Warm up with a look back at 30 different beautiful vintage fireplaces that were once found in homes across the US.
Vintage homes & gardens
Whether you’re a nostalgia buff or looking for Christmas door decorations for your mid century home (or both!), we have some fun and festive ideas!
If you were a mid-century suburban kid you likely had a tubular metal swing set like one of these! Check out this nostalgia trip back to the backyards of your childhood.
These vintage dining room sets from the 40s & 50s – bright, cheerful & compact dinettes – were the perfect fit for small post-war houses. Take a look!
When you were a kid, there was nothing else like the joy of old-fashioned treehouses or forts: a little getaway that you built (maybe with some help) that could be a clubhouse or castle or spaceship or simply a place for a little peace and quiet.
Based on one of the many traditional needlework crafts, these vintage needlepoint designs might just inspire you to get creative in all-new ways!
Vintage Fenton glass – candy dishes, bowls, vases, lamps, baskets and more – came in milk glass and in radiant colors.
Starting back in the ’50s, women were encouraged to start their own businesses, hosting Tupperware parties, and demonstrating how to use those popular plastic containers. Here’s a look back!
If you look back at old home photos and these vintage sculptured and textured carpets were seen – three-dimensional carved or twisted patterns – you can pretty much bet you’re looking at decor from the middle of the 20th century.
For decades, it was considered inappropriate for TV or movies to show a married couple sharing a bed. But did married couples really sleep in separate beds back in the ’50s?
Check out these fantastic vintage 1950s bathroom floors created with vinyl and linoleum, which range from simple to truly one-of-a-kind retro home decor!
What were popular ’50s floors like? They might have bold stripes, checkerboard squares, or many other classic and creative ideas. Take a look back!
Here’s a look back at 100 years of vintage Fostoria glass – from candelabra to stemware, in clear crystal or a rainbow of colorful hues – that people have been using and collecting for generations.
Here, see 15 ways homeowners and interior designers back in the 1950s used colorful vintage vinyl floor tiles to create trendy square patterns using a variety of colors, sizes and styles.
Put together a half dozen pieces of this DIY fun furniture for kids, and your child will have endless play ideas. Made from just one simple box construction, the pieces are great for pretend games, the right size to use as table and chairs.
Remember when every girl wanted a Lane hope chest? See 20+ vintage hope chests from the 20th century
Way back when, it’s what every girl wanted: A cedar-lined Lane hope chest for linens and her trousseau. In upper-middle-class homes, giving a teen cedar chest was a longstanding tradition — and practically a requirement for marriage.
Books in a home once signaled that the residents were intelligent, worldly, and could afford to collect their favorite volumes. Look back at some vintage bookshelves from the past!
Folk-art painted furniture: Upcycle & renew furniture with tips from famed vintage artist Peter Hunt
For decades, artist Peter Hunt specialized in upcycling furniture and found objects by renewing them with colorful peasant designs. Here are examples of his work, and tips for how you can create your own folk-art painted furniture!
Artist Peter Hunt was known for his colorful peasant-style folk-art paint designs. He insisted that everyone – even people who couldn’t draw a straight line – could create these whimsical designs, using the simple techniques he explains here.
When post-WWII prefab housing was becoming passe, in the ’50s, a new version of the prefab home emerged – the kind of upper-middle-class home with many mid-century modern design ideas that would become popular over the next decade.
Years ago, old-fashioned clock radios like these were on pretty much every bedside table around America, both lulling us to sleep with music and radio shows, and getting us up for work in the morning.
These vintage zodiac cross-stitch designs could be used as-is, interspersed and contrasted with plain squares, or the designs adapted to many other uses — such as cross-stitch embroidery for table linens.
Here, see some of the colors – like pink and blue – and styles of the most popular vintage 1950s saucepans and kitchenware from the middle of the 20th century.
They toasted! They cooked! And, most important of all: these vintage toaster ovens warmed up TV dinners without needing to heat up the full-size oven. See how the little kitchen appliances evolved over the years, right up through the 1980s.
In the past, a few products – like Borden cheese – made it so their glass jars could be reused later as party or hostess glasses. Since people collected them, it was a smart use of double-duty packaging.
See several vintage ways to decorate mid-century entrance halls & foyers – using authentic 1950s and 1950s finishes and colors that made them as practical underfoot as they were pleasing to the eye
Although tile was available in a range of hues, when it came to creating the vintage 1950s bathroom tile design ideas homeowners wanted, the most popular colors were the ones shown here.
See a Scholz Mark 58, a marvelous mid-century modern home built in 1958. From the blue bathroom to the wooden wall paneling, every inch of this reinterpreted California Ranch house screams retro… and we love it.
From the middle of the 20th century, see some classic and some creative vintage 1950s kitchen tile design ideas that were popular decades ago!
While not exclusively the domain of the fifties, the popularity of vintage pink bathrooms – including pink toilets, sinks and bathtubs, and other home decor – reached its peak during the middle of the 20th century. Take a look!
If you were planning to get a new kitchen for your home in the 1950s, here are nine of the most popular mid-century kitchen remodels and floorplans you might have checked out!
See two different versions of the Roto-Broil 400 – once America’s favorite infra-red rotisseries – popular kitchen appliances from the ’50s.
This flip-over chair – in the original Hudson Valley version of the 1870s or a colorful adaptation – offers the fun of choosing between two seats with a quick flip of a finger.
Here, check out 22 vintage kitchen design ideas – from funky fridges to creative cabinetry – plus other retro appliances and home decor we don’t see very often nowadays!
These vintage insect killer ads from the fifties didn’t hold back, using phrases in their vintage marketing like drop dead, declare warfare and mow down insects. The Gulfspray can holding a gun was also a creative touch.
