Steven, Michael and the pup is Bobby.

Rochester Steven has completed some drop dead gorgeous updates to his 1957 Alcoa Aluminum house, and shares the details and images. This is the third story on these late-1950s “demonstration” houses. We first featured a time capsule for sale in Wisconsin. I think that’s how Steven found this blog, and we featured his house in New York state, along with the home’s original brochure, just a few weeks later. There were only 23 of these houses built — and Steven, Michael and Bobby are amazing caretakers. This house will knock you off your chair — it’s worthy of Architectural Digest.

Pam, There are three areas that we have addressed in the past several months:

1. Restored the house back to the original color of purple(the front anyway, have to work on the back next spring). It was painted brown some years ago, most likely due to the unsightly fading over the years of the purple that we have seen on a couple other Alcoa houses. We removed one of the aluminum panel pieces from the garage and retrieved the color from the un-weathered side of it.

2. Partially restored the kitchen. When the kitchen was gutted and remodeled years ago the upper metal cabinets were installed in the storage area of the garage. We had them painted the light blue that you see now at an auto shop and reinstalled them. I think that the Auto Body painting worked out great. Especially when it is metal. It was a bit of a pain to cart them all over there!!! Since we only had the original upper cabinets we went with some simple black faced cabinets to complete the lower ones with white Corian for for the counter.  We also reconfigured the layout of the kitchen to more reflect the original kitchen in the brochure. The bottom cabinets are made out of wood with black lacquer paint and aluminum pulls… they were purchased at IKEA and are quite inexpensive. The tiles are new tiles with a vintage feel and were purchased locally. We selected the color of both the back splash tiles and the cabinets so that they relate nicely to the multi-colored ["Mondrian"-style] cabinets [shown just below] that face the family room

(The “Mondrian” cabinets are original to the house. I believe that all of the Aloca houses that were built had these unless another option was specified. They are wood with Formica facing.)

3. Family Room/lounge area has been furnished with many great finds from local shops and online. Still somewhat of a work in progress……….

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Meet Maribeth, her darling daughter — and their 1977 contemporary / ranch house in Tennessee. Maribeth has seized the opportunity and given this house, an original time capsule, a fresh dose of 21st century flair. And yes, avocado appliances! Not only did Maribeth embrace them, she engineered a neighborhood swap to get a matching vintage dishwasher, too.  Maribeth writes:

Dear Pam,

I have finally finished my 70’s (1977) ranch house renovation….

We had corresponded a couple of months ago about my avocado kitchen redo, but I wanted to get as much of the rest of the house finished as possible before I put up more pictures.

The "before" kitchen. Maribeth explains: " The original plan was to paint them. But once the counters were removed we realized that they were not in very good shape and should be replaced."

The appliances are original to the house, (even the trash compactor and central vacuum still worked great!)  but the cabinets had to be replaced.  The original layout was retained.  Other than that, we replaced the wall-to-wall carpet with cork and replaced some of the “updated” lighting that came with the house when we purchased it last spring.

I wanted to furnish with a mix of 50’s through 70’s furniture.  As anyone moving into the house in the 1970’s would probably have a similar collection.  Most of it came from Craigslist and local vintage stores.  My living room Kroehler sofa and chair was like brand new.  The original owner never let anyone sit on it except for very special occasions.

The shades? Maribeth says: "The two hanging lights came from moonshine shades http://www.moonshineshades.com/. I love their stuff."

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at my pictures and for your compliments — it is especially meaningful coming from you as your site had been the source of  so much of my inspiration. We bought this house last winter…  Since I was all the way up in coastal Maine, I had to do all of my house hunting on the internet.  We had narrowed our search down to about 20 homes to visit in person the following week (only a few of which were ranch homes) when I saw this house pop up on a real estate site.

A double avocado stove! Just like the one we had when I was a kid.  It was love at first site and I had already picked it to be my house.  (If the realtor had featured those tiki door knobs, I might have purchased it over the internet.)  So we did the obligatory looking at all the other homes but I knew this was the one.  Huge open floor plan, Brady Bunch double entry doors, original appliances, even a pink mini tub and shower all in a nice, suburban neighborhood of similar designed homes.  Sold!

It’s funny to think that the things that sold me on the house were the very things that probably turned off a multitude of potential buyers before me.  In front of the beautiful stone wall and fireplace was an old, cracked wood stove and fire board covering the entire opening.  I had no idea what I would find inside but it turned out they were hiding one gorgeous fireplace.

