Missouri Michael over at Cul-de-sac Shack is now entered into our reader of the year contest for this fantastic find: The Peek-O Revolving Home Viewer — also known as a “peep hole” or more formally as a “door viewer.” What a wonderful story about determined sleuthing: Michael showed his cool front door on his blog. Folks asked about the peep hole. He disassembled the whole thing (the “hole thing” get it? tee hee). He found a Patent Number. Went online to the government’s patent website and found the “Peek-O Revolving Home Viewer,” which was patented on Dec. 20, 1949. Then, he did the google thing and found the manufacturer, who still makes Peek-O’s today, 60 years later. Is this a great country or what.

The Peek-O original to Michael's shack

Yes, the Peek-O is still in production — made right here the U.S.A. by Home Protector Manufacturing Co., Inc., which has its plant in Whittier, Calif. The Peek-O is available in eight finishes (shown bel0w), fits doors 1-2″ thick, and is advertised as “the best door viewer available today.” Michael also found a website that sells it for about $50. I won’t feature the link — you gotta go over to Michael’s blog to get it. The peep hole also has 140-degree visibility, which sounds freaky but functional. I am SO PROUD of you, Michael and your retro recon tenacity! You get an exclamation point! The Peek-O now goes right up there with the Dishmaster, Hudee Rings, and Pecky Cypress. Long live the Peek-O!

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I live in a dinky New England village, so we often go over to Northhampton, a fun college town, to shop for the day. My super favorite store there is Retro Genie. Jean’s focus is vintage clothes, but she also has bits of furniture and kitchen stuff, too. I loved this vintage metal patio set, with the mill finish (like a 50s screen door) and original umbrella. I’ve never seen one like it. Jean says it all folds up, the table, too, and that’s certainly a plus when you have to find a place for everything in the garage for the winter. P.S. See those three pairs of vintage canvas shoes – black, red, navy? I now proudly own them. I am such a sucker for MIB. Do not ever believe a single word that I write about “restraint.” Except, I guess I didn’t buy the patio set. I am so proud of myself.

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Elizabeth added a retractable fabric awning to the back of her house about a month ago. She wrote me: “What a difference it will make in my use of the backyard…. Why did I wait so long to do this?? That is the big question.” Thank you, Elizabeth, the awnings — and the garden, especially — look so beautiful, so inviting.

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New declaration: We all need aluminum awnings. The are wonderfully decorative. They are authentic retro. They will help your pinch pleats resist sun rot. And if you have any heat beating down on your house – they can cut your air conditioning costs dramatically – they’re green! I’ll be doing more research on this topic around where to get authentic midcentury style aluminum awnings today. Meanwhile, the National Park Service has a detailed Preservation Brief all about window awnings, including how to care for vintage ones still on your home. Its focus is principally on historic commercial structures, but it’s still quite useful and interesting. For example, here’s what they say about awnings in the 1950s:

Widely available by the 1950s, aluminum awnings were touted as longer-lasting and lower-maintenance than traditional awnings. Though used on small-scale commercial structures, they were especially popular with homeowners. Aluminum awnings were made with slats called “pans” arranged horizontally or vertically. For variety and to match the building to which they were applied, different colored slats could be arranged to create stripes or other decorative patterns. While aluminum awnings were usually fixed, in the 1960s several operable roller awnings were developed, including one with the trade name Flexalum Roll-Up.

Here’s the link to the NPS Brief. Meanwhile, stay tuned for research on where-to-buy. And of course, I’ll take any help you have to share!

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I spent a few hours on the internet Sunday, researching mailboxes suitable for a midcentury home — including modern and more traditional colonials and ranches. Like toilets, many decorator mailboxes today seem to be “Victorian on steroids” or otherwise just too precious. But — I did assemble a good group of choices, at a variety of prices. I also stumbled upon a few mailbox posts with the decorative 50s scroll work we like so much.

The mailbox at the left , and the one at the top are from a New Zealand company has a wonderful selection of nicely designed modern mailboxes. They do appear to be quite expensive, noting that I did not look up the exchange rate. Thanks to Jenn Ski, I first saw mention of this company on her site.

I purchased the mailbox (left) for my colonial-ranch from Rejuvenation, and I like it quite a lot – especially with the decorative newspaper hooks attached. These give it a bit more style. Home Depot offers some similar styles that cost less.

In fact, Home Depot had some other good choices as well. This “Metropolis” mailbox:

This Florence mailbox:

And traditional mailboxes, but heavy duty:

Another alternative: Vintage, from ebay and places like hardtofindhouseparts.com (as pictured below). Hmmm. Another business opportunity here? To find old mailboxes, powder coat and re-sell them? Perhaps not a lot of money in it – but a labor of love.

Finally, if you need a post for your mailbox, it looks like that is another research afternoon altogether. A post post tee hee. But to start, how about this scrolled design from Home Depot. Might work also as a post for an outdoor light although I do not know whether electric code would allow for exposed conduit. You certainly see style of vintage lighting posts still around today.

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Using an electric clothes dryer apparently consumes 10-15% of household energy. So why not switch (when possible) to the most retro of drying machines: A clothes line. I actually picked up an old clothesline last year at a tag sale. If you want more instant (and non-rusty) gratification, I’ve also found a terrific website to find all makes and models of clotheslines and clothes drying accessories, for use both indoors and outdoors: Project Laundry List. The group that runs the site is a non-profit, and it’s hosting “National Hanging Out Day” on Sunday. So have a great and green time — hanging out!

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“Shutter dogs” — do you know what those are? Well, if you have, or want, shutters on the exterior of your ranch, colonial or Cape … you need to know about these! Shutter dogs are the decorative hardware used to hold the shutters back against the house, usually just decoratively. And like a classic pearl necklace – they are “house jewelry” that makes all the difference.

The real go-to place for shutter dogs — along with all kinds of other early American, wrought iron hardware including cabinet pulls, is Acorn Manufacturing. I like this company a lot a lot!

Nice stuff. My brick, ranch-style home has a colonial feel, especially on the exterior. I am dressing it up with black-iron hardware and lighting — and it looks terrific.

For the most complete listing of Acorn products, you can go to the website, acornmfg.com. Over the past year and a half since I originally ran this post – they seem to have dramatically improved their website. It also includes a link to online retailers.

A Retro Renovation re-run updated from the original post published Sept. 30, 2007

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Today is Woodard patio furniture day – with this feature on current styles still made. My local furniture store has sets of new Woodard in stock, and I really liked the quality and the look. And to be sure, it’s nice to get the new enamel finish. My only nit with the new stock is that I believe the scale is significantly larger than vintage Woodard. The smaller scale seems better, in my view. But either way, new or vintage, these are great picks for your patio, deck, or porch.

Take a look at their Briarwood collection… and Windflower Mesh collection. And, see the Café Collection, Dining Tables and Tables & Accessories links on these pages for tables and other pieces in the same mesh wrought iron – without the decorative flowers that differentiate the two collections above.

Link to Woodard site.

This post was originally published on Oct. 15, 2007

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