New Blog

Barcelona Chair (1929) Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; at DWR, Houston, Texas

My new blog, My Ranchburger, is named after my other home, a late fifties haunted (more about that later) ranchburger in Houston, Texas. I wanted a place in which to post about what I call modern minimalism.

In both of my homes many of the furnishings are from the early twentieth century (either original or reproductions of designs from that period.) In The Bunny Bungalow, most pieces are arts & crafts antiques or reproductions from Stickley; whereas, the pieces at My Ranchburger are modern, such as Le Corbusier or Marcel Breuer designs (reproductions from Cassina). These seemingly disparate styles surprisingly have in common the time period in which their designs were originally produced. With arts & crafts, the designers were looking backward, to a time when things were handcrafted. The designers of modern style, however, were looking to the future, so embraced industrial production. In spite of having been conceived in the same time period, the two styles seem to be in opposition to one another, yet they have in common a minimalist purity. Therein lies the reason a minimalist heart can love both styles.