What was a classic Craftsman house like – and what made it unique? Find out more here about this vintage architectural style and its founder, Gustav Stickley – plus see more than 70 old examples of this iconic design.
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If you were a child or a parent in the seventies, or are looking to the past to style something new, you’ll love this sunny trip back down memory lane. We’ve tracked down some of the coolest, trendiest vintage kids’ bedroom makeovers from the 1970s. Take a look!
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.
Light up your memory with some some great old home décor – more than 200 antique and vintage table lamps from the beginning of the twentieth century to its end!
These bold and bright retro 1970s sheet sets and bedding ensembles delightfully epitomize the colorful fashions – both in home decor and clothing – of the groovy years.
Take a look back at these beautiful vintage 1970s bedspreads — cozy designs with retro patterns, bright colors, and added texture from things like quilting, embroidery and fringe.
Years ago, companies promoted all kinds of vintage freebies and low-cost mail-in offers, usually requiring some boxtops or proof of purchase. Look back at some of the premiums from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s!
When you were a kid, there was nothing else like the joy of an old-fashioned treehouse or fort: 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.
There were lots of vintage wall stickers and paper cut-outs available in the sixties and seventies – easy ways to decorate rooms at home, temporarily or long-term, without needing to hire someone to help.
Creativity is not something you are either born with or not: it needs to be discovered, nurtured, and expressed for it to grow. Here are 12 tips from the 1980s that are just as helpful today as ever, plus a look at some creative visions from the past.
From the 1950s: Dozens of bright ideas for your home with colorful oilcloth! Create many helpful things for around your home, because the coated fabric surface doesn’t spot or stain, stays color-fresh, wears and wears.
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.
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.
Although they lacked the portability factor of hand mixers, the fact that these vintage table mixers could stir and blend and whip on their own was a huge boon for home chefs – as much then as now.
This charming upper-middle-class home – a vintage ’70s designer dream house in Denver – was compact and neatly designed, the surfaces were hardy, the wallpapers were bold… and the style was so very seventies.
Take a seat and look back at these vintage 1960s chairs that used to fill homes – with styles ranging from the minimalist mid-century modern styles to the living room chairs with bold colors and patterns.
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.
Gorgeous, graceful old-fashioned decorative iron porches & balconies, crafted from intricate metalwork, adorn many homes and other buildings in the Southern states. Here, take a look back at some stunning examples!
If you want to make a tiny bathroom vibrant and colorful, here are some retro ’70s powder rooms for a little vintage inspiration!
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.
Take some time to take a look back at these retro wall clocks, shown here in both traditional & mod designs, to meet the needs of every type of vintage home decor style of the mid-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.
See how old El Paso, Texas — the city that sits right along the border of Mexico and the state of New Mexico – looked more than 100 years ago, when the population was about a tenth of what it is now.
The 1970s arrival of old-school food processors like these vintage Cuisinarts – along with similar small appliances from other companies – were some of the most beloved kitchen tech tools since the invention of the stand mixer.
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.
Sometimes we get the sense that people in the fifties lived in black and white. But as you can see in this collection of colorful vintage 1950s home decor photos, they lived with bright and bold hues, too.
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
Vintage liquid hand soaps were something of a novelty in the 1980s, and people were happy to get a break from using bar soaps when they washed their hands. It was a simple, but very successful, idea that is a winner even decades later.
What’s a Nauga? In the 1960s, the people behind Naugahyde vinyl upholstery found the unlikely answer. It turns out that the Nauga was an adorable monster-like mascot who made furniture a lot more fun.
Back in the eighties, these cute vintage Mr Culver’s Sparklers stained glass air fresheners took the problem of ugly room deodorizers, and made them look like little works of art that you could hang in the window.
WWII Victory gardens from the 1940s: How people planted them, and how you can grow your own even now
During World War II, people needed to help ease the nation’s burden by growing as much of their own food as possible in what they called Victory Gardens. Here’s how they did it!
Antique early American weathervanes shaped like horses, cows, deer, roosters, angels, ships and even fish were hammered in metal and used as much to decorate rooftops as to note the direction of the wind
What should you put in a hope chest? It’s an old-fashioned tradition, so we tripped back 100 years to get these explanations of what they were for, and why they were such a big deal for women long ago.
The White House in the early 1900s showed off President Teddy Roosevelt’s renovations, updating it for the 20th century. Here’s a look back at the mansion, inside and out, in high-resolution photos, plus detailed descriptions of the rooms.
In the sixties, homeowners loved using tile in the bathroom, as you can see here in this eclectic collection of vintage 1960s bathroom tile design ideas!
Look back at these great examples of more than fifty 1980s bathroom decor ideas – plus retro color schemes – that cover the gamut from elegant to eccentric to extra-dated.
Before photography, you could keep memories of loved ones close by getting portrait miniatures painted. Now they’re highly-collectible antiques! Here’s a look at some of this classic artwork.
Take a look back at this collection of 60 vintage ’60s bathrooms for some authentically retro home decorating inspiration!
If you’re looking to make a bedroom look a little retro, take a look at these DIY headboards with a vintage look! They may be just the inspiration you need for some old-fashioned home decor.
Take a look back at these cute plastic retro Rubbermaid food storage containers, mixing bowls, measuring cups and other kitchen gadgets that lived in kitchens during the seventies and eighties.
Check out this collection of beautiful antique Victorian fireplaces – detailed mantels and classic grates – with an elegant style to suit homes of the late 1800s.
The vintage Tappan Gallery Gas Range design from the late sixties was an improvement on the gas stove models of the fifties – and the then-trendy appliance colors were also a big plus.
These charming vintage cottage home plans from 1910 show some small house styles that were popular in America just after the turn of the century.
Have you ever thought about using some of the millions of pine needles that fall off the trees to make something useful? Here are more than 20 vintage pine needle crafts & decor ideas!
With space-age design elements like starbursts and swooshes, and the large backplates, some of the most popular mid-century modern door hardware was absolutely iconic, and easy to recognize.
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.
Here’s a look back to some of the most colorful examples of popular Kohler bathroom suites from the 1960s and 1970s – bold blues, harvest gold, avocado green, basic black & more.
