No Pattern Required

By RetroRuth

I had an amazing weekend.  Tom’s parents were up visiting, and we packed every single minute of the weekend full with activities.  Not that I mind at all, it was a ton of fun!  But I must say, the best activity was the tour at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio.

I have featured a few Alden B. Down houses on the site, such as this home in Saginaw Township, the Calvin Campbell House and this house down the street from us.  If you want to learn more about Alden B. Down and his designs, you can visit the Home and Studio website or make the trip and attend the tour yourself.  It is more than worth it, trust me.

Unfortunately, photographs of the inside of the house where not allowed on the tour.  It is probably a good thing, because all of my dear, faithful readers would have DIED if I showed them to you.  I am not kidding here.  Tom and I had to keep each other propped up during the tour, because we were both on the verge of fainting the entire time.  Even heroic, stoic Tom leaned over and breathed in my ear “Oh my Goooooooooooooooooooood,” like a little schoolgirl when we were sitting in the Bertoia/Knoll furniture on the screened porch.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

You must come and see the tour.  All of you reading this. All. Of. You.  Not only is the house spectacular in and of itself (and on the Historic Register since 1989), but the tour is a very unique experience.  Per the wishes of Alden Dow and his wife, there are no velvet ropes, or closed off rooms, or docents shaking fingers at you saying, “No, no, don’t touch.” It is a completely interactive tour.  Completely.  I traced my fingers along the painted murals, scuffed my feet in the mosaic-like carpet in the “family” room, leaned against world-map wallpaper, rested in Eames chairs when I got light-headed and secretly hugged a grass-green tiled bathroom wall when no one was looking.  It was completely interactive.  Completely.  Our friendly tour guides must have thought I was insane as I staggered around from room to room, sitting in every chair, touching the George Nelson lights and being the very last one to leave the kitchen with its white Geneva cabinets.  For a lover of Mid-Century, it was a Mecca.  I saw and TOUCHED things that I may otherwise have never seen in my lifetime, let alone afford for my own home.  I SAT on works of art.  It was amazing.   Some of the highlights included:

A complete set of white Geneva cabinets in the kitchen, with such innovations as a blender INSIDE the countertop and a microwave built into the cabinets.  They looked exactly like the cabinets in my kitchen. Exactly, except for the color.

The floor of the Dow kitchen was a pebbled yellow linolieum.  It was very pretty.

The bathrooms of the home all had white Crane sinks with chrome legs and chrome towel bars on the side.  The bathrooms were blue, green and brown. The tile on the walls went from floor to ceiling, and the tiles on the floor were white.  They looked like the bathrooms from the Saginaw Township home, except without the wooden accents.

I saw at least two George Nelson ceiling fixtures.  One was the classic saucer lamp, which I touched.

The chairs we sat in were numerous, and have become sort of a soft blur of amazingly cool seating in my mind.  But the ones that still stand out are:

Bertoia Bird Chairs

Photo from AllModern 

Two white Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs.

Photo from FritzHansen.com

Of course, the classic Eames Lounge Chair. There were two of them, in fact.  Tom and I both sat in one, and sighed.

Photo from StyleCrave.com.

Bliss.

But the most informative part, and the part of the home where I would love to spend more time, is the Archive room.  Thousands of design plans, stories and vintage photography lay dormant in a brightly painted room in the house.  They are open to the public by appointment so I can play to my heart’s content, but the challenge will be trying to bring the information to all you lovely readers.  Will I be able to?  Will you get to see decades of amazing Midwestern Modern designs??? 

Give me some feedback and leave some comments on your thoughts about having some of the Alden B. Dow archive on the blog.  I want to convince them to let me show you some amazing houses!

By RetroRuth

I was so pumped about the thrifting haul three weeks ago I brought it home, unpacked it, photographed it…and then promptly forgot about the photos. Sigh. So, here are some of my thrifting finds from a few weeks ago.  Also, I love our new camera!

A vintage Danish Modern stainless steel bowl.  I dug this out of the kitchen cabinet at a estate sale with killer, rock bottom prices.  This pretty thing was 50 cents!

I officially declare it the best chip bowl ever.

This shot looks like a set of nested bowls, but it is actually….

Measuring cups!!! From the same estate sale as the bowl, and barely used.

I fell in love with “Foley” on the handles, and couldn’t walk away from them.

And excellent set of aqua melamine trays.  Not sure how old these are, but I loved them anyway.

A bunch of scarves and hair-wraps snagged from various sales. Some silk, some rayon, and some made of pure awesomeness.

A few have signatures.

This entire basket of ornaments was 75 cents at another excellent estate sale. At first I thought it meant 75 cents each, but then a really nice lady working the sale pointed out the price was for the whole basket!

Once I saw this little reindeer deer inside, I was sold.

More vintage Christmas ornaments from the same sale. This box of striped lanterns was 25 cents.

Yeah, I would say that was a pretty good haul! 

How about you guys? Find anything awesome this weekend? Let us know!

Today’s post is from Renee at  Crash Pad Designs, a cool retro shop that offers some fantastic linens, textiles and homegoods. Renee was nice enough to answer some questions about her designs and her obsession with vintage, and send us some great pics.  Enjoy! 

Q: How did you get started designing? 

 

  Q: What designs/products do you offer?   

 

A: I design  earth friendly  retro textiles, and make lampshades,tea towels, dinner napkins, pillows and cocktail napkins. I will be adding wallpaper soon.  

 

 

 

 

Q:What was your inspiration for your line of retro textiles?

A: I was inspired by my obsession for everything mid century, finding my perfect house that came with my perfect(not really,it needs work) 1963 yellow & white Philco electric stove, but  mostly by my frustration with the cookie cutter options I found when I tried to decorate my new home. All I wanted was to fill my house with things that would make me smile. When I couldn’t find those things , I started making them myself.

Q: Which design is your favorite?

A: Right now homer is my favorite, but that always changes.
 

Q: Do you have any vintage or retro collections?

A: Of course!  I told you,  I’m obsessed.  My favorite and the biggest  is the one I share with my Beau,  it’s our colored plastic  radio collection. I also have a 50′s lamp collection and  lots of mid century barkcloth,oh and  rotary phones. 

 

Q: Have you always loved retro/vintage?  

A: Pretty much.  It all started in high school,  with vintage clothes.
 
Q: Describe your house right now. 

A: Cozy

 

Q: What is your favorite retro/vintage possession? What is the story behind how you came to own it?

 

A: I have to say it’s my Philco stove.  After searching for a house for two years and seeing over 150 houses I was discouraged and afraid that my dream house didn’t exist. I walked into a house I wasn’t very enthusiastic about and, as silly as it sounds my life changed. We had to enter through the kitchen,and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Yellow and gray plastic tiled walls, immaculate white metal cabinets, a yellow double sink and my stove. Unfortunately, it wasn’t smooth sailing from there,we made an offer that was not accepted and  had to walk away from my dream house. I had never been more dissappointed. Miracously seven months later my house was still waiting for me. I guess not everone was crazy about those yellow and gray plastic tiles. We made another offer and now it’s five years later. That first day in my kitchen, looking at that stove, I knew I was where I belonged. 

Check out Renee’s awesome stuff at Crash Pad Designs!

By RetroRuth

Ahhhh. I can’t even begin to tell you how satisfied I am with the subject of this post.  The 1980′s lighting that is scattered around our ranch is something that bugs us like crazy. We have slowly begun finding period-appropriate vintage lights for most of the areas, including a fantastic Sputnik for the entryway, but the perfect kitchen light continues to elude us.

But we decided we didn’t care to wait anymore.

This is Tom staring hatefully at the lamp that has hung in our kitchen for the last year and a half.  I, personally, hate this light.  I know Tom does.  Look at him, staring at it. It is very Victorian-ice-cream parlor, while we are going for cool-atomic-kitchen.  Not quite the same vibe.

So, we decided we were going to switch it out for a cheap mid-mod substitute until we can get our hands on the real deal. Here is Tom, pretending like he knows nothing about changing a lamp. Which is ridiculous because he has totally changed like, three lights. Two without any of my Dad’s help.

I am kidding, he does a great job. 

See, look at how well he is changing the light while I stand off to the side, not helping at all. Unless taking pictures and criticizing is helping. In which case, I was a great help.

The light we decided to use was an inexpensive, classic style we bought at Lowe’s last weekend.  This stainless steel pendant was cheap at $35 and fits our style. 

See, here is Tom’s fine wiring  job!

Attaching the top.

Ta-da! Finished!  It isn’t perfect, by any means, but it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the pink wheat light.  Oh, and the kitten cages kind of dominate the background. Little brats! Hopefully the last few will find good homes soon.

Umm…anyone want a kitten???

