Archive for the ‘Decorating Blog’ Category

11
Apr
2012

How to Decorate With Coca-Cola Collectibles

No Comments

You can decorate a home or a restaurant with Coca-Cola collectibles. They also look quite smart in a corner store.

Not many people know this but aside from the famous apple red coolers and fridges with the logo on them the corporation also makes a lot of vintage style furniture. It makes high checker stools and also vintage pub style stools and all in red leather. They also make styles where the logo appears in a checker pattern on the table or on the stools as well as many variation of the classic pub style.

The company makes all kinds of little gizmos and gadget that would look great in a party room, kitchen or home bar or in a real bar or fifties style diner. A favorite is the wall mounted Vitnage Coca Cola Bottle opener or the boxy style of manual opener that has a cap catcher. You can also get napkin dispensers, toothpick dispensers, tin canisters, wood chalk boards, trays, sugar dispensers, napkins, paper towels and other kitchen diner type standard fixtures with the logo on them. You can even get cute little miniature glass salt and pepper shakers that look like miniature green coke bottles.

The company also makes some pretty nice clocks and lamps. One desk lamp has a shade that looks like the famous coca-cola tin can. Another attractive lamp shade features the retro coke girl in bikini on a beach. You can also get neon fifties style clocks that glow a candle apple red. Also very nostalgic and reminiscent of seventies and eighties styles of décor is the tiffany lamp and stained glass pendant lamp styles that come with the coca cola logo on them.

Always in the demand is the giant round red “Drink Coca-Cola” sign that has a red background and a glowing white “Drink Coca-Cola” with a neon star on it.

You can also get many different mirror styles, included mirrors with lights that have the Coke logos on them. Many of them boast famous images from the fifties including a waitress with a tray or the young fifties couple having fun while drinking a glass of coke. The company also sells retro-reproductions of all of its famous canvas wall art including pictures of families picnicking, students snacking and drinking coke and soda fountain images. The company calls this line of art their “Great Taste” art.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Decorating Blog

read more
08
Apr
2012

How to Decorate Your Home with Harley Davidson Decor

No Comments

Harley Davidson suits a lot of different decorating eras including the fifties, sixties, seventies and nineties. The style suits all steam punk, Goth and biker themed rooms as well as ones from the fifties and sixties.

The company Harley Davidson makes a lot of different completely interesting knick knacks that can give any room that biker feel.

Not many people are aware of this but you can actually buy Harley Davidson furniture. They make handsome fifties style metal and leather seats that are embossed with images like skulls or the Harley Davidson oil can logo. You can also get pub tables and shield bar style stools. Unique to the Harley Davidson product line are their solo saddle bar stools which have beautiful saddle seats with stitching and studs just like on a motorcycle.

The company also makes a beautiful rolling cooler for storing beer and wine and a unique old-fashioned folding chair plus step stool where the metal and rubber stairs fold inwards into the chair structure.

Harley Davidson is also known for its clocks, mirrors and lighting including its famous fifties style round clock that lights up in neon blue. They also make quite a few clocks that feature Marilyn Monroe and Betty Page look-a-likes perched on their face. They also have reproductions of the genuine motor oil logo done up a big fifties and thirties style clocks as well.

The company also makes lovely door mats, many of them in rubber. They are black cut out mats that look a lot like wrought iron.

Another nice accessory made by the Harley Davidson company are hooks for hanging things that look like the famous Harley Davidson belt buckles.

Even your kitchen can be tricked out in Harley Davidson gear. The company makes a very beautiful cutting board that has the classic logo on it in black. It is made out of tempered glass and has brushed aluminum handles. Of course the Harley Davidson crowd can be quite hard drinkin’ so the company also sells all kinds of beer steins, beer coasters, pilsener beer glasses and beer openers with the company logo on it. You can also get Margarita glasses and drink glasses with the tribal Harley Davidson logo on it. The company also makes an ice bucket and plenty of metal and plastic signs that would look handsome hanging in any retro fifties or nineties style biker style bar or goth style bar.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Decorating Blog

read more
05
Apr
2012

How to Decorate With Vintage Thomas Crapper Toilets

No Comments

The reason that toilets are sometimes called crappers is because many of them were first manufactured around the turn of the century by Thomas Crapper and Company Ltd. The company first began making bathroom fittings in 1861.

Amazingly this company has been making these elaborate first toilets yet again. The style of the Thomas Crapper was a “high tank style. This meant that the toilet tank was connected by a long copper pipe to a porcelain tank fastened high up on the wall. The Toilet seat did not really have a back as a result. The original valve-less toilet has a cistern made out of marine quality aluminum.These types of toilets can be painted any color and look particularly fetchin in candy apple red or mint green. The kits that are sold by the company to install this vintage toilet in your home also comes with a very long pull for flushing the toilet.

