Reno2100: Our Demolicious Mid-Century Ranch

Monday, July 30, 2007

The Great Outdoor

Sometimes, it's the little things that give us joy. In this instance, it's our address plaque. Seriously. We finally removed the old, nasty one that came with the house. (See below.)



In its place is a fabulous modern one manufactured by Craig. We had bought the numbers at Home Depot Expo a while ago. However, mounting each one individually onto and into the brick wasn't something that we were both groovy on.

Inspired by some expensive signage and another DIYer's homemade solution I had spotted online, we constructed our own out of simple Plexiglas that was sanded to give a frosted appearance onto which we mounted the numbers. The whole thing was then hung using spacers so that it, like the numbers, "floated" off the brick wall. Here's the result of Craig's hard work and my humble assistance:



Add to it the other mod details, like a swanky modern outdoor light that I spent literally DOZENS of hours online trying to find...



And this cool little doorbell button...



And all together, here's what our new, ubercool front entry looks like:



The door, FYI was stained by Craig, too. (You'll be seeing gobs more of his handywork soon.)

Already the plan is in the works to improve the front walkway, for which we've already selected super-groovy/affordable stone tile from, of all places, Lowes. Regrettably, other stuff takes priority, like our backyard with the HORRIBLE drainage issues that we have to fix ASAP.

Till next time...

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6 Comments:

  • Fabulous! What a great change!

    By Blogger Mary-Frances, at 10:11 AM  

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    By Blogger Jacqui and Craig, at 11:38 AM  

  • Cool house! I've just read through your entire blog, as we're going through some of the same stuff you are doing. I love so many of the ideas you have had! I'm also glad that we haven't had (as of yet) to tear any walls down. Your house number design really got me thinking about a new way to do ours!

    By Blogger Patrick, at 4:04 PM  

  • How did you sand the plexi to get it to look like that? Looks cool!

    By Blogger Patrick, at 2:00 PM  

  • Patrick - We used an orbit sander with a fine grit sandpaper.

    Very easy!

    By Blogger Jacqui Garcia, at 2:41 PM  

  • Fabulous. We, too, used IKEA in the Kitchen. Check it out at http://www.565westsantarosadrive.com where you will see a large living room (600 sq.ft) which was filled with IKEA boxes.

    My 1947 ranch house was badly remodeled in the 1970's including pink shag carpeting, beveled gilded mirrors, gold walpaper, aluminum frame windows, tile, etc. We stripped most of this out and exposed the original concrete floors, stained when they were poured 60 years ago. Several of the original steel casement windows remained, so we had Torrance Windows match them around the house. We gutted the kitchen and used a red laquer IKEA product that is gorgeous. The house is filled with a collection of mid-century furniture and art and rugs. Please visit at http://www.565westsantarosadrive.com. This was a 5 year project.

    By Blogger shamlin, at 12:18 PM  

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