Wormley, Henningsen, and Eames, oh my!

I am so excited to share with you the super-cool event Gabe and I attended on Saturday in the South Land Park area of Sacramento.  It was the first ever Mid-Century Modern Home Tour!  I only found out about it Friday afternoon via midtowngrid, and luckily was smart and Virgo enough to buy tickets that night, cuz the event sold out.  Indeed, very sad for those last-minuters who were turned down at the registration desk the day of the event.  The entire event was really well organized, and had an unbelievable turn-out (note: we very well could have been the youngest two of the bunch).  I'll take you through the day:

Registration. Exhibits. Goodies.

There was a wall of advertisements from the mid-century era announcing the newly available Eichler Homes--a 3 or 4 bedroom custom for only $20K!  It still hurts.  There was also a small theater where various commercials ads were being shown on an old film reel.  Gabe and I stepped in to get a good chuckle out of the Pream ads.  "Pream. It's better than cream!"  Basically, if you are unaware, it's a non-dairy powdered creamer that apparently made quite an impression.  One of the ads showed huge nets dumping "old" Pream into the ocean, to make way for "new" Pream.  These days, you know that shit wouldn't fly.

I only took 100+ photos during the tour, which makes it difficult to pare down, but I will try not to go overboard.  Inside the booklet (shown above) there was a very detailed map of the homes and buildings that were part of the tour.  Furthermore, there was a cute sign prominently stuck in the front lawn of every participating home, and a handful of volunteer rockabilly-clad guides posted at each home.  Love the organization.

...seriously, every home either had a red or an orange door...

...and a car that perfectly complemented the home...

...decor that fits even in today's living rooms...

 ...adorable bedrooms that make me feel inadequate (it took a lot of self-control not to walk out with that chair in tow!)...

...and unique details, like:

...a waterfall underfoot in the foyer...

and

...built-in real wood floating cabinetry and acid-treated floors...

...this was our favorite home, but unfortunately, photography was not allowed...boo.

...the homeowners devoted just as much attention to the exteriors as the interiors...

...we were told the homes were not 'staged', but c'mon, who has Tang posters hanging on the walls of their backyard?...

...this homeowner has excellent taste...

The whole day was like stepping in to a blast from the past, and one of the coolest parts was overhearing other (much older) patrons talk about how they had grown up in homes like these, with the exact same style furniture and decor.  They joked about the fireplaces and light fixtures and how they couldn't believe they were in style again.  Personally, I was majorly geekin' out over the Eames mobiles hanging from almost every homes' ceiling, and the atomic pendants hanging over the dining room tables.  Gabe and I were right at home with this era.

We're both planning on volunteering, should this turn into an annual event.  I'd love to spend a day gabbing about Wassily and Jacobsen chairs without people giving me the cocker spaniel head tilt, like 'who? wha?' 

Since we own a mid-century home in West Sacramento, we were hoping to borrow some ideas from these homes, but we didn't really see anything that we hadn't already done.  I did however see many-a-furniture-piece I could not afford, but knew I someday wanted for my own pad.  I'm talking about you, Eames daybed.