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postwar homes – “modern” and “modest” alike.
I'm Pam Kueber, your mid mod mad guide. Read more
Back in the day before the Surgeon General, technology still held the key to solving for cigarette dangers… Drowsy smokers? We’ve got you covered. This ad was a tiny PR placement in the 1947-48 winter/spring edition of Small Home Guide…turned up as I researched 1948 to mark launch of The Dishmaster.
UPDATE (Oct 2011): Click over to –> this story to get an update on all three sources for boomerang laminate. If you are planning Formica Boomerang countertop in aqua for your kitchen renovation, you’d better order now. Alas, if you were planning the skylark (light blue) or coral, it’s already too late. Following up on [...]
“Fake butcher block countertops” are another one of those original vintage house features that I often hear called “hideous” on other websites. (Crikey, how I have come to despise that word — it is overkill, please refrain.) I, on the other hand, not only have “no problem” with butcher block laminate, I am 100% on [...]
Arborite has two new laminates in their 2011-2012 collection that just popped onto my radar. I haven’t seen these as actual samples yet — I’ll order them this week. Meanwhile, I wanted to put them out there, because I know that many Retro Renovators have been left kind of up a creek since Formica discontinued [...]
If you are looking for retro-style laminate for a kitchen or bathroom countertop, you have some blinding research ahead of you. Unless there is a home-run-out-of-the-park solution — like the boomerangs, crackle ice or dogbone still available — it’s going to be a hunt-peck-and-forage to find something that’s “close enough” to original laminates from the [...]
A reader wrote to ask how to bring the luster back to her vintage laminate countertops. Paste wax, maybe? To get the answer, I turned to expert Grace Jeffers. She is the writer, design historian and materials expert responsible for restoration of the Ralph Sr. and Sunny Wilson House – including its gorgeous Mondrian-style kitchen, [...]
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12 places to buy aluminum awnings — including from three companies in business since 1946, 1947 and 1948 
Carpets, rugs and runners featuring 50 clan tartans – from Stevens & Graham circa 1947 
Vintage 1947 Baranger diamond display – a retro treasure 
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notice who is making the bed.