By the Decade

You are here: Home / 2008 / Archives for April 2008

A cheery 1945 kitchen to mark month’s end

Posted by: • April 30, 2008

Just a sweet and simple 40s “American” kitchen today. In my recent survey, readers asked for more from the 40s. This photo is a great example: Sweet, clear colors that are very much of the era…the cabinets, still simple and white… And as we’ve discussed before, notice the not-all-that-subtle use of patriotic red-white-blue color scheme. In this case accented by clean yellow and green.

A very cheerful crayola kitchen for a country emerging from hard times. As the copy says:

For a good start to happiness, start your plans now.

A new resource for NOS sinks and such – courtesy Tuscaloosa Sarah

Posted by: • April 29, 2008

Mystery Reader turned me on to a fun, new site – deabath.com. I say ‘mystery reader’ because I can’t find the email. Drats. My excuse is (1) I have three email accounts that I never clean out, and (2) I have let my life spin out of control via lack of organization. Like, not one list going, and I’m a list person. Whatever. Mystery reader – identify yourself so that you can receive the praise and accolades you rightly deserve!

May 1 update: I took the day off to organize and found the mystery writer: Tuscaloosa Sarah, many thanks!

Anyway – back to DEA. Go straight to their Original Antiques. This FABULOUS pink sink with cabinet is in their antique section right now, under colored fixtures. As I recall, this style of sink came out in the late ’50s. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen one live. It’s so princess-y…incredible!

DEA has plenty of other cool antique bath fixtures to look at – including the new-old-stock sinks shown below. Have a couple of bathrooms and want matching? 7 of the Crane Oxfords with legs available! A fun place to prowl….



50s kitchen cabinet hardware — Elizabeth finds chrome pulls, great value

Posted by: • April 26, 2008

St. Louis Elizabeth writes:

Dear Pam:

I wanted to alert you and forum readers to a recent find.

After the Palm Beach restorer’s comments on rechroming hardware, I decided to seek a modern, replacement pull with the right retro feel for my slab-front cabinet doors. (I’ll need ~36 and couldn’t afford vintage items at $8-12 each.)

It took a lot of searching. But I finally came up with something in the original 3″ span between holes (4″ overall), with what seems like the right feel:

Hickory Hardware #P115-26

http://www.myknobs.com/belp11526.html

And it was at the unbeatable sale price of $1.93 ea.

Things arrived yesterday, approximately a week after my order, well packed and promptly delivered within the promised 7-14 days. – Elizabeth

Many thanks, Elizabeth! These look very sleek indeed, and at a great price.

Classic retro bathroom fixtures from Home Depot – Sara finds this deal

Posted by: • April 25, 2008

Sarakay has found what look to be very affordable and totally retro bathroom lights, at Home Depot. There is a four-bulb version (above), a two-bulber, and possibly even a single-bulb sconce that might be workable. You can only buy them at the store, although you can see them online (although they are well hidden, so Sarakay has provided instructions, too.) All $12-$20. Thanks, Sarakay!:

Hi Pam,

Love your blog. While I was wandering around in Home Depot today I saw this 50\’s style bathroom light fixture. I had no idea anyone sold these any more. A fixture like this was above just about every house\’s bathroom sink when I was growing up.

Go to homedepot.com , then drill down as follows:

- lighting and fans
- bath and vanity lighting
- on the sidebar, under color, select white
(And I had to do further – click Show All, then add my zip code)

Cheers, Sara


A vintage coppertone sink – “lost in inventory” for 25 years — today’s ebay pick

Posted by: • April 24, 2008

A vintage coppertone sink – “lost in inventory” for 25 years. Very cool.

Vintage wallpaper — Retro Renovation reader favorites

Posted by: • April 23, 2008

Last Saturday I invited readers to help wallpaper the world by sending in images of their favorite vintage wallpapers. We had three contributors — all wonderful examples and stories.

From Sumac Sue:

Hi. I was looking for a kitchen wallpaper that featured coffee pots, and I stumbled onto this one. I can’t imagine using it in my kitchen, although it does have a big blue coffee pot warming by the campfire! This paper would be great in a child’s room, or maybe in the den of someone who lives in cattle country.

