Show us your vintage home!

[Viola]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Viola, I think I know exactly what kind of apartment you have, vermiculite ceilings right? Every now & then you can find nice art deco furniture around the Sydney area on ebay (but unfortunately all the best things seem to be in Melbourne). There's a shop at Springwood called Frou Frou that has nice furniture at times. Katoomba & Blackheath have good antique shops too.

I've been up to Katoomba but not in aaages, my husband is putting off taking me back... but he will have to sooner or later.

We have vermiculite but they've put in those weird drop ceiling and acoustic tiles like making the ceiling four inches lower is somehow a huge improvement. It's, uh... stupid. Even compared to vermiculite.

We had to paint the whole apartment because as far as I can tell a colourblind clown lived in it last... but its much better now. (Kitchen was mustard. Living room was grape soda purple. 2nd was Barbie pink and GLOSS. Bathroom sickly mint green. Master bedroom, bright bright blue lower half of the wall, sick mint green above.) Now everything is a very soft nearly ivory yellow and it doesn't make me wanna kill people.

But while we have a couple pieces of nice-ish furniture I haven't really pulled the decor together. Lamps, and so on.

 

[tonyb]

Well, Viola, when I first saw the place we eventually bought, after looking at a slew of others, I turned thumbs down on it because I saw very little there to inspire me. It was built in 1993 to suit the needs of a quadriplegic on oxygen -- ramps, unusually wide hallway and doors, HUGE bathroom with roll-in shower, etc. The commercial duty carpet was torn and "pet" stained, and smelled it. It didn't help that the people occupying the place had laundry piled up in the hall and dishes in the sink. The walls had holes and hadn't had a fresh coat of paint in several years, by the looks of them. The outside hadn't seen much by way of routine maintenance in a couple of years or more. (The first time I saw the deck I didn't actually see the deck, as it was covered with three or four inches of decomposing leaves.)

The accessibility features mattered, though. But I wasn't keen on living in a space that looked as much as anything like a cut-rate nursing home that had lost its certification.

Cleaning and patching and painting made a world of difference. In retrospect it was fortunate that we opted against replacing the flooring until we had room in the budget for site-finished oak (which is what we really wanted, but which ain't cheap), because we had been in the place for eight months at that point, which was time enough to develop a better sense of the limitations of the space (and its potential) as well as how we live in it, before we set in earnest to furnishing it.

This place will never grace the pages of Architectural Digest, but it's several hundred percent better than it was back when I first laid eyes on it, if I do say so myself.

Is this apartment of yours a rental?

 

[Viola]

No, actually, we bought it. It was cheaper than some rents for apartments, and it was near my husband's work, so we figured it would be an investment.

So we've embraced painting, and stuff like that. We haven't done anything very expensive because, well, starter home came with starter budget, but we're looking at replacing the kitchen cabinets and counters pretty soon because a leak from the roof just wrecked them. But we're allowed to do stuff or plan stuff as long as we don't drill into the neighbours or put a veranda off the balcony or whatever.

 

[tonyb]

Chances are that you're familiar with this site ...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

... maybe?

Some of the spaces featured therein are considerably more inspired that others, but I like that for the most part it's regular people (as contrasted with professional designers) showing what they've done with their homes. And I like that there's an editorial filter there, so that most everything is worth at least a quick look.

Are what you call "vermiculite" ceilings what we here stateside call "popcorn"? Or something akin to it? If so, please accept my condolences. There may have been an attractive use of that material, but I've never seen it.

 

[Viola]

Yeah, apartmenttherapy.com and retrorenovation.com have been my go-to sources for ideas. I gotta say I'm not as much about Eames chairs as apartment therapy seems to be, but it has been a real education in Mid-C design icons, as well as neat ideas for small layouts.

Hilariously, we are worse off than the popcorn people.

We have popcorn ceilings that got water damaged and someone said "welp, they're stained" and dropped the ceiling several inches and put in those acoustic tiles you see in office buildings? The ones floating in an aluminum grid, that you can push up, should you for some reason want to regard the loveliness of our popcorn ceiling?

It is EXQUISITE. lol

 

[tonyb]

Yeah, apartmenttherapy.com and retrorenovation.com have been my go-to sources for ideas. I gotta say I'm not as much about Eames chairs as apartment therapy seems to be, but it has been a real education in Mid-C design icons, as well as neat ideas for small layouts.

Hilariously, we are worse off than the popcorn people.

We have popcorn ceilings that got water damaged and someone said "welp, they're stained" and dropped the ceiling several inches and put in those acoustic tiles you see in office buildings? The ones floating in an aluminum grid, that you can push up, should you for some reason want to regard the loveliness of our popcorn ceiling?

It is EXQUISITE. lol

Yeah, I know whatcha mean about those pieces that show up so often they become cliches. I'm no big fan of Eames chairs myself, but I've come across so many now that I can smell 'em. A month or so ago I spotted one in a vintage/junktique store I drop into on occasion. I held it up and the shopkeeper fellow said "25 bucks." I said I couldn't do that to him, that it looked for all the world to be a genuine vintage Eames fiberglass shell chair, and worth quite a bit more than that. He returned the favor by knocking a big chunk off his asking price on a large framed piece of vintage advertising ephemera I'd had my eye on.

Sounds like addressing the ceiling problem could be messy and/or costly, eh? The suspended ceiling can be removed easily enough, of course, but how 'bout the vermiculite? Is that stuff hazardous?

