Retro Renovation » lighting

Mid-century Lightolier lighting catalog – 73 pages

pam kueber — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:00:58 +0000

A 73-page mid-century Lightolier catalog — now that is some serious eye-candy for whiling away a few hours on a sleepy Sunday. The awesome Gretchen has scanned this entire catalog and posted it as a set on Flickr. Go take a look, I promise it will blog your mind. Also be sure to check out Gretchen’s Eiclerific blog.

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Bo Sullivan identifies my vintage pull-down kitchen light

Pam Kueber — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:00:58 +0000

Kitchen photo: Copyright Kit Latham.

One of the highlights of my recent visit to Rejuvenation Lighting in Portland was when historian Bo Sullivan was able to – immediately – identify the vintage pulldown light over my kitchen table. I don’t think I’ve told this story before: One Friday afternoon after a hard day’s work — when I was driving home – I got the idea that I needed a vintage light NOW. This was when I was putting the final details of my kitchen together before contractor Kevin started. So as soon as I got home, I jumped on ebay and with 12 minutes to go spotted the light shown here above the tulip table. Of course, I snapped it up – for $12. Bo knows lighting – he knew exactly who made the light and showed it to me in a catalog —>

Ta da!: It’s a 1959 Imperialite, made by Emerson-Imperial.

The date on this catalog is Sept. 15, 1959. Hey, my light is 50 years old this year: Like Barbie, and me!

This light – which I spotted on ebay last year – was on the same page with my light, in the catalog:

Aren’t these all swoon-able?

Here’s Bo with another catalog. Over the past 15 years, Bo has been collecting vintage marketing material from 20th century lighting companies. The collection is AMAZING. Rejuvenation is in the process of moving the collection from the factory… over to the store. There, it will be accessible to customers as a research and inspiration resource. And guess what – there’s a latte bar at the store, too. Now, that’s all I need to be happy: Good coffee… and a million vintage lighting catalogs. Bo, are you sure I’m invited back? I’ll never leave! Thank you again for sharing your knowledge. More Rejuvenation posts to come…

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All-new midcentury modern lighting from Rejuvenation

Pam Kueber — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:00:49 +0000

When I visited Rejuvenation on Monday, I was treated to a sneak peek at their latest products just about to be introduced: The Corona pendant lighting fixture… and a mahogany tri-spoke spreader that can be used to group three pendants for dramatic effect.

The Corona — which emulates an original 1959 fixture — has an aluminum pin-hole cylinder around a glass shade. And, the cylinder can also be enamel painted mix-and-match style in 8 colors including Neptune Blue, Aurora Green, Solar Yellow and even Flare Orange. Very ’60s!

The new tri-spoke also can be used with Rejuvenation’s other midcentury pendants, the Aeros, Orbis or Cerise.

Finally – during my visit I had my first opportunity to see this lighting in person. I loved the scale, and the quality.

The new lights are all now on the Rejuvenation website. And you can click through here for some additional photos –

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Ruth scores a vintage GE Celeste light bulb

pam kueber — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:59:22 +0000

Ruth of the wonderful blue Geneva kitchen has started her own blog “No Pattern Required”. Look what she posted yesterday – a super-cool GE “Celeste” lightbulb, 9″ tall and the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Ruth lives in Michigan — tons of great stuff there and she has started to nosh on it all!

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Where to find a shade for my vintage light – a round ceiling fixture?

pam kueber — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:00:03 +0000

Where to find a shade for my vintage ceiling fixture – including those you can set into pulldown fixtures like these vintage Progress lights? A popular question recently – and reader Skyla has found a great resource – mylampparts.com. This place has shades — they actually seem to be called diffusers — in a variety of widths and some pretty groovy designs, too. Price is pretty reasonable. You might also check your local Re-Store/Habitat for Humanity… at mine they often have complete fixtures for as little as $3 – you might want to buy one just for the shade.

Click here for the diffuser page at mylampparts.com… this also seems to be a goldmine for all other … well, lamp parts, as well. Thank you, Skyla, for your ace retro-detective work!

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A mid century Australian wall sconce – Retroppo’s contest entry

pam kueber — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:58:02 +0000

Retroppo aka Michelle – one of our readers from Australia – sends us this Found Objects Found Art contest entry:

Hi Pam,
here is my entry. When we first moved into our house 20 years ago, the old couple we bought off left lots of goodies for us to keep. Including a 1940’s art deco tray moblie & of all things a malibu surfboard! We aso found this wall sconce in a box in the garage which was originally we think in the longeroom before they did a reno in the 70’s. We haven’t yet found a place for it, maybe when we do up my daughter’s room, it can go in there or it will have to wait until we do that much anticipated extension, but that’s also been put off due to the doom & gloom that has been forecast. Have a nice day & thanks for accepting my entry, cheers, Michelle x (retroppo)

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Where to find reproduction midcentury lighting – another source

pam kueber — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:00:47 +0000

With the growing popularity of all things retro, it’s great to see more manufacturers bringing authentic reproductions back to life. Case in point: Rejuvenation – long known for it Arts & Crafts, Colonial Revival, and Deco-era reproductions – introduced its first off-shoot brand “Satellite” last year.

Satellite features a growing range of lighting – like the pendants above – as well as hardware, shades and other products. To come up with the designs the company scours “the internet and our extensive collection of 1950s and early 1960s trade catalogs to rediscover and reintroduce the coolest lighting and hardware of the era,” explained Bo Sullivan, Rejuvenation senior designer and historian.

Want to win a pair of Aeros, Cerise or Orbis pendants of your very own – a $250 value? Be sure enter our Found Objects…Found Art contest thru Jan. 29. Thanks, Satellite – and especially to the fabulous Nicole – for bringing these products back to life, and for your support of this year’s contest!

SatelliteModern.com

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A stash of new old stock square recessed lights in Iowa

Pam Kueber — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:59:23 +0000

Cadman writes:

Pam, I wanted to tip you and your readers off on some fantastic NOS light fixtures for sale that might be of interest. The trouble? This alert is likely only good for your Iowa readers.

A while back there was a discussion about the in-ceiling square recessed lights and how chrome trim is no longer available (nor it seems more than 1 or 2 common sizes). The Cedar Rapids ReStore has come into old inventory of these lights, still wrapped in 1958 newspaper from the factory and many sealed in their original dusty boxes. There’s an assortment of sizes and glass options as well, and a 5 or 10 spot is all they’re asking. Heavy-Duty all the way around.

We don’t get down to CR too often but managed to make the trek in an icestorm this past weekend on a search for RED carpet and we couldn’t not drop-in. -Cadman

Thank you, Cadman. Can someone go get these, please!

Above: Progress lights from my fabulous 1961 Progress catalog.

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Anita’s oriental figurine lamps with shades from Meteor Lights

pam kueber — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:00:28 +0000

Anita has been decorating away! She scored a wonderful pair of chartreuse oriental figurine lamps – then topped them with shades from Meteor Lights. In addition, take a look at the way she’s used vintage grasscloth – and even a surfboard – in her mantletop display. I’m ready to tiki at your house, Anita!

3 more great photos…

Anita writes:

The lamp bases are opposites of each other. I was wandering through an antiques store in Modesto when the bases caught my eye, I thought they were just figurines, but they were chartreuse so I had to take a 2nd look and I discovered that they were actually lamp bases.

They look to me like they are from the 1950s. After several weeks of searching ebay etc for a pair of nice vintage fiberglass shades I gave up and discovered a company not too far from me in San Francisco called Meteor Lights. They have a great website where you can create custom lampshades from several styles etc.

Since they were so close I decided to stop in and get a first hand look at their shades – I ordered 2 – they are the small size ‘2-tier atomic’, with turquoise as the bottom color and caramel as the top color. The pattern is ‘arcs’ in black and gold; the lanyard color is black.

One of the photos shows them on our family room mantle – a bit about that area – it is a combo 1950s everything – the mantle cover was my first ever attempt at tuck-n-roll; the seagrass wallpaper is vintage and framed out in split bamboo; the surfboard is a reproduction 1940s plank style that we still need to put the fin on (it’s in line with several other projects). Enjoy the pics!

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Ada table lamp by CB2

pam kueber — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:00:49 +0000

I’m a huge fan of Saarinen tulip tables – so of course, took a liking to this Ada table lamp by CB2. In case you don’t know, CB2 is the separate mid mod line by Crate & Barrel. They have a lot of great stuff for 60s 70s and 80s retro renovations. This lamp is only $60. One caution: Don’t overdo the tulip shape – one application (a table & chairs OR pair of lamps) is likely enough.

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