Does anybody else match their interior decor/furniture to their gear? Pics.

[Sam Cogley]

Is that the Pink Floyd poster with all the girls backs with the cover art? Seriously cool, especially subway size. I have a big collection of Joy Division posters but no room for them, and none of them that big. Really cool.

That's the one. I found someone in the UK selling the full-size version on eBay when I was in college. It's around 48"x60" - for a long time after my senior year it sat rolled up in a tube, as I didn't have a wall big enough to hold it. The paper stock is incredibly heavy - more like billboard paper than anything else I've seen.

At Salvation Army a month ago my girlfriend spotted a WALL SIZE framed picture of '20s starlet Louise Brooks, printed in hi-res on masonite board. We had to tie it on the car, as it was 6' high! We were going to bring it here, but it wouldn't have made the 10 mile journey and her place was down the road.

That is very seriously cool.

I had coffee with the director for V for Vendetta (James McTigue) as part of my job.. I'm an advertising creative director, and we work with film directors to shoot commercials. They try to get to know us to get work, and we like to get a feel for whether they're arrogant and hard to work with..he wasn't. He was extremely nice and sent the signed poster without me having to even ask..I'd told him i really respected the film, and we'd talked about it at length.

Yep, your job is more interesting than mine.

 

[Robie]

The cats rule the roost, but my girlfriend is very much a kid at heart, too, but lives in her own place. She loves stereo stuff, too. Some members here have met her so I swear I'm not making that up.

True on all counts. She's a lovely individual and has a very good ear for musical nuance.

Ray's got that right. John's girlfriend has been at two of the Chicago Area Get Togethers held at my house. She is fun, smart, has a great ear and great taste in music. John's a lucky guy.

 

[Redboy]

John, that's a fantastic place. I don't know much about design but I know what I like, and you've hit it on the head! Not my wife's taste though, so we compromise.

I've always admired what people like you can do with CL and thrift finds.

Very nice work! :thmbsp:

 

[Designdweeb]

Reach for your wallet

Which reminds me..why do they call it Design Within Reach when a clock is $500? Is it just because I can walk there from work? It's in physical reach, if not financially?

HAHAHA! The originals of the George Nelson clocks are an arm and a leg!
They do have stuff like the Noguchi table, and other cool stuff, made by the original manufacturers, and I guess most of this stuff was never cheaply made, which is one of the reasons why it has staying power.
Until you find one second hand, there are Chinese made reproductions of the Nelson clock line available online, or at stationary and home stores. Last year I got one a Marshalls or TJ Maxx, I don't remember, for about a $20.
Photos and posters are great wall art, I have a bright red orange Steve McQueen as "Bullitt" poster on top of the sideboard, waiting for a permanent position on the wall.

 

[JohnVF]

I've always admired what people like you can do with CL and thrift finds.

Very nice work! :thmbsp:

I don't think I would have as much success if I set out to find all this stuff again. Much of this came during the 'scrounge, buy buy buy' phase of my audio addiction, and I hit thrifts daily and was always on CL. I'm more or less content now so I only go occasionally, and the well of furniture finds has dried up compared to the last two years.

Forgot..some of it came from the alleys! On the last day of the month, people in apartments around here just dump stuff. The white danish mod footstool was in an alley by my GF's house. It helps to own a little station wagon! My subaru has had more crap in it's hind-end...

 

[Sam Cogley]

That's something I miss about living in St. Louis. If anyone had stuff that was still good, or at least repairable, that was being tossed out, they'd wait until it wasn't supposed to rain for a while and leave it next to the city dumpsters in the alley. There was always interesting stuff around, and most of it was taken.

 

[Sam Cogley]

Here is the wall behind my stereo gear - at least it matches the audio theme. The LPs are (top to bottom): left column - Abbey Road, Whipped Cream, It's a Beautiful Day (S/T); right column - Eye in the Sky, Missouri (S/T), Aja. The Pathe poster isn't in its final spot - I plan to put the top of it level with the top of "Whipped Cream" and add a pair of LPs above that are symmetrical with the top two on the left.

John, I found some furniture today that I figured you'd appreciate. Too expensive for what it is, though, IMHO - the blue chairs are $150 with a couple of torn spots in the vinyl and light pitting and rust in the chrome legs. The seats are surprisingly comfortable, and I think it would make a fun couch. The orange chair was extremely comfortable, but it's $70.

 

[goldwax]

Very inspiring thread. I'm 41, and have had college-student-grade furniture my entire adult life--having two kids has done nothing to change that, either, for obvious reasons.

The only pieces of vintage stuff I have to look anything near cool are my Thorens TD 160 and my Kenwood KR-7600, and a Martini Vermouth ceramic ashtray (made in Italy, probably stolen by a tourist from Missouri in the '50s or '60s) that I've had for over 20 years. Or, and a ton of records, I guess.

But this thread makes me wish we had a house that we could slowly fill up with cool furniture....

 

[Yamahalic]

...wondering if anybody else likes to match their furniture to their gear.

I do. I started my hifi habit collecting titanium Yamaha components from the 1980's for my apartment, later buying a home and decorating it all in black, white, gray, and silver metal finishes.

 

[jetblack]

It wasn't intentional, it just worked out that way. I bought my living room furniture back in the late 80's. The color was dark blue. I bought the Mac equipment within the last couple of years. The color was blue & black.

 

[sheltie dave]

I am parked on my electric blue Herman Miller chair at the wife's Heywood Wakefield desk surfing away. It is one of my great joys that I can find all the vintage Eames and Danish Modern furniture here in St. Louis, and if I remain patient and vigilant, then I can find it on the cheap. The Lane Acclaim series and HeyWake stuff was all the rage around town, so there isn't a week going past without a good deal or two.

