Retro Renovation

I heard from Ohio Catherine recently - remember her adorable ranch…and all her Drexel furniture? Catherine has continued to work on her vintage steel Youngstown kitchen — pulling together the extra pieces she needs — as well as her pink bathroom — including checking out Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper to go-with:
hey pam!
i got a few [...]

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Following up on Monday’s exciting post about the Arpa USA palette of solid-color laminates, let’s take a look at how to use this material to recreate this 1959 Ma Bell kitchen. It would be oh-so-easy! Elements include:

Laminate cabinetry using Arpa’s “Jardin” colorway.
Cabinet pulls: Rejuvenation’s new midcentury “sharp arch”, in satin chrome
Countertops are also laminate - [...]

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The folks at Rejuvenation are at it again - and have introduced a whole new lineup of midcentury-styled cabinet knobs and pulls.

I know that readers here will be thrilled to see the boomerang aka chevron pulls (1st photo) …now, can we have them in 2-3/4″ spread, too? And, the arched pull (2nd photo) is a [...]

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Wow, these are very early steel kitchen cabinets - the ebay listing says that they are from a New Jersey estate, installed in the 40s, and I believe it. Capitol is the name of a N.J. company that was started pretty early…other names from the period are Dieterich and Elgin — you can see photos [...]

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Longtime readers will recall my fixation with 50s and 60s electric plug-in devices to organize all the wonderful wife-saving appliances on the top of your kitchen countertop. Remember these previous posts?:

Happy birthday to me - my Sunbeam birthday present!
And this Westinghouse model.

This time around — a whole cabinet! Yummy! Anyone have one of these, [...]

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During last week’s laminate ramblings, I stumbled on this incredible 1959 house in Texas - it’s the original home of the founder of Wilsonart laminates, and it’s now owned by the company, serving as their archives and a space for corporate events.
All photos: Courtesy Wilsonart - who were fabulous, very responsive! Thank you, Diana Z.!

The [...]

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Jan asks:
We are having the hardest time trying to find a replacement faucet for our 1950\’s Crosley kitchen sink. It is a wall mount faucet on the cast iron sink. Can you help?
Jan, these are around - but the first place that I’d check, is deabath.com. They seem to be real experts in finding plumbing [...]

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Wowza. I was away all last week and missed this vintage retractable kitchen light fixture - which came, then went, for $85 - a steal. I hope that a retro renovation reader snapped it up, as it might be the single most fabulous kitchen light that I have ever seen. From Sears Harmony House. I [...]

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