Vintage Photo – Some Fabulous Curtains

My grandfather was a photographer for the Associated Press, and he was good at his job. Consequently, because he was good at it and he loved it, he was called upon to photograph tons of occasions other than newspaper news. Much of the time he would photograph weddings, birthdays and church functions.  And he was a hoarder, so he kept everything! Because of this I have scads and scads of boxes filled with vintage photos. 

The photos are an absolute joy to look through. Partly because of his skill and my pride at having an artistic grandpa, but also because I love vintage!  The clothes, the hair, the food, the houses. All of it fascinates me. So I have picked out some great shots for you, starting with this angry looking baby. 

That baby looks pretty ticked off, even with all that stuff!  But did you check out the curtains in the background? 

Love them! I wish I could get my hands on some of that fabric right now….

Etsy Round-up – Pink Desk & Contact Paper

The first item in today’s Etsy Round-up is a great pink desk from HausProud.

At $350 it is a leeeetle to expensive for my tastes, but it is a great inspiration piece.  I love the pink paint – it is exactly the same pink as my kitchen! I also love how the top is elevated off the desk base. Love it, and one to dream on. If you dream in pink, that is.

Check out HausProud’s other items, too. There are some great ones. Especially this metal tray and these great white and gold starburst slipper chairs.  

The bargain of the day comes from nostalgiaemporium’s shop. This great lot of vintage 1970’s contact paper, which is just awesome.  Pam at Retro Renovation got me hooked on wallpaper recently, and this contact paper gives me that wallpaper fix.

It is a pretty good deal at $12 for the whole bunch.  If you had some vintage kitchen cabinets or bathroom cabinets that needed a little coverage, this would be perfect. Or if you wanted to be vintage crafty….

Fun Vintage Find – GE Celeste Lightbulb

A lot of the time when I thrift, I come across stuff that is just awesome.  Stuff that calls out to me, that seduces me, that makes it impossible for me to walk away without buying it. This is the stuff that I really have no practical use for, that I just squirrel away because it is just so cool it can’t be given up.  I suppose that is part of the reason I thrift, it is that junkie-type thrill of THE FIND that keeps me going.

Oddly enough, that thrill is also responsible for turning me into a packrat. 

And this is the newest addition to my little thrift nest.  A vintage GE Celeste lightbulb, still in the package. I love this so much, I am going to post photos of the whole thing.  It is really something, isn’t it?  This sucker is HUGE, about 9 inches tall. Ahem….there is a dirty joke there, but I am not going to type anything about it being phallic. Nope. Nothing at all.

Yes, package. You are right. It is quite the beauty!It looks like there are pink versions, too!  Why am I just finding out about this now???

And another wonderful part. It even comes with lip-smacking decorating ideas:

So very, very pretty.  I think I love the bathroom, with the little chrome-legged sink, most of all. 

By the way, this is from the local ReStore for 50 cents. Score.

Spraypainted Lightswitch Plates – Easy Idea

As with most older homes, our house has been treated to a lot of room painting since its original construction.  Some was done by professional painters, and some was…welll…not. Oddly enough, it is the painting of the professionals that got me steamed this time.

I am not sure what exactly you get when you hire a professional painter, but I assume that the rule is, “If it’s on the wall, we paint it.” At least, that is what I gathered from the lightswitch plates in our kitchen. Some of these are in their vintage glory, chrome plates that are just as pretty as the day they were screwed on.  Others aren’t doing so hot, having been subjected to at least a few coats of paint.  They must of have been the plates the previous owners forgot to take off the wall before the painters came.

We threw around a few ideas while painting our kitchen ourselves (all plates were off, thank you!). My first instinct was to just replace the painted plates with new ones. But there were a few problems with that. Metal switchplates are expensive when you have to replace more than a few, and since we just bought the house we were on a budget. New also wouldn’t match the shape of the originals, even if the metal matched. Especially the springloaded switches, which I don’t even know if you can buy plates for anymore! So we came up with an alternative solution.

Metal spraypaint. Krylon Premium Metal spraypaint, to be exact.  It says it resembles metal plating on the can, and I would have to say it comes pretty close to doing just that.  Take a look at our finished products:

I do have to say, I think this switch turned out the best.  This is from the master bedroom, and all the switches had been painted, so we weren’t sure what color they originally were. However, they all have this great, wrinkled tinfoil pattern.  I think the chrome paint really brought out the details in this cool switch.

