A few years ago I did a before and after post about the original pink bathroom in our house. Back then, maybe a year after we had been living in the house, I decided that the best way to update the dingy flat white walls was to aim for somewhere between the pink tile and the fading blue accent tile. We ended up painting it a sort of dusky violet, that, upon years of reflection, was the wrong choice. So we have embraced the pink and repainted! The new color does wonders at brightening a room that is lit only by the window and original medicine cabinet side fixtures.

What I failed to post about years ago is the mystery hole. In the half wall that separates the toilet from the sink is a built-in cavity. It is partially finished, that is, the tile wraps around the edge and is also at the back of the hole. The sides of the cavity are not tiled, nor is the bottom.

*that black strip you see in the photo is foam tape that helps hold the blue lidded plastic shoe box in place to keep the cats out of the hole.

I have scoured the internet and vintage magazines for a hint at its original purpose. Mid century bathrooms often had built in shelves for utility or display, but the bottom of this cavity is unfinished and just held a bunch of garbage. Also, it is right at toilet seat height, so it wouldn’t be useful for many things. I wondered if maybe it had an insert at one time that would turn it into a receptacle of some kind. I also ruled out toilet paper, since the tile toilet paper holder on the other side of the toilet (in the above pictures) is original to the bathroom. So, if you have an idea, let me know!

I inherited a weird little curio from my Grandmother. I don’t remember ever seeing it in her house, though it could’ve been hidden amongst her enormous collection of salt and pepper shakers. Any time I look at it, even now that it has lived in my house for so long, I am overwhelmed with questions. My grandmother’s house had porcelain figures of children being held up by the giant hand of Jesus, it had kitchen prayers and little plaques with owls made from shells that said ‘world’s best grandmother.’ This figure of a small person with bee wings and a halo, playing flute seems weirdly incongruous. Is it meant to be an angel? And why does the cow have a halo too?

Perhaps, I thought, it was just a product of its time that made sense to whomever brought it to my grandmother’s house. But then, I wanted to find similarly odd figurines of the mid century. I often surf around eBay looking at anything tagged as ‘mid century,’ so this time, I dedicated my search to finding these figurines. Far from the popular brutalist style of the time and equally far from the ‘modern’ ideal that most comes to mind, these figures are weird, fantastical, and kitschy. This is what I found:

Continue reading Mid century oddities