Maribeth on painted MDF cabinets: "I had a cabinet maker come in and make a template from the existing cabinets with a few improvements. He then crafted them in the shop from MDF... He painted them very well. The entire kitchen PLUS the laundry cabinets were less than $6,000. And this is a really big kitchen." I have been really happy with them, so far. Cost wise, its definitely a good way to go."

As for the kitchen, we had the cabinets recreated in MDF and painted, which turned out to be really economical. I splurged on the glass tile because I wanted to bring in the avocado and orange tones to make the appliances look deliberate and not as though I was saving my pennies for some shiny new stainless pieces someday.  I dragged a like new avocado fridge down with me from Maine.  (Some of the used appliance salespersons thought I was joking when I called to ask them if they had any avocado appliances.)

The only appliance missing was the dishwasher.  Well, there was one but it was new.  Imagine! What were these people thinking? Luckily, my 1970’s neighborhood has many of the original owners still residing in it and I found someone willing to swap their harvest gold whirlpool for my newer one.  I’m planning to paint it avocado at some point.

Furnishing the home was lots of fun.  We sold every last thing in Maine so that we could start over in true design of the house’s era. Amazingly, the mid-century trend has not caught on here yet and I’m finding beautiful pieces that people are selling at prices too good to be true.

But the really fun part has been in the details, or what my husband calls my “props”.  The Britannica encylopedias and Reader’s digest books on the bookshelf, avocado and orange rotary phones, retro alarm clocks and ashtrays- even though we don’t smoke.  I want it to feel completely authentic.

Even our parrotlet Pepe perches on a playhouse made from a 1950’s TV stand.  I must have had some subconscious love of the 1970’s even before we bought the house because, in unpacking, I was amazed at how much avocado and burnt orange bake ware and bowls I had accumulated over the years.  Several years ago, I lived in a 1972 Airstream Sovereign (a literal time capsule) and I had kept most of my tiki paraphernalia from it which is scattered around the house.

We are in the process of transforming the plain concrete slab in the backyard and hope to have it done by the spring.  It will feature a low sitting wall and 5×7 pool with a 3 foot tiki fountain all backed by a wall of bamboo.  I’m stumped on the type of patio furniture to use, though, so I am hoping to get some advice from you and your readers when the time comes to furnish it.

Re the Sputnik, which replaces a boxy fluorescent: "The kitchen had a big fluorescent light that was removed and the hole patched and the sputnik was hung in the center. I was concerned that it would not be enough light but it has been more than enough. We have it on a dimmer."

Anyway, that is the story of our flat roofed, so-ugly-its-kinda-not, late seventies ranch house.  I hope your readers enjoy looking at it and I am looking forward to seeing the feedback.  Helpful hints and advice is always appreciated!

Thanks again!
Cheers,
Maribeth

Maribeth, your house is such an inspiration — there is no question, you have a great touch. And what a lovely, memorable environment you are creating for your daughter to grow up.  Patio furniture? Vintage Woodward, of course. Now that you have the vibes out, the retro decorating gods will send some your way, for sure. Tiny Cinderella tub — it’s of the variety here (these were made by a number of manufacturers, not just Kohler, and small, too.) And you have a Cinderella to go in it! Also, don’t let any magazines come after you for your story, okay? I’m going to pitch it, if that’s all right with you. Your home is picture perfect, a great story. Many thanks.

Meanwhile, readers, you can see a few more photos over on Maribeths flickr stream here.

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Daniel is a college student in California and already a longtime fan of mid-century architecture, decor and collectibles. He wrote in to share his story. I’m impressed!

Hello!

My name is Daniel and I’m a 22 year old college student in CA! I’ve been collecting mid-century furniture and ephemera since I was 14 or so. I visit your site everyday…

I love all the information you give out and all the great pictures… Most people my age don’t appreciate this kind of stuff, so it’s nice to finally find people who do. I’d love to show some of my finds if you’d like!

Sure, Daniel, I say… and can you tell me more about your story? He zips right back:

More about my story, hmmm…Well I’ve been passionate about the 1940s/50s/60s since I can remember! It’s my dad who really got me into it, with music such as Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey. From there I started buying and restoring vintage cars in high school, and would frequently go local antiquing.

I also was good friends with an antique radio repair store owner, and he gave me all the radios he no longer wanted for free! I received 8+ mid century radios from him all in working condition! That really started me saving up and going out to the antique stores to buy different things for the home.

I figured that sooner or later I would need something, so I bought everything from lamps to a vacuum cleaner haha. I’ve kept most of my stuff, giving some things away to make room for others, but I’m continually expanding my collection. My dream is to own or rebuild an Eichler home and fill it with nothing but original furniture, appliances, and fixtures.

There’s something so special about home living in that era, that’s no wonder people are going crazy over it. And although its become a fad again, I feel like I, and people like me, are living in the wrong era in someways, you know? Well I hope you enjoy these pictures, and I’d love to hear more about your story as well!

P.S. If you have any questions about the items in the pictures feel free to ask! Hope to hear from you soon.

I get the photos and I think, oh my gosh, is that really an apartment? Of a college student? It is way tidier than I remember my college apartment. I had, like, a TV, an army trunk, a portable stereo, a wastebasket, and a ratty sofa. Ah, the traveling light years. But, you are way waaaay ahead of me, Daniel.  So… I ask Daniel, is that really an apartment and oh, do you have a photo that I could use, if you want? I forgot to ask him – is that a hamster cage? What is the name of your hamster? He zips back:

Ya it is a rental apartment probably from the early to mid ’60s. Unfortunately it has gone through many renovations since then, so its original charm doesn’t show all too well. I’m a Graphic Communication major concentrating in Print & Image Management…. Funny, I don’t have any pictures of me in the house on my computer haha!

But here’s a picture from last year from a WWII dance my friends and I always go to, hope that’s OK!

Sorry the pictures are such low quality, I took them with my computer because my camera had died. I can retake them for better quality if they didn’t turn out so good. Talk to you soon!

Actually, Daniel, I like the grainy dreamy quality of the photos. And, I didn’t even know you could take pictures with your computer. Like, you walk around with your laptop pointing it and hitting the enter button? I call myself a Geek Girl, but I am such a poser.

Daniel, once you get your diploma, I think you should set the graphics communications thing aside for a few months — you need to be on Design Star. We’ll all vote for you. I’m serious. BTW, is that a hamster cage? What is the name of your hamster?

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READER SAMANTHA now is the proud owner of a vintage brochure that includes houses in her own mid-century San Mateo, Florida, neighborhood. I am sure we will all be very jealous, because once you get into retro renovating your home, it seems like you want to know its complete history. Read on for Samantha’s story and for links to her blog, where you can also access the complete catalog.

Samantha writes:

Hey there Pam! Wanted to share my latest treasure, an original brochure from the builder of my home/neighborhood.

My house was built in ”61, so I’d say this is at least circa 1960. It’s full of fun details, made especially wonderful because I see these exact homes every day! I’m so jazzed!

I also have an original newspaper ad for the neighborhood (which came out of our bomb shelter!), and on my website I’ve transcribed the introduction from this cookbook.  It’s a wonderful description of how things were at the very beginning of the community.

I’ve been told that Mrs. Mathias is still a resident in the same house – she’s also the present of the larger Northside Civic Association. I’ve not yet met her, though! We have a small, monthly community newspaper that has been doing a historical series lately, and San Mateo is supposed to be the next feature. Hopefully they will use some of this stuff as well!

Thanks Pam! I visit RetroRenovation every day – keep up the awesome work!

Thank you, Samantha! It’s very inspiring to see and share all of your detective work.

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Reader Retro Ruth and her husband Tom were recently featured in their local newspaper, The Midland (Mich.) Daily News. Home Editor Lori Qualls did a fabulous job capturing their retro renovation story. I helped Ruth reach out to the newspaper. I think this story is a hot one with lots of potential today … So, readers, if you think you have a good story to tell your local newspaper about why postwar homes are worth preserving and are willing to have you and your house featured, let me know and I’d be happy to help with the initial contact for you, too. Interested? Email me at retrorenovation [at] gmail [dot] com. Meanwhile, read Ruth’s story here – it’s terrific. And congrats, Ruth, you are rockin’.

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Solenoids. Low-voltages. Relays. I have no idea what any of this electrical stuff means. But you guys tell me it’s cool. And these vintage lighting systems certainly are something to look at. So here’s Gretchen’s 1961 GE dual-dial 12-station light control panel circa 1961.

Great looking switches like these were installed with the system. 

And these.

Gretchen’s home is a “half Jetsons, half Flintstones” Eichler design that is really wonderful. See it on her blog – eichlerific.blogspot.com – and see these lighting system photos and more on her flickr stream. Thanks, Gretchen!!!

