Magbot writes:
Pam, I’ve been following your saga since you first found your kitchen cabinets (can’t recall how I found out, probably mentioned in some other design blog), and swooning over your gorgeous reno. I fervently hope to someday redo a mid-C ranch as impeccably as you have.
My question: I’ve owned several of the 1950s dinette sets with chrome/formica tables and chrome/vinyl chairs, but recently I found (and snatched up!) a dinette unlike any I’ve seen, neither in person nor in vintage ads. The entire set, table and 4 chairs, is ENTIRELY formica, every surface completely covered with light grey woodgrain formica. I love its curvy legs, the spacers on the chair backs, and its original retro-tweed green vinyl seats, plus it’s in superb condition. Two pix are attached.
It has no maker marks of any kind. Would you know anything about its possible age or background?
Much thanks for your wonderful, inspiring blog,
…Maggie
Thanks, Magbot/Maggie #2! I have never seen a dinette like this. Incredible! Maybe another reader has?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
Since I have a Modernist store, I may be of help here. First of all, I’ve never seen a 100% laminated dinette set, but I DO have a 100% laminated desk:
http://futuresantiques.com/items/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=9177
Since these are the only two examples I’ve EVER seen, and they both have fake wood patterns, there’s a chance they’re from the same place. My desk is branded in a drawer:
“Virginia House – Lincoln Industries”
It’s a wacky but cool idea.
Ronn, thank you *SO* much for the reply. I’m almost certain your desk and my dinette were from the same mfr. Then googling Virginia House – Lincoln Industries led me to a huge database of vintage magazine ads put up by someone called The Kitsch Bitsch (!), whose one ad for Lincoln shows they were a mfr of dinettes, though the one shown is a common chrome style. Here’s a link:
http://advertising.tjs-labs.com/show-picture?id=1200337929
Further evidence is that you’re in Virginia, and Lincoln Ind. was in Virginia, and I found my formica dinette in nearby South Carolina.
Curse you, though, for your irresistible website — I wound up spending two hours going thru your Sold and Current pictures, and mopping the drool off my keyboard.
…maggie
Hi Maggie,
What? Like you think I DON’T drool over this stuff?
I keep a flexible plastic cover over my keyboard, my desk…
Ronn.
Next stop: the link you supplied.
What a great looking set! For years I trudged an all formica bookshelf/room divider with me. Two states and 8 homes. It was great, but it was the heaviest piece of furniture I have EVER owned. It was 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide with thick 2″ wide walls that surrounded the rows of cubbies. Each cubbie was about 12″ by 10″. I loved the piece, but the last move did me in. I had to let it go after 20 years. It was the ideal piece for seperating a living and dining room. It was from a 1950’s house where it had done just that, and it still had a couple of stickers on it – one was the Formica brand oval, and the other was something Bros. I thought. Not sure anymore. They really don’t build furniture like that anymore.