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Thomas creates a genius retro modern eclectic office / guest house
Retro, modern, eclectic, colorful and unexpected, Thomas Welles — owner of TG Architecture — has blended old and new together in surprising ways in his 1930s garage turned office + guest suite. We’ve...
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Patti and Darin’s yabba dabba DIY kitchen makeover — more thumbs up for...
Patti writes: Hi, Pam! Oh my, where do I begin? A few years ago you featured my pink bedroom with the silver starbursts wall and Heywood-Wakefield furniture. This was where my midcentury obsession...
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DIY Belart style clock and cozy kitchen snack bar — Patti and Darin’s...
We showcased Patti and Darin’s delightful retro kitchen makeover yesterday. Today: A closer look at two ingenious features — a cute little snack or breakfast bar and a midcentury modern style boomerang...
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Five vintage Lavanette “Vanette” bathroom vanities — oh my, fantastic!
Here’s a rare sight to be seen, five hard-to-find vintage Beauty Queen Lavanette “Vanette” steel bathroom vanities, all found in one building in northern California, and spotted for sale by several...
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Ideas to decorate Alan’s vintage green tile kitchen – Vitralite ooh la la!
“We have been told that the kitchen is a cross between ‘Betty Crocker’ and a morgue,” reader Alan says, adding a “haha” in his email to us. But maybe… not so funny. So today, a Retro Design Dilemma:...
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Retro kitchen before and after: More Betty Crocker, less laboratory
We took a detailed look at Alan’s Vitralite kitchen “Before” yesterday. Now it’s time for our “After.” Our goal with this Retro Design Dilemma was to unify two key, original elements — the vintage...
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Karlie’s vintage Metters Cook n’ Clean stove — a countertop range and oven...
One of the great joys of social media is that it helps us discover all manner of midcentury products that we might otherwise never come across out in the wild. Case in point: Karlie’s amazing vintage...
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Can Annie Sloan Chalk Paint transform these kitchen cabinets? Jessica’s retro...
After purchasing her 1960s split-level house, Jessica wanted to dial up the retro in the relatively plain kitchen. Owner of J. Paris Designs, a furniture refinishing and repurposing business, she used...
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Ben Sander transforms a blah 1980s kitchen and bathroom — back to the 1970s!
Yesterday we took a look at two rockin’ 1970s-style bedrooms that Ben Sander designed for a client. Today: The apartment kitchen and bathroom, equally amazingly transformed — and glory be: using World...
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Mary’s retro kitchen renovation starts with simple white slab door cabinets —...
Mary put a lot of love into the complete renovation of her kitchen 10 years ago — those vintage-looking cabinets are all built from scratch — but now love of another kind has her putting it on the...
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Mary and John remodel their 1980s kitchen with a fresh white retro modern vibe
Mary and John built their house in 1983 and after 32 years of cooking in the same shades-of-brown kitchen — and inspired by a fabulous vintage Daystrom dinette from craigslist — they decided it was...
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The Hard Way — Kitchen nominees
2015 was a good year for kitchens! Kate and I looked back and found eight great retro renovators who chose to take the path less traveled and do their renovation “The Hard Way.” Now we need your help...
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Doing things “The Hard Way”: Do you have what it takes? 2016
Welcoming 2016, here’s the story that now has become our Retro Renovation new year’s tradition… kind of summing up the bumpy journey so many of us share, or can expect to, when we decide to undertake a...
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VOLA bath and kitchen faucets — designed by Arne Jacobsen in the 1960s —...
Photo courtesy VOLA. An impressive lineup of VOLA bathroom and kitchen sink faucets designed in the 1960s by Arne Jacobsen — still available today in a rainbow of colors, with lots of coordinating...
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Kara Vallow’s Bicentennial Chic kitchen remodel — winner of The Hard Way...
Okay, so this has got me to chuckling to no end. Howdy hudee, the votes are in (thank you, readers) and the winner of our The Hard Way Award for Kitchens 2015 is Kara Vallow’s Bicentennial Chic...
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Sneak peek: Kristen’s kitchen renovation using Wilsonart ‘Daisy’ laminate in...
2015 was a great year for new laminate patterns — both retro inspired and retro revivals — and we’ve been so excited to see these colorful, cheery prints popping up in readers’kitchens. First we saw...
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Boomerang laminates in 7 new colorways — The Retro Renovation by Wilsonart...
Do you love boomerang laminate but have been wishing for more colors? Well hang on to your hudee rings, because Kate and I have been working on a secret project — collaborating with Wilsonart to design...
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Wilsonart Spectrum linen-like laminate — available in 25 colors — real color...
In the sea of low-chroma, grieged-out options that has dominated the laminate landscape for the past several years, a new tide of colorful change may be washing in. Wilsonart — the same company that...
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Still in production after nearly 70 years: Acme Chrome Dinettes made from...
Are you looking for a vintage dinette but are having trouble finding just what you want? How about: Order a new dinette — made by a company using its original designs produced from 1949 to 1959. Yes:...
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Announcing 7 new boomerang laminates —“Retro Renovation by Wilsonart”— woot!
Drum roll, please: Today we unveil the seven new boomerang laminate color palettes that we have developed in collaboration with Wilsonart — the new Retro Renovation® by Wilsonart® collection! Kate and...
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