. In fact, we just put in the order yesterday. As part of the installation, we're going to convert/expand the window in the record room. It's gonna be sweet when that's done.

Thanks for listening. I've put Coco to sleep!

Hey Cal! Did you used to live here?

I've been checking estate sales the last couple of weeks. Looking for anything neat for the house or to resale. The last one was in Colony Woods in Chapel Hill. I think my old roomate Cal was brought home from the hospital (birth) to one of these two houses. Sorry, the pics ain't so hot. I figured folks might not be too thrilled with some dude stopping and taking photos of their residence. Anyway, did I nail it?


There isn't too much to do when you're waiting for the doors to open. It's pretty much pre-estate sale routine to eat a banana, drink coffee, listen to NPR, and take pictures of myself.

This particular time I didn't really find anything that I was interested in. Last week I missed out on a vintage Knoll Bertoia Wire Chair for 12 bucks. Someone had swiped the tag b4 I could get to it. Should've headed to the basement first. Anyway, after two weekends of getting up early on Saturday, milling around two estate sales and a huge rummage sale, all I ended up buying was this Cobra H.I.S.S. for 50 cents:

Duane understands.

Being Small is No Excuse

Apartment Therapy is having their 3rd Annual Smallest, Coolest Apartment Contest. Readers submit pics of their small living spaces that incorporate big (smart) design ideas to maximize comfort and live-ability. Kinda shows you what you can do with just a little room. We really could have put some of these ideas to use in our apartment and house in Hermosa. I enjoy looking through peoples living spaces... peeping tom.