Nancy’s back to the future pool house — built in 2012, rockin’ 1955 — 16 photos

Hop into the DeLorean and buckle up, because here’s one of our most retro-fabulous design dream houses yet: Nancy’s pool house — all new, from the ground up — but designed to looked like it’s always been there, since, say, 1955.  The kitchen, above, is just the start. This family gathering space also includes a great room and bathroom… it’s sparkling with vintage furniture… and it taps a number of the new, retro-style products researched and spotlighted here on Retro Renovation. What’s most impressive, though, is how Nancy has woven the entire design together in such a happy, harmonious way. Clearly, she has great eye — along with the love for and the courage to embrace color, color, and more color. 15 more photos, activate the flux capacitor –>

Now this is what I call a “great room.” Look at all that wonderful space — and more importantly — how Nancy filled it up. As you can start to see, the architectural style of the pool house is decidedly midcentury modern. It echoes the design of the main house.

• Here are photos of the exterior — it’s awesome, too.

Nancy set out to add a pool and accompanying pool house to her property about two years ago. She was intent on making sure the new building did not look like an afterthought. Above: Her beautiful coral-orange metal kitchen cabinets are topped off with some of the last surviving stock of aqua boomerang laminate and wrapped with shiny metal edging.

I asked Nancy a few questions about some of the choices she made in her pool house:

Q. How did you choose the color palette for your pool house? 

Orange has really been growing on me. Pam had a retro Youngstown kitchen catalog  posted one day, and I fell in love with the orange/teal mix of image #9. We live on the Chesapeake Bay, and I thought the colors would be great for this 50’s pool house!

Q. I noticed your dishwasher front matches the cabinets — did you have the cabinets custom painted that lovely coral color as well as the dishwasher front? 

I copied the kitchen from the post and then a local auto body shop stripped and matched the color from the printout.

Note: Nancy chose a Big Chill refrigerator for her kitchen. See my complete retro refrigerator buying guide here — 7 ideas for options!

Q. What is your favorite part of your pool house? (If you can pick!)

You know, I can’t say a particular part is my favorite. It just all came together as a “little 50’s gift box”, and I enjoy it as a whole.  There is nothing serious about it. My goal was 50’s and fun.

Q. What was the most challenging part of your remodel? 

Well, we are transplanted Native Texans living on the Eastern Shore. We learned that things didn’t happen on our schedule but on Eastern Shore Time. Also, Kris our builder was great about trying to make all of my 50’s things fit. I bought all these Youngstown cabinets at Community Forklift & then trying to make them fit in our space.  He wasn’t familiar with a Dishmaster, but I told him that was essential. Of course a drawer had to be shortened for the Nutone Center…The 50’s bathroom wallpaper had to be used where it would get less wear since it was paper and couldn’t get wet… But, I guess when you take on a project like this, the biggest challenge is being true to the 50’s (or as close as you can) and really trying to bring out the essence of the time period.

Nancy added:

This project would not have been possible without Pam!  I can’t tell you how valuable the blog is! There is information there that you don’t even know is there. How do you always know when we need to finish off cabinets, choose a flooring…?  It seemed as the project went along, the posts would be one step ahead of me, and I took notes on all of them!!  We have just walked our daughter down the aisle (or yard) from the pool house (where we spent all day getting ready for the wedding)!  That is a great start to the many memories our family will make in this very happy place!

Wow, Nancy, this entire space is such a wonderful accomplishment — your family must have been giddy. You’ve done your homework and it shows — big time. Thank you so much for inviting us into your pool house — so inspiring!

Resource list for Nancy’s retro pool house interior design:

• Kitchen faucet: Dishmaster
• Refrigerator: Big Chill
• Laminate: Formica boomerang in aqua, now discontinued
• Counter top edging: New York Metal
  
• Kitchen cabinets: Vintage Youngstown, salvaged from Community Forklift, stripped and repainted by auto body shop. (Remember readers, when working with old materials Be Safe / Renovate Safe.)
• Kitchen pendant lighting above sink: Astron Tri from Rejuvenation
• Kitchen globe light: Rejuvenation Sfera 16
• Nutone food center: craigslist
• Kitchen curtains: Goodwill
• Bathroom curtains: made from Nancy’s barkcloth collection
• Living room curtains: new fabric-can’t remember but think Etsy
• Paint colors: We made the colors up as we went-teal color from over sink light, bathroom color to match toilet…
• Fan: CasaBlanca – Community Forklift
• Toilet and sink: Toilet: Standard; Sink: Maddock (made of Durock), both from Community Forklift (Edmonston, Md)
• Bathroom sink faucet: Mississippi faucets by Strom Plumbing/Sign of the Crab
• Bathroom wallpaper: vintage paper I bought for a previous home (ebay)
• Bathroom tile: Crisp Linen Dal tile (left over from the yellow bathroom redo)
• Fish Plates: vintage Vera (love her!) found on Ebay
• Fish glasses: vintage Ebay
• Exterior lights: (they are an almost identical match to those on the main house from 1957) Primelite Manufacturing Corp. Cat #4670
• Bar stools: Frederick Weinberg
• Vintage furniture and collectibles: as you might imagine, not a lot of mid century modern furniture on the Eastern Shore of Md. But, I would like to say Adam Henderson of  Dead 50’s Modern in Lewes Beach, Delaware is incredible!!!  He has a shop in the Antique Mall in Lewes, Delaware. This is his facebook page.
• Pink plastic flower arrangement: Everything Vintage Co.,  Toano, VA & on Facebook
• Orange lockers: Community Forklift  stripped & painted with auto paint (color from child’s orange construction paper)
• Chest: $35 from resale store, stripped & painted same colors as island (don’t know if you can tell but each side of the island is a different color (teal, orange, yellow, & the side facing cabinets is a Youngstown cabinet the same color as others)
• The rug came from ebay (affiliate link in widget below). It’s new, from the U.K., shipping costs were a bit painful to the U.S., but Nancy said it came tout suite:

Nancy also wants to add — all furniture is vintage except the 2 teal ottomans & the fan from community forklift.

This isn’t Nancy’s first time Retro Renovation — she’s a longtime fan and reader, one of Pam’s first pen pals. 🙂

• Nancy’s pool house — 10 pictures of the exterior
• Nancy completes her yellow 50s bathroom
• Can Nancy’s fireplace bricks be cleaned? Or should she just paint over?