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READER NANCY (of the yellow bathroom and beautiful-but-uncleanable-brick fireplace) sends us a happy July 4 image – the wall hanging above has been by the front door all 50 years! Thanks, Nancy, and happy holiday, all!

Hi Pam – We are getting ready for the 4th of July & our granddaughter’s 2nd birthday. Wanted to show you how happy our 50’s home is. Don’t you think that the front almost looks like a happy face? Had to include the wall hanging by the front door – that has been there for all the 50 years & I love to decorate for holidays.

Have a great weekend!
Nancy

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READERS GARTH AND MARTHA gave me so much information about their renovation project that I’ve split it into two posts. In this first one, Garth tells us about how they were not…no, they were not(!)…going to tackle another fixer upper when they moved from Maryland back to Dallas in November. Of course… they found a fabulous 1950 home and the rest…well, they’re now five months into their new, five-year project. In the second post, below, Garth details the saga to restore vintage Crosley metal kitchen cabinets.  When I asked Garth to tell me all about his and Martha’s retro renovation story, he wrote:

Here is a quick rundown on our renovation. Martha, Tuco, our pug, and I moved back to Dallas from Silver Spring, Maryland in November. In Silver Spring we completely renovated our bungalow house built in 1919, and had told ourselves that when we moved to Dallas we weren’t going to do that again because it took us 5 years to finish the process.

We both love all types of old houses, and really weren’t committed to any one particular style. So we looked at little bungalows and colonials and modern houses in the Dallas area, but when we saw our current house we immediately fell in love with it. It had been built in 1950, and the original owner had still been living in it. It was on a fantastic open lot with lots of pecan trees in the back yard and, a big, beautiful, live oak, and magnolia in the front yard. The back of the house was entirely floor-to-ceiling windows that faced north, and they overlooked the nice backyard. There was redwood paneling and ceilings in the entry and dining room. Ceilings throughout the house were open to the underside of the roof, which gave it a wonderful open feeling. It didn’t look like the house had any extensive work done on it since it was built, which was neat because it still had lots of the original fixtures and features, but it meant that we would be
doing another extensive renovation.

The slab-on-grade had cracked and was starting to fall in the master bedroom. So our first order of business was to have the foundation repaired. When I found out that we had a leak under the slab, and that none of the copper in the slab had been protected from the concrete which over time will eat through it, we decided to have all the copper supply piping replaced. We also had a new central air system put in the house since it was being cooled off of window units, and we were a little concerned about the hydronic radiant floor heat which is unusual in this part of the country for a residential building. When we bought the house there was carpet in every room except the kitchen and the bathrooms. Martha hates carpet, and likes to celebrate closing on a new house by immediately pulling all of it up. I had originally hoped that I could find someone in the area that would recycle the carpet for us, but the only person that I could find in the area
that would recycle it wanted to charge $300 for the privilege. I want to do right by the earth, but that is more than I willing to pay to do it. We had a contractor come in and overlay and stain the existing concrete that was exposed after removal of the carpet. We are planning on keeping the bathrooms largely as they are in their 1950s state, since everything is still in good condition, but we wanted to redo the kitchen. The original kitchen had both the water heater and the washing machine under the counters, so we moved the washing machine out to the carport next to the dryer, and we had a tankless water heater installed on the exterior wall of the house.

The tankless water heater is nice, but you do need to be willing to wait a couple of seconds longer for the hot water to get to the faucet from the heater than you would for a standard water heater. The delay is due to the amount of additional time that it takes for the tankless heater to sense that there is a hot water demand and to fire up. We have also noticed in some circumstances when you have the hot water tap turned on very low that it doesn’t activate the flow sensor switch, so you have to turn the faucet up a little in order to start getting hot water.

We replaced the sheet vinyl flooring in the kitchen with Marmoleum, and had the metal cabinets refinished. I built some shelving out of redwood, so that it would relate to the redwood elsewhere in the house. We have the kitchen 98% finished and fully functional, so I have moved on to other projects, and I can imagine in about 5 years from now I will get around to finishing it up along with all the other projects that didn’t originally get completely finished.

Garth — What a great story. Again, it’s amazing how much you have gotten done in five months. But I guess when the foundation is cracking, well, you gotta hop to it! Many thanks and keep us updated on the progress!

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Alison King and I first became acquainted when she was looking for some vintage St. Charles kitchen cabinets. Being a humble, patient and deserving retro renovator, Alison had her request answered almost immediately by the retro design gods, who awarded her with a set  via our Forum.

