Toluu : Retro Renovation

Retro Renovation

A place for your postwar 40s 50s and 60s style kitchens, bathrooms and mid century modern home aesthetic.

How to install metal edging on your retro laminate countertopsOctober 11

Several readers have asked me how to install the stainless steel countertop edging from New York Metals. In this post, I’ll take you step-by-step through the process that we used to install the metal edging in my kitchen.

I had my countertops laminated by an outfit recommended by by contractor. They made all the countertops and backsplashes separately, ahead of time, and then, when they came to install them in my kitchen, they put everything together.

To review…The edging is comprised of three different pieces.

This is the little cove molding piece you use to mask where the countertop attaches to the backsplash. The part that “shows” is the 5/16″ part. You shove the 15/16″ part back down behind the main countertop:

This next piece, the 1-5/8″ snap-on molding, goes along the

On my retro radar: Atomic pull down kitchen lightOctober 11

A beauty, to be sure! Click here to the ebay listing.

How to clean the grout around my 50s and 60s bathroom floor tiles? Sleeping Bee Alice finds an answerOctober 10

After Zep

Before ZEP

How to clean old grout in retro bathroom floor tiles? Sleeping Bee Alice plays the role of Queen of Clean. Thanks, Alice, very impressive. I do want to caution - as I have been doing cleaning research, too — to be very careful about what you use on the glazed tile itself. That glazed finish can come off, even with a scotch brite pad, so treat it very carefully. More on tile cleaning to come.

Read on for Alice’s solution (pun!) —>

Hello Pam,

I’ve made a discovery that perhaps some of your readers could benefit from. You’ll recall the blue tiles in my bathroom (the ones PSS wanted to duplicate). I had scrubbed the grout with every cleaner imaginable and then was easily convinced when someone told me that the grout in this bathroom wasn’t actually white, it was �

Mando is on the lookout for this dream sofaOctober 10

Armando in LA sends us this appeal:

My search for a retro/vintage sofa has begun. I, like most of your readers (as noted after reading Bob’s sofa story), am obsessed with finding the right sofa for me for the right price. Since the feedback to Bob’s story included some comments from readers including examples of sofa’s that were similar to Bob’s and where to find, I wanted to know if you could post a photo of vinyl black sofa that slipped through my fingers recently. It was listed on Craigslist in TX, I’m in Los Angeles, and it would have been too expensive to buy/ship. I didn’t feel comfortable with purchasing something I didn’t see first. I don’t know where I’m able to send the photo of the sofa to you, but I’d like to try this. I move into my new place in November and I am really hoping to have the sofa part figured out. Here is the sofa and thank you! I hope one of your readers can find something like it somewhere in Los Angeles. Thank you.

Thank you, Mando, for writing. That sofa sure is a classic beauty - ve