Here is a hot tip for anyone doing a major project: Rejuvenation also sells antique lighting, and I noticed on their website yesterday that they have a good-sized stash of circa-1960 lighting from Progress Manufacturing, unused and in its original boxes. And — there are multiples available. Note: Even though it’s unused MIB, Rejuvenation says they rewire this lighting – another good reminder for all of us to rewire anything we find and use vintage. Last but not least — 33 vintage copper-plated cabinet pulls with atomic backplates also are in their antique hardware section — a wonderful number — a gorgeous design — snap ‘em up, someone!
Welcoming 2010, here’s the story that now has become our Retro Renovation new year’s tradition…kind of summing up the bumpy journey so many of us share:
We know about taking the road less traveled. To me, doing things the hard way has the same allure. The hunt for the perfect estate sale light fixture, the set of vintage cabinets that are just right, the document wallpaper that pulls things all together.
Honestly, the reason this blog even exists is that after completing big projects, I had so much info in my mental hard drive about the retro renovation alternatives available — all obsessively and endlessly researched — that it seemed a shame to simply be done with it when my projects were completed.
But the dangers of the hard way came into focus this week, when I pulled Palm Springs Stephan into the vortex.
We have some nice looking cabinet pulls to consider today… a lovely looking Moe ceiling fixture…and for you AtomicBowler, at the very end, a truly wonderful Mac Levy Beauty & Reducing Home Steam Bath that the lady of the house can use after she ate too much at the party where she wore the paper dress. I know how you like your gizmoes and gadgets, Dave.
Rochester Steven has completed some drop dead gorgeous updates to his 1957 Alcoa Aluminum house, and shares the details and images. This is the third story on these late-1950s “demonstration” houses. We first featured a time capsule for sale in Wisconsin. I think that’s how Steven found this blog, and we featured his house in New York state, along with the home’s original brochure, just a few weeks later. There were only 23 of these houses built — and Steven, Michael and Bobby are amazing caretakers. This house will knock you off your chair — it’s worthy of Architectural Digest. Heck yeah there is more…
Maribeth’s kitchen points to another excellent idea for retro styled kitchen cabinets: Have your kitchen cabinets built out of MDF, then paint them. Heck yeah there is more…
“Mid-century Modest.” I coined this new term in 2009, recognizing that while there may have been 1 million “mid-century modern” homes built in postwar America, there were about 29 million “Mid-Century Modest” homes. And, while some observers today consider the vernacular mass-market postwar designs all too “kitsch” and pretty much discount “tract” houses and all they stood/stand for, I say: Let’s celebrate Mid-century Modest, too – because this era of American housing and all it encompassed were really quite fascinating and special. So, here is my “Mid-Century Modest Manifesto”:
The Mid-Century Modest Manifesto
NO QUESTION, we love Mid-Century Modern homes,
the high falutin’ designer kind.
BUT IN POSTWAR AMERICA, while we built
maybe 1 million mid-century moderns –
we built some 29 million Mid-Century Modest homes.
MID-CENTURY MODEST:
Mainstream. Main Street. Mass produced. Middle Class homes.
ROYAL BARRY WILLS Cape Cods at one end of the architectural spectrum.
CLIFF MAY Ranches on the other.
AND YES, a dose of Contemporary increasingly thrown in, too.
AND OVER THE NEXT 30 YEARS –
a gazillion prosaic, vernacular melting-pot variations in between.
MID-CENTURY MODEST HOMES ARE: Small –
1,000 square feet for many years running.
“SMALL” TODAY– but to their owners starting in 1946,
they were the culmination of the American Dream.
Following years of economic Depression and WWII,
these little homes were an amazing gift.
HOW DO WE LOVE THEE, Mid-Century Modest homes?
Let us count the ways…
Built with love and immense gratitude.
Wonderful features – pastel bathrooms, fitted kitchens, livable layouts.
Knotty pine paneling – installed by Gramps.
Lots of ingenious Americana
like Nutone exhaust fans, Hall-Mack Tow’lscopes, and Dishmasters.
Wallpaper and pinch pleats and pull-down kitchen lights.
Boomerang cabinet pulls and wagon wheel lights and braided rugs.
Indoor plumbing.
Unpretentious. Exuberant. The first taste of true material comfort
for many millions of people.
Our houses have stories…
Stories about the beginning of a new American era still playing out today.
Did I mention small? Yes. But small is — green.
Small is quite often: “enough.”
THERE IS MUCH TO APPRECIATE in our Mid-Century Modest homes.
And certainly nothing to apologize for.
GRANITE countertops? Who needs ‘em, especially when they come with
a home equity loan that stresses our family finances beyond our limits.
What silliness. What Insanity.
SHHHH! Don’t tell anyone, but our Mid-Century Modest homes,
because they are so unpretentious by today’s standards,
can be much more affordable to buy and to renovate.
RETRO RENOVATION is very much about the “Re”:
Reduce. Re-Use. Recycle. Restore. Re-Store.
Returning to the source of “The American Dream”…
And in the process, re-thinking what we want it to mean for us today.
OH YEAH, and Retro style has a happiness-quotient that is off the charts.
WE LOVE our Mid-Century Modest homes
in all their glorious simplicity and optimism,
and cherish the opportunity to safeguard their history and heritage.
That’s the: Mid-Century Modest Manifesto.
Today is RetroRenovation.com’s second birthday. And on this occasion I would like to introduce something I’ve been noodling for the better part of the year — an all-new term that I have invented: “Mid-century Modest.” I first used the term at my home show talks in Eugene in March…and then again when I met with the wonderful Portland MCM League group for dinner right after. I believe that author Cara Greenberg is credited with coining “mid-century modern,” in 1985, with her book of the same name. A mere 24 years later, let me introduce “Mid-century Modest” and along with it, the Mid-Century Modest Manifesto. Heck yeah there is more…
Welcome to RetroRenovation.com -- your daily dose of mid century renovation resources... design inspiration... fun finds... and a growing community of people all interested in restoring, preserving and cherishing their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s homes.
I was looking at stories featured last January, and there are some gems, if I say so myself. How about:
