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First, we went to a genuine thrift store at a senior center near Denise’s house. Denise scored this glitzy dress, $1. I bought some Snoopy wrapping paper, 25 cents. Denise goes here often, so she knows everyone, and had told them she was bringing me. I felt like a celebrity. It was very fun, tee hee.

After we ate lunch at a bona-fide diner, we went to a much bigger vintage shop — Refind Green Designs in Newington, a suburb of Hartford. Not too much 50s, but some 60s, lots of 70s and yes, lots of 80s and 90s, even. Pretty packed full of stuff — a promising sign.

These lighted reverse-glass paintings with an Asian motif are really cool — notice how the frames are three different colors. I also have just noticed, that the paint color on the wall is quite lovely. I will find out what it is. Design tip: Sets of three like this make for very nice groupings indeed. When I go back to pick up Astro, I might need these, too. Hmmm.

Denise got excited about this pillow. It’s nice and all, but she was VERY excited, and at first I didn’t quite understand why.

Then she revealed the other side! How clever.

This Versace chain mail necklace (I think that’s what it’s called) was one of the most truly fabulous things in the store. Disco. $350.

Yes, over milady’s shoulder was this guy. Every self-respecting 60s house needs a Toro Toro Toro, don’t you think?

Sorry for the blur. These kinds of 70s oil paintings — lovely mats, lovely frames, nicely rendered — can be had at great prices, and give you the opportunity to bring larger-sized art into your home. Worth watching for.

This 70s dinnerware, mint in this cute orange box, was $10. I should clarify, that we haven’t shown you what we bought yet. This is all just stuff that I liked.

Very classy bench-settee, I guess you’d call it. Naugahyde? I love this butterscotch color.

This was a great piece. I shoulda put something next to it to show the scale better. He is big.

More black porcelain. Grrrr.

Hmmm. Rarely do I get to say this: “Not my cup of tea.”

The brown Cathrineholm sauce pans were $15 each. Is that a good price? I think it might be…

Yowza. This adorable little coral naugahyde settee was my favorite thing in the shop for sure! I jut have NO place for it, drats. Isn’t Denise a wonderful model? She put up with me snap snap snappin’ away all day long. A good sport, you are, Denise!

Love. Do you know how much woven wooden shades like this cost new? Like, the equivalent of $1,000 today or something. These are fantastic. There is NOTHING wrong with them from a design standpoint. They are NOT UGLY or ABOMINABLE. Have I mentioned: They are fantastic. Oh and if you disagree with me, I might have to hang you on the meat hook right next door.

There were two of these valances. Each one was 202″ long. Asking price was $100 each.

Pink laminate coffee table with anodized gold legs. Wasn’t there a movie recently with Renee Zellweger where she played a 60s magazine editor and her apartment was all pink pink pink? This might fit there, but it still may not be outrageous enough.

This store had lots of barkcloth curtains.

40s barkcloth here.

So after all the meat and potatoes, we saved dessert — the room full of vintage clothes — for last.

Denise found lots to try on, and anguished over whether to buy this little mint green number or not. (She’s waiting.)

I was actually the big buyer of the day. I got these Sears go-go shoes which fit perfectly. Denise found three vintage Vera scarves buried in a pile. They are simple little chiffon numbers — I got this one. And, at the last second, I spotted a booklet that teaches children how to draw, from the 1940s.

Our total bill for about four hours of shopping: $11.

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Addrienne writes:

Hi Pam,
I have been addicted to your site ever since I purchased my 1954 ranch in September of 2008. I came across it when I was doing research on pink bathrooms, which by the way was one of the main things that
sealed the deal on the purchase of my new house.

I am writing to you to share one of the best thrift store finds ever. A while back I came across a whole bolt of Waverly fabric. I believe it is Rhino cloth from what you described in your recent post.

It is a floral print with a gray background and I have approx. 8 yards of it. The label on the selvedge says that it is a Waverly Bonded fabric, and the name of the print is “Marianne”. Eventually I am going to use the fabric to make curtains for my sewing room, but I would love to send you a swatch of the fabric. Thank you for all of your great articles and resources. I hope to share some pics of my pink bathroom with you once I have got it all fixed up!

-Addrienne

Thank you, Addrienne, for sharing this with us. I have to say — it’s really wonderful to see that explosion of color. The lavendars and yellows, in particular, are very refreshing. And, it’s interesting to see how allthe colors come together so beautifully against the background of medium-gray. I agree with you: We’re calling this rhino cloth! You gotta tell us, dear, though: How much $?

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This dinette is pretty fabulous, too. Link: RetroVegas.com. Thanks, Bill, and good luck with the sale.

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This is not my house. It is the first room in Huckleberry’s Chair Fetish – a midcentury modern shop near the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Regular readers will recall that I visited Lexington last Thanksgiving to meet up with Sumac Sue aka Judi for a look at her house, her neighborhood, a pink bathroom, an aqua bathroom — and yes, a little side trip to this mid mod furniture shop she had recently discovered. Even though it’s taken me a while to get to this post, it is not for lack of immediate love of the place starting with the name, Huckleberry’s Chair Fetish. First there’s the surname Huckleberry, it goes with Earlene – the proprietress.  Then there’s Chair Fetish. Earlene is calibrated as nutso as the rest of us for this mid mod stuff. Her eyes had that wild look when she talked about her store and all its contents. Fetish. That  just about sums it up. And I bet that putting it into the headline of this post is going to bring me a whole new slew of readers. Oh joy.

The sign out front. Please note, I do think that mid-century with the hyphen is the correct spelling. I usually write midcentury, though. Because it’s my blog, and hyphens annoy me. I also am really trying to lay off the exclamation points, as well as the excessive use of adjectives and adverbs. Em dashes, though, I’m all about em dashes.

This is my my sister Jenni driving, she gets major snaps for coming along, and despite the fact I made her pose in the pink bathroom shot here, I think she even had fun. That’s Judi in the passenger seat. I don’t for a minute believe they are both natural blondes at this point, but who am I to talk? I plan to never ever know what my natural hair color is again.

This is Earlene. She basically told us that she had recently discovered mid century modern , and was immediately, irrevocably sucked into the retro vortex. There was no stopping it. She had to open the shop and seek out all she could find. Earlene is a force of nature to be reckoned with. The shop is normally closed on Sundays, the day we came, and Judi had called her ahead of time to see if we could get in. Thanks, Earlene, for hosting us! You get an exclamation point!

This white leather lounge chair was definitely my #1 object of desire. So impractical.

A lucite bar and matching bar stools.

This upholstered Danish club chair (I think you’d call it) was upstairs. I really like the stripes and the pukey colors. Really.

Thayer-Coggin, maybe? I’m just starting to get to know the high style designers. These kind of remind me of baseball mitts.

Earlene had a collection of tiny chairs. See the label inside? That’s a 3/4″-1″ price tag. So it gives you a sense of the size of this piece. As I recall, this miniature was worth more than most of us would consider paying for a fullsized chair…

There were other kinds of furniture, too, like this poster bed. 80s? So fabulous. And I like how Earlene backs the whole thing with a mirror to play up the silvery metal. I am not keen on the placement in a real life bedroom, though — bad feng shui, as I recall.  For that matter, feng shui masters wouldn’t advise a metal bed, anyway. Too cold. Beds must be made of natural materials, as I recall. Oh well.

Sweet lamp and shade. As you can begin to tell, it doesn’t appear that Earlene is a slave to any one niche. Just quality, wonderful stuff.

This buffet was in the entry way. Darnit, I think I noted the maker somewhere. Usually I just take a photo of any labels I see, but hmmmm, not there.

And of course I snooped around. Out the upstairs back window I spotted stuff out back waiting to be brought inside. If you look closely – there are some fab looking mod orange pinch pleats in a pile by the blue containers. I hinted to Earlene about taking a look. But she didn’t bite. So, I restrained myself. Drats.

