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The time to renovate is now, according to the Wall Street Journal

Posted by: • November 30, 2007

graphics.jpgNew construction is down and contractors and trades are hungry for work. Meanwhile, the price of key building materials has dropped significantly from peaks.

Together, these factor make it the the best time in years for home renovation projects, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

The paper says that “more homeowners will renovate their kitchens this year — 7.57 million, up from 7.44 million in 2006 — but they will spend a lot less, $96.2 billion compared with $127 billion, according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association. Bathroom renovations this year are expected to rise by 5.3% to 10.9 million from 2006, while spending on them will grow 3.8% to $70.2 billion from 2006, the trade group projects.”

A great time for retro renovators to move their projects forward!

Click through to Yahoo here, to read the entire article.

50s living room club chairs – this time from Heywood Wakefield – today’s ebay pick

Posted by: • November 30, 2007

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These mid century club chairs are very cool. What lines! If you’re near Bustown (Columbus, Ohio), lucky you.

Even if not – the key point of today’s pick is that every retro renovation needs a great set of vintage club chairs or as they sometimes morphed, tub chairs. They are so versatile, there are many styles to choose from, and no matter where you’re from you can find a pair that is right for you – with some hunting and help from the decorating gods, of course!

Update: Just saw another listing for same style HW chair pair, in Gettysburg, PA! … both listings need re-upholstery.

Update: Columbus chairs sold for $503. PA chairs, for $500. Nice!

Flamingo’s and hula girls for your perky retro bathroom – from Thibaut

Posted by: • November 29, 2007

flamingo-bay-seaside-collection-thibaut.jpgWhen my kitchen was on the historic home tour this summer, visitors were so enthralled with the aquamarine steel kitchen, that that started to joke with the docent, “Where’s the flamingo wallpaper?”

Well, she had to pop open the basement bathroom, because there is was! I used a Waverly paper from their now-defunct Kitchen Kitsch collection. But I recently found these great papers from Thibaut. This company makes wonderful, high quality papers. Their flamingo wallpaper is less kitschy, but still great for a bathroom. Ditto, the hula girl wallpaper. There are several color fields including nice creams, blues – even aqua.

hula-jacaranda-collection-thibaut.jpgIn my 50s bathrooms, the tile went up the wall exactly 47″ — see my tile posts — then wallpapering above this line. A nice mix of textures and patterns and an oh-so-cheerful way to start each and every day! Thibaut has a great and very user-friendly website – check it out.hula-roomset_550.jpg

Horse motifs were super cool additions to 50s and 60s living rooms – today’s ebay pick

Posted by: • November 29, 2007

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ebay-horse-lamp-2.JPGWatch Get Smart very closely and see an expansive horse theme throughout The Chief’s cool mid century office. The roman-style horse was a huge motif during this period, in particular paired with Danish Modern. My living room features an abstract bullfighting scene – another alternative!

This lamp is beautiful – and the lister has a detailed history on its creator, a well-known artist. A beautiful piece. Update: Someone snapped it up under the Buy It Now price of $184.99 - a RetroRenovation.com  reader??

Retro style house numbers, perfect for 40s 50s and 60s ranch, Cape and Colonial homes

Posted by: • November 28, 2007

house-numbers.pngThe little accents you use on the outside of your house can be very impactful ”jewelry.” I love these simple but very classic house numbers from Rejuvenation Lighting.

In prior posts I’ve written how rustic, black wrought iron can be perfect to trim out postwar ranch, Cape and colonial homes.

Colonial and Capes=Pilgrims. Ranch=Wild West. Both mean: Blacksmiths hammering iron.

That means black forged iron for house numbers, lighting, shutter dogs, garage trim, gate handles, weathervanes….looks great. These handsome, hand-forged, hand-hammered steel numbers totally fit the bill.

Prior posts on wrought iron accessories: Lighting from Hanover….and various forged iron decorative stuff from Acorn.

50th anniversary of the Eero Saarinen Tulip Chair by Knoll – iconic 50s 60s mid century style

Posted by: • November 27, 2007

tulip-chairs.jpgI have really come to appreciate Eero Saarinen tulip chairs since incorporating them into my kitchen. I recently learned that this year marks the tulip chair’s 50th anniversary.

Their manufacturer Knoll issued a news release, and what they had to say about the chairs in many way characterizes the incredible spirit of invention that permeated our culture following the war.

“The revolutionary series of single pedestal chairs and tables designed by Saarinen and launched in 1957 by Knoll have come to represent the exuberance, finesse and high imagination of American mid-century furniture. The Tulip Collection, constructed of fiberglass and cast aluminum, demonstrates Saarinen’s distinct ability to balance art and technology and was his solution to the ‘slum of legs’ that he perceived as making for ‘an ugly and unrestful world.’”

Aren’t these just beautiful? And, not having to mess around with 16 chair-legs in my smallish kitchen space really is nice! It’s amazing how these chairs still feel so fresh today. My teenage daughter and her friends – who know and care nothing about modern design – adore the chairs. They sit and twirl and caffeine-clatch on them just like people have been doing, well….for 50 years!

When It’s Toasters Instead of Torpedoes — Vintage chrome for your 40s 50s or 60s kitchen

Posted by: • November 26, 2007

There’s nothing like a shiny bundle of vintage chrome to accessorize a retro kitchen renovation. I found a nice site, ToasterCentral.com, that offers refurbished toasters like this Toastmaster Imperial:

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“Refurbished” — and at a price — because you actually might want to make toast knowing you’re not likely to burn the kitchen down. My husband is particular stickler for that, although I have been known to take a chance on appliances found at garage sales….

The proprietor of ToasterCentral tells me that he has several toasters available that include vintage holiday advertising — a nice package for the holidays!

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Checking out ToasterCentral’s links, I also discovered The Toaster Museum Foundation, at toaster.org — it’s a bona fide 501c3 corporation that chronicles…well, the history of the toaster. Go to the virtual museum to see classics from 1940-60s. What fun!

The vintage ad (click thumbnail to enlarge) — When It’s Toasters instead of Torpedoes — is from their site. Isn’t it great — another example how in the wake WWII we had to create a market for all that steel and industrial know-how.

Waste not, want not…and other joys of retro renovation

Posted by: • November 25, 2007

I have been entranced with the idea of putting up a clothesline for about a year now. This week, my excitement peaked when I discovered a whole market for vintage clothesline paraphrenalia and bought this cool Cordomatic Clothesline Reel, unused in the original box, on eBay.

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In addition to being very interesting graphically and functionally, the clothes reel is a reminder of yet another reason to consider a retro renovation — it’s green. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” — was the original environmental rallying cry; now it seems, the mantra is to demand more e-friendliness in our products…but to keep using more more more, always new.

Regardless of the politics: Hanging your clothes out to dry not only saves energy — it saves money — it’s exercise — it reduces stress — and presuming you live somewhere with cleanish air, it gives your clothes an oh so nice smell and feel.

Much the same can be said about any number of retro renovation projects – they’re positive on so many fundamental levels. Salvaging my aquamarine kitchen cabinets saved them from going to the landfill — where I’m sure they were destined — and made for a much more interesting kitchen. Putting up pinch pleats from an estate sale saves from heat and air conditioning loss through our windows, repurposes existing resources, and saves tons of money vs. buying new. Vintage sofas, chairs, tables, dressers — are usually better made and save money, too. On and on it goes.

In such a “disposable” world — it’s nice to be on the re-using end. And having fun with it all, too!

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