Chime In about ElectraChime Tubular Doorbells tagged "Mid Century" Page 2

What does this Door Chime have in common with this Pitcher?

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Robert Dobrin | 0 Comments

Rachel Delphia, a Curator at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art was combing through the notes and drawings of one of the 20th Century's preeminent industrial designers in preparation for an exhibit. Serendipitously, Rachel found this post at ElectraChime's companion site, the Doorbell Museum.

The astute Curator instantly recognized the "Skyline" Door Chime as the work of Peter Muller-Munk. “The touchstone for him as a designer is the idea of bringing ‘beauty, reason and order’ to the rituals of everyday life,” Ms. Delphia told the New York Times.

In November of 2015, this never-used Skyline will take it's place among Munk's other icons of design including the Normandie Pitcher. ElectraChime is honored to lend a hand toward furthering appreciation of Muller-Munk's work.

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Posted in Door Chime History, doorbellmuseum.org, ElectraChime, Mid Century, Peter Muller-Munk

Arched Doorbell Niche sports a customized ElectraChime

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Robert Dobrin | 0 Comments

Photos courtesy of K. Beck

Here's one of my favorite doorbell niche treatments. Painting a light background contrasted with a tasty wall color really frames the doorbell. K. Beck of Portland, Oregon, wanted a doorbell that complimented her taste for her mid-century renovation:

I’m a big fan of restoring older homes. I like updates that incorporate modern functionality, but retain the charm of the past. Electrachime was a perfect solution for that. We have Mahogany woodwork throughout our house and Robert was kind enough to match the stain of our woodwork so it fit perfectly.

We have a lot of artwork in our home, so it was important to select neutral wall colors to allow the artwork and decor, like the chimes, to become the feature points. The wall color in our entryway is a Benjamin Moore color called Alexander Beige (HC-77) and the color for the ceiling and chime niche are an older Behr color called Clear Moon (PWN-30).

We are thrilled and delighted with out new chimes. Renovations can be really challenging. Lots of things go wrong, take longer then you expect, or cost a lot more than estimate. ElectraChime was willing to customize the wood and the product arrived quicker than expected and on budget, it was easy to install, and it is a great finishing touch to our entryway. Color me a big fan!

This chime is a customized Ribbon doorbell in Mahogany. If you are interested in your own custom doorbell, please let us know. We're here to help.

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Posted in Custom, customer photo, doorbell niche, ElectraChime, Mid Century, Ribbon

Long Chime Doorbells in Movies and Television

Posted on May 08, 2014 by Robert Dobrin | 0 Comments

More often than not and unsurprisingly, their sound is used to announce a visitor. Sometimes, set decorators use doorbells to speak silently to the circumstances and set a mood. In the Wonder Years (ABC 1988-1993) a long chime doorbell is featured in a scene where Kevin and Paul get home from school and converse with Paul's family from the Pfeiffer hallway.

The characters lived in ranch style homes typical of the millions built in post war America. We all related to Kevin, his friends and family because so many of us grew up in just such houses.

In a stroke of brilliance the producers kept the show's setting ambiguous while taking extraordinary care to precisely reproduce homes of the period. This enabled us to relate the characters to our own experiences as we picked out furnishings we remember from growing up in Mid Century Modest surroundings.

In Edward Albee's absurdist play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a long chime doorbell has a stronger supporting role. The chimes are used to illustrate the fractious relationship