There are several reasons I love this wallpaper — the scenes really seem to tell a story, and not just serve as a design. There’s a lot to stir up the imagination — cowboys, cattle, horses, a campfire scene complete with a fellow playing a harmonica. And the colors are gorgeous — just look at those cacti!

Makes me want to dust off the Louis L’Amour novels!

I found some other more conventional papers with coffee pots, but none that really wowed me like this paper does. We call our place the Coffee Pot Ranch, because we drink a lot of coffee, but, I don’t know if I want to be quite so literal about it by using cowboy wallpaper!

From Jason, it’s flamingos after dark –

This is my favorite wallpaper from Rosie’s. It’s so kitschy! I love flamingos and tropical places. I love the colors, although I have a feeling it would really darken the room too much. But I may just have to find a reason to “need” some. It would look great in a bathroom with pink and black tile. – Jason

Thank you, Jason, and write more often!


And from Portland Amy:

I thought this would take hours but I quickly found the exact same wallpaper that covered my Grandmother’s master bathroom. I would spend hours in that huge bathroom perched on her red velvet vanity stool surrounded by this flocked goodness. Some days I was a movie star, others I was a princess. If only I had an extra 350 bucks lying around.

Yup, Amy Sue. That about sums it up for all of us. Thanks, everyone, for playing!

Arranging artwork in your 50s home…. and, a set of 50s art prints – today’s ebay pick

Posted by: • April 23, 2008

What to put on the walls of your mid century home? I believe in mixing things up: A starburst mirror, a large framed oil, a clock somewhere, some small prints, a cluster of botanicals. I adore matchy matchy 3- and 4-piece vintage art print sets like this – they are so typical and usually inexpensive. Just one “matching” set per room, though, please.

Also, I will use this as an occasion to repeat some key advice – around what I consider to be “an error” made by most people: Don’t go too dinky. That is, don’t get all conservative and fearful and only put up small things. If you do, things get cluttered looking really fast…your eye does not know where to rest, how to move around the room… and the effect can be even worse in high-ceiling architectural spaces. One tip — putting small pieces together in a clustered arrangement can make them collectively “read” like one large piece. Like these four. They are individually smallish, but put them together, and you create attention over one large space.

Moreover: Be bold. Get some big pieces.

A happy ending for Ashley, Doug and some beautiful vintage Kelvinator appliances

Posted by: • April 22, 2008


Last week I posted an urgent message about Ashley in Nashville with some beautiful Kelvinator appliances that she had to get out of her home – fast. Several intrepid retro renovators jumped to the call and Doug from Atlanta whisked up to get them. But hey, there’s more – so read on:

Ashley writes:

Pam,

Thank you SO MUCH for posting my Kelvinators! I had many responses from some very kind people.

You’ll be happy to know they are in very good hands now. Doug F., from Atlanta, drove to Nashville to pick them up. (He is building a ’50s kitchen for his nephew, and said they’d be “perfect!”)

I also want to tell you how incredibly blessed I am that these went to this particular person: Doug was going to pay me a very fair price for them, but after I gave it some thought, I made him a proposal: if he’d help me install my new appliances, he could have them for free. So, that’s what he did! (He even went to Home Depot with me – along with my infant daughter, my dog and his dog — to buy my new sink, as my sink went with him, too, along with matching coffee tins and other fun stuff.) Having never done this before, I was thinking installation (sink, hood, cutting space for fridge) would take an hour or two, tops. Well, Doug arrived at noon, and left at 9:15 p.m.! And he never even stopped to eat!! (He ended up cutting four layers of my floor out, so my new fridge would fit properly — and we happily discovered a gorgeous pine floor under there, which remained unscathed! Yeehaah!)

Anyway, I definitely feel that finding your site was a very fateful thing (with help from Google! Ha!), because I never dreamed all this would take place when you posted my e-mail to you! I very much appreciate your posting it, and will continue to tell people about your great site!

Thanks again, Pam!

Have a super week!

Ashley

Next Page »