Continuing the theme of the week, another great interior to scrutinize and learn from.

This 1952 living room dining room comes courtesy the interior designers at Armstrong Flooring. To be sure, this company had a massive influence via their advertising in establishing the postwar look. Seems like they were among the first to figure out that if you employed interior designers to finish a whole room — especially as it was a new look for America — it would be lots easier to sell the pieces — starting with the floor. Heck yeah there is more →

This Danish Modern take from Heywood Wakefield is beautiful, don’t you think? Again, the company is so well known for its iconic blonde furniture, we forget they were a full-line manufacturer. This ad for their new, 1959 Contessa line says there are 45 pieces in all, including for the bedroom.

A pretty vignette, altogether — and notice the walls, which I peg as grasscloth. I put grasscloth in a similar colorway in my living room, dining room about two years ago, and we love it. I’ll do a post soon on this very classic and versatile wall covering option.

Anne & Gary have a lovely house in Oregon and updating it in true retro renovator style! They have a blog — now on the blogroll — and did a post on their dinette find recently. I love it! While, the popular chrome-edged ‘diner’ style tables and chairs are really great, there’s also lots of room in our decorating arsenal for the more elegant styled dinettes like Anne & Gary’s “Virtue Brothers” model.

Separately, I’d been on the watch for more dinette alternatives, and found this great 1953 ad for Arvins. This set was designed by Raymond Loewy — one of the most influential industrial designer of the era.

Along with Saarinen tulip tables – it’s great that there are a variety of possibilities for our kitchens and dinettes!

Thanks, Anne & Gary, for sharing! And, I’ll be doing more posts on your house moving forward, as you have a lot of interesting things going on!

I received a number of emails from readers on their everyday dinnerware. Here’s what Mitzi of Vintage Goodness is into:

Hi Pam, I wanted to throw my 2 cents into your discussion about dishes… I am a die hard Corelle fan. It is lightweight for easy washing (no dishwasher here, unless you count me!), it is almost impossible to break, there are tons of patterns and coordinating pieces (especially with Pyrex, my other favorite), and it is pretty easily thrifted.

I actually started out with an all white set my mom gave me that was what she used when I was a kid, so it has sentimental value as well as being tough as nails. A couple years ago I scored a huge set of Butterfly Gold, which was what my grandma used, for $5 at a sale. I put the white dishes away and used the Butterfly Gold until I opened my eBay store – then a big chunk of it got sacrificed for the sake of inventory. So now I have a mix of my original white set and the Butterfly Gold set… see why eclectic is my favorite word? hehe

Anyway I can’t imagine using anything else, though I do hope to someday be able to switch patterns again! I’ve attached a pic from my store of some Butterfly Gold cereal bowls.

Talk to you soon!
Mitzi

Thanks, Mitzi! I love the graphics on this Corelle. No question, this stuff is indestructible!

Femme 1 asked last week what kind of dinnerware I used. And the answer is: Blue Heaven (pictured at the bottom.)

To be honest, I don’t know much about it, only that it was made in the 60s. I found a whole bunch at an estate sale about two years ago, and after my kitchen was renovated, pulled it out and started using it. We like the atomic graphics a lot, it’s got a nice weight, and it’s not too chippy. And, we have found other pieces around here, quite easily and affordably. I recently bought 8 cool matching glasses, about 8 ounce size, for $12.

That said, Femme 1 also sent me her favorites. And I love those, too — especially the Salem Biscayne in the top photo. This is wonderful! Here’s some of what Femme 1 had to say, starting out in response to my note that I also have a lot of Stangl:

“I adore Stangl! The pattern I picked out for my (ahem) first marriage (in the 70s.) was that blue spongeware stuff. I sold most of that on E-bay a few years back. I love Golden Harvest, but I have just a few pieces; I’d like to have more, but I had to restrain myself because I collect about five different patterns of dinnerware already: Biscayne by Salem (from the 50s through the early 60s) is my everyday stuff. It must have been a really popular item because now it’s incredibly cheap and I find it everywhere in thrift shops… Eva Zeisel’s Hallcraft Fantasy; Harlequin (the cheaper younger brother of Fiesta); Ben Seibel’s Harvest Time by Iroquois…and good ole Franciscan Starburst.

Plus I have tons of odd and ends of stuff I just really love (like Bauer bowls and Redwing Golden Viking).”

Thanks, Femme 1 — keep the comments, thoughts and ideas coming!

And readers: What are your “everyday” dinnerware favorites? Send me your jpegs, and I’ll feature them, in the new year. Send to: Pam@RetroRenovation.com