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Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

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Home / What to Collect

1952 time capsule kitchen…70s time capsule bathroom…and more

pam kueber - November 3, 2009, Updated: March 24, 2013

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

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.

1960s-butlers-pantry 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.

metallic-dining-room-wallpaper
Gold metallic-Asian inspired 70s wallpaper in the (Victorian) dining room. You know I love this paper. Beyond words.

1960s-bathroom-dressing-room
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.

1960s-kitchen
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.

1960s-frigidaire
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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What to Collect

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37 comments

Comments

  1. joyce says

    August 18, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    brilliant! those floors are incredible and the little bathroom counter nooks? love them!

  2. mike says

    February 7, 2010 at 7:24 pm

    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.

  3. Abby says

    December 12, 2009 at 1:51 am

    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?

    • pam kueber says

      December 12, 2009 at 10:30 am

      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!

  4. Mark says

    November 4, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    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?)

    • pam kueber says

      November 4, 2009 at 3:01 pm

      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…

  5. Bryan Lord says

    November 4, 2009 at 10:24 am

    Wow, I can’t believe it survived all this time.

  6. Helen says

    November 4, 2009 at 2:48 am

    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

  7. MrsErinD says

    November 3, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    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!

  8. midmodms says

    November 3, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    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.

  9. Shannon Stanbro says

    November 3, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    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.

  10. No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane says

    November 3, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    This is AMAZING. Wish I could have seen it myself!

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