This is the gold from the set of switches in the living room. The texture underneath is from the painting over of the switch, and it does show under the gold, but only if you are really close to it.  Otherwise, I think it turned out well. The gold switchplates are an unexpected pop on the Porcelain walls.

The process was relatively simple, as with most spraypainting. We laid down a plastic tarp on the floor of the garage, laid out the plates and sprayed them down well. We also sprayed the screws for the plates, since they had been painted over as well.

Ta-Da!  New looking plates for under $10. We bought two cans of paint (one Chrome and one Gold) and had enough to do all the plates in the house!  Now I am seriously thinking about spraying some of the 1980’s light fixtures over the fireplace….

Why America Needs A Thrifting Month

You know, since I have started reading blogs, I have seen some really great ideas. Paint colors, a great new quilt pattern, a killer cupcake recipe (from the UK), and my new favorite asian dumpling recipe are very dear to me now.  But I think an idea has come along that has taken the top spot.

I was directed to The Thrifty Chicks blog through the blog of Tikimama (Atomic Tea Party), and I read a post by Shopping GoLighty about – well, being thrify.  But not just being thrifty, about a movement she has started to get America to be more thrifty.

And in my opinion, it couldn’t come at a better time.  I myself have found my opinions on things suddenly changing, found myself with budget constraints forcing my hand to reach for something a little different. Something not as…new. But in my progression from Macy’s to Marshall’s to Goodwill, I haven’t seen shame or a fall from glory. I have seen something else.  Maybe it is that I can make it through tough times without all the things commercial America tells me I need. Or maybe it is that I can still have those things,  just not THE brand or THE type they want me to have.

Purchasing our Mid-Century Modern house is the perfect example of that valuable lesson. Shopping Go Lightly had a great quote propagated by commercialism on her blog, “If it’s not new, it’s Ewwww”, and I never realized how ingrained that lesson had become. But suddenly I had this fantastic house that wasn’t only old, but not updated. And I LOVED it! Things were high quality. Their placement made sense. Someone had taken the time and effort to make a house that was fully functional, AND IT DIDN’T NEED TO BE UPDATED. In fact, the vintage class was the best part. And over the next few months, those parts became my favorite parts.

So, I’m with you, The Thrifty Chicks.  Let’s open America’s eyes, and take a month for the thrifters, the upcylers and those who can give life to the used things. I vote we go after June – a great month for garage and estate sales.

Check out The Thrifty Chicks post here.

Join the Facebook Movement and sign the petition here. (You will need to be signed in to Facebook to do so.)

The Miracle That Is Craigslist

I love Craigslist.  Being new to the world of Mid-Century collecting, I suddenly find myself in need of EVERYTHING. Luckily, my love of thrifting should enable me, over time, to accumulate the things I want at great prices.  But it is the “over time” part that bugs me.  I hate being patient!  Even if I can’t get everything I want immediately (did I mention I am a terribly, terribly impatient person?) I can still keep track of everything currently out there in my area with Craigslist.

Here is a little mid-century eye candy!

Here is a cute Mid-Century Bar – wood and leather!- if you are in the Michigan area, $175 takes it away.  We already have a great bar, but this one is so cute.

Listing is here.

 

 

And this fabulous dining room set!If anyone is in the Chicago area, you should pick this one up. This is the info from the listing : Made for the Johnson Furniture Company in Michigan in the 50’s. Set includes 6 chairs, oval pedestal table with 2 18 inch leaves, buffet and mirror lined, glass shelved china cabinet. Also co-ordinating double sided server cart on large gold wheels.

Yum!

This was my personal favorite for the day.  This is exactly (EXACTLY) what I am looking for to fill the dining area in our kitch, but $1500 is a little too steep for me. 

Caring For Your Commercial Flooring At Home

I love my new commercial Armstrong tile in our kitchen.  I love that it is retro looking, I love that it is durable and I love the fact that you can pull a tile up and replace it with no real effort if something horrible happens.

But what I don’t love is caring for it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it. And it isn’t as difficult as some might think it is. But it does take some effort. There are many other pros to commercial flooring that make up for the one con of maintenance.  And it isn’t difficult maintenance, once you know what to do.  This is how I care for my commercial floor, based on Armstrong literature, our installer’s advice and my own experience.