 

[Viola]

I've been told there's no asbestos in the popcorn but I dunno how valid that is. We've been quoted estimates but they're in the thousands of dollars. I'd like it redone eventually - even popcorn, if the ceiling were 3-4 inches taller, and white, would look better than lower and grayer and in some cases water-marked.

I don't know when we will have the money to do it, honestly.

This is a BEFORE shot of our kitchen, from when we moved in, I warn the sensitive to please not click, lol:

http://www.starrpartners.com.au/RealEstate/imaging.aspx?src=PropertyImages/33480/6046_L2945177_1_1282797060.jpg&w=615&h=

We have a different white refrigerator (I am not a huge fan of stainless, anyway, and Smeg/Big Chill is a bit rich for my blood) and we painted the mustard walls a very pale shade of nearly-white yellow. It actually helped a lot with the cabinet colours.

The cabinets have since been further damaged, so in the next few months we should be replacing them with white cabinets from IKEA, something like this.

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/10187629 and maybe a couple like this http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/S29883958#/S19881832/, nothing very outlandish or wacky. I think a white kitchen would let me go a lot of ways with various vintage touches but still not freak anybody out if we end up moving in a few years, not exactly boomerang laminate or something.

 

[kyleronan]

Very vintage!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

This is a BEFORE shot of our kitchen, from when we moved in, I warn the sensitive to please not click, lol:

http://www.starrpartners.com.au/RealEstate/imaging.aspx?src=PropertyImages/33480/6046_L2945177_1_1282797060.jpg&w=615&h=

I love 60's/70's kitchens and would be thrilled to have cabinets like yours.

My ideal kitchen is 1950's, but I have 60's flooring and cabinets (but it's a 50's ranch house), so I go with it but also with a 50's chrome dinette. Most kitchens in the 60's would have some 50's in it, anyway. People didn't automatically replace everything every decade.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I love Pam of Retro Renovation's philosophy and approach: Love the house you're in.

 

[Warden]

It is amazing to find yourself on all sorts of strange websites.

This time Edna is featured on "Sindy Loves Vintage"

Enjoy the article

http://www.sindylovesvintage.co.uk/id23.html

 

[fortworthgal]

Well, I've found a few photos, finally. We live in a 1958 ranch home. Most of our furniture is antique. These photos were taken several years ago when we were moving in, so the house looks quite stark & bare, and the paint & carpeting are due to the previous owners.

This furniture is our bedroom set, came from a family friend whose mother bought it in the 1940s. Excuse creepy glowing-eye cat.

This chair lives in our guest bedroom. I paid $5 for it at an estate sale. The night table I found in an abandoned farm house.

The radio we paid $40 at a garage sale, it works but we don't use it other than a display piece. Unsure of age. Maybe 1940s?

The guest bedroom furniture. I bought the set - bed, dresser, chest - for $300 at an antique store about 15 years ago.

I found this 1950s bullet planter at a garage sale for $5.

 

[sartana]

There is some great stuff on here. I live in a early 1960's custom ranch home, but am unable to post photos. Not sure why. Perhaps I am too 'new'. Anyway, if I figure it out, I will post some shots. Thanks all for your pictures!

 

[R.G. White]

There is some great stuff on here. I live in a early 1960's custom ranch home, but am unable to post photos. Not sure why. Perhaps I am too 'new'. Anyway, if I figure it out, I will post some shots. Thanks all for your pictures!

Just in case you missed it, at the very top of the 'Display Case' there is a thread called 'How to display pictures.'

 

[sartana]

Here is our 1964 custom ranch home...

 

[tonyb]

Wow, sartana, I'm turning green.

How long y'all been in this place? And what's with the cars? Had them long?

Oh, and by the way ... aren't you thankful that none of the previous owners did anything to compromise its essential 1964 ranchness? I know of a couple of '60s-vintage post-and-beam houses that have had their original floor-to-ceiling windows taken out and filled in with framing and sheathing and siding. Sheesh! That's worse than a waste of money.

 

[rue]

It is amazing to find yourself on all sorts of strange websites.

This time Edna is featured on "Sindy Loves Vintage"

Enjoy the article

http://www.sindylovesvintage.co.uk/id23.html

Great article

Well, I've found a few photos, finally. We live in a 1958 ranch home. Most of our furniture is antique. These photos were taken several years ago when we were moving in, so the house looks quite stark & bare, and the paint & carpeting are due to the previous owners.

This furniture is our bedroom set, came from a family friend whose mother bought it in the 1940s. Excuse creepy glowing-eye cat.

This chair lives in our guest bedroom. I paid $5 for it at an estate sale. The night table I found in an abandoned farm house.

The radio we paid $40 at a garage sale, it works but we don't use it other than a display piece. Unsure of age. Maybe 1940s?

The guest bedroom furniture. I bought the set - bed, dresser, chest - for $300 at an antique store about 15 years ago.

I found this 1950s bullet planter at a garage sale for $5.

Amazing furniture and that radio is out of this world cool

 

[rue]

sartana..... amazing home..... you really captured the whole look of the era. LOVE the fireplace

 

[AtomicEraTom]

sartana - love this mid-century paradise you have! Drooling over the cars, too!!

 

[tonyb]

Sartana, the more I look at those photos of your house, the more I like it. Any idea who designed it?