The same holds true on the vintage stereo, with all kinds of former military, and a huge concentration of Fortune 500 employees who have retired and are now dismantling their stereo gear and systems. It is a lot of fun being on the hunt and making new friends on both sides of the fence with the furniture and stereo kit. :thmbsp:

 

[Chazb11]

In answer to the original question....I would like to match my decor to my gear but it's going to have to wait until we have a remodeling budget.

Right now my gear, along with various boxes and packing materials, has become my decor!

 

[70salesguy]

KLH numbered systems

Speaking of the vintage KLH gear.

When I first started at the stereo store as 70salesguy, we still had some of the KLH "numbered" systems. I always liked how KLH numbered their equipment with simple numbers.

We had more than one model of the KLH systems and they actually sounded pretty good. They were clearly losing ground to the parade of silver-faced gear that was dominating the market.

Looking back, the design elements of the KLH systems were truly classic and I would love to have one of the many KLH systems that I sold back in the day.

And yes, Henry did love those vernier tuning dials!

 

[JohnVF]

Speaking of the vintage KLH gear.

When I first started at the stereo store as 70salesguy, we still had some of the KLH "numbered" systems. I always liked how KLH numbered their equipment with simple numbers.

We had more than one model of the KLH systems and they actually sounded pretty good. They were clearly losing ground to the parade of silver-faced gear that was dominating the market.

Looking back, the design elements of the KLH systems were truly classic and I would love to have one of the many KLH systems that I sold back in the day.

And yes, Henry did love those vernier tuning dials!

Mmmm....KLH.....Did your store have one of these? Just picked it up on Friday, not sure where to put it, it's not exactly Danish Modern! The lights on the KLH go on and off in various patterns and the design in the background has a kind of wave effect to the lighting.

 

[JohnVF]

I am parked on my electric blue Herman Miller chair at the wife's Heywood Wakefield desk surfing away. It is one of my great joys that I can find all the vintage Eames and Danish Modern furniture here in St. Louis, and if I remain patient and vigilant, then I can find it on the cheap. The Lane Acclaim series and HeyWake stuff was all the rage around town, so there isn't a week going past without a good deal or two.

The same holds true on the vintage stereo, with all kinds of former military, and a huge concentration of Fortune 500 employees who have retired and are now dismantling their stereo gear and systems. It is a lot of fun being on the hunt and making new friends on both sides of the fence with the furniture and stereo kit. :thmbsp:

Chicago is flooded with it as well, but it tends to go for a price closer to what it's probably worth. My parents live in Akron, OH, and I have had some good luck finding some things there for basically nothing. It's just considered old there. There's a lot of drexel stuff in Chicago, not sure if there's a connection or if there was just a lot of drexel in general.

 

[70salesguy]

Mmmm....KLH.....Did your store have one of these? Just picked it up on Friday, not sure where to put it, it's not exactly Danish Modern! The lights on the KLH go on and off in various patterns and the design in the background has a kind of wave effect to the lighting.

No, that's the first one of those I have ever seen.

What a marvelous collectors item!

 

[Sam Cogley]

Mmmm....KLH.....Did your store have one of these? Just picked it up on Friday, not sure where to put it, it's not exactly Danish Modern! The lights on the KLH go on and off in various patterns and the design in the background has a kind of wave effect to the lighting.

Cool sign. I've been looking around for a 70s (or very early 80s) Kenwood sign or display with the old tree logo. So far, nothing.

 

[Designdweeb]

Call it Mid Century, Not Danish!

That's a cool sign, and definitely mid century modern design, as the casework, materials and typeface is right in there.
Danish modern is a marketing term, it barely exists, and excludes all the other great European designers, or even Asian -Americans like Nakashima.
The public is Eurocentric, historically harboring an inferiority complex about American design, and would shy away from anything labeled Bauhaus or what we'd now call "machine age" design.
"American Modern" was already a Russel Wright brand name for decades.
Just call me Designdweeb.

Mmmm....KLH.....Did your store have one of these? Just picked it up on Friday, not sure where to put it, it's not exactly Danish Modern! The lights on the KLH go on and off in various patterns and the design in the background has a kind of wave effect to the lighting.

 

[Isotonic]

Very interesting thread JohnVH. You have a great eye! Love the clock Sam.

 

[eddiel]

My "Eames" Chairs were a house-warming gift from my grandmother in 1982. In 1982, these chairs and ottomans were about $1600. The Herman Miller version of these chairs current are $3500 (and up) for the chair and ottoman, depending on the leather and wood finish.

My chairs have held up very well over the years. I have taken care of them much the same way that I have taken care of my vintage audio gear. :thmbsp:

I dream of owning an original Eames. I almost bought a copy but I just couldn't do it. I knew that everytime I saw in it I would think "It's not the real thing." Here in the UK they are supper expensive; numbers of US price but with a £ in front of it. Even used they are expensive...which is why they are a good investment in a way. They do not lose resale value that much.

Anyway as for the original post...at the moment no i don't really match anything but that is because of circumstances. Once I get into a new place with more space I will begin my next mission: to incorporate my stereo into my surroundings so it doesn't stand out.

I want to move away from the usual stereo racks you get. Probably something that you have set up JohnVF i.e. the Mac amps on top of a sideboard or something along those lines. I'm even thinking of moving away from having the cds on display and might get one of those dresser drawer type of set ups. The lps I want to be housed in a unit with doors so I can keep them out of sight when I want to.

I also want to have a TV that is not the focal point of the room. Not sure if I would go the route you did, JohnVF, but something inspired by that i.e. I can get it out of sight when not in use.

Eddie