Products and ideas to remodel your mid century home in authentic vintage style
Your daily dose of midcentury remodeling resources…
home design inspiration… thrifty finds… and a generous
community of people passionate about their vintage and
postwar homes – “modern” and “modest” alike.
I'm Pam Kueber, your mid mod mad guide. Read more
What’s more retro than hanging your laundry up to dry, outside or in? I bought a vintage Crawford laundry reel last year – I loved the graphics – and now I’ve discovered you can also still buy one new. The most energy-intensive part of doing laundry is running the dryer. If you’re game – use this instead. $18 at BuilderDepot.com.
Over at her blog The Home Project, reader Linn and her husband continue to chronicle the remodel of their adorable bungalow kitchen. Recently, they rolled up their sleeves and installed a stainless steel countertop right over the old, existing laminate countertops. The headline: When first considering the stainless steel countertop option, Linn contacted a big [...]
The new crop of laminates suitable for mid-century kitchen countertops continues. Reader Jon gets snaps for spotting this new “Motion” series of laminate from Pionite. Jon writes: Hi Pam, First, I love the site. I’ve been reading it since December when I purchased my teeny tiny 1946 house (originally a summer home) on the shore [...]
In my recent story about authentic 1950s 1960s and 1970s kitchen remodeling products still made today, I spotlighted Elkay Lustertone stainless steel drainboard sinks — made back in the day and still available today. Over the past year, I’ve been in touch with a reader who was preparing to install a new Elkay sink top [...]
Okay, this is the last day of my little fixation with retro laminates. (For now.) As you know, I am a devotee of the Sherwin Williams Suburban Modern palette, both interior and exterior. So, I have gone through Arpa’s line of solid-colored laminates and for the most part, been able to line up 10 colors [...]
These are new from Formica. Both look like they could swing either “warm” or “cool” – that is, work across the spectrum from reds (and pinks) to blues. I really like the Linen – a very typical look for the 50s — Hey, Formica, can we have it in green, blue, pink and yellow?!: And, [...]
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3 ideas to create a gingham plaid laundry room floor 
Wowwee! An incredible retractable kitchen light – today’s ebay pick 
Vintage Sears Harmony House vintage kitchen retractable pull down light – unbelievable 
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I just saw some 1940s reels on Etsy that I’d love to have. For indoors though, I use a folding rack. I like hang dried clothes so much better…and its cheaper when you’re paying coins for each load!
We’re fortunate to have a clothesline in our backyard, on the original metal poles. My neighbors get a kick out of seeing me actually handing laundry on it. But dry your 100-percent cotton sheets on the line, in the wind and sun, and you’ll sleep like you’re an angel on a cloud.
I went and bought one in Home Depot THEN I found an old one at an estate sale!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a clothesline Nazi. You wouldn’t believe how much I saved on my electric bill after the first month where I zealously hung laundry outside to dry instead of stuffing everything automatically in the dryer.
Allowing clothes to dry outside in the sun and fresh air will also naturally disinfect them.
I have another way to use this! I run a child care business and I have one that I attached to one wall and a hook to temporarily attach it to
another wall and I pull it out to hang art work to dry!
Does a super job and it is high enough so the kids can’t touch it.
I live where the winters are very cold so hanging laundry out to dry this time of year doesn’t really work but I love that I found another way to use such a simple device
I own two of the newer ones. I bring them inside in the winter and hang our clothes in the basement. We don’t even own a dryer, and all our wash is done in a Maytag wringer washer made in 1957. It’s a little more effort, but we save a TON on water and electricity. Clotheslines are, in my opinion, an absolute necessity for a retro house.
The Google Earth view of my home shows laundry on the line! Must have been taken on a Sunday