Retro Renovation

Anita has been sucked right into the retro renovation vortex — to our benefit (evil laugh!) — and writes:

Hi Pam - I’m visiting my daughter for the week. Today while she was at work I went to a few antiques stores looking for nothing in particular. I stumbled across an entire unused case of vintage [...]

5 Comments »

I am super excited at the new mosaic flooring I discovered at Daltile this weekend while poking around their website.

These three new choices now to go to #1 among all possible flooring choices for 50s and 60s homes. Guys, the American Olean Chloe is nice, but not nearly as correct for the postwar period. (It’s [...]

11 Comments »

These 50s Kentile flooring samples were recently on ebay. I bid on them all, but won just one set. Alas, I have been trying to cut back on building the “Museum of Pittsfield” collection, as my oh-so-patient husband calls it. I’ll tell you, I already have quite an exhibit ready to send cross-country!
Aren’t these incredible? [...]

6 Comments »

Reader Portland Laura alerted me to these great, new flooring choices. Streaky 12″x12″ vinyl tile from Congoleum.
Hurray! More, true streaky choices to supplement my previous only favorite, Azrock Cortina Autumn Haze. Thank you, Laura!
.
.

1 Comment »

“Retro flooring” is one of the top search terms for people coming to this blog. So, a couple of weeks ago I went hunting at the tile and floor shop — and found a few new flooring alternatives to share. This is my #1 favorite among them — a vinyl sheet flooring from Armstrong that [...]

2 Comments »

I am so excited - I have not one… not two…but 39 postwar brochures, magazines, pamphlets and more in hand and will be featuring lots of great new material for the blog in coming weeks.
How’s this for a start? An utterly groovy 1956 basement for lounging all weekend long. The decor is just spectacularly [...]

2 Comments »

Cloude.com Connie asks about sheet flooring to go with a pink and turquoise kitchen. Something jazzy and colorful.
Hmmm. Not much online but I found these. Actually, I found some very interesting designs from Tarkett — go to their “Design” section and take a look.

Update: Atomic Addiction Brian asks for the url — and of [...]

3 Comments »

With so much focus these days on hardwood, tile, cork and here, of course - VCT - flooring, it’s easy to forget that in postwar homes, carpet was very desirable.
In our 1951 colonial-ranch, the long step-down living room had (1975-era) carpet, with plywood underneath. Okay, we tore it out and replaced it with beautiful Berkshires [...]

4 Comments »

As I see and learn more about home design in the postwar period, I seem to be getting more liberal in my views. That is, stuff that used to disgust me, I find, well….actually pleasing.
Take vinyl sheet flooring. In all the houses I remember living in, from 1971 on, we absolutely had vinyl flooring. [...]

14 Comments »

I have two of these braided Capel rugs, and I love them. They are very durable, versatile and affordable — and fit my 1951 colonial ranch home’s decor just fine. Remember, while we may associate modernist ranch houses with the 1940s 50s and 60s, in reality postwar homes were a mix and match…inside and out…of [...]

No Comments »