Not only is Alison an avid home renovator, she also is the force behind modernphoenix.net. This site is one of the best around to document a city-region’s midcentury domestic architecture.  And, it also is at the epicenter of the region’s growing mid mod community. Fascinated, I asked Alison, who calls herself PixelPixie and a “design dork”, to tell us all about herself and what’s going on down in Phoenix. And of course – she sends us lots of pixures of the house that she and husband Matthew are working on.

Alison, you look quite young in that photo on the About page. How did one so young get so into midcentury modern…your house…the website…the community?

I was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is a mecca of midcentury modern architecture; it was my native architecture so I was taking it for granted for 17 years. I just didn’t realize how rich my city was until I went to art school in NYC and really learned what Modernism with a capital M was. The Museum of Modern Art was a required field trip at least once a semester and I think I saw every major exhibition there for five years straight! When I came back to Phoenix, I had the formal vocabulary to wrap my mind around it, instead of just my heart.

I have always been a disciple of Andy Warhol and still consider him a role model, mostly for how he thinks, not his products. Mass production of good art and design fascinates me, which explains my fondness for Modern-styled tract housing as a noble pursuit.

When we moved back to Phoenix we thought it was only temporary but we literally fell back in love with the city again and started shopping for a real home, not the placeholder we’d landed on out of convenience. However all the while we were wondering: where are our people?!?!

We stumbled into being website curators quite backwards, as ModernPhoenix.net was truly intended just as a private inventory for myself and my husband as we searched for our ultimate Midcentury Modern home. Being a web girl, it was really natural at the time for me to catalogue the photos hypertextually. Then people started stumbling upon the site and writing me, and the exchange just snowballed from there!

Tell us more about your house. How did you end up there?

Our Haver Home came to us in what can only be described as an act of karma. We had been running the Modern Phoenix website for a few years — essentially window shopping that whole time — and decided to finally place our stucco crackerbox on the market to push us toward finding a suitable MCM home in our price bracket, which was quite a challenge. Ironically, it found us. The week we placed our old home on the market, one of our message board members wrote me a note saying that they had to let go of their 1946 Ralph Haver designed home in Uptown Phoenix. Would we like to come see it? There was much more restoration needed, but we said Hold Everything, we’ll be right over.

More photos from inside Alison’s house

It was clear within minutes that this was the perfect place for us— all 882 square feet of it! We had been tinkering with the idea of acquiring a home in a historic district, but at the time most Ralph Haver Homes did not qualify. Being of extraordinary provenance and over 50 years old, this home had it all. The owners happily put the hammer down and pretty much sold the place as-is. They had taken care of all the difficult, dirty work like insulation, wiring, security, and lighting. All we needed to do was dress it in our own style. It has taken three years to get it over the hump to where we can truly call it our own.

At first glance the home may seem rather plain and un-modern with its red brick and white wood accents. But once you understand Haver’s body of work, it comes into focus that it all started here. There are hints of that all over the place, from the slope and construction of the roof, to the wall of glass and the angled porch posts that appear to be the first of their kind in this region. It’s a Proto-Haver, and truly one of a kind.

Within five minutes of browsing I found a fellow within two miles of my house in a large old ranch seeking to recycle his St. Charles steel cabinets. His contractor uninstalled them with great care, and we packed them up, slowly planning out the design we needed into our unusual galley kitchen. After months of planning, it took about four months to install from the first cabinet to the last. We ended up using Ikea legs to give them the historically-accurate floating effect. You can’t even see them. We also used Ikea butcherblock countertops to lend warmth to the all-steel look. We are thrilled with it, and love that we can now cook side-by-side in the former Kitchen Impossible.

We are also halfway through a bathroom renovation. This is a one-bathroom house right now, so no pressure, right?!?!  Linda Knight contacted me out of the blue about some new-in-wrapper vintage aluminum tile veneer called Bestile that she had sitting in stacks in her garage. They fit exactly over any Daltile with silicon caulk.  I took the whole contemporary look of our bath back 50 years in 90 minutes by covering navy blue tiles with celadon green aluminum. One year later, I highly recommend it for any stopgap renovation. We’ll see how they hold up for the long term! Contact Linda directly for these awesome vintage finds.

The appreciation is still growing — we have not hit our ceiling at all in terms of new memberships, and our annual tour grows in ticket sales every year. Asking around at our Annual Home Tour event, I ran into so many out-of-towners who were scoping out our scene for the first time, or returning for their annual pilgrimage. I think we have reached critical mass of awareness in our own city and now the next task is to take that consciousness to a national and global level. I am always willing to partner with other journalists seeking to discover our stock of MCM and share it in their local media. Call me!

