midcentury planter | Hepcats Haven

1951 Lighted Planter and Shelf Unit Restoration

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Hepcats Haven

Mel and I saw a really cool formica cabinet for sale in S.F. that matched our office desk, so we shot over there to pick it up. We met a really nice couple who had lived in their home for many years. They had a lot of really cool items they were trying to get rid of because they were moving to Hawaii. Mel and I noticed this lighted planter and shelf unit right when we walked in, and it was love at first sight!

This couple took possession of this shelf unit from an elderly asian lady who used to own the whole building. When she passed, her family didn’t want any of her possessions, so they ended up with it.

Mel and I are big fans of multipurpose furniture. I love the design of this shelf unit and the planters push it over the top. Another cool feature is that the lower planter has a light above it. When lit, it gives the lower planter an aquarium feel.

The first step to restoring anything it to dismantle it. This shelf unit has two mirrors that flank each side of the lower planter. When I removed them, I noticed that on the back of the mirrors they had a stamp and it said…

I assume this fantastic piece was produced sometime around July 12, 1951 because of that stamp. After I broke the unit down, I started the long process of sanding, repairing and painting the piece. Here is the result…

I decided to keep the original black color scheme. I changed the red color of the shelves to aqua because I wanted to introduce more aqua into our decor. I also painted the removable planter bins aqua to help accentuate the curve of the shelf unit.

Thank god for artificial plants! I have tried to keep real plants alive, but never manage to do so. Michael’s sells really nice artificial cacti and succulents!

This lower planter throws really nice light and gives the room a pleasant atmosphere when turned on. Our house is just under 1800 sq ft, and being that we are antique dealers/collectors, we are at capacity. This is one of those pieces we will have to make room for.

Now we have to find some smalls we can place on each shelf.

We will always be looking for pieces similar to this. Not to long ago we found another planter cabinet that we use in our laundry room.

Below is the cabinet we originally drove out to get. I added the hairpin legs to give it a more atomic feel.

Our Alameda Point Antiques Faire Finds

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Hepcats Haven

Mel and I were up at 2:30am this morning getting ready and driving to the largest antiques show in Northern California. We love Alameda because of the size of the faire and the scenic views. You can see the heart of S.F. from almost any point around the faire. The weather was great today, and added to the enjoyment of the day.

Here are the fruits of our labor!

This Craig radio and speakers is really cool. If you look closely, you can see orange plastic behind the speakers and radio. I love the accent of that against the dark wood. We also managed to find the really cool hourglass.

This super mod plastic clock and calendar was produced by Burwood. We love it’s functionality!

Here we have an assortment of Murano, Blenko and other cool glass pieces.

This is a real gem! This will look great with the rest of our space age decor! We love this phone.

This “Janga” looking piece is a table top puzzle piece from the 70’s.

These jacks are huge. They are made of resin, thank god because if they were metal I am not sure I could lift them! We purchased these courtesy of FandFVintage.

Totally Panton Era mirrors! Thanks Tom and Vern!

Large vintage Kimball bullet planter

Large abstract geometric lucite sculpture by Van Teal circa 1970’s.

This interesting piece is also from FandFVintage and will be used as a planter.

This is a vintage red pod chair. We are unable to find anything about the maker of this piece. I have a yellow chair that will go with this that I cannot substantiate either. If anybody knows the maker, we’d be interested in knowing.