Decorating ideas

  • 4 vintage modern tiles — pretty as a peacock

    Knabstrup Denmark peacock wall tile

    I love midcentury modern decorative wall tiles — so tactile, so rich in their colors and fanciful in their design. These are great collectibles and “mix it up” in terms of adding texture and visual interest to your walls or tabletops. I went poking around Bungalow Bill’s website to see what new/old eye candy he [...]

    170 plastic Decorator Panels in 19 groovy patterns — New Old Stock for sale in Austin

    crysta lite decorator panels

    “…I promptly dropped my phone and fell out of my chair” – Dustin, upon the discovery. Boom! Pow! Welcome to Monday morning: Here is a great find: 170 new-old-stock (NOS) of 6′ x 2′ plastic decorator in 19 patterns, found in Pennsylvania and now for sale near Austin, Texas. And a first for the blog: [...]

    Mirror tiles from the 1970s — 12 designs

    mirror tile from the 1970s

    Really, I am such a contrarian, anti-authoritarian, pain-in-it, yes I am. If I have any sense whatsoever that the design powers-that-be believe something is *hideous*, I will go out of my way to find a way to say that it is fantastic. Sometimes I think I can cloud my own vision. But not in the [...]

    Retail therapy: Oh so blue, on sale

    butterfly-jacquard

    I have been feeling a wee bit out of sorts. So I amused myself with some virtual retail therapy and went poking around online looking for Pretty Stuff on Sale. I aimed to keep it relevant to the blog by looking for vintage style and vintage designers and by focusing on my 2012 color of [...]

    Vintage collage

    artist-trading-cards-pam-kueber

    One of my spring rituals is taking a collage class at IS183 with Karen Arp-Sandel. In addition to what I spend on the class, plus what I spend at Dick Blick when I get all excited and go buy more supplies, I usually end up with one nice, $400 collage for my mom for Mother’s [...]

    Atomic clock and sign art by Stevotomic

    atomic-art-stevomatic-7

    Palm Springs Stephan was at the Palm Spring Modern Show last month, and sent me an email crowing about the atomic clock and sign art of Stevo Cambronne — aka Stevotomic. I caught up with Stevotomic as he was driving home from the show, and he told me about his evolution from telephone installman… to [...]

    Light switch covers in vintage designs add easy retro style

    pink kitchen wall plate cover from SanDiegoVintage on etsy

    Reader Hannah spotted the NOS light switch cover of a pink coffee pot (above) on etsy.com, and posted it to our Facebook fan page. I immediately Shared it, and yes, it sold in like 20 minutes, even though it was quite expensive, $38. I reached out to the owner of the etsy shop, Ilze of [...]

    Color 2012: Blue cobalt is retro, saturated and plays nice with other midcentury colors

    Decorating with blue

    The Retro Renovation 2012 Color of the Year is Bitossi Rimini Blu, a shade named after the famous, rich, deep glaze on Italian-made Bitossi pottery designed by Aldo Londi around 1959. Also known as Cobalt Blue, this is a classy, retro color that “plays well” with a wide variety of other shades, including orange, gold, avocado, [...]