Vintage Thingies Thursday - My New Canisters

I'm participating in Coloradolady's Vintage Thingies Thursday, so go check out her blog for her vintage goodies, and a list of all the other participants. You never know when you'll discover a new fun blog to read or some vintage item you never knew existed!

I have been wanting a vintage set of kitchen canisters for a long time now. Every once in a while, I'd do a search and find things I liked, but usually too expensive, or not in great shape...or both.

Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I found this set, perfect in several ways:
~ It's chrome, which fits in with my kitchen
~ It's in fantastic condition
~ The price was good
~ It hangs on the wall - no loss of precious counter space!


The individual canisters pull out of the box that holds them all. Yes, that's a reflection of me taking the photo - they were THAT shiny after I had a go at them with Brasso!


I like the typeface used, which I often didn't on other sets I'd find. It's stamped into the metal and has a definite 1950s feel.


Here they are, hanging on the wall above the stovetop. They're a perfect place to show off the chrome creamer and sugar I found for 50 cents at an estate sale, and the nut/candy dish given to me by my parents. You can even catch a glimpse of my vintage recipe box and just a bit of the handle of my new (old) aqua hand mixer! I'll feature those in another post some day!

Now, if the Wallpaper Fairy would just visit my house and swap out the 1980s country-style paper for something mid-century kitschy or atomic, the kitchen would really be on its way to high retro style!

In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room

My photos for this post are no great shakes, but I wanted to show off my tiki collection.

It's nowhere near as impressive or vintage as lots of collectors', but it's still a fun space in our house. I hope to actually start serving drinks from the bar at parties soon! Like most things in our house (we've lived here less than a year), it's a work in progress.



Nets and seashells deco from Big Lots (!)
Glass fishing globes from a Hawaiiana seller at the County Fair years ago.


Some of my framed art. The two little figures are made by Grandma Bee.
I think they are actually supposed to be Indian, but they look cute here anyway.
The curtains were made by my mom for our first house, and I'm glad I still have a place to use them! They have a palm tree and flamingo print.


My Derek Yaniger tiki mug set.


The mini tiki mugs I mentioned getting from RetroPlanet - I've already moved these to another room (pix to follow).


Fu Manchu tiki mug and two Hawaiian nene birds my parents brought back as souvenirs.


Masks and netting and more shells.


Big bamboo shelf unit I scored for free while we were living in Yucca Valley.
Lots of silk flowers, tiki party lights, and more shell necklaces.


I've got various Hawaiiana, such as this Arthur Lyman record, and vintage souvenir tin plate that I'd like to display better, but right now the rest of the room belongs to the kids, so here they stay.


My tiki books. I "loaned" my Book of Tiki by Sven Kirsten to a friend-of-a-friend. Never saw it again. Waaaaaahhhh!! They go for around $100 online now, so my only hope is to find one abandoned in a thrift store or library sale someday.


Miscellaneous mugs, wooden tikis and shark.


One of my latest thrift store tikis, and the amazing box given to me by my sister and her family for my 40th birthday. It's from Disneyland, and is a recreation of the tikis from the Tiki Room. It is really solid, heavy, well-made and beautiful. Hard to do it justice in a photo.


This light was a gift from my other sister many years ago. We like to put red lightbulbs in it - makes it look like a sunset on the beach.


Are there giraffes and elephants in Hawaii? No? Oh well, I just like the way they look with all my other stuff and don't really have another place in the house where they would "go".


Most of my mugs were from Target or some such place. I really don't have any true vintage collectible ones yet, but since I just like my tiki stuff for fun, and since I've got young kids running around, I really don't mind.


Stop by for a Mai Tai any time you'd like! Aloha!

Crestview Doors and Saving the Neighborhood

This is what our house could look like with a Crestview Door. They have the coolest thing on their site where you can preview doors on a photo of your house - Door-o-Vision! Of course, it would help if we didn't have a giant shrub blocking most of the door, but I'm not going to pull that out all by myself!

Crestview used to custom make the doors, but now they sell the doorlite kits as a way to have less impact on the environment and make their product more affordable. You can D-I-Y it, or have a local carpenter install their window lite kits on your existing door. They also have a very cool campaign:

The Save Your Neighborhood Campaign is an effort on behalf of Crestview Doors to promote awareness of mid-century modern residential architecture and to support efforts to preserve, protect or reinvent it. Won't you join us?