1) Do not wash or scrub your floor for 4 or 5 days after installation.  The adhesive on the backs of the tiles needs to set, and any water that gets down there will screw it up. Foot traffic is ok, but try not to drag any heavy appliances across it. But if you do and a little “gap” shows up, you can just move the tile back in place.  Sometimes you can just push or pull it, but sometimes you need a hammer and a prybar to “coax” it back in place.

2) After the 4 or 5 days are up, sweep and damp mop the floor. No large quanities of water, please. It is critical to get all the dust and junk off the floor, otherwise it will be imprisoned forever under a layer of wax, bugging you every time you wash the floor. Well, not forever I guess. You could strip the wax off, but who wants to to that?  So be careful with dustballs and animal hair.

3) You need to add some finish to it, with a coat of wax or whatever your flooring recommends.  I was able to find my commercial wax at my local Lowes, and it was about $20 for a huge bottle. Not too bad. On the wax bottle, Armstrong recommends that you strip off the manufacturers finish, but our installer said that in the last few years they have changed the finish on the tiles so that you can just wax straight over it with no stripper.  This is what we did, and it worked out just fine.

4) Apply 4-5 coats of the wax with a rayon or cotton mop and apply it in circular strokes. This is actually important, even though it isn’t mentioned on the bottle. A sponge-type mop won’t work, trust me. And back and forth looks terrible when you are done. Trust me again. And keep a sharp eye out for particles while you are waxing. You can easily pick little things that aren’t supposed to be there out while the wax is still wet and avoid future headache.

5) Wait 30 minutes to apply the next coat.

There, see? Not so bad.  And that is  it for after the installation.  Our installer told us to do a maintenence coat of wax every few months, which isn’t bad at all. I figure it will give me the push I need to keep my kitchen at its cleanest. Otherwise, I might not do a full mop every couple months.

Oh god, don’t tell my mother I said that!

Or you could just do like others do, and get local janitorial service to put the first coat on for you. Hey, no muss, no fuss.

Etsy Round-up – Mid-Century Modern

I know everyone uses Ebay for their Mid-Century Needs, but what about Etsy?  As the owner of an Etsy store, I am always first to point out all of the great stuff on Etsy.  But besides the handmade stuff, there is also large vintage section.  And for something to be vintage on Etsy, it has to be pre-1970s, which makes me feel a little better when buying.

Let the fun begin!

The first item is from myohmymaggie.  This totally awesome atomic wall clock.  I love this, and the best part is – it has been fitted with a battery!

The next item comes from Peacock Envy, one of my favorite places to be a Looky-Loo on Etsy.  Check out  this totally fantastic lamp:Isn’t this the most beautiful lamp?  I  started shrieking when I saw it. It is totally amazing, and that shade is fantastic. I love the speckled mint green body. If I wasn’t on this crazy quest to find a lamp in a vintage store on my own I totally would have bought it.

On a sad note, I believe this lamp has been reserved for someone.  Oh. A little part of me just died. My hat is off to you, Izzy.  You are going to make a great purchase.

For more great vintage, check out Peacock Envy’s blog.

A Gold Mine Of Vintage Fabric – Vintage Sheets

Ok – so I may be completely behind everyone here, but has anyone noticed how awesome vintage sheets are?  I was wandering around in my local Goodwill yesterday, and I stumbled upon these great patterns:

 

Ummm… yeah. I took a furtive look around me and then grabbed all the sheets I could carry.  The thing was, no one else even seemed to care that all these great patterns were just laying in the housewares section.  Sure, people were all over the fabric section, digging through the folded peices and holding up sections to their arms trying to figure out how much fabric there was, but no one was looking at sheets.

Which I think is a total shame.

I have been looking for a good, cheap stock of vintage material lately for a bed cover or a quilt.  And my new house lacks curtains in the most embarrassing way.  What a better alternative to vintage fabric then…well..vintage fabric?? Sheets are perfectly good, and the patterns are amazing. And with two trips through the washing machine they lost all of their funky smells and dirt and just became regular, crisp clean sheets.  And now I have yards and yards of fabric to do whatever I want with.  In fact, I picked up the most amazing gray and pink floral full sized set from the 50s that is just begging to be made into matching twin bed duvet covers. And for under $5 for the pair, who can argue with that???