Modern Habitat

Take a drive near the Outsider's House Museum today and you might notice some interesting new additions to the area. A pair of new homes with low-slope rooflines and simple lines are sprinkled amongst the bungalows of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Crutchfield Neighborhood. 

No, these are not hipsters escaped from Lortondale. 

Image courtesy of Green Country Habitat for Humanity

Modern Fireplace Redo

Breathing New Life into a Midcentury Fireplace

A few years ago we discovered the fireplace flu in our 1964 ranch home was unusable. Cracks in the flu pipe allowed smoke to leak into our attic– and eventually the living room. Yuck.

This discovery was followed by a quote for more than $3,000 to repair it! Double-yuck. Time to explore some options.

Nichols Hills Conversion

It Works Both Ways

Have you ever noticed how often a modern or contemporary home falls victim to a Brasser?*

Sometimes it seems like half the cool modern houses in Oklahoma have been purchased by people that loathe them. Why else would they add out-of-place accents like Colonial porch lights, crown mouldings, gabled roofs, Victorian doors- the list goes on. I often wonder why anyone would buy a home they hate that much! But occasionally- not often- it goes in the opposite direction.

Your Modern Bathroom. Complete.

One of the coolest things about a Sixties house is all the nifty built-in stuff. 

The Revolving
Toothbrush Command Center

Our favorite built-in features is a revolving toothbrush holder. That chrome door in the bathroom looks like a secret panel when closed. But rotate the magic metal marvel and a veritable oral hygiene command center is revealed!

These convenient accessories were popular in the Fifties and Sixties. A company called Hall-Mack offered an entire collection of bathroom built-ins to make your modern life easier. Our house also has a couple of their classic Tow'lescope retractable towel bars (which look like a horizontal radio antenna when extended over the sink). The most rare of all though is the fold-down bathroom scales!

But I digress.

Need a Designer Desk?

How's that? "What designer?" you ask.

Well, good question. Let's just say- they might be your neighbor. Or your classmate. And they might be the "next big thing."

Last October the 4x8 competition challenged Tulsans to create a desk from a single piece of plywood. Like a 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood, in fact. Thus the name.

Unknown Places

One of the more amazing collections available through the Tulsa City-County Library is the Beryl Ford Collection. Ford collected thousands of images of Tulsa right up to his death in 2009. The Rotary Club of Tulsa purchased the collection and, with the help of the Tulsa City-County Library and the Tulsa Historical Society, began the monumental task of preserving and digitizing the collection.

An unidentified bathing beauty, just one
of hundreds of unknown images from the
Beryl Ford Collection.

Today you can browse the Beryl Ford Collection online, search the database and even purchase prints. It's a fascinating peak into our city's past.

Recycled Plant Stand

We've had this plant stand sitting around for years. It was one of those multi-tiered, folding jobs made from wood- very Seventies. Like the brochure might have had a macramé owl hanging on the wall behind it.