Retro Renovation

Yowza.

Even though this blog is about middle-class mid-century homes - it’s hard not to salivate over the moneybags mansions.

This 5,300 s.f. vintage home in Des Moines features the ORIGINAL FURNITURE even — everything is from 1965.

Talk about a time capsule.

On the market for the first time for $1.3 million and worth every penny. You can [...]

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My husband bought me a nice camera for Mother’s Day and I have only recently started to play around with it. At “the estate sale house” this weekend, I found lots of good subject matter. It was a c. 1910 house, but had been modestly updated in the 50s, when Pittsfield was a-boomin’.

I loved the [...]

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Happy 4th, everyone. Here in the beautiful Berkshires, James Taylor’s 4th of July concert at Tanglewood is the must-see event each and every year. JT lives right here in Lenox, and his Sweet Baby James, with its Stockbridge-to-Boston, is literally our national anthem. The crowd goes wild - me included. I have to say, I [...]

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Following up on today’s main post, I went looking for a photo of a real mudlark, and found this 1950 movie instead:
In 1875 London, young Wheeler, who lives by scavenging, finds a cameo of Queen Victoria which he thinks so beautiful he risks his life to save it. Possessed of a desire to see the [...]

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Yesterday was a simply perfect day. Warm and sunny and as soon as I got up I had two estate sales to hit. Pretty much the first ones of the season - it’s been a late start. I drank 2 cups of coffee, checked the blog, then dashed out of the house. There is nothing [...]

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Wow, yesterday was the Hula Hoop’s 50th birthday. I am a born-to-hula hooper, a California girl. My favorite was the shoop shoop hula hoop.
One of my proudest moments in the past few years was beating a 17-year-old at a company picnic hula hoop contest in a final-death elimination round that involved the TWO hula hoops. [...]

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Not much for me to say about this place - Greg’s contemporary in Granada Hills, California.

Beautiful! Love love love the light fixtures - are they all one ’set’? Where did you find them? Ooooh, I see you even kept your cottage cheese ceiling!

I particularly like how Greg has kept his color palette simple — taupey/grey [...]

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I went looking for Pete Seeger singing Little Boxes, and discovered Malvina Reynolds. Apparently she wrote the song…and while I don’t agree with its message — I LOVE OUR LITTLE BOXES! — I have to say, I LOVE MALVINA! And I love her singing this other counterculture song. Have a happy and productive Saturday, everyone, [...]

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Grab another cup of coffee…or a Mai Tai, if it’s that time of day…and sit back for a nice virtual ride. Today Palm Springs Stephan is treating us a to a guided tour of some of the most wonderful midcentury modern homes in his fair city — with his wonderful commentary.

This first is one of [...]

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OMG, Retro Renovation readers are so talented, creative, smart, witty, and insane. How about this incredible collection from Troy?
Troy first made his presence known amidst our recent fascination with Drexel furniture (more to come). This is when I learned that he had, like, hundreds of vintage airline travel bags:

It is SO FUN to see Troy’s [...]

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