Show us your vintage home!

[Sweet Leilani]

Mine does, along with a coffee maker & dishwasher...

I've seen some built into cabinets or hutches, though- that would be my preference eventually.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

I LOVE the cabinets and curtains!

 

[Quigley Brown]

I love you Miller Studio fruit wall hangings. I have quite a few. What I like about them is that they have year they were made etched in on the side.

 

[MAGNAVERDE]

This is not my current kitchen, it's my very first place after college, in a 1941 Streamline Moderne building with curved corners, glass-block windows, terrazzo floors & the most luridly colored bath I ever saw, which--since I couldn't do anything to calm it down, anyway--I cranked up even more with the brightest color paint I could find.

Anyway, this was my breakfast area in 1977, with its crank out-steel casements, wide-slat Venetian blinds, sanseviera and a little red-leatherette booth that I toned down with a two-color paint job.

By 1986, I was in a big Victorian house, and I started out with a soberly colored Victorian decor in the kitchen: paper-bag brown walls, white trim and a bunch of old engravings in 19th century frames with wavy glass. Three weeks after I finished the room, I went to a yard sale & came home with a 3-prong 194O Hamilton Beach milk shake blender, a 1938 Waring blendor & a 1939 Sunbeam toaster, all for less than $5O total, so I scrapped the still-new Victoriana & went for shine. The awesome stove was another fifty at Goodwill. The neon clock--a twenty-pound commercial beauty meant for a real dinerl--cost me more than everything else in the room put together. Too bad it got stolen, along with my anachronistic pink TV. There goes the neighborhood.

.

Then I moved to Chicago & ended up in a 1949 highrise by the lake, with a whole wall of steel casements & a streamlined St. Charles kitchen that looked like something out of Buck Rogers. The ribbon windows in every room were great, and I had my desk right in front, with a spectacular view, but I never got any work done while I lived there because all I did was stare out the window. Here's that place in 1999, right before we all had to move out so the owner could "upgrade" the building, that is, tear out everything that made the place cool. The paint on my mural was barely even dry.

These days, I'm in a traditionally styled--well, if you consider Tudorbethan a style--red brick apartment building in a historic district, and my decor is much more genteel than it used to be, but one of these days, I'll find another slick place, and when I do, all that other stuff will come back out of storage. In the meantime, I have my little Henry Dreyfuss Thermos carafe to remind me of the good old days.

 

[Photomuse]

You are all too cool for me

I'm loving all the decor, what a great thread.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Here's our humble abode. Mail order catalog house built in 1920.
...

Rooster, both the house and the barn are the stuff crowded suburb homeowners dream of. Looks like something straight out of a Frank Capra movie :eusa_clap :eusa_clap Very nice.

Ditto for the kitchen, Leani. Waiting for Donna Reed to come around the corner...

- C H

 

[Kimberly]

Hi all. I am a new poster here but have lurked on this thread and have loved looking at all of the pictures over everyones homes.

Here is a picture of my kitchen (most notably my stove ).

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Hi Kimberly- LOVE the stove. Someday I will get myself a vintage stove- I'm still kicking myself for letting my mother-in-law sell hers (for $25!) when she moved. But I didn't have a place to store it & we didn't live here yet.

Thanks, Quigley. I picked those up for $3 for the pair while shopping with said m-i-l & sister-in-law. They thought I was nuts for picking up "those old things".

 

[Kimberly]

Sweet Leilani I do things like that sometimes but I always remember it will all work out. You can still get some pretty nice ones out there (in fact, there are a few web sites out there that offer beautiful vintage stoves). I want a vintage looking refridgerator, but can't see me getting one anytime soon (very pricey). I just wait and will get it when I know the time is right.

The stove actually came with the house. I was eyeballing the house for a while and was so happy when it went on the market (it was built in 1900). Anyhow, I had no idea that they had a Glenwood and when I gasped for air when I saw it the realtor looked at me worried and told me I could sell it.

He treated it as a liability!! In the end it was one of the reasons why I bought the house. Vintage kitchen gadgets are my biggest passion. I just wish I had the room for them all.

 

[HadleyH]

Kimberly, that's a very nice vintage stove!

 

[goldwyn girl]

This may be a bit fftopic: but I was wondering something.

If you have a vintage kitchen do you have a microwave?

No microwave in my kitchen.

 

[Rosie]

My vintage kitchen is not finished as of yet but, I won't have a microwave. I opted for a toaster oven instead.

 

[Decobelle]

Our kitchen is 1923 and it doesn't have space for a fridge, let alone a microwave. The past owners added a "modern annex" (originally a utility room I think) about 1940. So this is where we hide the fridge & microwave, out of sight. The original '20's tiny built-in ice box is great for storing wine, and other things that need to be kept at just slightly below room temp.

The kitchen needs a lot of cosmetic work to unremuddle. This is the only part fit to show here:

We're slowly revintage-ifying the house. So far the only room that's officially "done" is the guest bedroom. It really just needed paint & light fixtures.

The guest bath is under demo right now - removing modern sink/vanity & shower doors & having plaster repaired. I found a ped. sink at a salvage yard that matches the existing original fixtures, and am tracking down some replacement subway tiles. I'll post pix of the before & after - someday (I hope)!

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Decobelle...your house looks lovely. It always makes me sad when I see those design shows on tv taking out original kitchens and bathrooms. Looks like you are doing a good job so far!:eusa_clap

~Mary

 

[Decobelle]

A look at my part of my kitchen.

Thank you MaryDeluxe! Yours is inspiring!

It's unfortunate that on the design shows, the first thing they want to do it seems is tear out the "old" bath and kitchen. Someone went to a lot of trouble to destroy our 20s bath, and the result was instantly dated. It just screamed "the 80s," whereas the original was timeless. Fortunately, a lot of people in my neighborhood are starting to "put back" the old bathroom the way we are. Vintage kitchens still aren't really appreciated, although 30s-50s stoves are getting popular here.

 

[TraderRic]

Historical buildings

When I was in the army band in Berlin our building used to be a hospital during WW II. We had a ghost we named "Herman" who used to make things "go bump in the night". We had a little funeral for him and the noises stopped. We figured it may have been a soldier from WW II or even before since the Kaserne goes back to the 1700s when it was the Prussien military academy. The building was located next to the pool built for the '36 olympics (my friends and I called it the Hitler pool). We played many ceremonies in the old Berin olympic stadium. Unfortunately, all my pics are in storage at the moment. I'll try to post them after I move.

 

[Dr Doran]

DecoBelle, lovely pics (and nice to meet you by the way). A question: you know that wall light above your bed in the photo? Is there a place to get a table or floor lamp with that design?

 

[Treetopflyer]

My new old house

I have recently purchased this house. It has a great classical charm about it. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what style it is? It was built in 1918. It is not a Victorian or craftsman, so what is it?

 

[Viola]

I see the style known as 21 C. Broken Link - you can tell from the red x.

Post it again, pretty plz, I'm an architecture geek.

-Viola

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Here is the picture he posted