Look at some vintage gas ranges millions of people had in their homes in the ’50s – right around when electric appliances were about to become popular.
When these vintage Zenith ‘Space Command’ TV remote controls first came out, they were revolutionary tech – and everyone wanted one.
Take a fun look back at the stereotypical ’50s housewife, as she vacuums in heels, washes dishes wearing pearls, and makes everything practically perfect.
Kitchen appliances from the ’50s! The Liberator electric range includes the new automatic surface unit that you “set and forget,” until food is done. Remember, this is the first step toward modern electrical living.
Here’s a look at actor, dancer & singer Gene Kelly’s house in Southern California, as it looked back in 1950, when he lived there with his wife and daughter.
Here is how the builders of this 1950s small home design made the most of the space they had available! Take a look at the vintage decor and floorplan here.
From stylish room dividers to savvy storage to simple tips for making the most of a small home interior, get some ideas from the fifties for space-saving small home decor.
Take a 1950s home tour of a ‘junior five’ near San Francisco – a small house that had an entry stairway that starts at garage level and leads up to five rooms – bedrooms, kitchen, garage and more.
Here’s a look back at singer and actor Bing Crosby’s house in Holmby Hills, California, as it appeared in 1950.
Starting in 1914, there was a lot of hype about Old Gilbert, Arizona, a little town near Phoenix: ‘the fastest growing and most prosperous community in the Southwest.” See how it’s grown!
Decades ago, vintage table lighters like these ‘played an important part in the art of entertaining. The gracious, easy way to get a light if you smoke.’
See some of the vintage baby gear from the 1950s that parents used when raising our parents and grandparents – including a lot that wouldn’t be considered safe today.
If you’re remodeling a 1950s home exterior, advice from that decade says to follow a simple, straightforward style. Your house will look better and cost less.
Here, take a look back at this collection of gorgeous designs and styles of vintage canopy beds that were popular the seventies. Some are some classic and elegant, others modern and breezy, and many fabulously frilly.
These 60+ vintage patio furniture sets – charming tables, chairs, chaises and more – were as popular in the 1940s through the 1970s as they are now.
Here’s how to stencil a tray – transforming an inexpensive metal accessory into a family heirloom, with paint and these included vintage stenciling patterns.
Take these vintage centerpiece ideas from the ’50s, ’60s & ’70s, and put your own spin on them for a modern-day retro-inspired holiday or party table!
Vintage card tables and other folding furniture were a staple in every home decades ago.
Do you want to get organized? Have you longed for the uncluttered life? Actress Doris Day reveals her plan for becoming an ‘ex-Aimless’ and an ‘ex-Chaotic.’
From all these beautiful Bigelow carpet styles, celebrities Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz chose their dream carpet to decorate their home.
More than just a way to dry off, these retro towels from the 1950s gave vintage bathrooms color and style! Take a look back at this functional fifties decor.
Here’s a sweet and pretty way to celebrate spring – with this vintage-style Easter egg tree craft! Here’s how you can make your own.
Look back at more than 40 different styles of vintage window coverings from the ’50s – draperies, blinds, shutters, curtains & more.
Take a look back at some retro shelf edging papers & liners – used especially to decorate open shelving in vintage kitchens without a lot of cabinets.
See some vintage Tupperware – including pitchers and picnic baskets, lunchboxes and every kind of storage container – in a variety of retro hues.
Actress Betty White has always loved animals – especially dogs. In this story from the ’50s, she gives her advice about choosing the best dog for you and your family.
Take a step back into the beauty of yesteryear, and see some pretty vintage & antique Christmas decorations that were both charming and affordable.
Remember these retro cups so popular years ago? Colorama, Heller’s vintage “Colorized” aluminum tumblers, were beloved for as being unbreakable, lightweight, inviting to use and smartly designed.
Garden delights! Here are some old-fashioned backyard flower carts made of metal (often wrought iron) and wood.
For the ’50s housewife, laundry was huge: the love you had for your kitchen paled only in comparison to the adoration you felt for your washer and dryer.
For the picture-perfect housewife of the ’50s, the kitchen was the heart of the home. And the heart of the kitchen was the refrigerator/freezer combo – the kind of luxury that mother and grandmother could have only dreamed of!
The “hex marks” painted on the old barns of the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, even on some of the modern new barns, now are merely traditionally ornamental.
For Valentine’s Day or any day, you can re-create these pretty heart cross-stitch patterns with these designs and directions from 1955.
A lighthearted look back at the 50s housewife during the sunny days of yesteryear, when a woman’s home was her castle — and her kitchen was the heart of that home.
Get some retro decorating advice and see floors from 1950s homes featuring creatively striped and checkerboard flooring patterns with two or more colors.
What were 1950s washing machines like? Here are some old-fashioned washers with high-end features for their time. These brands paid big bucks to promote these laundry appliances!
Today, when space-saving is so often a must that a piece of furniture is given houseroom almost grudgingly if it serves only one purpose, hassocks needn’t be merely be footrests. Here’s how to make your own!
Why were pink & yellow kitchens popular inn the ’50s? Because it wasn’t enough for homeowners to decorate the kitchen with just one color – they had to combine them, for a pastel buttermint effect.
The mark of the guest room is its appointments. It should be fitted with all the comforts that art and ingenuity provide in house furnishings. Here are some vintage tips!
Enchanted evening by Zenith. (1950-1951) The setting: You… your guests, 1951 Black Magic TV with reflection-proof screen. Supreme moment! When Zenith Black Magic Television comes
Party aprons and serving holders Ever since Madame Schiaparelli wore lovely aprons as part of her hostess gowns, we’ve been on the alert for something
Why not go native at your next party with a retro Hawaiian luau party? It’s now officially as American as a New England clambake.
