Home improvement and remodeling for midcentury homes
Bradbury & Bradbury has introduced four new vintage wallpaper reproductions — classic damasks that, as owner Steve Bauer says, “would be appropriate in almost any style of home, with the exception of perhaps the most sterilized of midcentury modern homes, where ‘ornament is crime.’”
The four papers — Berkshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire and Essex — are all taken from 1920-1940s documents in the Bradbury archives. Read on for more from Steve…
GHOST OF ELVIS (aka Arne) recently scored the fantastic Witco tiki bar for sale on Ebay – and had it hauled all the way from the east coast to his Jungle Room in Albuquerque. I am so jealous!
GofE explains that, ” This tiki bar made its way from the thrift store outside Washington D.C. where the ebay seller first found it around the time that President Obama was inaugurated… to a consignment store in Virginia, and then through the magic of this blog, ebay, and craters and freighters the whole set ended up in my jungle room in a mid-century ranch home in New Mexico built in 1953….” Click through for more on the story, along with some Witco history… and 2 more great photos… Heck yeah there is more →
The Dishmaster got a nice write-up in the the April 2009 issue of Desert Living Magazine. The article also includes a nice mention of the blog and our community. Phoenix-area readers, be sure to pick up a copy.
What’s on your list for the weekend? Weekend warrior? Or goin’ fishin (as in Rejuvenation “salvage art”, above)?
I’m doing a major clean of the bathrooms, oh joy. But also, taking my 14-year-old shopping for vintage clothes at Goodwill and Salvation Army — she’s into it now, hurray!
What about you?
Over on flickr there’s a group called “Mirror blogging” — people who take their photos taking a picture into a mirror. Well, here I am taking a photo of myself peaking into vintage shower heads during my recent vintage to Rejuvenation in Portland. There were so many quirky architectural items there – I had a blast. More to come, over time…
Kitchen photo: Copyright Kit Latham.
One of the highlights of my recent visit to Rejuvenation Lighting in Portland was when historian Bo Sullivan was able to – immediately – identify the vintage pulldown light over my kitchen table. I don’t think I’ve told this story before: One Friday afternoon after a hard day’s work — when I was driving home – I got the idea that I needed a vintage light NOW. This was when I was putting the final details of my kitchen together before contractor Kevin started. So as soon as I got home, I jumped on ebay and with 12 minutes to go spotted the light shown here above the tulip table. Of course, I snapped it up – for $12. Bo knows lighting – he knew exactly who made the light and showed it to me in a catalog —>
How to boil down a year-and-a-half of Retro Renovation learning into a 45-minute home show talk? A number of readers have asked… no, I don’t have it on video, sorry… but here’s what I talked about at my recent talks at the Lane County Home Show in Eugene, Oregon. A mix of… social history… vintage 40s 50s and 60s eye candy… my own story and how I got into the blog… and products and ideas to preserve, restore and renovate modest, middle class ranches, capes, colonials, splits and bungalows. Oh – and read on for some other fun stuff from the show, too! Heck yeah there is more →
When I visited Rejuvenation on Monday, I was treated to a sneak peek at their latest products just about to be introduced: The Corona pendant lighting fixture… and a mahogany tri-spoke spreader that can be used to group three pendants for dramatic effect.
The Corona — which emulates an original 1959 fixture — has an aluminum pin-hole cylinder around a glass shade. And, the cylinder can also be enamel painted mix-and-match style in 8 colors including Neptune Blue, Aurora Green, Solar Yellow and even Flare Orange. Very ’60s!
The new tri-spoke also can be used with Rejuvenation’s other midcentury pendants, the Aeros, Orbis or Cerise.
Finally – during my visit I had my first opportunity to see this lighting in person. I loved the scale, and the quality.
The new lights are all now on the Rejuvenation website. And you can click through here for some additional photos –
© 2012 Retro Renovation · Theme design: Phoenix Massey Studio · Powered by WordPress, Genesis, and WDS
Become a fan