Fifties House » Resources

When in Doubt, Call in the Experts

amy — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:00:10 +0000

I’ve spent the past few months memorizing the entire Benjamin Moore paint line, looking for a trim color for the house. You’d think it’d be easy, right? Wrong. I can’t just appease the neighbors, paint the thing beige, and call it a done deal. Why? Because #1 It’s Boring and #2 It’s Not Authentic to 1956.

I admit it, the color selection defeated me. I called in the Big Dogs of Design, James Linville and Lina Husodo of Studio H+L, two very cool architects whom Bill and I befriended/worked with when we lived in Austin. They’re gonna help us take our house back to what it used to be, but better.

Hopefully we’ll get to see them soon. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see Bear and Della (their dogs, whom we adored as much as the design process) too.

A note on cleaning wood floors

mrbill — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:50:03 +0000

Krud Cutter and Holy Cow are great for getting years of accumulated wax and dirt off 50-year-old wood floors.

We’ve got a couple of test patches so far that show we have an absolutely beautiful floor underneath all the grime; a lot of elbow grease and some re-waxing later the dining room is going to be even more beautiful.

Awww, thanks!

mrbill — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:03:14 +0000

Thanks to “Meanwhile Back At the Ranch”, the Midcentury Style Blog, for naming us as one of their recipients of the “One Lovely Blog” awards.

I don’t have the time right now to do likewise, but wanted to say thanks.

Awesome Lighting Fixture Sources

mrbill — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:57:16 +0000

Amy recently found REJUVENATION for lighting, shades, and hardware, and Schoolhouse Electric Co. for period light fixtures and glass shades.

Update on the Popular Mechanics articles

mrbill — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:03:05 +0000

Back in January I posted some pictures I’d taken of interesting articles from the 1961 “Popular Mechanics Illustrated Home Handyman Encyclopedia & Guide”.

I’m happy to report that Popular Mechanics has given me permission to produce PDF versions of their articles as long as I don’t alter the content and provide a link to their home page.

This is very nice of them (and fairly unusual in today’s copyright-sue-happy world); I’ve got some of the articles as PDFs already online made from the photographs I took of the books.

I’m willing to do proper flatbed scans of articles if I can somehow get my hands on a decent scanner.

New Resources

mrbill — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:26:05 +0000

I’ve added Crestview Doors to the Links & Resources section. They’re a great place to find Mid-Century Modern-inspired front doors for your Fifties House.

MAKE Magazine from the 1950s, in a way

mrbill — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:59:02 +0000

I recently found a 4-volume set of the Popular Mechanics Illustrated Home Handyman Encyclopedia & Guide (from 1961) in the bargain bin at a local used book store.

The ~4000 pages of projects are basically the equivalent of today’s MAKE Magazine with tons of stuff that wouldn’t be printed today due to liability concerns.

They’ve got everything from planning/building/remodeling a house, woodworking, metalworking, making your own boat/go-cart/children’s playground equipment, indoor shooting ranges, to radio repair, electronics, photography, gardening, farming, and equipment to make handling your farm animals easier.

I’ve taken pictures of the title pages and illustrations for the most interesting articles, and put them up on Flickr. I’ve also contacted Popular Mechanics to see about getting permission to break out the scanner and make proper PDFs of the best stuff.

The Flickr collections page, with one set for each volume, is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/collections/72157603639900790/

Fifties Paint

mrbill — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:54:17 +0000

The great site Populuxe Books has posted scans of original 1950s DuPont and Sherwin-Williams paint color swatches to their blog.

While DuPont and Sherwin-Williams make great paint to color your home or business with, Security Camera & CCTV Camera Equipment make great camera systems to secure your home/business with. When considering any home security, be sure to research it first. In this case, you would look at the security industry.