I spent not one — but two — days this weekend at a fabulous estate sale in Adams, Mass. I’m really busy with work right now, so don’t have a lot of time to post, but I wanted to start getting photos from the house (and my finds) online. This is a 1952 Geneva kitchen. It was the second, upstairs kitchen in the house. As far as I could tell, it was virtually unused – absolutely pristine.
This is a shot from the dining room, looking through the butler’s pantry toward the downstairs kitchen. You can see Geneva’s also in the butler’s pantry. But the downstairs kitchen was renovated in the 70s, so there were melamine cabinets there…plain white, nothing eye-popping. However, look at this fabulous vinyl-tile floor. Seriously wonderful.
Gold metallic-Asian inspired 70s wallpaper in the (Victorian) dining room. You know I love this paper. Beyond words.
The downstairs master bathroom / dressing room was expansive — a dream bathroom. . Notice the tiled-in nooks just above the vanity top – a very nice feature. That’s a big mirror looking at the closet opposite. The sinks are avocado. The floors are a small multicolored mosaic of white, avocado and harvest gold tiles. This bathroom was incredible.
On the walls were 4×4 harvest gold American Olean tiles, each designed to look like three smaller, longer, rectangular tiles (see image below, as well). Interestingly, I have about 5 big boxes of this very same tile that I picked up at the Re-Store last year. There were Hall-Mack Towelscopes on both ends of the vanity. Just beyond the door on the right is the separate toilet — that’s a Danish Modern light fixture on the wall, I have some close ups coming. Oh, and to the left of the Towelscope … look up… and you can see the can lights kind of sticking out of the ceiling about an inch… satin chrome or maybe brushed aluminum finish. It was a wonderful detail. Oh yeah – wallpapered ceiling. If you have a house built after, say, 1965, I’d say you must think seriously about wallpapering your ceilings.
Oh — a gorgeous vintage Frigidaire in the upstairs kitchen.
It is going to take me like, five days, to get through all the photos from this house. And then I will start on WHAT I BOUGHT. I was so enthralled, I spent 3 hours at the house on Saturday, then I drove back on Sunday to go through it again. The house was an inspiration.
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This is AMAZING. Wish I could have seen it myself!
As a Realtor, I noticed in one particular town that every house I showed had two kitchens. I just recently learned that it was common for Italian families to have a “show” kitchen and a working kitchen…kinda like the formal livingroom reserved only for guests.
I think wallpapering ceilings were in style before 1965. I have a memory of being woken by my parent’s hysterical laughter, and creeping downstairs to see what was up. I was about 4 so this would have been 1957ish. They were trying to wall paper the ceiling of the living room and making a disaster of it. They eventually gave up, but I loved watching them laugh so hard.
DREAMY kitchen!!! Sigh… The only thing I’d do is paint the walls pink and put up some barkcloth cafe curtains! ;O) The floors are the best!
No way!! THIS is the estate sale I sent you to? I should have gotten on a plane. Time to send my cabinet pulls, babe. 😉
H
Wow, I can’t believe it survived all this time.
Yes that is a Chambers built in oven, and on the other wall is a full Chambers stove! Those are the best stoves in the world!
They weigh about 500 lbs so if this an up stairs kitchen……
(who has 2 kitchens anyway?)
Mark, I assure you, I have close-ups of the Chambers’ upstairs. And, there’s a different model downstairs. Stay tuned, you won’t be disappointed…
Hi Pam!
Looking to do a pretty simply “retro renovation”….my question may be silly as I’m a bit of a beginner, but I want to cover a plain, 3 by 4.3 foot table in red vinyl and am wondering if you have any tips on the applications…glue? Staple gun? Ever done this before?
Hi Abby, this is not a DIY site as this is not my area of expertise. There are probably lots of other good resources for this on the internet, or you could even talk to the folks at your local hardware of big box hardware story, sometimes they can be very very helpful. Good luck!
Hi, Pam. I’m very inspired! I have been looking into buying, renovating and reselling houses, and i always have a mind to save whatever can be saved. I never know if buyers would understand a 1960s bathroom being brought back to life instead of torn out and replaced with the drab and junky bathroom fixtures of today. Your site has bolstered me to go with my instincts and save what can be saved, both for cost efficiancy and style preservation.
Thanks for being fantastic.
brilliant! those floors are incredible and the little bathroom counter nooks? love them!
Wow, the quarter round cabinet and chrome edge shelves in that kitchen: Awesome.
May I ask where you bought the gold metallic Asian-inspired wallpaper??
It looks wonderful!
Brea, this is a “time capsule” house — a house I visited at an estate sale. The sellers gave me permission to take photos and feature them on the blog. All the wallpaper was installed some time in the past.