Mid-Century Modern Design and Symmetry

Last night, me and Amy went to Modern Antiques to look at the space, get to know the owner, share a bottle of wine, and start moving stuff around. It was a great time.

The owner is staining the concrete over the next few days to complement our cool wall colors. 

Soon, we’ll introduce some of the pieces that we’ve selected to pull into our 20x20 booth. We'll also share the histories of some of the pieces, and for a few, the really cool spots that they're going to sit for the next few decades. 

Today, I'd like to share a topic that me and Amy chat about during our deeply theological decorating discussions. I mean, we must have said something good at some point for this guy to let us paint and stage his warehouse, right?

We are both avid readers of design blogs and there are a few, that we have a deep devotion to.

The It's Complicated House, Image via Cote de Texas

For me, one of those is Cote de Texas. She has written about her Top Design Elements several times, and I find myself thinking about these specific posts on numerous occasions.

Her top design elements include

• Linen
• Slipcovers
• Seagrass
• Curtains
• Light/Fixtures
• Wall Decor
• Antiques
• Symmetry

Recently, I've been focusing on the last one--symmetry. I like symmetrical rooms.

Symmetry defined is beauty characterized by such excellence of proportion: harmony or balance. This means the left side has the same balance as the right. When the room can be split in half and the two sides mirror each other. These are photos of symmetrical design taken from Cote de Texas's posts.

When we selected furniture for our booths, we acknowledged that symmetry is an easy way to fill a booth, quickly. Two of the same chairs in a booth take up more room and look 'designed' more than 2 different chairs or 2 different side tables. Symmetrical design will be one of the things that we put to the test...

...Because, our booths are at a mid-century modern (MCM) antique store! MCM design styles feature asymmetrical wallpaper and design, as well as open space. It specializes in interesting and unique conversational pieces within airy and bright spaces.

So, maybe the spaces will take on a mix of symmetrical with an asymmetrical accent thrown in for good measure. Or we can create an asymmetrical booth just to see how it feels. Right now, we'll let our eyes guide us, and hopefully later, we'll be able to explain how symmetry can work in mid-century modern spaces...

Photo from Design Within Reach

New Project for The Deco Blog team

We wanted to introduce a new project we’ll be working on over the next few months. An owner of a mid-century modern furniture consignment store in Dallas has asked us to help repaint and organize his space.


This is what it looks like today:

To do list:

• Choose interior paint colors
• Paint booth walls
• Select furniture from 3500+ sq ft of space to design booths and
• Upload photos for you to see.

So far, this is what we know.


We’ll be playing with warm and dark wood furniture, chrome, and glass. We’ll look for complementary colors like cool grays, interesting deep browns and steely grays. Modern homes often have white painted walls with floor to ceiling windows, but we’ll have to take into consideration the warehouse’s artificial light, which will read differently. We want to choose a grays that read gray and cool, not dingy. And clean whites, that won't look creamy….or apartment beige-y.


Eventually, the floors will be stained to be a dark glossy cement.


We’ll be picking up these colors for starters:

Benjamin Moore, Edgecomb Gray (http://blossominteriors.com/blog photo credit)

Benjamin Moore, Linen White (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ photo credit)

Sherwin-Williams, Conservative Gray (http://www.traditionalhome.com/images/img_newhousenewkitchen_l2.jpg photo credit)

We also like

• Benjamin Moore, Stone Harbor
• Sherwin-Williams, Gilbraltar
• Benjamin Moore, Cliffside Gray

On a side-note, how come I can't find more photos of specific colors if everyone is crediting their photos? What's the scoop on that?

Breaking The Ice

You may be wondering why we started a blog titled “The Deco Blog.”  Although, Tara and I have full-time jobs in Marketing and Civil Engineering, we both have a strong/weird obsession with anything to do with interior decorating.  We had a hard time coming up with a name for the blog because we didn’t want to pigeon-hole ourselves into writing about a specific style/thing since we both have heterogeneous taste.  Some of our main goals, in regards to this blog, are to be authentic, reliable and consistent for the Deco Blog Nation. 

We hope you enjoy following us!

-Amy B.