After lavishing loads of time-consuming TLC on their adorable midcentury modest ranchalow, two of our favorite Retro Renovators have put their house on the market. Trixi and Jon love their 1962 home, but that’s they way the cookie crumbles, they need a bit more space. The real estate photos are fabulous — the perfect opportunity to showcase all their retro genius interior design done on a budget: Removing 1980s layers… getting creative fun with paint… wallpaper fragments… atomic stencils… and yowza, a rockin’ 1970s barrel furniture basement bar! (hehe, Interior Desecrations!) Before it’s too late, let’s take the grand tour of their colorful and creative home.
“An archeological dig in the kitchen”
Longtime readers will remember our numerous stories about Jon and Trixi removing shoddy 1980s layers from their kitchen — to reveal vintage Formica Mayflower countertops – and Armstrong #5352 flooring — our luscious shades of lime and aqua. What a fabulous, cohesive, happy space!
For this story, we asked for their reflections on the entire project.
Trixi: Renovating the house has been such a labor of love for both of us. We inherited the house from Jon’s previous marriage, and really wanted to make it ‘ours’. What started as a hastily updated flip became a swingin’ throwback to it’s former 60/70s self. It was like an archeological dig in the kitchen, where all of the original flooring and countertops were buried below the surface. And once we completed that, we thought we have to retro the rest of the house.
Jon: And the kitchen is definitely a favorite element. I grew up with the ideal of the “Brady kitchen” so besides the archaeology of making it happen, adding everybody’s favorite forbidden color, avocado, was one of my favorite things. I love that color — second place, Harvest Gold — so being able to actually make our kitchen have lots of it felt kind of vindicating if that makes sense.
Dig our stories driven by Jon and Trixi’s archeological digs — golly!:
- The first story about Jon & Trixi — they uncover the original countertop and floor.
- The avocado sink… and a new/old Vance countertop saver complete with hudee ring.
- Jon finds the manufacturer who still makes hudee rims today.
- The same manufacturer makes drop-in cutting boards / trivets — hudee-rimmed, of course.
- I interview the owner of Vance Industries, the company that makes hudee rings.
- Using Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations to paint the kitchen (the thought of which amused Pam to no end)
- This vintage St. Charles kitchen was their design inspiration.
- Jon finds some inexpensive retro cabinet hardware.
- Another 15 minutes of fame: Trixi and Jon are profiled in a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The retro-sexy master bedroom with inspired use of vintage wallpaper:
Okay. So back to the house and the other part. Pam was immediately wowed by the wallpaper accent wall in their master bedroom — what a great idea to take wavy paper and cut it into strips — no matching required!
Trixi elaborated: My favorite elements are the bits and pieces that we found out in the wild. For example, the vinyl wallpaper in the MBR was a funky find from a salvage yard in the woods of Wisconsin. A place that has been around for decades and is chock-a-block full of random things from old theater costumes, to roles of textiles to new old stock furniture from the 50s – 70s.
The paper is date stamped 1975, manufactured by Dunridge Industries. We wanted to use it for an accent wall, but because we only had the one roll we decided to use the olive color in the pattern as our base color, then hung evenly spaced panels of the wallpaper across.
Because of the black in the pattern and the fact that the rest of the decor was going to be framed vintage psychedelic posters (and the teen-me always wanted a black bedroom), we chose black to paint the rest of the room. Because black is so heavy we wanted a lot of reflection from the surfaces and chose a high gloss.
And underneath pirate-themed paint — a pink bathroom!:
Jon: My other favorite bit has been the bathroom. The old version of the room had literally zero character — I think when we first moved in it was pirate themed, but even that didn’t feel fun because everything in there was tan or grey. When Trixi figured out that part of the tub had some pink showing, she went hog-wild in there. Soon the tub was uncovered, there was vintage wallpaper on the wall that she found online, and she’d made stencils to give the thing an atomic feel. And the character came back!
Yup, Trixi’s stencils made it into yet another story:
The pièce de résistance: Whiskey Barrel furniture basement bar with “Book of Awesome” arrow-stripe walls:
And then there is that amazing basement living space that has it all — vintage barrel furniture including a barrel bar… and a groovy arrow wall mural. We need to know more, Jon and Trixi!
Trixi: For the basement rec room we wanted to go more fun and mod. The visual inspiration actually came from a page in the book Interior Desecrations by James Lileks.
It’s a book of what is considered ‘bad 70s interior design’ but what we call ‘the book of awesome’. We wanted to pull out some of the colors from the JC Penney Whiskey Barrel/naugahyde furniture that I was lucky enough to find via craigslist, and thus the arrows were born.
What’s next for J&T?
Trixi explained the reason for leaving this groove pad: With a toddler, and both our teen daughter and Jon needing rehearsal space for their rock music, we just need more room.Our dream would be to find a time-capsule split level. We’ve accumulated a lot of vintage materials (i.e. avocado dishwasher, a 60’s mural and some wallpaper, etc), which we cant wait to apply to the next home. We’d love to do more early 70s with the next one too.
Golly, we can’t wait!
Jon and Trixi’s home is especially appealing to Kate because her own retro ranch house was built in the same fantastic year, 1962 — and she too, loves, loves, loves to decorate with loads of color. Trixi and she had a short email conversation about how much they love to have colorful, happy homes, and when Kate expressed her sadness about the current ‘trend’ towards using only neutrals in home decor, Trixi replied:
We think that the real estate bubble of 2005 warped people’s minds into thinking that bland/neutral landscapes were desirable. So many houses were getting flipped using materials in neutral colors that people started confusing ‘easy to sell’ with ‘design aesthetic’. If I heard once, I heard a thousand times ‘I don’t know how you’re going to sell you house with that room painted X-Y or X’. It’s weird. I mean, if you’re decorating your house based on ‘sellabilty’, then you’re not really living in your house. You’re just visiting it.
