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Category: Vintage

vintage kitchen ad with linoleum flooring similar to our new floor
New Vintage Marmoleum Floors in our Kitchen

New Vintage Marmoleum Floors in our Kitchen

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A Vintage Linoleum Kitchen Floor in a 21st Century Home When we first told family and neighbors we were considering old fashion linoleum flooring for our new kitchen floor, we got all sorts of weird looks and concerned comments from the older generation.  A few of them mentioned how terribly ugly they thought linoleum was.  Really?  Okay, I understand retro, mid-century, and vintage decor isn’t for everyone, especially if they already lived with it the first time it came around….

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jadite green tile counter top vintage retro
Colorful Inspiration for the Laundry Room Counter Top

Colorful Inspiration for the Laundry Room Counter Top

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I am sorry to report, we still haven’t completed our laundry room/ mudroom remodel.  It is usable, just not finished.  Home improvement projects around here kind of take a back seat to other more important things, like family, the kids’ extra curricular activities, the garden, or just the daily running of our home.  However, I am slowing moving ahead on the tile counter top. (Project update was added at the bottom of this post) As you probably noticed from my…

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Vintage Vinyl Upholstery at Discount Fabric Store

Vintage Vinyl Upholstery at Discount Fabric Store

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Disclosure: Just so you know, Hanbury House blog is supported by its audience.  Hanbury House may receive a commision from the affiliate links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Purchasing via an affiliate link doesn’t cost you anything extra. For more details see my Privacy and Disclosures Although I would love to live out in the boonies on a few acres or at least far away from all the L.A. traffic, there are times I am…

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Retro Kitchen Images From The 1940s and 1950s Scrapbook

Retro Kitchen Images From The 1940s and 1950s Scrapbook

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For the last few weeks, we have been without a working printer/ scanner but finally bought a new one this week.  I decided to try it out by scanning more images from Mrs. Crabtree’s 1940’s and 1950’s home decorating scrapbook.  If you want to read my post about how I ended up with the scrapbook and what’s in it, click here.  It takes a while to scan and crop each picture, so I am just working on the images in…

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Vintage Tile Mosaic Floors

Vintage Tile Mosaic Floors

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  Up until a recent renovation at the Long Beach Airport, underneath the carpet a series of beautiful floor tile mosaics were buried for decades.  The floor tile mosaics were designed as part of the Southern California Art Project of the Works Project Administration in the late 30s and early 40s.  Some of the mosaics have been visible on the staircase and in front of the upstairs restaurant, but the remainder of mosaic tile was covered over by carpet for…

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Use It Up, Wear it Out, Make It Do…in the Garden

Use It Up, Wear it Out, Make It Do…in the Garden

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There’s a certain kind of fun in having the latest and greatest, but I’ve also learned that it’s often more rewarding to fix broken things, propagate, being resourceful, and making do rather than buying new.  This is just as true in a modern day garden, as it was in a frugal or vintage 1940s home or victory garden. Use it Up – Don’t throw out old seed packets just because they say they were packaged for last season.  Many seeds…

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1949 Howell Retro Dinette Set Is Done

1949 Howell Retro Dinette Set Is Done

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Much to the relief of my patient hubby, I was finally able to settle on a vintage 1940s/ 1950s Formica table that fit the majority of my search criteria.  No more constant browsing craigslist multiple times a day for new listings or driving half way across the Southland on our weekends to check out tables.  I found a retro yellow Howell dinette set with four chrome & vinyl chairs, stamped on the under side of the table top with the…

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looking into the details of the mid century bathroom makeover
What’s in our “Retro Bathroom”

What’s in our “Retro Bathroom”

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We wanted the bathroom’s style to blend in with the rest of our old 1940’s house, using both new and vintage materials.  We were going for a look that “the bathroom has been this way all along” and that it just had a few noticeable green updates over the years, like low flow fixtures, Low-E coated/ vinyl window, and florescent lighting over head.  After two months of using it, we absolutely love the bathroom and wish we had done it…

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built in tile counter top liner where to buy
Photo Tour of Our Retro Blue Bathroom

Photo Tour of Our Retro Blue Bathroom

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The retro bathroom remodel we have been working on, kind of off and on for the last year, is finally finished! Our reinvented early 1940’s bathroom included walling up the doorway to the laundry room, lots of framing, breaking through the opposite wall and opening it into our bedroom, jackhammering out part of a concrete slab under the floor to make room for drains, insulating, updating all the electrical & plumbing, adding venting, adding the cast iron tub, moving the…

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Where to find the Perfect Retro Table for Our Kitchen? [Reupholster and paint one instead]

Where to find the Perfect Retro Table for Our Kitchen? [Reupholster and paint one instead]

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For more than a decade I had wanted a retro style 1950s dining table and chairs set in perfect condition that would fit into our mid century home. Eventually I settled on reupholstering an old set from the 1940s.