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If you are looking for antiques in the Berkshires… and want to find some great midcentury stuff… be sure to stop at Berkshire County Used Furniture on 4th Street in Pittsfield. My friend Ron — who helped me get the kitchen cabinets out of Gotham — runs this treasure trove. Ron empties out houses ’round the clock, it seems. He takes everything — so you never know what you will find at his store. I swear, if I were doing another kitchen, I would for sure buy up these avocado green GE appliances — they were in fantastic shape.  Read on for 13 photos in all… including an 40s  Kenmore washing machine… and a Witco tiki throne.

Click the photos twice to get to their largest size.

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On my first full day in Louisville, my mom Fran and I went shopping for mid mod antiques, of course. Our destination: Five floors of eye candy at the downtown Louisville Antiques Mall. I can’t say I saw a ton of mid century modern. But one thread I captured: Outrageous Oriental lamps and such.

I have decided that I quite love love love these. The watercolors aside (lovely!), they are so on the unbearable lightness of being end of the spectrum. Let’s not take ourselves too seriously, retro renovators.

From Louisville Antique Market

One of two lovely Japanese watercolors.

From Louisville Antique Market

The second Japanese watercolor.

From Louisville Antique Market

I think you would call kitschy Siamese cats with jeweltone eyes Oriental art?

From Louisville Antique Market

These two little oriental statuettes could light up many a corner. I am a real sucker for anything with metallic gold sprinkled throughout.

From Louisville Antique Market

I think this is a lantern of some sort.

From Louisville Antique Market

Not Outrageous Oriental… but, my mom Fran in an outrageous 50s hat that we spotted. Great hat! Great mom!

From Louisville Antique Market

Cheeky boudoir lamps, in pairs, make my heart sing.

The only thing I bought all day: A fab 60s mod outfit for $10. We also had a memorable lunch in the Mall’s  5th-floor cafe, with good food, and views of downtown environs. What a fun day!

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New reader Jill sent in this stunning gold chair – with matching sofa – from a store in Vancouver. This I Dream of Jeannie set was sold. But my goodness, I went to look at their site and there were several other finds I found quite fabulous as well – and at pretty decent prices. Thanks, Jill!

Hi Pam,

I saw this 1950’s couch and chair on a local vintage store website and I thought they were so cool that I would like to share the photo’s with you and your readers. They were in the “recently sold” section. This is the write up that was with them:

This amazing 50’s sofa has lovely gold colored fabric and a curved wooden frame. Excellent condition! It comes with the matching equally fabulous chair.

This is a truly stunning piece, comes in gold velvety fabric, with amazing curved wooden frame. Excellent condition. You won’t believe your eyes! ** Sofa and Chair sold as a set only!! Price: $2,200.00

Thanks,

Jill

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Today – three posts — all about readers’ favorite shopping spots. LA Leslie starts:

The guy in Sacramento is named Mark Saunders (sp?) and he owns Midway Antique Mall. I am sure he would love to chat with you. His stuff is pricey b/c he is “selective” about who buys it and runs the place – at least his stuff it seems- more like a museum. We have bought several things from him, but it’s so expensive and with kids now…. www.midwayantiquemall.net…(916) 726-7175

Thank you, LAL. Readers, you know how to send me your favorite spots: pam@ …

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In Atlanta, Scathing Jane reports:

…I found a neat 1950s 36 inch door at a Midtown junk place… ahem materials recycler. I know folks have a hard time finding cool doors, and thought you might want to share. Its at Midtown West Building Materials on Brady Avenue in Atlanta. (404) 523-5003. Both times I found it, I had to move at least 10 more traditional doors to get to it. This is the same place that I found the Kitchenaid Dishwasher and trash compactor. I did not inquire as to price, but 50s architectural salvage is not in high-demand in Atlanta.

Oh, and she also sent a photo of a wicked cool house in her neighborhood. Round. Now I want a time capsule tour of that one! Jane, get yourself in there! Thank you, Jane!

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