Amen, you two! We also love the fact that you took design inspiration from a book written by a guy who was mocking the interior design of the 70s. Way to “Love the House You’re In!”
Mega thanks to Jon and Trixi for sharing their home with us — nicely played! Thanks also to realtor Shawn Korby for supplying us with listing information … and to J Fuerst Real Estate Photography for all the fabulous photos that truly capture the creative spirit of this home.
Link Love:
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… click anywhere to move forward and look for previous and next buttons within photo to move back or forth… you can start or stop at any image:
Erin says
This house is in my neighborhood and when I saw the listing I instantly thought it should be featured on your blog! Fun to see it here. I really think buyers are starting to see the value of houses with retro character. I know when we were looking for a place, anything that had been given a beige ‘update’ was out. Love my old house, we have a pink bathroom and a maroon and gold one!
Scott says
Fun house and further proof you can have just as much fun with a modest as you can with a modern. Seeing these pictures makes me want to convert my basement to living space too.
Good luck on finding a split level you can go full-on Brady with.
LuAnn says
Cheers to truly living in and loving your own home instead of just visiting. I love that quote. I have an avocado crockpot and canisters since that’s when I started needing my own kitchen stuff. My first stove and fridge were harvest gold. I might redo a bathroom that is not original if I can decide which retro decade I love most. Super job, Jon and Trixi! Your kitchen is waaaay cool!
MissTrixi says
Thank you! Jonny especially loves the kitchen. He gets really excited whenever he sees avocado anything while we are thrifting. 🙂
Debbie says
Somebody is going to come along and absolutely swoon over this house, because it will be just like going back to their childhood (without having to do all of the hard renovating work)! I’m really excited to see what happens when Trixi and Jon find their split-level.
Robin, NV says
Jon and Trixie’s house remains one of my favorites – especially the kitchen, which completely changed my mind about avocado green. Love the graphic arrow design in the basement and that naugahyde furniture set is fab!! I’m SO jealous of all the great vintage lighting throughout the house. I never would have thought black would look good on walls but it really works with the awesome wallpaper accent wall. Great eye!
Kate – I can’t believe you said “icky 1980s layers.” I thought we were all inclusive and accepting around here? Ready or not, 1980s vintage is coming into its own. 🙂
Kate says
Robin, I didn’t write “icky 1980s layers” that was one of Pam’s edits. I was surprised, but realized she probably meant icky to be not well made/not properly installed instead of in a decor sense.
I have no problem with the 80s! I am a child of that decade! 🙂
pam kueber says
oopsy. yes, I wrote that in final edit. I also changed the byline, since I changed a lot. Don’t want to put words into Kate’s mouth! Sorry, Katiedoodle!
I also took out “icky” but… as I recall, they were. e.g. faux granite 12″ tiles mortared right onto that awesome laminate countertop!
Robin, NV says
In this particular case, a lot of the remuddles were poorly thought out, quickie fixes. Gosh, I still can’t get over how they just mortared the new counters right onto the old! But good for Jon and Trixie for excavating the pristine original features.
As a habitual Zillow window shopper, I’m seeing more and more well-kept 80s homes out there. I saw one early 80s example that had two original bathrooms – one avocado green and one harvest gold – how fun would that be to accessorize?! Imagine the wallpaper possibilities! I would love to take on the “challenge” of making these two no-longer-in-favor colors shine again.
midmichigan says
You guys did a great job and it looks fabulous! The whiskey barrel furniture was really popular back then and we had a bunch but ours wasn’t JCP though; we had to have all of it shipped from Tennessee in 1965 and bought swivel backed and non-backed barstools all upholstered aqua; a rocker w/ ottoman, couch and a couple of stationary chairs, all in black vinyl.
Got that same exact Amana Radar Range microwave, brand new back in 1979, still works perfectly but like you know, it weighs about 50 lbs and is a real pain to move but it’s built like a tank. It’s a microwave that was made before built in turntables so you had to mix occasionally until we bought one of the new, “wind up”, aftermarket, plastic turntables. You’ve got some really cool, vintage stuff in your house.
MissTrixi says
Thank you! That microwave is a workhorse! We found it at a thrift store and love it for both fashion and function.
Julie says
What an amazing design job. I love everything about this story and this house. I would buy it as is if I could. We have exactly half the number of square feet in a tiny mid-modest post-war cottage and many of our changes reflect this style! I hope they get a buyer that appreciates every square foot!
Jeanne says
Love the starbursts on the garage door! Everything looks fantastic, Trixi and Jon.
MissTrixi says
Those were totally Jon’s doing. Our neighbor was just relieved that it wasn’t the ’76 flag that we were originally thinking of doing 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
Nicely done, right down to the Olympia typewriter! But my favorite is still the kitchen, which we saw in so many stages. Lovely. Sympathize with Trixi and Jon having to leave all that work behind, but envy them the new adventure and new canvas of their home to be.
MissTrixi says
Thank you! We’re excited and sad at the same time. Here’s to the new adventure!
Jay says
Very nice! Shows well – no clutter, looks spacious. Here’s to a quick and successful sale. I sure wouldn’t mind that basement. I believe I saw an Adrian Pearsall table tucked in the corner of the sewing room.
Best wishes and thaks for sharig your home with RR.
MissTrixi says
Thank you! Good eye! That is a Pearsall – found at a thrift for $10! Now we have to hide it out of the path of our Hurricane level toddler. Hopefully it won’t have to hide for much longer 🙂