Are you noticing the homes in your neighborhood being gutted and rehabbed, outfitted with "updates" that destroy their original charm?

In March, 2008, Crestview Doors launched a campaign to protect and preserve not just the doors of the 1950's, but the character and charm of mid-century architecture which represented the hope, creativity, and idealism of a generation.

Now we are asking you to PLEDGE TO SAVE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD by preserving or replacing at least one unique, period-appropriate feature of your home or neighborhood. Or use the links at the left to find other ways to get involved.

One of the links is Outreach Materials, where you can download an "Obey the Eichler" poster or a Door-o-Vision door hanger - swanky!

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of some houses in our neighborhood that are retaining their original charm, I think. I hope that as I get to know people better, I can encourage them to keep the 50s character of their homes!

Kitchen features

Our built-into-the-countertop gas stove by O'Keefe and Merritt.














The controls. The one on the right works the front right burner, which you can set by degrees. I have no idea how to use it!











I like the little stars in the middle of the burners.








The matching aqua vent hood with light. 4 x 6 rectangular tiles in the backsplash.
My grandma's KitchenAid mixer, my small collection of iron trivets, and a paper towel/aluminum foil/wax paper dispenser on the wall (ebay find).

The Living Room

Finally got the living room clean enough to photograph. This is from last night after
my sister Margaret spent the day helping me declutter, vacuum, and rearrange.
On the left is the piano that's been in my family since I was about 6 years old. My
siblings and I all learned to play on it, and now my daughters are enjoying it.
I would love to learn more about the furniture I acquired free (again, thanks to Margaret!). The sofa is not shown (yet), but the two brown chairs and the green lounge chair (minus its footstool, which is in the garage awaiting post-moving repairs) are part of this set. The story that came with them was that they were bought in Denmark in the 1960s by the owners of the mountain getaway cabin where I got them. I believe they have their original upholstery. The rocking chair was another freebie and is going to be spectacular someday when I can afford to get it reupholstered. The square table, standing in for a coffee table, is teak, I think. The rust-colored carpet is protecting the original hardwood floors, which we plan to uncover in the future. The small telephone table holding the lamp was my Grandma's. I have to get some close-ups of the various pieces of furniture and decorative items - that lamp is amazing (but you can't see it well here).

The fireplace by the front door. It has a built-in cabinet at a right angle, forming a sort of
entryway. We use it for shoes and outgoing items. The fireplace is gas/woodburning, brick with a black slate hearth. The tiles across the top are just perched there as an experiment to see if it would be a good idea to affix them permanently. More on them later. The clock and artwork deserve close-ups and details in another post.








Crewel-work by my Grandma, recently framed with an unused vintage frame I found for
50 cents at a thrift store. I got the wall sconce on ebay, and the aqua phone at an antique
store's parking lot sale in Yucca Valley for 8 bucks! Our fish live on the counter below.
I like how you can see the original phone number!

Cool original features of our house

I've never seen faucets quite like this before - I think they're certainly eye-catching. The pull-up knobby-thingy that plugs the sink doesn't work, and the drain chrome rings are looking bad. Anyone know how to fix these??


Our tub handles are neat-o, too. Even if they are a bit difficult to turn (impossible for the kids) with wet hands. Almighty Hubby had to replace the stopper, because it just wasn't holding water (he he he!).




We have salt-and-pepper tiles around the tub and sink. The interesting thing about the tub tiles is that they are rectangular, which I've never seen in a mid-century house before. The sink in this bath, all the tile in the master bath and the countertops in the kitchen are all the standard 4 x 4 square. The kitchen backsplash is rectangular again! Pix to come....




Original vanity and drawer pulls. Paint job is just okay, but I'm just thrilled to have the cabinet!!

Our Newest House

Our first home was in Covina, the second in Yucca Valley, and our current (and hopefully long-term) home is in Upland. All in Southern California.

This is not the best head-on-type shot, but I was trying to capture the beautiful snow on the foothills above us, and our sugar maples in fall color. For SoCal, this is as wintry as it gets!

I will post before and afters photos of this house, and I would like to have sections on the other two as well. We've learned a lot from our adventures in home-ownership. I'm very lucky to have a highly-skilled husband who knows how to do lots of remodeling projects himself!