Mid Century Macabre : I Love Home Decor

Our Adrian Pearsall chair was purchased by Derek for $5 (about 12 years ago), 

will be reupholstered soon.

I snapped a few photos to load and share about living room decor and design over the Retro Renovation blog. I absolutely love how informative and resourceful the blog has been to me and many of their readers. I love mid century design, but I also love the macabre, thus our home decor style has always been blended. So, I thought I would share my snaps with you all and show what we've been up to inside the house. 

The bar stools are from Derek's Nana. She sold her home in New Jersey that she built with her husband in 1954 and moved down to Virginia to be closer to Derek's parents. We are honored to have them in the house as shortly after their basement bar was built (in the 70s) Derek's Grandfather was hit and killed by a drunk driver at 45 years young.

Gotta love when you find coffee table for $9 while thrifting. To think, I almost passed it up until I picked it up and realized that it is solid piece of furniture! 

My gawdy lamps fit into the Mid Century Regency look I had in mind. We've have the couch for years, bought second hand and it's a solid piece. I am dreaming of a new couch, but am grateful this old soldier has been with us for years.

Very new-to-us piece that I picked up at a consignment shop for a song. We need more bar storage and this bamboo shelving unit was perfect. I'm really glad I waited other than settling, as this adds some 'light' into the bar area. Still hard to believe the bar area of the living room was Pepto (ab)ismal pink and an awkward room off the kitchen. Knocking down the walls was the best idea ever! 

barkcloth curtain panels were made by me

Our dining room got a new carpet! I was trying to figure out how to tie the room together and taking inspiration from the colors of the barkcloth curtains, I choose a shag green carpet. Now our black dining set 'pops' and it's the perfect compliment to the colors in the plamp (plant lamp) and all the black velvet paintings that are hung on the main wall (not pictured). 

Derek's face, hahaha!!!!!

Here's an example of our 'wall-o-velvet' in the dining room. The latest addition has been a cute blue-eyed puppy with a basket of flowers and a few others hanging about the room. What can I say, we love kitsch!

Even if you don't like our decorating style, it's just an example of how you can put together a whole house while being thrifty and unique. I love home decor and I love to see how others design their space. I believe it's an extension of your personality and that you should surround yourself with things (and people) that you love. 

Thank you for reading, until next time!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

We Bought a Plamp

It was an amazing vintage shopping day filled with Hawaiiana, six pairs of barkcloth atomic print curtains, a antique laudanum bottle, vintage chalkware and a plamp. Yes, a plamp=plant lamp.

Hahahaha! (I've had a few cocktails while writing this, whoops!) *Wink wink*

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

I'm Battling the Goo Goo Muck

I'm having a sick day, seeing as Derek got the goo goo muck (aka head cold) and he passed it on to me. Isn't he so kind? Since I've been feeling 'off ' for a few days, I finally was subdued and had to call off of work...which I hate doing since I really like my job.

Other than sickness being present in our house, I'm excited to share that we're done with the living room.....for now!

 We knocked down walls, painted, pulled up the carpet and refinished the floors, we removed the paint from the woodwork and stained. We did A LOT and it was so worth it!

I love our carpet!

This is what the living room looked like before we moved in. The wall to the right is one of the walls we knocked down to make the living room bigger.

A view into what used to be a room off the kitchen, which is now part of our living room.

I'm going to have another hot toddy and rest.

Happy Friday the 13th my friends!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

What's Shakin' Bacon?

The weekend was filled with Spring cleaning, but first Tiki drinks were imbibed. Derek is shaking up come Coco Lopez cream of coconut for some Painkillers....the drink not the pills. Teehee!

Sunday was the day. The day we bought two new (to us) vintage gold club chairs, most likely from the 1960s. I don't talk too much about my love of home decor and mid-century furniture, but it's a passion and interest in our home. We have nicknamed our decorating style as "Mid-Century Macabre", mixing mid-century with taxidermy, bones and skulls, funerary items and other macabre art.

Derek and I like to hunt for; furniture, barware, and taxidermy on the weekends. We scour second hand shops, vintage and antique malls, estate sales and we love to get a good deal. The two chairs we bought were a great deal, as the vintage shop owner had the chairs cleaned and the cushions re-foamed while still keeping the integrity of the original gold fabric. Since we acquired these two pieces, the living room was turned into a Tetris game (we have a smallish apartment), yet when we put our two heads together (and me almost killing my back lifting our couch) we produced a set up that we are in love with! I moved some decor items around and Voila! a whole new perspective. 

Sunday's attire was inspired by the 70+ degree weather. Derek and I indulged in some pizza at our favorite pizza place in Buffalo. Gotta fuel up before you start the job. Mmmmm, Gino's never stop making pizza. Never!

Even the skeleton got Spring cleaned. Sprung cleaned? Spring clean? Whatever. Mr. Bones got moved to the tattoo shop along with our toe pincher coffin. I was sad to see them both go, but the shop is like an extension of our home, so we get to decorate there too!

 I think this little corner we set up is so cute and I think Mr. Bones is happy resting his bones in his new church chair at his new home.

And since our weekend doesn't stop at Sunday, here is a peak at Monday's second sitting of my 'Dead Mary' tattoo that is being worked on by my husband. The tattoo is inspired by my love of Derek's Dead Mary statues and all his kitschy and spooky art!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Thank you for hanging out with me!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla

Newest Additions to Our Tiki Room

I love vintage furniture and decor, our home is a mix of Mid Century Modern, taxidermy, antique medical instruments, vintage knick knacks, collected artwork, and our beloved Tiki room. Derek and I have affectionately dubbed our home style as "Mid Century Macabre". We both share the love of home decor, the thrill of the hunt for the perfect piece and the adventurous tale that goes along with it. You can find us haunting antique places, flea markets and checking in at our local thrift shops for a piece to add to our little apartment. We like to travel to even just look at "old stuff" (as I would say) and browse around for that one little treasure we may bring home....or big treasure. I have to confess, I'm addicted to chairs and I need to be stopped!

These four new (to us) vintage bamboo bar stools came from our spontaneous trip to Cleveland, Ohio this past weekend. We visited two of our most favorite vintage shops, Flower Child and Sweet Lorain. I love going to Sweet Lorain as Red the owner is so nice and always says, "Welcome Home". Hehe! He always remembers us and is so helpful and kind. I wish I could just live at Sweet Lorain's, I think I would die from happiness.

The black swag lamp hanging to the left is also from a 

Sweet Lorain trip.

I'm wearing a dress I purchased from Target a few weeks when it was scorching hot, of course as soon as I bought it the weather cooled down significantly. It's nice and light weight, flowy and I am a sucker for the lace accents. I added the scarf belt from another dress to add a little visual interest though it's great worn plain.

I'm really enjoying the high-low flowy dress trend right now. Keep em' coming! *Wink*

Thank you for reading!

XOXO-Meagan Kyla