Clik here to view.
6 cheap, cheerful and colorful decorating ideas from Jon & Trixi’s house
Jon and Trixi have provided this blog with a wealth of content over the years — from their bathroom stencil treatment to tipping us off to hudee-central Vance Industries. Now that we’ve seen their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A vintage + custom kitchen for the Betsy McCall dollhouse
We are several weeks into my Betsy McCall DIY Dollhouse build and finally — after hours of work — it’s time to take a look at what I’ve been cooking up in the kitchen. Yup, you guessed it — vintage...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where to buy cone lights, starting at $50 — five places to find these classic...
Recently, we profiled six places to buy double cone “bowtie” sconce lights — and now, for those times when a single sconce will do, here is our roundup of research identifying five places where you can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A rare and exotic bird of a midcentury front door escutcheon
Vintage front door escutcheon designs are pretty rare to begin with — but have you ever seen one like this before? Pam spotted this lovely woddity: a midcentury door plate escutcheon with an Evelyn...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Full-room vintage wallpaper murals by The Schmitz-Horning Co.
Today, a particularly wonderful treasure for vintage wallpaper lovers: Two, never installed, exquisitely-rendered Schmitz-Horning Co.wallpaper murals (affiliate link) currently listed for sale on ebay....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stuff — my journey still in progress — and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
In the casual conversations that Pam and I have several times weekly, we often circle back to a recurring subject — stuff. We joke about how Pam is a “hoarder” of vintage its, bits and woddities and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our 100th woddity — vintage Carrier Climate Center
Continuing our fascination with vintage doohickies that recess into the wall, lookie this vintage Carrier Climate Center — listed for sale on ebay by freeme28201177. Also, it’s our is our 100th woddity...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Weekend giveaway — Win a Kit-Cat clock!
Spring is springing — and to celebrate all the sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and unicorns that come with this season of renewal, we’re doing a fun pop-up giveaway this weekend. You can win a classic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Better Homes & Gardens ‘1958 Idea House of the Year’ by Omer Mithun
Back in the day, actual house plans were widely promoted in the nation’s largest shelter magazines. Today: A time capsule house for sale that was originally featured in Better Homes & Gardens as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First GE Partio Cart of the season — our Retro Renovation official sign of...
Here on Retro Renovation we don’t have a groundhog — for us, the first true sign that spring is around the corner is the first annual spotting of a GE Partio Cart for sale, this one, on ebay....
View ArticleClik here to view.
My 1955 Betsy McCall dollhouse completely furnished — for $107.73
When I first started building my 1955 Betsy McCall DIY Dollhouse, Pam gave me a $100 furniture budget. Ever since, I’ve been collecting, repairing, recovering and building tiny midcentury dollhouse...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Replacement towel bars for ceramic towel bar holders — our research — 3 sources
Where to turn when the towel bar that hangs between built-in ceramic tile towel bar holders breaks? Luckily, with the help of reader Kathy, we’ve found three sources for trim-to-fit, spring-loaded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vintage Veos steel tiles with porcelain ceramic finish
We’ve written extensively about 1950s bathroom tile — ceramic tile, plastic tile, and even Sani Onyx, glass-like tile made from fused rock. But here’s a vintage variety in our spotlight for the first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kate’s DIY bathroom gut remodel — 8 lessons learned
[Editor Pam’s note: My bad, Kate finished this story in Dec. 2013, and I never got around to publishing it. This weekend I was “cleaning” and caught my #fail, so here ya go!] Kate writes: My epic DIY...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sam has a great experience with powder coating her vintage steel kitchen...
Three days before closing, a pipe burst in Sam’s soon-to-be 1950s brick ranch house — making a gut remodel of the kitchen Job #1. Sam wanted to reuse the original Geneva steel kitchen cabinets, so she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
GE refrigerator bar cart made in Italy — il cugino of the Partio Cart?
Here’s one we haven’t seen before — a GE bar cart on wheels with a built-in refrigerator — listed for sale in etsy shop Mod Makes It. This cart seems to be the Italian relative of our favorite vintage...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two places to buy Roman bricks in a wide variety of colors and styles
Commonly chosen to emphasize the long, low architecture of ranch houses, “Roman brick” was a signature design feature likely used to build millions of American homes in the 1950s and 1960s. We also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nine hand-lettered 1940s furniture store signs
It isn’t often that you see well-preserved, handmade cardboard advertising signs from the 1940s for sale — so when we spotted nine fantastic vintage furniture store signs from ebay seller wafa510, we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Message in a bottle: Cindy finds a 1976 time capsule in her bathroom wall
If you’re a Retro Renovator, at some point you’ve probably unearthed a hidden story from within your own home. Perhaps it was stripping the kitchen wallpaper to discover three more layers of interior...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Adorable vintage dollhouse accessories from reader Janet and my Mom
I’m getting oh-so-close to completing my 1955 Betsy McCall DIY Dollhouse — the last challenge is to find those all-important final touches. Reader Janet offered to share some of her vintage dollhouse...
View Article