Chris and Angela wrote to me a few months ago, excited because they were about to close on a beautiful 1964 mid-century modern home in Wisconsin. Well, the deal went through successfully, and now this cute-overload couple is happily playing house in their stunning, designer-built house — a time capsule with mint-condition original lighting, Nutone, basement bar and heavens to betsy: two flocked wallpapers.
Before I launch Chris, let me explain that when he originally wrote, the couple was concerned about the sunset tan bathroom — didn’t quite know what to do with it even though they are “designer types.” I pointed them to a photo of one of my bathrooms, in which I used Home Depot “rose beige” tiles, and suggested something akin to the mint green, aqua and brown combination I used for wallpaper, linens and accessories. You can see how they picked up and ran with the suggestion in their bathroom design experiment to date.
So here’s the story and all the awesome 1964 time capsule eye candy. Chris writes:
Hi Pam,
My wife and I were lucky enough to just purchase this beautiful 1964 home. Our house is an original one of a kind. The original owners we bought the house from designed the floor plan and many of the details were constructed by the owner himself. Beautiful features, fixtures, stonework.
We are not finished decorating any of this yet, but had to share now since it will be a while until it’s finished. These are all just items we already had that we’re using until we find better suited ones, along with nice drapes.
The chocolate & mint accessories in the bathroom will work once we find ones we like, thanks for the color tip!
As you can see, right now we’re experimenting with chocolate, green and cyan.
The bathroom is nearly as-new with hardly any wear (they used the similar but smaller blue bathroom which will be undergoing restoration shortly). About the only non-original item is the faucet.
Note long sliding medicine cabinet under the mirror with an electrical outlet inside. Slanted cabinets. Also we have the NuTone 3-in-1 heater, light and fan.
Needless to say, this room will stay as-is forever. We need to find a chair appropriate for the dressing area,
and I need to clean that floor grout. Pretty easy restoration, I’d say!
Next up is our main hall with what we call
our “UFO” light fixture 🙂
And our cozy fireplace room that we’ve accessorized temporarily with some Danish Modern influences.
We love our dotted light fixtures here, too. NuTone built-in doorbell here, too. This room’s flooring is an interesting laminate that is clear with laminate chips in it that looks like pebbles in water. Unfortunately there is a lot of damage, so will need to be replaced eventually.
Entry tile. Pink/green, though camera flash brings out the
color. It’s more subdued. [Pam adds: I like the look of that wallpaper, too.]Last up is our basement 1960’s paneled family room. We are starting to furnish and accessorize this room now in all oranges and greens. Need to find some orange barstools!
Oh, and can’t forget a couple samples of our flocked bedroom wallpaper, one orange… [Pam adds: I couldn’t resist putting these images in super-size. Blow your mind, mon!]
…one blue.
Great site, it’s our favorite… keep up the good work!
Chris & Angela, near Milwaukee, WI
Thank you, Chris and Angela, for doing this great archiving of your home and for sharing it with us. Fantastic house — and you two sound like you are the perfect caretakers. I can’t wait to see what else you do with it, over time. xoxo
Bonus quiz:
Quinn says
What a gem! And so refreshing to see that you plan to keep it that way.
TappanTrailerTami says
Chris & Angela – I forgot to mention, that hallway photo brought back great memories for me. My house growing up, built in 1953, had a really nice long hall with a hardwood floor. My sister and I would sneak the furniture polish out and spray down the floor a little and then we would back way up in the living room at the far end and run as fast as we could. Of course, we would have our socks on and as soon as we left the living room rug we would slide all the way down the hallway – finally crashing into the closet door at the end of it!!!
My mom would get SOOO mad, because after we did that a few times, you could hardly stand up on the hardwood since it would be so slick from the polish – she never really appreciated our help “cleaning”!
TappanTrailerTami says
In case anyone needs this: This is a GREAT website for searching multiple cities/states on Craigslist. I just used it to search “vintage oven” in Wisconsin, and voila – a gorgeous coppertone wall oven and matching hood, plus a white cooktop is listed for $20! It is in the Wausau listing.
Happy Hunting 🙂
http://www.searchtempest.com/
Deb says
Love, love, love! 🙂
pam kueber says
Tami, I think you have hit the nail on the head: Coppertone brown… or in a pinch, harvest gold appliances. I am sure Chris & Angie could find some up there in Wisconsin!
Patty (in Dallas) says
I think the niches in the basement wall are my favorite! But it’s hard to pick, you have such a great house. Congratulations on the find!
TappanTrailerTami says
Chris – that is a really awesome house, love all of it! As for the kitchen, in my opinion, the only thing I would do is to get rid of the modern, haha, appliances, and I definitely see a set of either stainless (to go w/ the sink), or COPPERTONE! Western Holly wall oven and cooktop. Western Holly’s had porthole windows in their wall ovens and stoves, and some of their wall ovens even had a rotisserie.
nina462 says
Lovely house. I have the same bathroom floor tiles (in blue) and I think the same bathroom wood cabinets.
Since someone mentioned a WI and Indy retro meet up…I’d like to join one in MI. (Oh heck, IN, WI, MI…all the same state, just have the borders).
Chris says
Maryanna, I have put a photo of the built-ins and another overall basement family room photo in the album for you. The original owner built the cubbies and curved bar surrounds out of the paneling. That’s some of our art glass collection in the cubbies… we need to add some directional lighting onto them if we leave them there.
http://s664.photobucket.com/albums/vv8/Mirage1972/1964House-Dec/1964House-Angie/
Nice to see other views on our kitchen, thank you. We need to think on it for a few months, but I agree with what’s been said here. We would like more counterspace, but like the oven placement, so it’s going to take living with it more to figure it out. It’s also a very small oven.
Maryanna says
Lovely! I love all the built-ins and would love to see a closeup of what seems to be cubbies across from the bar in the basement. What a great find! 🙂