However, this quite an expensive toilet that costs about two grand without the cost of the pull knob, brackets and the flush and fill tubes.
T
he high cistern Thomas Crapper hung about eight feet above the seat of the toilet on the wall. They made another model called the low “beer engine” model that had a lower flush lever. The pipes for this model are available in brass or nickel and look quite enchanting. The company also sells iron brackets for supporting the cisterns that come with their toilets. They come in a black or a pink color. You can also paint them to match your own décor.

The company also makes very elegant, authentic reproduction basin sinks that hang on the wall. These are equipped with heavy Chrome, Brass or Nickel drains and large elaborate faucets. The bright red Thomas Crapper logo is also displayed prominently in the sink.

The pull chains that are sold separately for flushing the toilet can be had in ceramic, nickel or polished brass pulls and cost $235.00. As primitive as this toilet is, the things that go with it are not! However if you are looking for a sink and toilet combo to help enhance the original feel of a Victorian home then you do not have to look much further than this company which is excelling at reproducing it’s own retro designs.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Decorating Blog

read more
02
Apr
2012

1950s Kitchen Color Schemes

No Comments

If you own a mid-century home you might be wondering how you are going to renovate it to make it look authentic. Luckily lots of painting charts from major painting companies still exist and can actually help instruct you on making the most ideal color choices possible.

Here are a few absolutely authentic ideas as to how to use color to make the colors in your 1950s era home look authentic.

When painters approached a vintage kitchen years ago they often painted the bottom cabinets a different color than the upper ones. This is one indication that the décor is from the fifties (aside from the memories that the actual colors bring back to us as memories.

For instance one popular combination would be to have grey colored lower cabinets and white upper cabinets showcased against a celadon green backlash. The kitchen counters and the floor would both be a bright crimson red. Another combination might be both upper and lower cupboards in a misty forest green, a brown floor, a pearl grey counter and a pumpkin colored backsplash.

Montone combinations were popular too. The upper cupboards would be a light forest green and the lower cupboards would be a dark forest green. The counter would be a mustard yellow and the backsplash would have a green, red and cream patterned wallpapaer on it.

Gray and yellow combinations were also quite popular with bright yellow cupboards paired with floors, backsplashes and counters in dark reds and burgundy browns.

Pink and mint green were popular combinations for kitchens. It would be quite common to see a red or almost brown ceramic colored floor paired with mint green cupboards and an aspirin pink backplash. The counter itself would be a pearl white color.

Combining natural wood with painted wood is also a very fifties thing to do. It was quite common to leave all of the lower cupboards in their natural wood state and then paint all of the upper cupboards white or yellow. Mints and teal colors would serve for the backsplashes. All wood kitchen cupboards were not as common but they too would be paired with dark greens, mint greens and reds and sometimes teals, reds and pinks.

Once you have painted your kitchen cupboards don’t forget to update them by adding historically correct looking drawer pulls and cupboard knobs as that can make all the difference as to how authentic your kitchen restoration looks in the end too.

Tags: ,
Posted in Decorating Blog

read more
29
Mar
2012

How to Decorate With Retro Colored Appliances

No Comments

There are many appliances available in kitchen retro colors now. Many of the older appliance companies, like Viking are now making these appliances in colors that suit different eras from the past. For instance Viking is making an entire line of gas stoves, fridges and steel cabinets in that long lost color from seventies known as Harvest Gold. You can also get colors from the seventies in the Viking brand in colors like Golden Mist, Apple Red, Mint Julep and Pumpkin. The Mint Julep really does resemble the avocado color from years ago and the Pumpkin is really a bright orange.

Any of these colors look absolutely fantastic when it comes to replicating a kitchen from the 1940s. The best colors though would be a maternity pink or green. Light pastels were common in that era as were white. Make sure there is lots of silver hardware on these appliances as well.

When it comes to the sixties you can star looking at all kinds of amazing colors including dove gray, creams, ivories, steel green, forest green, oranges, dark blues and purples. The colors get even intenser in color as the seventies arrive and that is when we get the odd puces and pumpkin colors that characterized the era. If you are shopping vintage look for doors with smoky glass fronts and fine varnished details. Yet another thing to look for is two-tone appliances. Sometimes you will find a stove that has a bit of harvest gold graduating into the green or a green with a touch of orange in it. You find one of these it is like finding a really great old vintage tie-dyed t-shirt.

Appliances from the eighties and nineties tend to be heavier with a dark burgundy, red, black or dark blue flair to them. Mustard, copper and mint green colors were also very popular in the eighties.

Once you start getting past the eighties the colors start becoming harder and more metallic. The appliance of preference is made out of glass and brushed metal.

They did not really have appliances as we know them in the Victorian era because most things were porcelain or cast iron. When in doubt it is best to go with a white colored with lots of black detail if you are trying to make an old Victorian home look as authentic as possible. However some of the old rounded fridges in green or red do suit a Victorian or Edwardian style home as well.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Decorating Blog

read more
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »