2011 April — Retro Renovation

Mom’s black-and-white vintage bathroom sparkling with vintage jewelry: Done!

Posted by: pam kueber • April 17, 2011

The crash project to create a vintage style black-and-white bathroom is: Done! And oh my gosh, did we have fun. One of the highlights, for sure, was at the very end, when Aunt Mary Anne and I were decorating. I remembered that I had just seen a bag of vintage costume jewelry in another bedroom, which Mom had picked up at an estate sale. We used it to bling-ify the bathroom, giving it a sparkly girly-girl lift. Aunt Mary Anne thought to put the vintage earrings right onto the shower hooks. We created: Shower Curtain Rod Ring Bedazzlers! LOVE! Heck yeah there is more →

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Win a “Love the House You’re In” custom collage of you and your house

Posted by: pam kueber • April 15, 2011

Entries now closed. Be sure to check the blog regularly — there will be another contest in May. Amy was the winner of our January contest to win a Love The House You’re In Collage — and that’s her classique mid-century modest home, above — as immortalized by collage artist extraordinaire Mel Kolstad. To win our April contest, all you have to do is: Heck yeah there is more →

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Faucet, light and hardware for the black-and-white 1940s bathroom: The 7-day Gut Bathroom Renovation

Posted by: pam kueber • April 14, 2011

Working fast to buy all the basics for my mom’s impromptu gut-bathroom renovation,I first decided tile for the walls and floor…. next, chose the decorative trim tile…. and next, chose the vanity. After that, it was filling in all the “little” pieces that were, for the most part, purely decorative decisions. Heck yeah there is more →

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A vanity for the black and white 1940s bathroom: 7-day Gut Renovation Chronicles

Posted by: pam kueber • April 13, 2011

The first step in designing my mom’s 1940s-style, no-special-orders, black-and-white bathroom was to find the wall and floor tile. Then, we searched for the liner tiles. Once these decisions were made, my Aunt Mary Anne and I went shopping for the next “foundational” item: The bathroom vanity. In one day in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, we hit: Mouser’s Cabinets, their nearby outlet, Home Depot and Lowes. Somewhere along the way: Lunch at Panera. We did not find “the perfect” vanity. But we got close enough. Heck yeah there is more →

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Black trim for a white subway tile bathroom — The Gut Bathroom Renovation Chronicles continue

Posted by: pam kueber • April 12, 2011

Completing the spur-of-the-moment, gut renovation of my mom’s bathroom meant that I had to buy everything off-the-shelf… or, I could not order anything that would take more than a few days to deliver. The subway tile for the wall and the hex tile for the floor were in-stock items at Louisville Tile. But I knew I wanted some black liner tiles — I think they are called splash strips (?) — to bring some black-and-white action to the walls. Heck yeah there is more →

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Finding everything for a bathroom renovation in just 7 days: Can we do it?

Posted by: pam kueber • April 11, 2011

I came to Kentucky two weeks ago to visit family, and about a week in, we decided to do a gut-renovation of Mom’s bathroom. The key goal was to replace the built-in tub with a walk-in shower. Heck yeah there is more →

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MOMA’s kitchen exhibit: Live tour with curators Juliet Kinchin & Aidan O’Connor

Posted by: pam kueber • April 10, 2011

There’s less than one month left to visit the Museum of Modern Art’s, Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen. With my current detour to Kentucky, I am not sure that I am going to make it to New York City to see the exhibit. But, I enjoyed a virtual visit via this live walk through with curators Juliet Kinchin ad Aiden O’Connor. It continues to be fascinating to be in the middle of the resurgent interest in mid century design, including the more mainstream, domestic sphere. MOMA’s kitchen exhibit ends May 2.

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4 new Vintage Vera fabric designs for shower curtains, towels, tablecloths, aprons & more

Posted by: pam kueber • April 9, 2011

Thanks to reader Kate H. for the tip that several vintage designs from Vera Neumann — “Vintage Vera” — are now on the shelves at Macy’s. Heck yeah there is more →