I have been taking a lot of pictures of mid-century front doors lately and doing some research on the subject.  While trolling for new Mid-Century door options, I have been eyeballing the doors at Crestview Doors repeatedly. So I was pleased when I was emailed this interview with the husband and wife team of Crestview Doors by reader Tim.  Thanks Tim and thanks Make Online for doing such a great interview!  Lots of interesting info in this one!

Check out the interview here or go here for the Crestview doors website!

Some of the awesome door choices.

Retro house numbers.

Retro wall art/room dividers. Awesome!

Hi everyone!  Got another great Alden B. Dow home that is for sale on the golf course in Saginaw Township, which is a lot nicer than Saginaw itself.

This home is about 2900 square feet, has three bathrooms and four bedrooms, and they are asking $264,00 for it.  Wow.

Unfortunately, whoever took these pictures didn’t do a very good job, but you get the idea of how gorgeous this house could be if it was restored.

See??? Terrible shot of the kitchen.

Love the vanity!

Look at the heater!  And is that a Crane sink??

Ohhhhh….look at that crack in the tile floor. Poor bathroom.

I hope someone buys this place and restores it!!!

Oh my god, I am so tired! Feeding kittens is so hard. Thankfully when I talked to the vet today she said that I can stop getting up in the middle of the night to feed them. When she said that I seriously started bawling from relief. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, and I just can’t keep going like this.  I feel like a zombie.

Aaaaanyway, here are some pictures from when Tom’s sister came to visit us.  She was patient enough to put up with us ducking into a few antique and thrift shops to check out the goodies.

My fingers itched while I was taking this picture.  I wanted everything in this room. Except for…that lion and tiger playing checkers.  What the heck is up with that?

Check out the kid’s shell chair! So cute!

These want to be on my porch.  I know they do!

Yes, those are giant piles of snow outside the window.  They are mostly gone after all the nice weather this week, though.

Here is the same sputnik light that I featured abuout a year ago.  They still want almost $700 for it!

Maggie, looking at the sputnik light. Thanks for coming to visit, and Happy Birthday! (Even though it is a little late)

Wow, so many great resources!  Thanks Jan!

Sometimes we have to bite the bullet and buy new for our MCM homes.  Thankfully, there are a lot of  ‘new’ MCM furniture and accessories out there, albeit the prices may be overboard for us on a budget. However, even if we can’t afford new, the following pictures can be used for free as a reference point in finding the real McCoy.

Roomandboard.com has some dandy MCM lookalike furniture and accessories, but, alas!  They are expensive.  This is the Reese sectional sofa that comes in different fabric colors as well as leather.  Button tufted furniture is very MCM.

Speaking of button tufted thingys, accent pillows also carried that design. SmithandNoble.com has them in a variety colors.

Replicas of George Nelson’s wall clocks are available, too from Bellacor.com.

Look at the lighting from Lampsplus.com!  The sconce  in the center is an exterior light.

Looking for one of those quilted fitted bedspreads?  Touchofclass.com has them in different colors and sizes and yes, matching button tufted pillows!

Aren’t these cat bookends cool?  Bellacor.com sells them and not on the cheap, either!  But for some reason, modern cat sculptures and wall decor were very popular.

For the MCM kitchen, here are some wonderful reproductions of those dish towels and square tablecloths courtesy of Retrobarn.com.

Did you know that our favorite MCM furniture, Heywood Wakefield, is making their Streamline furniture series again?  Visit their site at Heywood-Wakefield.com and check out the furniture.

There are even reproductions of classic toys like Slinky (in the brown box) and Lincoln Logs.  Wish Mattel Toys would re-issue their fabulous clown jack-in-the-box that came out in the late Fifties.  I would love to have one of them again and sit for hours turning the handle on the tin box, listening to Pop! Goes the Weasel and be surprised when the clown popped out!

Here are some super cute atomic offerings right now on Etsy!  I adore that razor!

I think I found it!  Tom and I have been looking for exactly the right pendant light to go in the kitchen.  I have been dying to replace the awful 80′s pink chandelier over the kitchen table.

So, what do you think? It is the Union, part of the Streamline collection at Schoolhouse Electric. That collection and the Modern Collection are really awesome.  They have a ton of great period pendant and ceiling lights and the most amazing glass shades.  Check out the modern color hand-painted shades (I LOVE aqua!) and the artist series.  I think the artist series would be a perfect addition to a 70′s house.

Here are just a few of the great lighting fixtures that I loved from them.  And don’t forget to check out the Deco Collection.  It is very pretty as well.