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
All across DIY-land, you see crafty 2012 folk making things out of vintage suitcases: end tables (remember Laura’s?), dog beds and recently I saw wall shelves. But our grandparents were already well ahead when it came to innovating with suitcase conversions. LoOk: Here is a true, vintage tall dresser made from suitcases — which converts [...]
Heather and her husband need to install a new stair rail along the stairs to the basement in ther 1970 ranch house. They want a design that they can build themselves and have asked for our ideas to help. I have an immediate idea — but read on — and I welcome reader ideas, too! [...]
Roseana writes: I’ve looked and looked on your site, but I’m not seeing much in the way of what folks have done about replacing ceiling fans in their ranch or modern homes. Here in Texas, they are just essential. I’ve used fans from Modern Fan Company (the Ball fan) in a couple rooms, but I’m [...]
Yes, wall-to-wall carpeting is historically appropriate for a midcentury house. In fact, it was very desirable, very popular. My 1951 colonial-ranch originally had wall-to-wall carpet in the sunken living room, for example. I recently did an interview about the history of carpeting in postwar America with Emily Morrow, Emily Morrow, Shaw Floors’ director of Color, [...]
Ha! Here is an obscure product you bet you didn’t even know you wanted – but now you do – and now you know where to get: A laundry chute door. It’s available from American Metal Products / Lima Register … made of powder-coated steel … comes in 10″ or 12″ widths … and includes “spring-hinged, [...]
The Drexel Plus One bedroom furniture suite is the most fabulous bedroom set ever made – no doubt about it. And you can Buy It Now, for $485. Based on St. Petersburg, Florida — yay to the sellers, Smugglers Cove Vintage. And: Be sure to see these other pieces, which I spotted and featured in [...]
Back in March I did a ton of research and identified 19 places to buy an affordable midcentury modern style sofa. Following the original story, readers provided more resources. I now have gone through every comment and incorporated them into an updated list of 28 manufacturers and/or retailers offering unique midcentury style sofa designs. For this [...]
It’s been a crazy busy summer for every single person I know. Me, too — so much so that it’s taken me a solid month to get coverage of my recent trip to see the HGTV Home Shaw Floors lineup onto the blog. This is the second blogger event I’ve been to. It was held [...]
Wowza — here is a ton — several tons, actually! — of vintage Consoweld laminate likely to come on the market soon. I never cease to be amazed at the retro treasures out there, yet to be unearthed. Interestingly, this seller first posted this on our Forum — but then got so much interest, put [...]
When folks move into new/old 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s or 1970s homes, it seems like one of the biggest and most common needs is to update materials in the kitchen that are on their last legs. In general, if you have a laminate countertop that is in good shape, I’d say: Keep it. Or [...]
More today from the Wilsonart laminate history archives. In the 60s, laminate colors got, at one end of the spectrum richer and earthier – and at the other end, pop-art bold. Some of the defining trends from the period, this article says: Color TV was introduced in 1965, bringing us closer in touch with design [...]
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 [...]
Update: Almost all of these designs are now discontinued. See my up-to-date stories on all retro laminates here: Kitchen/Countertops Category. UPDATE (Oct 2011): Click over to –> this story to get an update on all three sources for boomerang laminate. The countertops I removed from the two vanities in my 1951 bathrooms were [...]
© 2012 Retro Renovation · Theme design: Phoenix Massey Studio · Powered by WordPress, Genesis, and WDS
Become a fan