It’s been a while since we spotlighted some of the projects that members of our retro home blogger community have been working on — and the start of the new year is the perfect opportunity to check up on everyone’s activities. Today — we look at five retro house blogs’ recent projects. The first stop — Betty Crafter’s house — where she has just set up her new Heywood Wakefield king size dogbone bed, above, from heywood-wakefield.com. Although Betty was slightly concerned that the new bed wouldn’t match the rest of her vintage Heywood Wakefield bedroom furniture, she said that they coordinate quite well. Betty also says that the quality of the bed itself is great and that the company was easy to work with — helpful when they needed some direction while assembling the bed — which makes them very pleased with the whole experience. Yahoo for Betty’s new bed and for great customer service and quality heritage brands made in the USA.
Martin Holladay — crowned the Retro Renovation blogger for 2012 for his column Musings on an Energy Nerd on GreenBuldingAdvisor.com — took a look back at the 1970s, and the Hippie version of postwar modest housing. In this story, he details how he and his friends built his home by hand from materials found for free or cheaply or locally harvested. Martin ponders, “Were we green? Were hippie builders engaged in green building? I suppose we were, although I’ve never been a fan of the adjective. To this day, I’m not sure what ‘green’ means. If green building is a type of construction that has minimal environmental impact, we were probably fairly green.”
Laura of Little Mid Century House on the Prairie owns the adorable ranch above (though in Canada, ranch houses seem to be called bungalows.) She works in historic preservation and was interviewed on CBC Canada about midcentury houses. It is a very interesting interview — only six minutes long — and definitely worth a listen. Seems our neighbors to the north are having the same issues as we are here in the States: people tearing down or removing these midcentury modest ranch homes to build much larger houses. We’re glad to know we have an ally in our fight for the mid century modest way of life up in Canada — go, Laura!
Michael of Cul-de-Sac Shack and his father are starting a father-and-son project — to whip a 1967 Mustang Fastback back into shape after its 30-year snooze in a farm pasture. Michael says it needs pretty much everything except the body, which is in good shape. Sounds like quite a project but it will provide you with hours of quality time together. Good luck.
The multitalented Tasha at by gum by golly — who constantly amazes me with her sewing skills — shares her secret to a proper vintage roll back using a scarf. Tasha you are the epitome of vintage style — maybe with some luck and your tutorial, I’ll be able to style my hair for videos on Retro Renovation TV.
A special thanks to all the retro bloggers that we’ve featured today for allowing us to show their photos here — and for being a part of our retro online community by filling it with their know how, vintage finds and projects. You rock.
Jody says
Thanks for sharing the blogs! Mine’s http://rocketcitydigs.com. I post every three to four weeks, although one of my New Year’s resolutions….
pam kueber says
Great. Please know, retro house bloggers, that I stop following — I take you off the list — if you don’t post regularly. Regular posting is essential for a good blog!
nina462 says
ha- my goal this over this long holiday weekend is to rearrange my bedrooms 🙂 – Thanks for the needed push –
Cristina says
Love all the blogs people posted. Could you add my blog on your list?
It is PyrexJunkie.blogspot.com!
Michele says
Thank you for giving me “Little Mid Century House on the Prairie”! I live in Edmonton, approx. 3 hours north of Calgary – depending of course on how fast you drive :0). I’ve just quickly perused her blog and I think I’m going to find it very interesting. Edmonton has tons of postwar bungalows and yet finding ways to enhance my little house in an appropriate (to me) historical way has been…ummm, “hill-climbing”? A lot of the 1950’s bungalows here are bought and torn down. Which I find depressing…so cheers to your blog and to a newly discovered Canadian blog…woo woo.
Jason says
All awesome! By gum by golly has our favorite subject featured – pinch pleats:)
Robin, NV says
Props to all these industrious people and their willingness to share with us. It’s very inspiring to see what everyone is up to.
Geez, maybe it’s about time I got my mid century blog rolling. My husband and I just finished a mid century inspired headboard that looks pretty snazzy (in my opinion).
nickarmadillo says
I hear that Nick over at Mid-Century Midwest (midcenturymidwest.blogspot.com) has a wonderful retro house blog.
I’ve heard that he’s a pretty cool (and smart and good-looking) guy too.
😉
Kate says
Hey, I’ve heard about that guy too! 😉 Hopefully the house is holding up better lately!
Andrea Avery says
Big fan of this site for a long time. We just purchased a 1960’s ranch in December of 2012. I’ve blogged since 2005, but started a new blog at http://sweetstreetstl.blogspot.com/ that is dedicated to the renovation of our new home. Would love to be added to this list. I also have a collection of 500+ vintage aprons. Can’t wait to figure out how to showcase those in the new place.
Jon Hunt says
People’s bedrooms — oh man, I’m jealous. Ours is small and because I hate hanging clothes it is NEVER as clean or as slick as the ones I see on the site. My living room and kitchen can be retro as all heck, but my bedroom will always look like a fifteen-year-olds.
Betty Crafter says
John, I promise you that mine also often has un-hung clothes lying about – we bloggers definitely clean up and stage things before showing it to the world!
Jon Hunt says
PHEW. As your house is one of the loveliest I’ve seen, that makes me feel really damn good!
Becky says
Oh my I thought I was the only adult a 15 year old’s bedroom. My friend’s 7 year son came over once, and he said, “it’s like a kid’s room”. I just keep the door shut. I wonder if some Heywood Wakefield bedroom furniture would shape me up.
Tracie@MiddleClassModern says
I love Betty Crafter, and am excited about having new bloggers to check out.
I’d love to be added to the list! http://www.middleclassmodern.com
Thanks!
Betty Crafter says
Thanks Tracie! I’ll make sure to check out your blog too 🙂