We're Not in Kansas Any More

We're home from Kansas. When I last posted, we had had a lot of fun shopping but hadn't really bought anything. Well, we found one more cool store in Kansas City on our last morning, it was called Weird Stuff. It was just the kind of dusty old place that we really enjoy. The kind of place where the longer you stay and dig around, the more stuff you find. Well, they had a whole bunch of radios and John ended up buying 3 more for his collection-


We also ended up with some fun old vintage magazines.

Then we hit the road and left Kansas City, headed for home. We scored again though, in Dodge City, at the Happy Trails Flea Market (indoors). It was an antique mall kind of place and had a little bit of everything. I got a vintage popcorn popper for 10 bucks - it heats up but I don't know if I'll really ever use it to pop popcorn, I just like its retro rocket look!



And I got a little copper enamel dish for $3 that matches the kitchen tile perfectly.



So, we're back home now and happy with our finds. Guess I'll just have to keep shopping on ebay and craigslist for that perfect vintage coffee table....

Hunting Down MCM in Kansas City

We decided to do a road trip to Kansas City. John's mom was from Leavenworth and he had always been interested in learning more about her side of the family, so we made a trip out of it. We finished with the family stuff first, then had a few days to play in KC.

On Monday, we started our hunt for MCM stuff at the River Market Antique Mall. Lots of fun stuff there of all vintages. 4 floors of stuff. Recommended.

Then on to the big MCM furniture motherlode of KC, Retro Inferno. Wonderful store, helpful staff, but we didn't find anything we had to have.

On to Boomerang (39th and Pennsylvania), a great vintage clothing store with some housewares and furniture thrown in. Another fun spot.

On the way to Boomerang, we passed through a very interesting neighborhood. It was a lovely wooded area, with quite the variety of houses. First, a charming stone cottage-




and next door, something straight out of the 60s or 70s!

And this across the street - bizarre!



After Boomerang, we did a driving tour of some of Kansas City's midcentury modern homes (see the KCModern website for the tour). They were interspersed in neighborhoods of "normal" 1950s ranch houses-

What makes the modern ones different? Those trapezoidal windows and post and beam construction are always a giveaway- (this one has the entirely wrong style of door though - look out, I'm calling the design police!)-



Also - the big windows or sliding glass doors to the outside, blurring the distinction between indoors and out. You can see in the front window by the door here and right on out the back-



The front often does not have these big windows though, the front is often very private-


On Tuesday, we began the day at the ReStore (not much in the way of residential goodies), then on to a great architectural salvage place called Foundation. Great place, and they had this tremendous 5 FOOT wide modern lamp, I think he said it was from a department store. I LOVE this thing and they actually had several of them. Looked like the bottom of a rocketship to me. Wish I had a place for it....




On to some other vintage shops around town, then we hit the 1950's All Electric Home. This home was built as a model "house of the future" for Kansas City Power and Light in 1954. It was open for visitors for 6 months before being sold and lived in for about 40 years. Then, the Johnson County Museum bought the house and restored it to it s original condition based on the original drawings, etc. I wasn't allowed to take pics inside but there are some pics available on the internet. This one shows the living room - it has an electric "fireplace" with a tv hidden in the wall above it (a motorized painting slides out of the way to reveal the tv); motorized curtains; and recessed lighting.

This shows the kitchen of the future-

The laundry area had a combination front loading washer and dryer, all in one. They make these now but I never had seen such a thing. They also had a light sensor in the garage - when it got dark, it would turn on all these little night lights in the hallway outlets so you could see. Nifty! And all the floor heat registers seemed familiar to me - that's because they were just like Baz's over at Atomic Indy!

And finally, here's a pic of some globe lights at our hotel. I like the mixture of heights and sizes.