Your website is fantastic. It is so chock-full of stories and links and useful information. I’ll tell you – I look at a lot of sites like this and yours is so well curated. Can you tell us about all the energy that goes into it, and what keeps you going?

.

Well, thank you! Content is king around here. I don’t publish fluff and am not into product reviews like some of the blogs already excel at. We will be starting a blog this year, though, called Square Yardage, which will delve into modern landscape design topics. It will be a sub-brand of ModernPhoenix.net and support our hands-on D.I.Y. approach. Our content will be regional landscape tips that you can really use in a desert modern environment.

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What was once a fun hobby has developed into a part-time job—which is a challenge because I’m already teaching design fulltime! My classes are all about multimedia design and marketing, so it is all very synergistic. The Art Institute of Phoenix has been very supportive of developing this movement.  I do put a lot of energy into it, but it all comes from the heart so it’s not exactly work; it’s still my avocation. I am also greatly indebted to all the MoPhos (volunteers) who step up when needed. They do it for love, too.

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What really keeps me going is the opportunity to tour amazing homes and meet remarkable people that Get It. When I see happy faces on our annual tour day, it fills me with such satisfaction that the appreciation is growing. Our people are doers, not lookers. I know that the ripple effect will catalyze change for the better. We have seen change magnify the last few years and many attribute it to the activism they’ve encountered on ModernPhoenix.net.

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Sounds like a LOT of work! How do you suggest someone go about getting started on a modern community in their own city?

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Don’t wait around for someone else to do it; use the tools that you are comfortable with and get started! Whether it be Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Message Board, or fullblown HTML website.  Not a writer? Start with just images and captions. Give things names.  Revive old names for places and people that haven’t been used for years so they show up in keyword searches. Find out the original names for buildings that are under new ownership. Purchase old postcards on eBay. Plea for help. Start it, promote it, and your people will come. With people will come talent and connectivity. Surely someone out there will know more about web publishing and promotion than you do, and they can become your first volunteer. One of my organization’s greatest assets is its history as a genuine grassroots movement. Funding can’t buy that authenticity.  Your community’s power lies in your people. Build it, find them, then grow at a sustainable rate.

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Alison — THANK YOU for taking so much time to share all this great information… and for all the work you do leading Modern Phoenix!

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Last week we looked at Cindy’s beautiful Holyoke, Mass., home – photos I took last summer. Today – we get to see the updates that she made to her bathroom vanity and tile floor and shower over the winter – she replaced the laminate on the bathroom vanity in a lighter ‘beigewood” shade, and also retiled her floor and shower stall. Cindy’s updates are incredibly well done – she has a great eye for detail and I know that she labored over each little decision…. Great inspiration and ideas, I am sure, to many retro renovators looking for a way to update their tired bathroom vanities, in particular.

Cindy writes:

Hi Pam,
Since you were here I redid the tiles and laminate cabinet in the bathroom…. Fiorella Cosgrove of Cortina Tile in West Springfield, MA was the only tile advisor who “got” my desire to be retro and I could not have done it without her and highly recommend them.(Corina Tile;1645 Riverdale St.; West Springfield MA 01089).

• The old laminate was stripped off and replaced with Wilsonart laminate-the color is beigewood #7850-60.
• The hardware was purchased at Re-Store for a super awesome $10.
• I also got a new soap dish to match the existing ones – that came from ebay and it is the Hall-Mack polished chrome …Coronado series. A local hardware store with 50 years of old inventory provided me some items from the same line and of course I have extras…even a towel rack I couldn’t resist and haven’t used yet.
• The bathroom pendants are original BUT the canopies were brass – I found a local guy to chrome them for me so they would match all other metal in the bathroom. the toilet, sinks, and tub are original.
• I’ll be looking to replace the Church toilet seat very soon if I can find the same color.
• The shower tiles are 6″x6″, made by Original Style in England, color is Ecru.
• The floor tiles are 2″x2″ Dal-Tile color is elemental tan with sporadic 1″ x1″ tiles color urban putty.   (Size created by tile installer by cutting 2×2 tiles in quarters…this give extra texture and was recommended by Cortina Tile).

The project brightened up the bathroom and remained true to the 1960’s!!! PS, do you notice the cabinet hardware from Re-Store???? Hope to see you this summer for a Re-Store rerun~
Cindy

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