• You are here: Home / Archives for Exterior

    DIY midcentury modern mailbox post and address sign — Gabe explains how

    Posted by: • April 30, 2012
    midcentury house sign and custom mailbox

    The crowning glories of Gabe and Amanda’s 1954 midcentury marvelous house may well be those groovalicious mid mod mailbox, mailbox post and address name sign. Gabe did most of the work on these pieces himself, so I asked him if he could tell us how he made it and he quickly responded:

    How to stain concrete: Great DIY video global premier + My ideas on Jane’s driveway

    Posted by: • March 21, 2012
    driveway-ideas

    We received lots of reader comments — 84 so far — when Jane asked how to improve her driveway covered with pinky-gray concrete pavers. I promised I’d be back with my thoughts on the issue. Summing them up: It would be a cold, cold day in Don Mills before I could ever imagine tearing out [...]

    1958 KamKap Kook-Out barbecue grill — Dawn & Brian pounce

    Posted by: • March 16, 2012
    vintage-barbeque-KamKamp-Kook-Out

    “We are usually in the market for Mid Century anything…” (Ain’t that the truth?) “Yes, Monty,” say Dawn and Brian, “we’ll take what’s behind Door Number 3.” What have you just won? A like-new KamKap Kook-Out barbeque grill! Yay, Monty, we love you! The pair jump up and down ecstatically like there is no tomorrow… or [...]

    Driveway for a 1950s house: Paving blocks… concrete paving… gravel… asphalt?

    Posted by: • March 5, 2012
    driveway ideas

    What kind of driveway material is appropriate for a midcentury home? Pavers? Concrete? Pea gravel? Asphalt? Reader Jane does not like the pinky-gray brick paving blocks added at some point as the driveway of her 1958 home, and welcomes our ideas and suggestions. I have some immediate reactions and thoughts… but I have not researched [...]

    Vintage spelled-out house numbers — New Old Stock galore

    Posted by: • March 1, 2012
    house number

    It’s amazing how much New Old Stock continues to come out of old stores, basements, attics, closets, junk drawers. Remember the big New York Times story about Retro Renovation last fall? “New old stock is golden,” and “…surfing the blog is like visiting a time-warp Home Depot.” Yup: That’s my goal! Today in the RR depot: Script [...]

    Five NOS Moe blue honeycomb sconces — Crikey!

    Posted by: • February 28, 2012
    moe-sconce

    Welcome to all the new folks coming over to look from Apartment Therapy’s Homies’ contest. One of my regular features here on Retro Renovation is showing treasures I’ve spotted on ebay. My focus is on the rare, wonderful — and useful, because readers here are actively renovating, remodeling… err, un-muddling… and updating….err “backdating” their midcentury [...]

    Retro Renovation Breaking News: New midcentury modern Samba exterior door hardware from Rejuvenation

    Posted by: • February 10, 2012
    midcentury door set

    You read it here first: On Monday Feb. 13 Rejuvenation will be officially launching their new Samba doorset escutcheon. But I saws the catalog posting Friday, jumped on it and posted the first photos last night. This morning, I got these fullsize photos from the PR department, along with some additional info. According to Rejuv, [...]

    Upcycled birdhouses and bird feeders from Gadget Sponge

    Posted by: • February 9, 2012
    upcycled-96-4

    Put a Bird In It! You know how I love my upcycled chippy hippy house things. Our hoard o’ vintage surely is destined for: Art. I also love birdhouses — so sculptural… and useful. Put vintage + birdhouses together and you get: Clever upcycled birdhouse creations from Brian Carlisle aka GadgetSponge on etsy.com. I asked [...]

    Next Page »