After the post on where to find shelf edging, California Kathy wrote to show some in action. This is wonderful stuff for open shelves, glass cupboards, and as Kathy shows — for showing off collections of vintage bowls and dinnerware:
Hi Pam, California Kathy here. Just wanted to show you the upper portion of my kitchen china hutch with its shelf edging. I scored it on eBay a while ago and couldn’t be happier with how it looks! We’ve been doing a few things to our 1949 Calinfornia ranch kitchen and I’ll send you some pics as soon as we finish up a couple more easy things. Course the “easy” things are the ones that take the longest sometimes! Thanks for all you do! – Kathy
If you comment regularly, I highly recommend that you get yourself a Gravatar — a “globally recognized avatar.” This is a small image that you choose to represent you when you make comments on any blog or in a Forum. The software sees where you post your email address (required by most blogs) and then serves up the gravatar you have chosen. Here’s the website, it’s free, and pretty easy. Remember at the end to “confirm” the image that you have selected. If you are at a loss for an avatar – you can go to this site and create a Mad Men character that looks like you.
Finding quirky accessories can be the most fun (and never-ending) part of owning an eclectic mid-century modern or mid-century modest home. Here is my vintage Stangl wigstand, purchased 15 years ago, well before I lived the retro life. Isn’t she beautiful? She’s a blond, circa 1950. I think we named her Betty. Well, Betty sits on our built-in bookcase and always has a vintage hat of some sort propped on her head. This one is an amazingly lovely antique crocheted lace night cap (I think) lined with satin — one of my many wonderful finds from the time capsule estate sale last week. Peeking from behind — a vintage Shriner’s hat I bought 10 years ago at a thift store in Canada.
This is a RetroRenovation rerun originally published Nov. 9, 2008.
10. Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman, but a “woman.” To perceive Camp in objects and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role. It is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as theater.
- Susan Sontag, Notes on “Camp”, 1964
Dan the Man at the Houston Architecture Info Forum recently linked to RetroRenovation.com with the following comment:
Here’s a neat blog on mid-century residential design. It tends towards the kitsch, but it recommends many resources and materials for appropriate renovations…
While I am truly grateful for the reco, I found myself reacting harshly at being called “kitsch” and the disparaging connotation. Hmmm. So what is kitsch…and should I care at being lumped in? I went over to Wikipedia to study etymology…
Take a neighborhood full of cookie-cutter tract houses … let their owners fuss with them … and 50 years later photographer Julia Baum finds that they have been “transformed from modest white cubes into a vibrant display of personality and present a rebellion against conformity….human individuality cannot be contained. Inevitably it shines through even the most average facade.” I love her study, which demonstrates again that their is so much to love about our jewel box mid-century homes. No matter how small, the opportunity is there to make them our own. Read more about Julia’s project and see her slide show of 13 same-yet-different homes here.
Guest post today from Dave Stuhlsatz, architect with Royal Barry Wills Associates, and my main contact there for all things RBW. I am very pleased that Dave will contribute an occasional article on mid-century architecture, design and related issues. – Pam
The time seems appropriate to revisit Cape Cod House design as it was promoted by a pioneer of their twentieth century revival, Boston architect Royal Barry Wills. When Wills started out in his architecture career he established himself designing English Tudor inspired homes in suburban towns around Boston like Newton and Brookline. But, it was his rigorous examination and subsequent success with the Cape and Colonial Revival homes that cemented his reputation as one of the most influential residential architects in America. Heck yeah there is more…
You know I’m excited about the big day. Here are me and my brothers and sisters, all babies, I’m the oldest. I like the part where I get to jolt them with electricity. Wuuuhaaahaaaa. Today is Ricky’s birthday — he’s the werewolf here, while in real life he has transformed into a marathon runner this year. Happy birthday, Ricky!
Today is RetroRenovation.com’s second birthday. And on this occasion I would like to introduce something I’ve been noodling for the better part of the year — an all-new term that I have invented: “Mid-century Modest.” I first used the term at my home show talks in Eugene in March…and then again when I met with the wonderful Portland MCM League group for dinner right after. I believe that author Cara Greenberg is credited with coining “mid-century modern,” in 1985, with her book of the same name. A mere 24 years later, let me introduce “Mid-century Modest” and along with it, the Mid-Century Modest Manifesto. Heck yeah there is more…
Here are some really terrific items: A vintage Early American style mailbox in its original gift box… A mint-in-box 1964 rooster cupola…. a pair of Lilly Pulitzer collapsible suitcases…and a large, gorgeous set of pink enamel Woodard patio furniture for the tony set.
Welcome to RetroRenovation.com -- your daily dose of mid century renovation resources... design inspiration... fun finds... and a growing community of people all interested in restoring, preserving and cherishing their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s homes.
If you comment regularly, I highly recommend that you get yourself a Gravatar — a “globally recognized avatar.” This is a small image that you choose to represent you when you make comments on any blog or in a Forum. The software sees where you post your email address (required by most blogs) and then serves up the gravatar you have chosen. 
Finding quirky accessories can be the most fun (and never-ending) part of owning an eclectic mid-century modern or mid-century modest home. Here is my vintage Stangl wigstand, purchased 15 years ago, well before I lived the retro life. Isn’t she beautiful? She’s a blond, circa 1950. I think we named her Betty. Well, Betty sits on our built-in bookcase and always has a vintage hat of some sort propped on her head. This one is an amazingly lovely antique crocheted lace night cap (I think) lined with satin — one of my many wonderful finds from the 
